April 27, 2025, From Thomas to Thomas, John 20:19-31 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ April 27, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

Doubting Thomas and I have been old traveling companions ever since I was ordained to the priesthood. I was ordained at Trinity Church in Potsdam on December 21^st 2010 – some of you were even there for that service. That was the Feast of Saint Thomas, and three days later I celebrated my first Mass at St. Philip’s, on Christmas Eve. And now, here I am on my very last Sunday at St. Philip’s, and lo and behold, it is Thomas Sunday, three days before my first day of retirement. It is remarkably symmetrical, and I have to think that God is telling me something.

Thomas, I think, has generally gotten a bad rap. Countless sermons have been given at Thomas’s expense over the centuries, warning people about the dangers of doubting and the necessity of having a strong faith. “Don’t be a Thomas,” is the general message most of us have been fed since our earliest Sunday School days. “Have faith. Not like Thomas.” But I would like to carefully disagree with the usual interpretation…

…beginning with the stunningly obvious fact that I, and pretty much everyone else everywhere, are exactly like Thomas. We all doubt. We all struggle with faith that seems way too small for the job sometimes. As far as I know, everybody, at one time or another, feels like their faith is kind of weak and flabby for the heavy lifting that’s called for in times of trial or loss or fear. Which is exactly the kind of time Thomas was facing in this famous gospel reading. Basically, Thomas is us.

John doesn’t tell us why Thomas wasn’t in the upper room with the other disciples on the night of the Resurrection, when Jesus appeared in the locked room. On that night, he comforted the disciples in their fear, and reassured them. He empowered them and commissioned them. And he ate with them. But wherever Thomas was, he wasn’t there. He completely missed out on this monumental and life-changing experience, and all he had was the second-hand report of his excited companions.

When Thomas says he won’t believe, he can’t believe, unless he sees the scars in Jesus’s hands and feet and side, until he sees them and touches them, he is only asking to experience what the other disciples already experienced, nothing more, nothing extra. He just doesn’t want to be left behind. And is there anyone who doesn’t understand that feeling?

I’ve got to say, there have been so many times when, like Thomas, I have felt like I was more than a day late and a dollar short. Certainly I felt like that when I was preparing for ministry. There were all those young seminarians at Nashotah House, mostly young men, raised in the Anglican tradition, full of energy and passion and self-confidence, well-educated – and then there was me, in my mid-40’s, with ten children, having been raised Roman Catholic. I was playing serious catch-up when it came to history and liturgics and ecclesiastical jargon and all that stuff. It was pretty disheartening sometimes. It was hard to have faith that God knew what he was doing when he called me.

I have come to Thomas’s story so many times for comfort and encouragement – not because of what I see in Thomas, but what I see in Jesus. Thomas’s faith is small and fragile and conditional, but it turns out that is all OK because the only thing that matters is that he is putting his faith in the right person. Jesus gives Thomas everything he needs to overcome his doubts. He doesn’t condemn Thomas or belittle him. He overcomes doubt with love. He reaches out, he lets Thomas touch the marks in the hands. He invites Thomas to put his hand where the soldier pierced his side with a sword.

And isn’t it the most amazing thing in the world that Jesus bears the marks of his wounds in his resurrection body? Why would the glorified, resurrected, incorruptible body of the Son of God have scars? How great and how wonderful is the love of our Lord who reassures us in our human doubt and uncertainty and imperfection by bearing imperfection in his own human flesh for all eternity? It is a mystery beyond our understanding.

After that experience in the upper room, Thomas the Apostle carried the gospel of Jesus Christ far beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire. He became the founder of the Assyrian Church of the East and the early church of Sri Lanka. Today, Christianity is the third largest religion in India, and Thomas is considered the patron saint of India. There are some 26 million people in India who follow Jesus, because Doubting Thomas was faithful to the mission that was entrusted to him. It’s not having perfect faith that makes our work fruitful. It’s having faith in a perfect God.

God has blessed St. Philip’s over the years by calling all kinds of imperfect and wonderful Doubting Thomases to do his good work here. He called me about 15 years ago, full of all kinds of flaws and insecurities though I was and still am, and he blessed me so incredibly much by bringing me here. I may be just a little bit biased, but I have never been part of such a wonderful church. But not many of us, least of all me, are super-Christians or great heroes of the faith.

I think we aren’t a wonderful church because we are all so gifted and holy and full of unshakeable faith. I think we are a wonderful church because we are plain old people whom Jesus lovingly and tenderly and patiently brought to faith just like he did with Thomas. Some of us came late to the party, like Thomas did. Some of us came with doubts and reservations. Every one of us came with our own scars. And Jesus reached out to us, just as we were.

We all have change ahead of us now – I guess we always do – and that is a little exciting and a little scary all at the same time. But Jesus promised us: “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” I want to leave you with my favorite quote, from Julian of Norwich. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

“Don’t doubt, only believe.” +