Well, it took me a little longer than I expected it would, what with Easter and some other events cutting in to some of the time that I had hope I could have used to finish this book in a timely manner. It is a fast read, but with my self-diagnosed ADD and everything going on, it only took 7 weeks to read this book. I enjoyed it thoroughly, however.
When I wrote the post on the promotional video and the feedback from it in March, I mentioned that I thought it was silly to label someone as a heretic from a 2:30 min video that only scratched the surface of a larger work. It would probably be a series of 45 minute to 1 hour long sermons actually, the way that they are formatted. After having read the book from cover to cover, I still think this is a silly premise. My own theology doesn't have anything to say in disagreement with what Bell is trying to communicate. I believe that God is an all loving God. I believe that we get in the way of God trying to love us by not listening and not trusting what God has to say to us. I also believe that God's love is much bigger than we can fathom. The God seen in parts of the Old Testament is often one that incites the fear of retribution...but if you take a deeper look, the God that we read about in the Old Testament is really a God much like what we see in the New Testament in Jesus. We have a choice to make...accept God's love and trust the good things that God has in store for us or reject them and not trust the good things God has for us and create for ourselves a hell that is not that unlike what Dante describes in his Inferno, only in a figurative sense.
I'm not going to say much more than this because I believe that more people should read the book and form an opinion about it rather and take my word for it. But I will leave you with an excerpt:
"Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story.
We all have our version of events. Who we are, who we aren't, what we've done, what that means for our future. Our worth, value significance. The things we believe about ourselves that we cling to despite the pain and agony they're causing us.
Some people are haunted by the sins of the pas. Abuse, betrayal, addiction, infidelity- secrets that have been buried for years. I can't tell you how many people I've met over the years who said they couldn't go to a church service, because 'the rood would cave in' or 'there would be a lightning bolt.'
Flaws, failures, shame like a stain that won't wash out. A deep-seated, profound believe that they are, at some primal level of the soul, not good enough.
For others, it isn't their acute sense of their lack or inadequacy or sins; it's their pride. Their ego. They're convinced of their own greatness and autonomy - they don't need anybody. Often the belief that God, Jesus, church, and all that is for the 'weak ones,' the ones who can't make it in the world, so they cling to religious superstitions and myths like a drug, a crutch, a way to avoid taking responsibility for their pathetic lives.
We believe all sorts of things about ourselves.
What the gospel does is confront our version of our story with God's version of our story.
It is a brutally honest,
exuberantly liberating story,
and it is good news.
It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved.
That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what's been done to us or what we've done, God has made peace with us." (pp170-172)
Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Jesus is Calling
May 15, 2011
Easter 4A
John 10:1-10
“Jesus is Calling…”
A couple years back, a short video surfaced on the Samsung website and later on YouTube. The video was taken by some Welsh shepherds who seemed to have a little extra time on their hands. So they got a life time supply of LED lights, a camcorder and recorded what they called “extreme shepherding.” If you haven’t seen this video, it is worth taking about five minutes to go online and google LED sheep to see it. If you do, you will see these shepherds spending hours hooking their sheep up to these LED lights and then shepherding them around so that on camera you see a game of pong being played, fireworks going off and, in their most pain staking task, the creation of the Mona Lisa through the arranging of the sheep in various patterns with the colored LED lights. It was quite the advertising piece for Samsung, but it also demonstrates the ability of sheep to follow the voice of their shepherd…in this case, with the help of sheep dogs.
Here’s another story. There is a village in Africa that was visited by a missionary. One evening, the missionary overhead two of the men in the village talking about the whereabouts of someone…after hearing the concern in the first man’s voice in regards to the female he was talking about and assuming it was his daughter, he went out to ask the men who they were talking about. It turns out that one of the man’s sheep had gone missing and the two men were out looking for her. The missionary later learned that in that village all the sheep had names and everyone in the village knew the names of the sheep and who the sheep belonged too. And when the shepherd called the name of his sheep, they would know it and come to him.
“The sheep follow him because they know his voice” Jesus said.
Have you ever found it strange that in the Revised Common Lectionary, the set of reading that we use for Sunday mornings, there is one Sunday set apart every year in the Easter season for Jesus, the good shepherd, and yet, in this day and age many of us know very little about sheep or the practices of shepherding sheep? Growing up in Suburban Detroit, the closest I got to sheep was at the petting farm at the Detroit Zoo. I knew nothing about them except their wool made really nice sweaters and that lambs were very cute. Then in seminary, when we were studying a similar text from the Gospel of John, my friend Josh shared with the class that many of the sheep farmers that he knows in South Dakota do not like the sheep/shepherd imagery because sheep are stubborn, smelly and pretty dumb. This information, plus the fact that I think that lamb tastes pretty good, is about the extent of my knowledge of sheep…so I’m not going to pretend that I understand this metaphor that Jesus is using.
I appreciate, however, Jesus’ attempt to reach the people that he was talking to, living in an agrarian culture where many of the people he interacted with probably were shepherds. So Jesus would have had a working knowledge of the shepherd’s life. He also would have known that in those days, the sheepfold would have been constructed out of a cave with rocks and brush and soil to shelter the sheep and keep them safe from thieves and wild animals. Sometimes shepherds would share a sheepfold and multiple flocks would have stay together at night before being called out by the shepherd in the morning. The other thing that Jesus would have known is that many times, the shepherd would lie across the gate and actually act as the door so that the sheep would remain safe and so that anyone who was thinking about coming and taking the sheep would need to rethink his strategy if he thought he could sneak through the gate.
Knowing these things, Jesus begins his teaching in Chapter 10 of John by using this figure of speech about the Shepherd versus the thief. For some reason, however, the people who were listening to Jesus didn’t get it. So, Jesus tried another way of going about things, using the gate metaphor…saying that he was the gate and that those who entered the sheepfold by him will be saved and come and go to the pasture. We’re beginning to make more sense here, but Jesus’ form of speech is still a bit complicated. And we never do learn if the people finally get what he is talking about…and honestly, in the Gospel of John it’s hard to tell if anyone really gets Jesus because he speaks in metaphor a lot. I am the vine, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life. No wonder so many people have a love/dislike relationship with the Gospel of John…if only John’s Jesus would speak to us in everyday Aramaic! (or English!)
As complicated as Jesus’ metaphors in the Gospel of John have a tendency to be, there is still a lot of good news to be gleaned from this text and others like it. But first the bad news…the shepherds in South Dakota might not like it, but humans have many sheep like qualities. We are stubborn, we prefer safety and sometimes, regardless of level of education, we can be dumb. We have fallen victim to this epidemic called “complacency”…as long as the status quo is held and we feel safe and secure, we’re good to go. The problem when stubbornness and preference of safety and stability meet complacency is that the possibility arises that we can become a people who merely exist instead of a people who live. We like the safety and security that the sheepfold provides, we like our things and we like the financial security…but there is no food in the sheepfold…but there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold…do we risk it?
Enter the good news. Though we are stubborn and prefer the safety and stability of the sheepfold and the status quo, and though there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold, we have a shepherd who will not settle for letting only those of us who dare go out into the pasture. Our shepherd is the kind of shepherd who is willing to fight the most stubborn of us and yank us out of our safe place so that we don’t just exist, we thrive and flourish and have abundant life. He does this because he knows and he wants us to know that life cannot be defeated, life cannot be stolen away from us because our life is with him and it is forever. And so Jesus will yank us out of our safe places and then lead us out to pasture by still waters, even and especially when it means walking through the valleys of the shadow of death to get there.
Our shepherd rose from the dead and in that moment, death was defeated and life conquered. We are free to exit the sheep fold and go out into the pasture and live abundant lives confident in the knowledge that our shepherd is guiding us, that he will lead us through the valleys of death to the still waters and banquets of love where our cups will over flow with peace, joy, love and life.
Listen for the shepherd’s voice. He is calling you by name…Do you hear him?
Easter 4A
John 10:1-10
“Jesus is Calling…”
A couple years back, a short video surfaced on the Samsung website and later on YouTube. The video was taken by some Welsh shepherds who seemed to have a little extra time on their hands. So they got a life time supply of LED lights, a camcorder and recorded what they called “extreme shepherding.” If you haven’t seen this video, it is worth taking about five minutes to go online and google LED sheep to see it. If you do, you will see these shepherds spending hours hooking their sheep up to these LED lights and then shepherding them around so that on camera you see a game of pong being played, fireworks going off and, in their most pain staking task, the creation of the Mona Lisa through the arranging of the sheep in various patterns with the colored LED lights. It was quite the advertising piece for Samsung, but it also demonstrates the ability of sheep to follow the voice of their shepherd…in this case, with the help of sheep dogs.
Here’s another story. There is a village in Africa that was visited by a missionary. One evening, the missionary overhead two of the men in the village talking about the whereabouts of someone…after hearing the concern in the first man’s voice in regards to the female he was talking about and assuming it was his daughter, he went out to ask the men who they were talking about. It turns out that one of the man’s sheep had gone missing and the two men were out looking for her. The missionary later learned that in that village all the sheep had names and everyone in the village knew the names of the sheep and who the sheep belonged too. And when the shepherd called the name of his sheep, they would know it and come to him.
“The sheep follow him because they know his voice” Jesus said.
Have you ever found it strange that in the Revised Common Lectionary, the set of reading that we use for Sunday mornings, there is one Sunday set apart every year in the Easter season for Jesus, the good shepherd, and yet, in this day and age many of us know very little about sheep or the practices of shepherding sheep? Growing up in Suburban Detroit, the closest I got to sheep was at the petting farm at the Detroit Zoo. I knew nothing about them except their wool made really nice sweaters and that lambs were very cute. Then in seminary, when we were studying a similar text from the Gospel of John, my friend Josh shared with the class that many of the sheep farmers that he knows in South Dakota do not like the sheep/shepherd imagery because sheep are stubborn, smelly and pretty dumb. This information, plus the fact that I think that lamb tastes pretty good, is about the extent of my knowledge of sheep…so I’m not going to pretend that I understand this metaphor that Jesus is using.
I appreciate, however, Jesus’ attempt to reach the people that he was talking to, living in an agrarian culture where many of the people he interacted with probably were shepherds. So Jesus would have had a working knowledge of the shepherd’s life. He also would have known that in those days, the sheepfold would have been constructed out of a cave with rocks and brush and soil to shelter the sheep and keep them safe from thieves and wild animals. Sometimes shepherds would share a sheepfold and multiple flocks would have stay together at night before being called out by the shepherd in the morning. The other thing that Jesus would have known is that many times, the shepherd would lie across the gate and actually act as the door so that the sheep would remain safe and so that anyone who was thinking about coming and taking the sheep would need to rethink his strategy if he thought he could sneak through the gate.
Knowing these things, Jesus begins his teaching in Chapter 10 of John by using this figure of speech about the Shepherd versus the thief. For some reason, however, the people who were listening to Jesus didn’t get it. So, Jesus tried another way of going about things, using the gate metaphor…saying that he was the gate and that those who entered the sheepfold by him will be saved and come and go to the pasture. We’re beginning to make more sense here, but Jesus’ form of speech is still a bit complicated. And we never do learn if the people finally get what he is talking about…and honestly, in the Gospel of John it’s hard to tell if anyone really gets Jesus because he speaks in metaphor a lot. I am the vine, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life. No wonder so many people have a love/dislike relationship with the Gospel of John…if only John’s Jesus would speak to us in everyday Aramaic! (or English!)
As complicated as Jesus’ metaphors in the Gospel of John have a tendency to be, there is still a lot of good news to be gleaned from this text and others like it. But first the bad news…the shepherds in South Dakota might not like it, but humans have many sheep like qualities. We are stubborn, we prefer safety and sometimes, regardless of level of education, we can be dumb. We have fallen victim to this epidemic called “complacency”…as long as the status quo is held and we feel safe and secure, we’re good to go. The problem when stubbornness and preference of safety and stability meet complacency is that the possibility arises that we can become a people who merely exist instead of a people who live. We like the safety and security that the sheepfold provides, we like our things and we like the financial security…but there is no food in the sheepfold…but there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold…do we risk it?
Enter the good news. Though we are stubborn and prefer the safety and stability of the sheepfold and the status quo, and though there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold, we have a shepherd who will not settle for letting only those of us who dare go out into the pasture. Our shepherd is the kind of shepherd who is willing to fight the most stubborn of us and yank us out of our safe place so that we don’t just exist, we thrive and flourish and have abundant life. He does this because he knows and he wants us to know that life cannot be defeated, life cannot be stolen away from us because our life is with him and it is forever. And so Jesus will yank us out of our safe places and then lead us out to pasture by still waters, even and especially when it means walking through the valleys of the shadow of death to get there.
Our shepherd rose from the dead and in that moment, death was defeated and life conquered. We are free to exit the sheep fold and go out into the pasture and live abundant lives confident in the knowledge that our shepherd is guiding us, that he will lead us through the valleys of death to the still waters and banquets of love where our cups will over flow with peace, joy, love and life.
Listen for the shepherd’s voice. He is calling you by name…Do you hear him?
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Faith of Thomas
Easter 2A
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31
“The Faith of Thomas”
It was evening of the day of the Resurrection.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. While Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death when Lazarus died, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And when Jesus said his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it. And…why call him “doubting” Thomas? If we were to follow the literal translation of the Greek…we might call him “unbelieving” Thomas, or “lacking faith” Thomas instead of “doubting” Thomas as the Greek word for doubt never appears in this text.
What we can say about Thomas is that he was bold in his questioning. He was realistic enough that he knew there were times when he needed to speak up. And his boldness in questioning is something that is talked about in the Hebrew Scriptures as a positive aspect of faith. Abraham questioned God…Moses, David and Job questioned God.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
I’ve heard some people say that it’s not okay to be like Thomas…it’s not okay to question our faith. To say that, though, seems to say that it’s not okay to be human. We are all like Thomas at one time or another. We all have our days where we question and days when we doubt. In fact many of us, I’m sure, have moments every day where we question what we believe. It all comes with being a part of a sinful world. We see violence on the news, we hear of neighborhood children dying of cancer, we see floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters tear apart lives. It’s normal to doubt and to question, for doubting and questioning is nothing more than part of a quest for certainty, not an absence of belief. There is no shame in this, for the questioning and doubting of Thomas, all stems from a yearning for a personal encounter with the risen Lord. And in that encounter there is joy. There is joy in knowing that our creator is bigger than all of our doubts and questions. There is joy in knowing that it is when we doubt, when we ask questions…when we have the boldness of Thomas, our faith grows.
Theologian Paul Tillich said once that “the older faith must die, eaten away by doubts, but only so that a new and deeper faith may be born.” When we doubt, when we question, our faith becomes newer, deeper…our relationship with God becomes stronger. We shouldn’t be afraid to doubt and question, for God holds us up even when our doubts and questions seem to pile up.
Jesus didn’t reprimand Thomas for his lack of faith, his uncertainty. He invited him to touch his wounds and simply said, do not be unbelieving, but believe. And Thomas didn’t need to touch, he just needed the invitation to be moved to the exclamation My God and My Lord!
And it is then that Jesus says - How much more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe? How much more blessed are we who have not seen the risen Jesus and yet believe? Yes, we are blessed…blessed that our faith or the faith of our parents brought us to this font so that because of God’s mercy we could be given a new life in Jesus. We are blessed because we come to this table where we can see, touch and taste the body and blood of Jesus. We are blessed because like Thomas, we do see the risen Jesus. We may not have seen the risen Jesus the way that Thomas has seen, but we do see the risen Jesus in the bodies and souls of strangers and those we love. We have placed our hands in Jesus’ pierced side when we caress the skinned knee of a child. We have touched the nail marks when we visit someone in the hospital. We have seen the wonder of the resurrection in those around us. We have seen because we love.
Let us all be as bold as Thomas…and let us be filled with joy. There is no shame in having doubts and questions. Only joy…for it is when we are bold enough to bring our doubts to God that our faith grows. And when our faith grows, we can exclaim with Thomas “My God and My Lord!”
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31
“The Faith of Thomas”
It was evening of the day of the Resurrection.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. While Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death when Lazarus died, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And when Jesus said his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it. And…why call him “doubting” Thomas? If we were to follow the literal translation of the Greek…we might call him “unbelieving” Thomas, or “lacking faith” Thomas instead of “doubting” Thomas as the Greek word for doubt never appears in this text.
What we can say about Thomas is that he was bold in his questioning. He was realistic enough that he knew there were times when he needed to speak up. And his boldness in questioning is something that is talked about in the Hebrew Scriptures as a positive aspect of faith. Abraham questioned God…Moses, David and Job questioned God.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
I’ve heard some people say that it’s not okay to be like Thomas…it’s not okay to question our faith. To say that, though, seems to say that it’s not okay to be human. We are all like Thomas at one time or another. We all have our days where we question and days when we doubt. In fact many of us, I’m sure, have moments every day where we question what we believe. It all comes with being a part of a sinful world. We see violence on the news, we hear of neighborhood children dying of cancer, we see floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters tear apart lives. It’s normal to doubt and to question, for doubting and questioning is nothing more than part of a quest for certainty, not an absence of belief. There is no shame in this, for the questioning and doubting of Thomas, all stems from a yearning for a personal encounter with the risen Lord. And in that encounter there is joy. There is joy in knowing that our creator is bigger than all of our doubts and questions. There is joy in knowing that it is when we doubt, when we ask questions…when we have the boldness of Thomas, our faith grows.
Theologian Paul Tillich said once that “the older faith must die, eaten away by doubts, but only so that a new and deeper faith may be born.” When we doubt, when we question, our faith becomes newer, deeper…our relationship with God becomes stronger. We shouldn’t be afraid to doubt and question, for God holds us up even when our doubts and questions seem to pile up.
Jesus didn’t reprimand Thomas for his lack of faith, his uncertainty. He invited him to touch his wounds and simply said, do not be unbelieving, but believe. And Thomas didn’t need to touch, he just needed the invitation to be moved to the exclamation My God and My Lord!
And it is then that Jesus says - How much more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe? How much more blessed are we who have not seen the risen Jesus and yet believe? Yes, we are blessed…blessed that our faith or the faith of our parents brought us to this font so that because of God’s mercy we could be given a new life in Jesus. We are blessed because we come to this table where we can see, touch and taste the body and blood of Jesus. We are blessed because like Thomas, we do see the risen Jesus. We may not have seen the risen Jesus the way that Thomas has seen, but we do see the risen Jesus in the bodies and souls of strangers and those we love. We have placed our hands in Jesus’ pierced side when we caress the skinned knee of a child. We have touched the nail marks when we visit someone in the hospital. We have seen the wonder of the resurrection in those around us. We have seen because we love.
Let us all be as bold as Thomas…and let us be filled with joy. There is no shame in having doubts and questions. Only joy…for it is when we are bold enough to bring our doubts to God that our faith grows. And when our faith grows, we can exclaim with Thomas “My God and My Lord!”
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