Easter 2: Curious Thomas, April 12, 2026

Curious Thomas

John Bellaimey

St John’s Mpls, II Easter

April 12, 2026

 

In the name of the Risen Christ, who invites us to ask more questions.

 

Thomas says the quiet part out loud. He asks a lot of questions.  When Jesus says Lazarus is not “asleep,” but actually dead, so they are all going to Jerusalem now to be with him, Thomas replies, what, so we can die with him?

 

Soon after that, Jesus tells them you know the way where I am going. But they didn’t know. So Thomas said, actually, we don’t know where you are going. How can we? Then Jesus spelled it out, kind of. I AM the way, and the truth, and the life. The way to the Father is through me.

 

Thomas wasn’t afraid to look stupid. They were all scared to go to Jerusalem. They were on the authorities’ Enemies List. He wasn’t afraid to say he’d have to see and touch the “Risen Christ” in person.

 

Episcopalians don’t make fun of Doubting Thomas. A lot of us resemble him. A friend of ours in Utah told us to call him Believing Thomas. He’s also known as Inquiring Thomas.

 

Here he is, in an icon called The Palpation of Thomas. [Touching, in Greek.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another one.

 

In Jesus’ halo are the words ho On, the one who is, or I AM who I AM. The name God told Moses, which isn’t a name, because God is the Unnameable One.

 

Notice that Thomas hasn’t got his halo yet. He’ll earn one in the years to come. He traveled to Iraq, Iran, and most famously to India, where he met with great success among Jews on the Malabar Coast, who had emigrated over the past centuries and did a lot of  trading with Rome and Persia. There are still 28 million Christians in India, most of them in the denomination named for Thomas himself.

 

 

 

 

 

The next image is a medieval painting, not an icon, from about 1500, called “The Incredulity of Thomas,” but the boy is already kneeling down, so I think his incredulity has turned into amazement. I love how Jesus is also holding Thomas’ arm and shoulder. And Thomas replies, “My Lord and my God!”

 

 

 

This one is Caravaggio’s The Doubting of Thomas, from 1602. Notice how it’s not just Thomas who’s leaning in to see Jesus’ wounds. He’s not the only curious one.

In this last one, from a mosaic in Palermo, Sicily, shows Thomas and Philip both holding scrolls, symbolizing their evangelism. Thomas’ right hand gesture symbolizes blessing and teaching.

 

 

 

 

Curiosity is a good thing. Some of the best parents I know teach their kids to be good little humans by asking them, “why did you decide to hit your sister instead of using words?” or “who did you sit with at lunch today?” When we meet new people, do we first tell them about ourselves, or this great neighborhood, or why we’re upset about the price of gas? Or instead do we ask, “what kind of dog is she?” or “do you think the Twins can keep winning?” or “have you been to St. John’s before? or just, We haven’t met. I’m John.” If you see it as “small talk,” it may seem a waste of time. But if you’re actually curious about this fellow child of God, you might make a new friend.

When was the last time you made a new friend?

Well, thank you for asking! We made a lot of new friends in our adopted winter home of Salt Lake City. Our son Jackson’s family live there, and we got to take the kids to Day Care, have chaotic dinners most weekdays, play magnetiles, and hunt for box elder bugs with them.

 

We made new friends at our adopted winter parish, St. Mark’s Cathedral. They reminded me of why coffee hour is so fun. Some people do stand around, but most get a little plate of food and sit at round tables–not always with people they know–and converse for maybe a half hour. You remember conversation. It’s what we did before posting and scrolling.

 

We got invited to dinner many times. We got taken out for coffee. St. Mark’s is full of recovering Mormons, Catholics and Evangelicals who love liturgy, prayer, studying scripture and doing justice work. I am “Father John” there, preaching once a month. Lynnell and I taught an eight week stretch of Adult Formation on Paul, and the Final Four Gospels. We met so many beautiful people, including a self-taught Bible scholar, a former newspaper writer, a man who has written a book called Humbled by Homelessness, a gay ex-Mormon, and a religious skeptic, a retired mediation lawyer whose favorite saint is Thomas.

 

You should know what high regard they all have for the people of Minneapolis this winter. Every week, they wanted an update about our icy, brave home town.

 

I worked a couple of days a week at St Mark’s food pantry, run by a Venezuelan whirlwind named Cibell and a Mexican auntie named Lupe. Half the clients speak Spanish, so I got a ton of practice. And Lynnell got to ski on mostly mediocre and sometimes awful snow.

 

Curiosity leads to better scientific questions. It opens up friendships. It nurtures an atmosphere of acceptance and belonging. Of course curiosity can also lead to bad outcomes, like AI taking everyone’s jobs, or trips to the emergency room, or stumbling onto someone’s dark secret. But for the most part, curious people like our Thomas make their world better. They open up pathways to the future.

 

If you’re visiting us, as I said at the beginning, welcome. We hope you’ll join us for coffee and good old conversation in the Parish Hall right after this service, and thank Meghan Figueroa, our host.

 

Let us pray: Risen Christ, we thank you for the curiosity and ministry of Blessed Thomas the Apostle. Inspire us to see your face in everyone we meet along our way, so that we may ask, and listen, and give thanks for all our fellow children of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acts 2:14a,22-32

Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him,

‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;

therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will live in hope.

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One experience corruption.

You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,

‘He was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh experience corruption.’

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 

10am Service