Holy St. Thomas, Pray for Us

The Second Sunday of Easter is one of my favorite days to preach. Okay, I have lots of favorite days to preach. But I’ve always been drawn to St. Thomas the Apostle. His doubt is comforting to me. A big part of my spiritual journey has been learning the lesson that certainty is not necessary for our salvation (can I get an “Amen”). Trying to earn our way into God’s grace by believing all the right things is the same as trying to earn our way into God’s grace by doing all the right things. The reality is that God’s grace is just that—Grace. It is the unearned gift that changes us into the people we were always meant to be.

I spend a great deal of time in my role as “pastor, priest, and teacher” pointing out that the Good News we proclaim is actually much better news than we have habitually shared. One of the traps of Western Culture is thinking that we have to work for everything we have. We get suspicious of things that we don’t pay for or labor to earn. There is a reason we have the saying, “You get what you pay for.” It’s not surprising that the often unspoken heresy of our individualistic, consumer culture is that we must work our way into heaven (whatever that means) by doing all the right things or believing all the right things or “just being a good person.” It’s as if we’re expecting a celestial final exam at the end of time.

But Christ came into the world to show us what the love of God really means. It’s not about having all the right answers or checking all the boxes on a doctrinal statement. God’s love is the reality in which we exist, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. There’s nothing we can say or do (or not say or not do) that could make God love us any less. God loves us. Period.

So Thomas is for me an example of healthy faith which includes doubt. Certainty is not part of the bargain. Faith is our response to the presence of the Risen Christ. Jesus shows up and offers Thomas what he thinks he needs, and Thomas responds, “My Lord and my God.” He’s made the first step into the new reality of the resurrection.


I thought I’d share the homily I preached on the Second Sunday of Easter during our live stream of Morning Prayer.

And also a video of my rehearsal of my new favorite hymn. Okay I have a lot of favorite hymns.

I love this one for its inefficiency. The Hymnal 1982 makes the point of telling us that hymn 206 “is for the Second Sunday of Easter and St. Thomas’ Day,” as if it is warning us not even to think of singing it any other time, so we have a hymn that we can only use twice a year. Anyway, here’s the video.

Peace,

Jeff+