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To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

Good Morning, Covenant Family.

First…a brief update on water issues in the church basement. Due to the ongoing rainy weather, it appears we will continue to have water flowing in for a time. There are limits to what we can do at any one time, but there are several shop vacs available along with other water moving tools. If during the days this week, anyone wants to come by and help us keep things a little dryer, just let me know! Coming by for an hour, choosing a space, and clearing a couple of vacuums full of water may not feel like much, given the current situation. But it does make a big difference when combined with the efforts of others. And to the many who simply can’t come help, whether it be because of health, work, or other things, we totally understand! Please pray that God will provide what we need, give us the strength for each day, and that the inflow of water will stop!!

Okay…now on to our regular programming. On Sunday we looked at Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to his disciples. I continue to be deeply moved by Jesus’ compassion and love for those who were afraid, uncertain, and struggling to believe. But today, I want to sit a little longer with something I touched on Sunday morning. It is remarkable, given how churches tend to operate today, how the disciples, after they were convinced of what was true, show compassion and love for those who were uncertain and struggling to believe. I’m going to consider this briefly in this Covenant Weekly for April 14, 2026.

In John 20, when Jesus appears to the disciples, it is probable that this is a fairly sizable group. There are ten who Jesus uniquely called. And we know from reading the gospels that there were many others, women and men, who followed Jesus, too. There is possibly anywhere from a couple of dozen to a hundred people gathered in the room when Jesus shows up. And when he did, they were convinced. Jesus is alive and they are eye witnesses to it!

But Thomas didn’t see it. And Thomas can’t believe it. And Thomas tells the other disciples so.

I wish I knew how their end of the conversation went. I imagine them incredulous. “How can you not believe! We saw him. We know he is alive! Doesn’t our word mean anything to you? C’mon, Thomas, you know we’re not crazy. Okay maybe Peter is a little bit crazy, but not in this way! You’ve gotta believe!”

But Thomas won’t. Not until he has his own experience of Jesus.

Interacting with those who don’t believe is something every church community must do. And there are several approaches to it.

One approach is to negatively judge unbelief and meet it with aggression and frustration. In many churches, expressing doubt is taboo, either explicitly or implicitly through the treatment of those who do.

Another approach is to celebrate it. Some churches, in an effort to be welcoming, hesitate to make statements of conviction about core theological things. Doubt, questioning, becomes a badge of honour to be worn. (One Canadian Christian denomination has a minister who publicly celebrates the fact that she is an atheist.) In these settings saying, “I believe” can be treated with the same aggression and frustration as in the aforementioned context.

Is there another way? I hope so. And it seems that the disciples embodied it. They didn’t deny what they knew through testimony and experience was true about Jesus. But they also welcomed Thomas among them. And Thomas felt welcomed among them. (Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been there! He didn’t need to be. He wasn’t there the first time.)

Can we be a people who hold with conviction to our beliefs, who share what we have learned and experienced clearly and meaningfully? And, at the same time, can we be so filled with Jesus’ love and grace and patience that people around us can express unbelief without judgement. Can our table include our loved ones (and enemies) who currently say, “I don’t believe. Unless I have my experience, I can’t believe.”?

This isn’t easy. Sometimes the questions of others make us uncomfortable because they challenge things we’ve never questioned before. Sometimes people can be aggressive with their unbelief reminding us that we need God’s help to continue to show love and grace. But the alternatives - either not being patient and not embodying the love and grace of Jesus (who sat at tables with many who did not believe); or not being honest about what we are convinced is true and what (actually, who) the church is ultimately united around - leaves it very unlikely that there will be space for those who currently don’t believe to have an experience of Jesus that may lead them into belief.

Limiting participation to believers or limiting belief for the sake of participation are easier options on many levels. But they are ultimately limiting. They don’t really hold out the hope of transformed lives. And that is the point and goal of all of this. That we would receive the life the disciple received and that Thomas received. The life that exploded into bloom on Pentecost and slowly, but surely, took the Roman Empire by storm - first in Jerusalem, then in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The historic record tells us that Thomas himself took this hope, this message, this belief to what is now India where he ultimately was killed. But he left behind a church of Jesus followers that thrived until is was suddenly “discovered” by Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th century. And when it was discovered, it wasn’t tolerable that they believed something different. Despite the fact that the church had grown up from Thomas’ teaching, Christians already in India became the subject of violent and oppressive aggression by the Roman Catholic church alongside Muslims and Hindus unless they were forcibly converted.

May we have the courage to believe in a different way - one marked by truth and love; by courage and compassion; by passion and patience. And may we have enough humility to trust that while we unhesitantly share our story, it is up to God to show up and bring belief.