Doubt doubt [St. Thomas]

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ephesians 2:19-22

• St. John 20:24-29

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

Jesus speaks from Ephesians, saying:

“In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

 As the Advent season comes to a head, we begin to get excited. We have many things that the Church has given us to celebrate to intensify these feelings in Church. Such as today along with upcoming children’s programs of the Christmas story, reminding us of Who is coming. We are currently in the midst of the 7 days of the great O Antiphons prayed before the Magnificat at Vespers. And this evening, lowly St. Thomas knocks on the door.

 The greatest lesson that St. Thomas teaches us this Advent, is to doubt our senses and doubt our doubts, as we sang in our hymn this evening. Doubt your senses that only see commercialism and a manger. Doubt your doubts about what your church can do and who that child in a manger is.

 Doubt your doubts about whether or not this child, Whose essence none can touch,

is bound in swaddling clothes. Doubt your doubts about God Who, in the beginning, established the heavens, lies in a manger and whether or not He Who rained manna on His people in the wilderness is fed on milk from His mother’s breast.

 This is the Christ Who Himself builds you into a dwelling place for God. this dwelling place being none other than the true Temple, the Body of Christ. This is the King of the Nations, their desire and Cornerstone Who makes both, one. It is this King Who will bring our sad divisions to a final end, fulfilling His Word in Haggai 2:9, “This last Temple will be more beautiful than the first one, says the Lord of hosts, and in this place I will give peace”

 It is the King Who secures the wounded out of battle and into the peace of His Church. It is the King Who formed us all out of clay, yet saves us in that very clay.

The Lord speaks of this Desire of Nations in Haggai 2:4-8, “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: 

According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”

 And the King of Saints in Revelation 15:3, “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”

 This is about Jesus. This is crucifixion. The thorny crown loaded on the head of Christ is the cross and His marvellous work that shakes the cosmos is His suffering, death, and resurrection which St. Thomas preaches to us with his eyes and his fingers. 

 For the King of Desire, the King of Saints suffers. He is a King Who comes to serve, not be served. His kingship is that of securing salvation and peace for His people for eternity. He does not lead into a battle that has no end, but leads to an End already readied and waiting. 

 And He reigns over us. Yet again, not in the sense of earthly kings, though that is included. His reign is one of service, Divine Service. His reign is humility. Humility in the manger, humility on the cross. Humility in flesh that still bears those glorious scars!

 And He reigns over us. He takes in the sinner and the tax collector, the stranger and the alien and hands out amnesty, creating citizens and saints. Through His Body and Blood, on the foundation of Apostle and Prophet, our Cornerstone and Temple, baptizes us into Himself, such that we are grafted in and have no choice but to be found in His Temple still praising Him.

  Doubt your doubts. This earthly, dying place we call the Church is where St. Thomas led countless numbers of people to receive the Christ child in bread and wine. St. John Evangelical Lutheran is the revealed Church on earth where the O Antiphons lead trillions in prayer to repent of their sins and receive absolution.

 Doubt your senses. This water; these words; this bread and wine are not just presented here in their simple forms, but are offered with the Word of God to give exactly what they promise: salvation, faith, and forgiveness.

 This is where Jesus is reigning over you and everyone else, have no doubt about that, for it is only in His Church where the forgiveness of sins is handed out for free to all who believe and are baptized. The King of all nations rules the House of God and unbars the gate of heaven, locked by sin and death, unlocked by nail and spear, thorn and scourge which Jesus presents to you in Bread and Wine.