Monday July 3, 2017
We are intimate and close to God, brought so nearby Jesus and those who came after him, prophets, apostles, other disciples. And we are built up into one household of God rising on the foundations they first laid. We are the dwelling place for God in the Spirit-do we keep that in mind? This is not a description of us individually but as a people, a church, the whole people of God. Can anyone tell?
Thomas, like the other apostles, betrayed Jesus. He is absent (some think because as a twin he was hiding under that alter-identity) when the Risen Lord comes and gifts them all with peace, with the power of the Spirit and sends them into the world to forgive and hold bound those that need it. And he refuses to believe any of them, articulating his own crude criteria for belief. And so he stifles the Spirit and stops the Good News from getting into the world. Jesus comes after him, holding him bound to his words and blessing all those who will follow (like us) who will believe the words of others who tell us of resurrection life.
