Fans of the sitcom, One Foot in the Grave, will remember that one of the catch-phrases of Victor Meldrew was , I don’t believe it!  I cannot, alas, say that in his own inimitable way but I see an immediate connection between Mr. Meldrew and the  disciple at the centre of today’s Gospel.

For some reason Thomas was absent when The Risen Lord appeared to the disciples in the locked room on the evening of Easter Day. When they told him about Jesus coming to them he just couldn’t accept it.

Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe!

Poor Thomas. With those words he was destined to be for ever known as Doubting Thomas and to lend his name to any who doubted things they had been told to be true.  But it does Thomas a disservice if all we remember about him is the moment he doubted the resurrection.  Thomas was one of our Lord’s most loyal friends, utterly devoted to Jesus.  It was Thomas who, as Jesus set off for Jerusalem on the last fateful journey, sensed that there was something bad going to happen. He said then, Let us go also that we might die with him.  He wasn’t someone who lacked the courage of his convictions.  So why did he doubt what he was told by disciples who, like him, had been cast into the depths of despair and who were now utterly joyful?  Because what he was told was just too good to be true.  Thomas really wanted to believe but he could not.

An American novelist, Flannery O’Connor, once wrote, in a letter to a friend:

I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.

and that exactly describes Thomas.  But there is something much more important to learn about Thomas than that he doubted.  Eight days after the Risen Lord had appeared to the disciples, He came again and this time it was for Thomas that he came.  Jesus, who had constantly refused to give signs of who he was to the Jewish religious leaders, readily offered Thomas the sign he said he needed.

Put your finger here and see my hands…

At that moment, Thomas’s doubt vanished and his faith caught up with the others. 

But actually – it went much further and what he said next was far more important than anything that had gone before.  There is no record that he actually did what Jesus invited him to do. He had no need, now, to touch the wounds of Christ. His response was both simple and profound.  My Lord and my God!  Words of sheer worship.

The Biblical Scholar, Raymond E Brown, in his study of the Resurrection, A Risen Christ for Eastertime, said of Thomas’s confession of faith, that:

The final irony of the Gospel is that the disciple who doubted the most gives expression to  the highest evaluation of Jesus uttered in any Gospel.

This is no longer doubting Thomas but truly and deeply believing Thomas – and that belief is expressed in worship.  This is the Thomas I want to hold up before you this morning because his words, My Lord and My God are especially important to us.

In order to understand why, I want to go back a bit in the Gospel to a conversation Jesus had with Peter.  It occurs in Matthew Chapter 16 where Jesus questions his disciples about who people say that He is.  Various answers are given and then Jesus asked them who they thought he was. Peter immediately responded with:  You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

As with Thomas’s My Lord and My God this is a confession of Faith and one which we would accept as the truth for ourselves, That is what Christians truly believe.  Peter is rewarded for his belief and then Jesus says something very interesting.

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

The connecting word between what Jesus says and what Thomas says is the word 'My'.  For Jesus the Church is his personal creation and those who belong to it belong to him.  Likewise, those who profess, with Thomas, the Easter faith in My Lord and My God  are saying that they personally belong to him because they recognize, accept and celebrate our Lord’s kingship over their lives.  Our Lord. We belong to Him.

The personal faith of the believer contributes to a shared faith which is held by the whole Church, something we hold in common and which we  proclaim to others.  Belief in the Risen Christ is what binds us together as his Church on earth and it is this that determines the vision we should have about God, about Christ and about the purpose of the Church he founded.  This vision is summed up in the believing cry of Thomas – My Lord and My God. It is witness to this belief that shapes the action of the Church.  And just as Thomas in his cry of faith moved away from himself and his doubts, towards the Risen Christ, so must we if our Vision is to be the biggest vision of all – God enthroned not only in the heavens;  not only in the Church; but also as King of our hearts, our lives, our souls.  This lays upon us a corporate mission to be the Church Jesus founded – My Church he says – and that means before all else we belong to him and only then do we belong to each other.

The Epping District Team Ministry is made up of four congregations and we have all gone through a difficult time in the past few months since the death of Chris and the moving on of Carol. We shall have further difficulties when, praise the Lord, Sally and Gill are ordained (with Shaun) in June.  One of the temptations when we are faced with the change this has brought about is to seek to preserve what we can of our own particular way of doing things – each Church in the Team is concerned to make sure that the life, level, pattern and even content of the services remain distinctive to each church in the Team.

Now, of course, we have changed some things – the time of services have been adjusted slightly and the Upfront initiative has begun to work effectively – delivering lay-led services once a month in each church. This has been for two reasons – one is that we want to free up the remaining ministry (two priests and one Reader) and the other, more important reason, to empower the laity to be much more the Church as the New Testament pattern asks of us.  But there is still the danger that we can act parochially and less as a Team.  We still, in our heart of hearts, want to do it ‘Our Way’.

Sometimes, at funerals, the relatives choose pieces of music and one that is regularly chosen at the Crematorium is a song by Frank Sinatra,  I did it my way.  Standing in front of the curtain with my back to the congregation is probably the safest place for me to be because I cannot avoid a wry smile as the song is played – 'Maybe', I think, 'but now, if you are to do anything at all, you’ll do it God’s way!'

And that is what I want to say to you today. We have got to do things God’s way and if we are to do that then we need a big vision of what it means to be the Church – a church that is bigger than any of our four parts and bigger than the Epping District Team.  Our Vision needs to be as big as that of Thomas – who puts the Risen Christ at the heart of his faith with his My Lord and My God.

This Easter we are being called to move in faith because our Lord’s Resurrection takes us way beyond ourselves as we are to the place where we are to become something bigger and greater.  Moving to that place which God bids us to occupy will not be without pain nor without loss. Both of these we have experienced – and still experience – because of the events of last Autumn.

There is still a way to go and uncomfortable questions about our Church life, our Team practice, the journey into the future and what is best for us have still to be faced.  But that question What is best for us? must never be a selfish question nor a question about what we can get out of the present situation (not even the question, How do we get out of the present situation!) but rather a question of what can we give to grow from the present situation into that greater vision of what it means to be the Church gathered around our Risen Lord and worshipping him together from the depths of our personal and corporate faith.

Sometimes we are tempted to look back in some rosy-tinted way to a past which is enshrined in memory that is actually sometimes unreliable –  to some golden age when the parson was in his parish and all was right with the world.  Even if that were true it is not a place we shall ever find again. Reality has to be faced.

Last Friday I visited Barsham Church on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. It is a beautiful church with a rich history. Next door is a large house in its own grounds which used to be the Rectory. How lovely, I thought, if I lived there and had this beautiful church to care for and the small parish to minister to. You see, I too have dreams of a golden past that I would long to return to!  But the reality is that Barsham Church shares a vicar with Bungay and Mettingham. There aren’t services all the time in each church. In Bungay itself the fine English Perpendicular Parish Church is in the care of the Redundant Churches body – the people have moved to a smaller church in the town.  That’s reality.

The pattern is not uncommon in the Church of England today (or in the RC, Methodist URC churches) but what I sensed was that Church life in Barsham was vibrant and alive and a real witness to Christ is taking place.  In that Church, which shares its life with two others, there is a sense that Thomas’s cry of My Lord and My God is being taken to heart.  They are trying to do it God’s Way – and that must be our Vision too as, together, we try to be what Christ calls us to be – His Church. Not ours but His.

That is true Reality and it’s one that is full of Resurrection joy with all its possibilities and promises for our future together under our Lord’s care and love.