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saint thomas

This is Saint Thomas and I’ve given him a cellphone. I like Saint Thomas because he stood against his peer group. The 10 disciples were keen on Jesus. Thomas was brave enough to raise his doubts and voice his questions. I like people that are honest and ask the tough questions no matter how enthusiastic their mates are.

A few weeks ago I gave out blank pieces of paper and invited our Digestion congregation to write down anonymously any questions they had about God, life, meaning. We got back 20 excellent questions.

What to do next and how to honour these questions? On Sunday I chose 5 of the questions and invited a panel of 3 to respond by preparing short soundbites – a relevant Bible text, a good quote, a prayer or story.

1: Why do non-Christians get a lot and yet faithful Christians miss out on their desires?
2: Why cats? Why did God create cats?
3: If God has a plan for us – and he knows what’s going to happen into our future – why do we need to pray?
4: Is is OK for Christians to be nudists?
5: 1 John – God first love us so we should show love to others. So why? Why does God love us?

I asked the panel the questions and kept the discussion bouncing around between them. I concluded by giving out wee cards with Saint Thomas printed on them and inviting people to name 1 thing they’d learnt. These were stuck to the cross.

Glancing at what people wrote, many had got the idea – that Saint Thomas inspires Christians to be honest and ask questions.