It is no secret that the mainline church is dwindling in numbers. Part of the reason for this is that the Church seems largely "behind" the cultural and societal trends regarding involvement in particular communities. Gone are the days where you find community and belonging only in the area directly around you: your neighborhood, place of work, or other places that require minimal effort to get to. In short, with the advancement of vehicles and technology, we really do get to choose where we belong.
I say that to say this: in the Church's heyday, where the trend of finding the church on the corner and finding belonging there, there was a general process that someone went through. First, they'd attend the church out of a sense of obligation, at least initially. Within the first few months, typically, you'd attend the new member class and learned what the church believes. At the end of the class, you confessed to believe that stuff too. In those first few months, you also learned how to behave in the church: what we wear, what music we use, when to stand and when to sit...And then you joined. You belonged. So that was the process: believe, behave, belong....
....and Jesus flipped the script. On Easter morning, he did not give Mary a treatise of doctrine to believe. Only after he said her name "Mary..." did he tell her what to do, to go and tell the disciples that she had seen him. Jesus' "formula," then, is belong, behave, believe. God gives us a sense of belonging by creating us and calling us to new life through Jesus. Only then does our life begin to change (we start to "behave") and we are brought to faith. We belong to God, our life changes, and we are confronted with who God is, bringing us to belief.
This week, we come to a post-resurrection passage in John 20: 19-31, where Jesus comes to meet the disciples in their fear and confusion. Thomas, knowing that he belongs in relationship with Jesus, is seeking confirmation in his faith when asks to see Jesus' wounds from the cross. His faith is confirmed. Thomas is often ridiculed or looked unfavorably upon because he "doubted," but I disagree. Doubt is part of the process of believing. He is not doubting as if he does not believe, but discovering his faith and belief in Jesus again.
Because we belong to God, we have been called by name and loved uniquely by God, we can come to God in hopes to affirm our belief or seek a way out of our doubt and confusion. This is good news.
As you ponder what this means for you, I invite you to engage with this song/prayer.
In Christ,
Amen.
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