Thursday, July 3, 2025
Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Basement
You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones, members of the household of God.
While the Cubs were winning their second game against the Guardians, Margaret, Tim and Callie, Jim and Elaine and I feasted on chicken cordon bleu, strawberry shortcake and grilled cauliflower florets, along with several outstanding side dishes and a bottle of simple, fine white wine.
Tim and Callie left their upstairs church a few years ago and joined a small fellowship that meets in the basement of the community center. Their small town supports three or four other churches, but they are happy walking down the cellar steps each Sunday to be lifted up again by the twenty or thirty other souls that sing their hearts out and seek the humility and truth-seeking that marks Christ followers (or should) the world over.
A year ago Tim played Caiaphas in their Easter play, and the year before he played a Roman soldier. With the passion he lends to everything he does, he and his theater troupe turned their small town world upside down. Caiaphas has never been more slit-eyed and crafty. Why settle for truth from the mouth of Jesus when you can get a message from God that “one man must die for the people?” Truth? Felt like it to the high priest.
Politics and religion have always been ready bedfellows, but Christ-following is another matter. I asked Tim what marked his transformation as he moved from an occasional churchgoer to a passionate seeker. “No more than two sentences, please,” I suggested. His sentences were very short.
“Truth.”
Tim looked at me – it was the first time we’d met – perhaps he wondered how much explanation I’d require.
“And goodness,” he continued.
That was enough for me. After that the conversation flowered like a red rose bush blooming in the spring. Rarely did our conversation sink into judgment or sarcasm, and often we got into places where (you might say) angels fear to tread. It’s good to spend time seeking truth with someone who names the “Lord Jesus Christ” but also treads on the edges of accepted theology, looking for just a little truth. And goodness.
Through Jesus the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
And don’t forget the beauty. When Jim and Elaine moved to Camargo, Tim became their go-to craftsman/carpenter/architect/brainstorming /bosom friend. Their house gave Tim a place to plan and play, and the results ar astounding. In the meantime Jim, a wood-worker himself and my best-listener-therapist-friend, listened to Tim and discovered someone he might never get to know completely but couldn’t wait for more. And I think they will revel together in those explorations as long as the two of them are traveling down the road.
The other disciples said to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!”
This is Saint Thomas Day – you know, the show-me disciple with his skeptical way of thinking.
A week later Thomas was with his friends and Jesus appeared although the doors were locked. “Peace be with you,” Jesus said to them.
Jesus and Thomas looked into each other’s eyes. Thomas had insisted on putting his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands, his hand into his wounded side. “Do it,” Jesus said.
My Lord and my God! Thomas fell to his knees.
Jesus put his hand on Thomas’ head.
You believe because you have seen me. Now blessed are those who have not seen and still believed.
Not just Thomas, but all of us. Requiring proof after proof of a mystery might be foolish, but we can’t help ourselves. Is that really you, Lord? Just one more miracle maybe, just so we can be sure?
Neither Jim nor Tim nor I will stop asking, and probably we shouldn’t. Speaking for myself, I know my faith doesn’t take the place of strawberry shortcake in sustaining me. My body needs what it needs. On the other hand (and there is another hand), my search for truth, goodness and beauty hasn’t slackened, and I don’t see how it could. God is alive, magic is afoot, and what else is there to do, before or after dessert?
(Ephesians 2, Psalm 117, John 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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