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This Sunday’s Gospel reading is chock-full of themes. It’s Easter! and the disciples are behind locked doors because they are afraid. Jesus appears (without opening a door), shows them his wounds, says, “Peace be with you!”, breathes on them the Holy Spirit, and then commissions them to do what he did—namely, forgive sins! Wow, that’s a lot! But. Thomas isn’t there, and so we get the “doubting Thomas” story. He’s the patron saint of all of us post-moderns living in a secular, disenchanted age, demanding provable proof. Believe without evidence that satisfies my criteria for truth?—“Show me don’t tell me.” “Ages of rock versus Rock of Ages.” I get it. I was a Chemistry major and have subscribed to Scientific American for 20+ years. But why should Thomas be the one we hear the loudest? And NOT the Risen Christ’s gift of Peace, the Holy Spirit, and a living connection to his mission?!

 

           The early church “got it”; they knew people just don’t “rise from the dead.” It’s why the Thomas story is recorded in the first place! Lots of people back then would have said the same thing he did and insist on a certain degree of certainty. But why should God conform to my criteria for certainty? Doubt your doubts. You don’t witness to them do you?…when someone asks you for the HOPE that keeps you going? Do we educate our children by first teaching them our (adult) questions… before teaching them the basics? I hope not. Do we witness to our uncertainty? Or Hope and God that brings us here—whatever they happen to look like?   

 

           God is not just the God of last resort—what’s called the “God of the gaps”—meaning, when we can’t explain something scientifically then we have to resort to invoking God. God is not just the God of Last Resort, when we are at our end, and fall down on our knees and pray, as a last resort. There’s more to faith than just turning to God in those desperate moments. That IS faith, but there’s more to it than that. The Risen Christ appeared to them when they were afraid and gave Thomas what he needed. But his last words are, “Don’t doubt, but trust.” 

Way more can be said of course, but I’ll end on a question: what does life look like when we trust Christ’s words of Peace, the promise of the Spirit, and follow (do) where he leads? 

[Answer: it looks like resurrection.]

 

Peace,

Pr. Christian