Thank you, Thomas!

From Pastor Randy's Sermon-Sunday, April 27, 2014

The problem Thomas had was believing the good news of Easter.  Thomas was having trouble with the idea of life beyond the grave.  Thomas was having difficulty believing that death can be conquered, even by Christ.  
We all have our moments of questioning, of rationalizing, of making sense of it all.  We all have our times of doubting, of wondering if the church even comes close to proclaiming what is real or what happened.  
We too are Thomas.  We were not there at Calvary when they crucified the Lord.  We were not there on the first day of the week, when Jesus appeared to the disciples.  We can't go to Jesus, but Jesus does come to us.  May we rise each day with the presence of the resurrected Christ in our lives, A presence that reminds us that even when we doubt (and we will doubt); even when we mistrust and misjudge (and we will mistrust and misjudge) God is more powerful than our thoughts and minds.  


From Pamela:  Pastor Randy went on to talk about the high level of trust required to step from the firm ground of reason into the unknown territory of what our mind says is "impossible."  One theologian once said that the opposite of faith is NOT doubt, but the opposite of faith IS MISTRUST.

Time and time again faithful living requires us to step away from the black and white thinking that flows from analysis or judgement.  Faithful living requires us to step into the mist of the unknown, to stay alert, and activated.   We will not be disappointed.  As long as we trust the presence of Christ our pace will be established in both direction and tempo.