Pastor's Message - April 2026

~ Blessed Are Those“

Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

~John 20:29

Dear Members and Friends,

My April newsletter article to you is usually an Easter poem, and this year is no exception. Below is a poem by the Anglican clergyman, Malcolm Guite. I’d liken Guite to a religious Burl Ives. He looks just like him and has a similar “energy”—an older fellow with a warm and gentle air about him. (Either one of them would make a superb mall-

Santa…) He’s a songwriter, poet, singer and minister. Guite bases this poem on the famous scene in the Gospel of John where “Doubting Thomas” misses Jesus’s first resurrection appearance to the disciples. Understandably, Thomas has his doubts, which he expresses. As a result, Jesus comes back a second time, just for Thomas’s sake. Jesus tells him, “Here, touch my wounds and see that I’m alive and real.” Then, at last, Thomas believes—proving the thing we all kind of suspect: There’s no genuine faith without doubt.

“We do not know… how can we know the way?”

Courageous master of the awkward question,

You spoke the words the others dared not say

And cut through their evasion and abstraction.

Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,

You put your finger on the nub of things.

We cannot love some disembodied wraith,

But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.

Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,

Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.

Because He loved your awkward counter-point

The Word has heard and granted you your wish.

Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine

The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.

~Malcolm Guite

Too often, Thomas is depicted as a sort of lesser disciple because he experienced doubt. But you know what? Certainty is not faith, it’s…certainty. Real faith always contains an element of doubt and nary a shred of certainty. Happy Easter to you. May the joy of resurrection and new life surprise you every day. Your faith may not feel ironclad or unwavering, but I assure you…it is enough.

Christ’s Peace,

~Brian