Colourful Dreamer

This sermon can be listened to here   Gate Pa – Year B   2 nd Sunday in Easter,   Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 133 First Reading:                         Acts 4:32-35                Second Reading :                    1 John 1:1-2:2              Gospel:                                     John 20:19-31              What I want to say: Lets stop calling Thomas “Doubting Thomas”. It distracts us from what is going on in this story. The resurrection is God’s Big Yes to the way of the cross. In the way of the cross we are reminded that all people are made in the image of God and we are invited to see God’s image in all people. In the resurrection God is faithful to all the covenants, that through Israel humanity is renewed and creation restored. In the resurrection we are invited to live in the way of the cross The Sermon         1.       Introduction: I’m a big fan of Thomas I think he gets a really hard time – with this D

The week the gospel reading is the great story of Thomas the Brave. We often call him other names like Doubting Thomas – but I think that is a little unfair. Let’s look at the story again. A few days earlier (John 11) Jesus had said his friend Lazarus was asleep and that he was returning to Jerusalem. The disciples were shocked and afraid, but “…Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11: 16). Then Jesus is arrested, the male disciples scatter, and Jesus is crucified. Three days later Mary Magdalene meets the risen crucified Jesus in the garden and goes to tell the disciples that she has seen the Lord. They respond by hiding behind locked doors. We might call them doubting disciples. Thomas is not with them. Then the risen crucified Jesus joins then and gives them peace. They then find Thomas and tell him they too have seen the Lord. But he is not so easily convinced. He was willing to die with Jesus, but this is a