st. thomas day/winter solstice/o dayspring

st. thomas' feast comes on the winter solstice, the 21st of december, a date i always find quite appropriate. thomas is usually called "doubting thomas," but if matthew's gospel is to be credited, there were others doubters (matt. 28:17), so i think it is more helpful to look at the witness of thomas as proof that the resurrected jesus is the same as the crucified jesus, that this is an event in the body and not only in the spirit.

in the same way, remembering thomas at the darkest time of the year, just on the edge of the commemoration of the incarnation of our lord, also witnesses to the physicality of our salvation, that it is brought about as much by the incarnation as by the resurrection, that indeed these are parts of the same event which continues through the assumption to this very day.

i am delighted to find that western white man protestantism is beginning to pay more attention to the worldliness of salvation. brian mclaren's latest book, everything must change seems an important move in that direction. i hope it is not just condemned. in it mclaren pointed me to an old jackson browne song that unfortunately we who call ourselves the church would do well to remember, not just at this season.