Maybe we should just call him "Fred"?

The assigned gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Easter is always John 20:19-31, the story of the poor fellow we always call "Doubting Thomas", even though he spends as many verses believing as he does doubting (no, really, count them).

I have always liked this story, maybe because it is often thought that Thomas might have been a twin--and if he really was a twin, then he would probably prefer "Doubting Thomas" to "Thomas the Twin", which would be annoying even if it weren't redundant. (Being called "the twin" or "the twins" gets old. Trust me on this.) Did Thomas look just like one of the other disciples (or even Jesus), and so they jokingly called him "the Twin"? Or was he a twin? If so, did he leave his brother or sister at home, or if he had a twin sister, could she have been one of the women who traveled with Jesus? I could imagine how that could lead to some humorous exchanges.

But the real reason I like this story is because Thomas--solid, sensible Thomas, who really gets far too much blame--doesn't get in trouble for doubting. In fact, Jesus meets him right there, doubts and all. This is a good reminder for the second week of Easter: yes, the Easter message is for real people, doubts and all. And Jesus comes to us in our doubts. In fact, doubts often mean that we are getting to know him better! They're how we grow in faith, strangely enough.

Actually, this Sunday is Holy Humor Sunday, so I don't know if I'll be able to work any of this into my sermon. But I'll be thinking about it, quite certainly.

~Pastor Sarah