I remember very clearly the first Earthday, 1970, begun by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.  I was 16. We wanted to do something, to be part of the solution, to care for the planet and our neighborhood. We picked up trash around our little town. There was excitement and the sense that we were making a difference. My naivete was only matched by my teenage exuberance for the world through a small, very small, act of picking up trash.

I hold that memory alongside one of my favorite stories, Doubting Thomas, though I think the title is incorrect. There wouldn't be formal science for another 15 centuries, yet Thomas raised doubt and asked questions, both foundations for modern science and for faith in action. Jesus is not put off by Thomas. He simply says, “Touch me. Put your finger here. Place it in one of my wounds. Do not doubt but believe.”  In other words trust the evidence of my body and yours.

This is still the recipe for conversion and love, healing and action. Nothing churchy about it. Touch me. Gently place your hand where I have been wounded. See what was done to me. Be changed.

Long ago an article in the religion section of the Salt Lake Tribune quoted a University of Utah professor who said,  “Three things make conversion possible.  Beauty. Love. Suffering.” Still true today. Maybe especially suffering.

I was talking with a friend of mine, a retired pastor, who says that churches are too concerned with butts and bucks. He believes this is one of the reasons they are shrinking and dying. They are boring. They no longer practice looking for and then touching the wounds of the world. This is the essence of Erlander’s 1989 cartoon. Think about that when you share the peace next Sunday.  Whose wounds are you touching?  Are they touching your wounds? Are the wounds visible? Or hidden? I am still so proud of the people of Minneapolis who stood up recently for their neighbors and their neighborhoods, who reached out and touched those with wounds at great cost. For some it cost their lives. Their weaponless acts of love defeated a powerful weaponized regime. Their winter of resistance brought light and hope, even joy to many.

So what now? What about you? The wounds of the world are everywhere.  In individuals. Among nations. In all of creation.  We don’t have to look far.  We don’t even have to look.  The St. Louis Estuary. The threat of a mine on the edges of the Boundary Waters. The active governmental denial of Climate Change and the science that undergirds it. How we treat the stranger. Our addiction to oil. The horrible wounds of war, right now, on the environment and especially on the children. The denial of limits for commerce. The lack of funding for health care. Not health insurance, but health care for all. You can make your own list. It will be easy.

Jesus asked Thomas to touch him, so that he would have faith and peace, the restless peace of God. There you have it. The mandate. Go touch the wounds. Help the healing. Make the connection.  Breathe. Then act.

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Dan Erlander graphic used with permission. Notice the date!  Dan was a good friend of mine.