Transcript (Second Sunday of Easter)

Doubting Thomas

Anghrediniaeth

Hello, S’mae, want to see something really valuable and sought-after? Here it is.

Oh no, you can’t have it!  Well maybe just one piece. I might run out.

 

00:15

It’s mad isn’t it. Who would have guessed a few weeks ago that there would be panic-buying of toilet rolls? And I’ve still not really seen any logical reason why we should use more toilet rolls now than at any other time. But it’s that fear of running out that fuels it. So, we don’t ‘panic buy’ we just buy some more ourselves because we’ve heard that other people are panic buying – and so it goes on, and on, and on. 

 

00:40

You see the tangible reality of knowing we’ve got some at home is the only security we can have. We can’t quite trust that there’ll be some there next week when we do our normal weekly shop.

 

00:53

In St. John’s Gospel, the word ‘believe’ occurs 99 times. That’s more than all the other Gospels put together and more than in all of Paul’s writings. It occurs 4 times in the passage set for today, the little story about Thomas (forever ‘doubting Thomas’) and Jesus.

 

01:15

And crucially after he has come to believe that this really is Jesus alive, risen from the dead, Jesus says to him: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In other words, blessed are those who will trust in the Resurrection, in the Jesus hope of Christianity, without this tangible evidence – who will be told the truth and believe it.

 

01:43

In one of the early proclamations of the Church, St. Paul writes this (Romans chapter 10): “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

If you confess with your lips, if you believe in your heart, then you will be saved. And if we trust in that, there’s no need to panic about anything. Amen.