Mending Belief and Doubt
John20:19–31 We have walked slowly in John’s gospel these past seven weeks. We resisted the urge to rush toward Easter morning, choosing instead to linger – with grief, with fear, with truth, with love poured out, with death itself, with the space in between. And in walking slowly, it is my deep hope that we have learned something important: Mending is not the same as a quick fix. Quick fixes try to return things to “normal.” They try to make things look the way they did before – to smooth over what has been disrupted. Perhaps even to mask the rips and tears. But mending works differently. Mending works with what is torn. It works with what remains. And it creates something new that includes what has been broken. Mending changes things. Over these weeks, we have watched Jesus remain with what is broken and painful. Jesus remains with those who grieve. Jesus remains with friends who resist help....