After having celebrated Easter last Sunday, we begin here in this first Sunday after Easter to hear about the appearances by the resurrected Jesus to the apostles. First appearing to only a few people, and then, apparently, to many hundred more. In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears to people in this order: first, Mary […]
Sermon Topic: Saint Thomas the Apostle
Jesus's Resurrection Appearances
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. I think it’s important every Easter for the preacher to stress two things. First, welcome everyone. Be glad they’re here! I might say that we do this sort of thing every Sunday, and that at those other times it’s […]
Doubt and Joy
In this gospel Saint Thomas, our guy, first does not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead and then does believe when he sees the wounds. Thomas can show us that doubt and faith are not like an on/off switch, so that just as a light is either on or off, so you either […]
Probing the Wounds
Today is the Second Sunday of Easter, and as it happens, I was the preacher for the Second Sunday of Easter last year too. In last year’s sermon, I mentioned how surprised I was to have rediscovered my faith in Christ when I was in college. I mentioned before that I was nominally churched when […]
Where Was Thomas?
To begin understanding today’s gospel we need to remember that it begins a week ago; we are still back on Easter day. It is still the day of the resurrection. It is still the day that the empty tomb is discovered by Mary and examined by Peter and John. The two men have returned to […]
Saint Puddleglum
[Thomas] said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. C. S. Lewis’s […]
Doubt is Okay, but Beware of Magical Thinking
Alleluia. Christ is risen. Christians who attend a church dedicated to Saint Thomas should understand more than most that doubt is no danger to faith. I do not mean dogmatic doubt, the elevation of doubt to the level of conviction, so that doubt becomes, as it were, a new item in the Nicene Creed. (“I […]
Faith, Doubt, and the Sign of Thomas
I think a lot of us worry from time to time that our faith falls short of what it ought to be. We receive, say, a piece of medical news that not everything is right with our body, and we find that we are fearful and worrying. What will this mean for my job? Can […]
