The Secret Lives of Saints

While I’m on the whole postmodern thing in the last few posts, this is worth a read also. One of my favourite guys to read over the last year has been James Smith from Calvin College, author of the book, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism: Taking Derrida, Lyotard and Foucault to Church.

Here’s a good article recently put online, entitled The Secret Lives of Saints. It’s a devotional study on Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-31) well worth reading. I found it a helpful and real reminder about the nature of living a life of faith in a broken and fallen world, so I hope it’s something you’re helped by too.

Here’s a bit of it for you to read:

“Notice carefully how the narrative moves forward in verse 26: “A week later. . . . ” A week later! Kierkegaard says that when we read the story of Abraham taking Isaac up Mount Moriah, we fast forward across the little remark that it took three days. Having been shaped by ESPN highlights, we sometimes underestimate the slow-motion nature of real life.

So we need to slow down and note that a whole week passes in which Thomas is left in this state. What must he have experienced during that time? Some of you know.

But what does Jesus do with Thomas’s doubt? Jesus shows up; Jesus meets Thomas where he is. Jesus comes to Thomas, speaks peace into his life, then invites him to wrestle with his doubts—in a way, to wrestle with God the way Jacob did. So Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds, to put his hand into Jesus’ broken side and so enter into the grosteque. I think there are a couple of important lessons embedded here:” (you can read these for yourself!)

Link here: http://www.thebanner.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1455