# St. John's UCC — Holy Humor Sunday / Thomas Sunday (2026-04-12) **Summary.** Second Sunday of Easter at St. John's UCC Chambersburg, celebrated as Holy Humor Sunday (Bright Sunday) and Thomas Sunday. Rev. Caroline E. Saxton preached on John 20:19-31, framing Thomas's doubt as a partner to faith, resurrection as rebellion against evil, and trauma as transformed rather than erased. The service intentionally used laughter and joy as liturgical acts, grounded in the early-church *Risus Paschalis* tradition. ## Tradition and Hermeneutic - **Tradition:** Progressive mainline Protestant — United Church of Christ. - **Hermeneutic:** Historical-critical with narrative and liberation emphases. Pastor named Mark's original ending (16:8) without the post-resurrection appearances and treated the gospel writers as editorial hands with their own voices (including humor). - **Interpretive posture:** Faith is developmental, not fixed. Creeds are ancient anchors, but love is the primary identifier of Christian identity ("we are to be known as Christians by our love"). ## Key Claims 1. **Worship includes laughter.** *Risus Paschalis* — the "Easter Laugh" — traces to early Christian theologians who taught that God played a joke on the devil by raising Jesus. Somber worship alone limits the fullness of human experience with God (Source: [[2026-04-12 St Johns UCC]]). 2. **Faith and doubt are partners, not enemies.** Blind faith produces rigidity and breaks under crisis. A flexible, growing faith leaves room for mystery ([[Faith and Doubt]]). 3. **Thomas models honest doubt.** His demand to see the wounds is courageous. His confession "My Lord and my God" is praise — a qualitatively different response from the other disciples' rejoicing. 4. **Resurrection is rebellion.** Quoting Paula Gooder: *"Belief in the resurrection is an act of rebellion against the evil, corruption and oppression that can so easily swamp us."* The resurrection reshapes how we live, not only what we believe ([[Resurrection as Rebellion]]). 5. **Trauma is transformed, not erased.** Jesus still bears the scars after the resurrection. Healing in John's gospel does not delete wounds. 6. **Faith develops over a lifetime.** "The faith we have at 14 will not necessarily be the faith at 41 — and I hope it's not." Confirmation is a starting point, not a fixed statement. ## Notable Quotes > "No matter how grim or dire things may seem, love gets the last word." — Rev. Caroline E. Saxton > "You can put truth in the grave, but it won't stay there." — Rev. Caroline E. Saxton > "In John's gospel, trauma is not erased. It is transformed." — Rev. Caroline E. Saxton > "Do people see the resurrection in you?" — Rev. Caroline E. Saxton > "Belief in the resurrection is an act of rebellion against the evil, corruption and oppression that can so easily swamp us... it can and should transform not only how we view the world but how we live in it." — Paula Gooder > "We die twice. The first time when the breath leaves our bodies and the second is the last time someone says our name." — Rev. Caroline E. Saxton (during prayer for a congregant's daughter lost to suicide) ## Scripture - Acts 2:14a, 22-32 - Psalm 16 - 1 Peter 1:3-9 - **John 20:19-31** — primary preaching text ## Worship Songs Used - Gathering: "This is the Day" - Opening: "How Great Is Our God" — Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves / Ed Cash (2004), CCLI #4348399. See [[Worship Songs Evaluated]]. - Hymn #197: "We Welcome Glad Easter" (tune: ST. DENIO) - Hymn #706: "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" (Thomas Ken, 1674 / OLD HUNDREDTH) - Hymn #218: "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" (John of Damascus, 8th c. / tr. J.M. Neale, 1859) ## Named Figures in the Affirmation of Humor John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Francis De Sales, John Wesley, Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, G.K. Chesterton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Flannery O'Connor, Krister Stendahl, Charles Schulz, Elton Trueblood. The ecumenical reach here is notable — patristic through 20th-century voices. ## Connections to Existing Wiki Content The wiki was freshly initialized. This is the first substantive ingest. Related pages created alongside: - [[St. John's UCC Chambersburg]] - [[Caroline Saxton]] - [[Holy Humor Sunday]] - [[Faith and Doubt]] - [[Resurrection as Rebellion]] - [[Paula Gooder]] - [[Worship Songs Evaluated]] ## Analytical Notes **Power dynamics.** Authority in this tradition is diffuse. The pastor preaches, but congregational sharing of joys/concerns and lay reading distribute voice. No apostolic authority claims, no prophetic-office hierarchy. **Harm assessment.** Low. The sermon validates doubt, which is pastorally protective for people in deconstruction. The pastoral response to suicide ("we keep her alive by telling her name") avoids bypassing grief. **DEIB lens.** The closing values list — "peace not war, creativity not destruction, empathy not hate, generosity not greed, everybody not just us" — is inclusive-coded. Courtney's own shared joy about women of color in NASA control for Artemis was held alongside without deflection. **Contrast with NAR framing.** A charismatic/NAR sermon on John 20 might emphasize Thomas as a negative example of unbelief, or pivot to signs-and-wonders apologetics. This sermon instead treats doubt as a spiritual asset and resurrection as political rebellion, not proof-text. > [!question] > How does the "trauma is transformed, not erased" reading of the risen Jesus's wounds interact with charismatic healing theology that often promises erasure? Worth a future analysis page comparing UCC and NAR theologies of healing.