The Second Sunday of Easter Year B

The Rev Melanie Dickson Lemburg The Second Sunday of Easter Year B April 7, 2024 A letter to Charlotte Grace Strickland upon the occasion of her baptism. Dear Lottie, Today is the second Sunday of Easter, the day we are celebrating your baptism into the resurrected body of Christ and your inclusion in its membership through this particular faith community here at St. Thomas. Today also happens to be the day, every year, that we hear one of the main stories from scripture about our patron saint, Thomas. Now, throughout the years, Thomas has gotten a bad rap. He is often known as “Doubting Thomas” because he is not present when the resurrected Christ first appeared to his disciples, and so he asks for some proof, the same proof that the others have already received. But in a world that likes to draw stark polarizations (like between doubt and faith), I like to think of Thomas a little differently. Because we all know that between the black and white extremes of doubt and faith, there is a whole lot of gray area where most of us live most of our lives. So what might Thomas have to teach us on this your baptism day? First, I suggest that instead of doubting Thomas, we think of him as “Courageous Thomas.” Because while all of the rest of Jesus’s disciples were huddled together in a locked room that day of his resurrection out of fear, Thomas wasn’t there with them. I can’t help but wonder where he was; what he was doing? Was he trying to get more news about what the women had reported and the other disciples had witnessed—that Jesus was no longer dead in the tomb but had risen? Whatever it was he was doing, it is clear that he is braver than all the rest of them who are huddled together in fear in a locked room. And when he does return to the room and the group and he hears their miraculous and mysterious report that they have seen the risen Christ, Thomas is courageous enough to ask for what he needs in order to believe. Second, we might also consider calling Thomas “Good Question Thomas.” In the few stories we have in scripture about Thomas, he is usually asking good questions. In a few chapters before our passage for today, Jesus is predicting his death and offering comfort to his disciples, telling them he will go ahead of them to prepare a place for them and they will know the place where he is going; Thomas responds, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Thomas reminds us that in the life of faith, asking good questions is an important part of our growth. Our baptism liturgy is built out of good questions, sweet Lottie. Questions that your parents and godparents answer on your behalf today. Questions that you will eventually answer for yourself when you are older. There are questions for us, your faith community, too. So, today, in the spirit of Thomas, we might reflect on some questions raised for us in your baptism. Like what does it mean that you are to be marked as Christ’s own forever? What does that mean for you and for your life? What does that mean for each one of us who has be so marked as well? How are your parents and your godparents and all the rest of us being called to help you grow into your own faith in our midst? What does that look like? How are we being called to model our lives for you so that you learn what it means to be courageous and questioning and faithful? What does that mean for each of us to do that for each other? How will you teach us about what it means to be marked as Christ’s own forever as you learn and grown here among us? What does it mean to ask good questions in our life of faith? Are they questions that open, unlock? Are they questions that instruct in the asking? Are they questions that connect or even soften hearts divided and defended? Are they questions born of curiosity and not cross-examination? What does it mean to ask good questions, like Thomas, in our life of faith? So sweet Lottie, on this your baptism day and all the days that will follow, may you be like Thomas—courageous and willing to ask for what you need in your life of faith. May you be willing and able to ask good questions that will help you and those around you grown in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ who has marked you as his own forever. Your sister in Christ, Melanie+ What does it mean to ask good questions, like Thomas, in our life of faith? Where are you called to be courageous? What good questions are you being called to ask of your faith or of this community in the coming days?