April 12, 2026

Indianola Presbyterian Church

"Those Who Have Not Seen"
Sermon by Rev. Taylor Barner 

April 12, 2026                                                                                                                     Based on  John 20:19-31  NRSVUE 

     Here we are again! Doubting Thomas Sunday is back and it’s the same message we heard last year! I do hope that’s NOT what you are thinking today. While it is typical that we hear about Thomas or perhaps the Emmaus story on this Sunday after Easter, we read and reread this story every year because it is almost as integral to the Easter story as the actual resurrection.  You know how it goes, Thomas is away when Jesus appears to the disciples.  When he returns he just simply can’t believe what they are telling him. “Jesus? Surely you can’t be serious. Unless I see the scars on his hands and touch his side, y’all are crazy.” Paraphrasing there sorry. The crazy thing about the story of “Doubting Thomas” is that in reality, the story isn’t truly about Thomas.

     The thing is the other disciples were just as doubtful as Thomas, they just didn’t say it out loud.  When Jesus first appears to them, it is only after he shows them his hands and his side that they believe and rejoice.  Once Thomas has an even more intense experience than his fellow disciples, he himself exclaims, “My Lord and my God,” to which Jesus replies “Do you believe because you have seen me?” These words are definitely directed at Thomas but so too are they applied to the rest in the house. They have all believed because they SAW. They saw the scars where the nails punched through flesh. They saw the pierced skin where the spear had tested him.

     Oh to have been there, to have felt that fire rekindled, that joy and amazement come rushing back to one’s soul. To have seen and felt and heard and know fully and be fully known. MY LORD AND MY GOD. Frederick Buechner writes “It's hard to imagine that there's a believer anywhere who wouldn't have traded places with Thomas, given the chance, and seen that face and heard that voice and touched those ruined hands.”  This is the joy and privilege of those who have seen.  From that very moment, in that dimly lit house, the disciples were privy to an experience every single person thereafter would not have. And Jesus recognizes this, for he gives another blessing to that other group of people; all of those who would come after this moment, those who have not seen.

     Those who have not seen, and yet believe.  That’s us. We did not get to see the scars. We did not get to touch the wounds. And yet here we come to worship the God who saves, who holds nothing back, who is not safe but good, in whom we trust.  What proof do we have? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, says Jesus.  These words resonate within us, connecting us to that small home where the disciples huddled; connecting us to the moment where hope was revealed.  Thomas’s story is, one could argue, the moment when the page is fully turned, the new chapter underway, and the start of the new thing Jesus is beginning.  And blessed are those who have not seen, because they get to be a part of it. The proof is that we are part of an ongoing story.

     It’s moments like these in Scripture that should inspire us, those walking by faith and not by sight. We can get so wrapped up in Thomas’s doubting that we miss the importance of this part of the Easter story. James Harnish, senior pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa, Florida, writes this, “Doubt doesn’t shock me anymore…What continues to surprise me is the evidence for belief that the risen Christ offers. I’m stunned by the way Jesus ‘showed them his hands and his side.’ I’m shaken by his invitation to touch the wounds. I am shocked by his scars. I can deal with doubt, but these ugly marks of human suffering on the body of the risen Christ blow me away.”  The story of doubting Thomas proves three things: One, the disciples knew Jesus to be dead for their joy and amazement is agonizingly genuine. Two, Jesus experiences bodily resurrection, complete with the marks and scars of his trauma. And three, Jesus calls us to see, to know, and to connect with the risen Christ in our midst, scars and all. This is why we need Thomas. 

     But maybe we are still missing something.  Are we really those who have not seen? Or are we instead those who have the unique opportunity and task of catching glimpses of the risen Christ each and every day?  We may not have had the privilege of seeing Jesus literally appear before us, but we are blessed because we have the opportunity to see Christ in and through one another.  And likewise we have the opportunity to reveal Christ to our neighbors.  That’s right we have the power to plant and sew that same joy and amazement that the disciples felt in that dark room. Jesus leaves us with pretty simple instructions on how to do this: love one another, take care of one another, be peacemakers, and seek unity.  When we do these things we join together in Christ’s continual work and harmonize with that great cloud of witnesses, the body of Christ, across time and space.

     While we did not see Christ’s body, scarred and battered, we have the indescribable joy of being part of the body of Christ, risen and very much alive today and forevermore. And this body of Christ comes complete with our scars and our sufferings, perfectly imperfect, beautiful.  I invite you to look to those around you right now.  And I invite you to recognize and see Christ present here with us today, within each and every single one of us.  We have seen, and will continue to see, Jesus in our midst when we look upon the face of our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors in Christ and join together in the work of justice, peace, and love. So on this doubting Thomas Sunday, let us see what Thomas and the other disciples could not.  Let us see Jesus in the joy, the laughter, the tears, and the scars of one another and declare with joy, “My Lord and my God.” Friends, trust and believe He is risen, He is alive, in you and in me.

Alleluia, amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                 "I Love to Tell the Story"                                   arr. Melody Bober

INTROIT                         "Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia!"                               Tanzanian Melody

WELCOME                                                                 Rev. Taylor Barner

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  

*CALL TO WORSHIP

One: Come, you who have questions that don’t have easy answers.

All: Come, you who have said, “I’m not sure I believe that.”

One: We gather in this place where doubt is not a door that closes,

All: but a window that opens.

One: We gather where resurrection is proclaimed
All: not as a demand, but as an invitation.

One: Let us worship a God who meets us in our doubts as much as our faith.

*HYMN 253                           “Alleluia! Christ Is Arisen”                                            SANTO DOMINGO

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                        Karen Crockett      

God of the open door, we confess that we have made our doubts into a secret we keep to ourselves. We have performed certainty we do not have, and pulled back from faith when it felt too fragile to hold. We have avoided the questions that matter most because we were afraid of where they might lead. Forgive us, God....

A time for Silent confession is kept

One: Lord of real wounds and real resurrection,

All: Give us the courage to name what we do not know, to bring our whole selves into your presence, and to trust that you are not frightened by our Uncertainty. In your mercy, meet us here. Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON                                                        

*RESPONSE OF PARDON 240       “Alleluia! Alleluia! Give Thanks”                     ALLELUIA NO. 1

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                                                  

One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD 

ANTHEM                        "There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”              David Ashley White          

GODLY PLAY

  Congregation: May God be with you there   

    Children: May God be with you here.               

CHILDREN’S RECESSIONAL 188       “Jesus Loves Me” vs. 1

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION                                                                   

SCRIPTURE       John 20:19-31

 It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”

Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.”

 After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!”

 Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

 Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

 Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll.  But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name.  

SERMON                                                                              Rev. Taylor Barner

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD 

*hYMN 282                                              “Come Down O Love Divine”                                                DOWN AMPNEY

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE  followed by the Lord’s Prayer using debts and debtors.

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

OFFERTORY                                                        “Beau Soir”                                                                 Claude Debussey

                                                                                          Mya Luca, soloist                           

*OFFERTORY RESPONSE  609        “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow”

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION 

God of open hands and open doors, we share what we have out of trust. Use it to reach the ones who are still outside, still wondering, still waiting to be found. Amen. 

*HYMN 817                      “We Walk By Faith and Not By Sight”                        DUNLAP’S CREEK

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING

CHARGE & BENEDICTION

CHORAL RESPONSE                       "Amen"                                                                 K. Lee Scott 

POSTLUDE                            "Come Down O Love Divine"                                        arr. Gene Roberson

  Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452