John 20: 19-31

By now all last week’s hard-boiled eggs have been transformed into egg salad and consumed. Right?

Of course, it goes without saying that the contents of all those Easter baskets have disappeared, except, of course, the nasty black jelly beans. On this Sunday the spiritual and sugar high of Easter Sunday is wearing off. Hence the colloquial designation of this week as “Low Sunday”.

After the “high” of Easter, we come back to the everydayness of life. It is when we are most “low” in energy, in desire, in hope that we start to entertain the most doubts about ourselves, our lives, our choices and our faith.

With Spring Break lines behind them and a long time until summer vacation, even the most serious student can start to doubt the value of slogging on and staying in school. As spring and new growth bursts all around us, the same old job, the dullness of deadlines, the grind of every-day work, can fertilize furtive doubts about the value of our work, of our careers, of our dreams.

With so much of our culture completely “unchurched” and biblically illiterate, especially about the New Testament, there are still three stories, three individuals, that remain popular in the common cultural vocabulary.

The first is the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ classic story of an unexpected compassion.

The second is the Prodigal Son. Again a tale of unlooked for grace and unpredictable acceptance.

The third is Doubting Thomas, the story of the disciple who would not take anyone’s testimony as true unless he could see for himself. Since the Enlightenment our rational, empirical, scientifically centered world has found the attitude and questions of Thomas, the Doubting Disciple, to be logical and legitimate.

Why believe the fantastic reports of others?
Why shouldn’t we demand physical evidence?
Why shouldn’t we require proof we can feel with our own hands, see with our own eyes? Why shouldn’t “faith” be grounded in “fact”?

The fact that “Doubting Thomas” has remained one of the most memorable of gospel figures says as much about our own doubts and indecisions as it does about the appeal of this particular disciple….

(from http://www.sermons.com)