April 24, 2022 2nd Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31  (The Message)  

19-20 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side.

20-21 The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.”

22-23 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

24-25 But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.”

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”

26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”

27 Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”

28 Thomas said, “My Master! My God!”

29 Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

30-31 Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

We don’t get very far into the Easter season before we run into Thomas - doubting Thomas.

He is the one who grounds the resurrection in the physical appearance of Jesus.  

He is, as one person put it, “...a pioneer of the faith through whose persistency we are given a message of grace and joy.”

He is also the one who reminds us that doubt is a part of faith.  It is often on the growing edge of faith. 

 

As Paul  Tillich said, “Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith”.

And Alan Jones said, “In a world where there is no room for doubt, ambiguity, or questioning, there is no room for genuine faith.”

What we say we doubt may well be what we most want to believe.

When we continue to believe, even when we have our doubts,  we are open to believing more than we can believe.

It is no sin to doubt.  Our doubts not only keep us honest and humble, they also are openings for God’s spirit to touch our lives.  For through our doubts we are let to believe in mysteries far beyond human logic or comprehension. 

Despite being a major figure in faith today, 

even Mother Teresa of Calcutta was not 

immune to struggles with doubt.

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.  Help me see more then can be seen and believe more then can be grasped with the human mind.”

April 17, 2021 Easter Sunday

Luke 24:1-12   (The Message) 

1-3 At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.

4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.

9-11 They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.

12 But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.

Easter is hope.

What oxygen is for the lungs, hope is for the spirit.

Without it suffocation takes place; despair takes over; paralysis sets in.  Without it, as Jean Paul Sartre put it, “man is a useless passion”.

Without hope there is no meaning to living.

Easter  is hope!  Hope born of an event and a promise which touch the very core of human yearning.  The event is a resurrection; the promise is eternal life.  Both so incredible they are difficult to believe yet so powerful that nothing can overcome them.  

We are living in times which cry out for hope for those caught up in hopelessness and despair.  And we see it appear in places of great pain and destruction as the people of Ukraine struggle to be free and most of the world struggles with them, doing what can be done to keep hope alive in the midst of that which sometimes must seem hopeless.

It doesn’t sound like much yet it is vital to their survival that hope not be extinguished and they know they are not alone.  This must be at the heart of all we do to walk with them for it is the gift of Easter born of a Resurrection!

Yes, Easter is hope!  The hope which adds to the love of living and will never disappoint.  The resurrection says there are no closed doors, the future is open, anything is possible.   For Jesus lives and we live in God’s eternal love!

 

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to live in hope with love,

born of your resurrection .  And keep hope alive in the hearts of all who walk this day in despair and hopelessness.  Especially the people of Ukraine who face the evil of the senseless destruction of their homes and communities.”   Amen  

 

April 14,, 2019 Passion Sunday

Luke 22:14-23:56  (The full Passion story- read it this week>)

Luke 23:33-47(The Message )  

33 When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.

34-35 Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, “He saved others. Let’s see him save himself! The Messiah of God—ha! The Chosen—ha!”

36-37 The soldiers also came up and poked fun at him, making a game of it. They toasted him with sour wine: “So you’re King of the Jews! Save yourself!”

38 Printed over him was a sign: this is the king of the jews.

39 One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”

40-41 But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

43 He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

44-46 By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours—a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly, “Father, I place my life in your hands!” Then he breathed his last.

47 When the captain there saw what happened, he honored God: “This man was innocent! A good man, and innocent!”

The road to Easter goes through Good Friday.  

The joy of celebration has its roots deep within the agony of defeat.

There is no resurrection without a cross.

This is the beginning of the most horrible and the most glorious week in human history.

We hear the words “Crucify him, crucify him!” before we hear “Alleluia, He lives!”

“When the crucified Jesus is called ‘the image of the invisible God’, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this.  God is not greater than he is in this humiliation.  God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness.  God is not more divine than he is in this humanity.”

Douglas John Hall 

“God is not more divine  

than he is in his humanity.”

Douglas John Hall 

   

Prayer thought for the week:  Read the full passion story and walk with it all week.

 

 April 3, 2022 Lent 5

John 12:1-8  (The Message)

Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house.

Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.” He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.

Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”

Extravagant Love

The prayer of the Day gives us a clear hint what this text is all about: “Open our hearts to be transformed by the new thing you are doing, that our lives may proclaim the extravagance of your love given to all through your Son...”

There are times and places for extravagance - even when there are plenty of poor who also need our attention, and our help.

Jesus words - “you always have the poor with you” were not spoken as a reason not to care. It was a reminder that we can celebrate the gifts of life - as he was celebrating the gift of Lazarus’s life - even as we ache for those who have life violently disrupted and taken from them.  Even as his life was soon to be violently taken from him.

There will always be the “poor” who need our help.  We certainly see this in what is happening in our world right now!  And they do need our help!

But not at the expense of extravagance in celebrating the love we feel, both human and  divine for the gift of our lives.  

We can do both!  Be extravagant 

in our celebration of life and be 

equally extravagant in our care 

of the “poor”!  

Prayer thought for the week::  “Lord, it sometimes feels selfish to be happy when so many are in great distress.  Help me to celebrate the love which sustains me even as I seek to sustain those who have lost all reason to rejoice.”  Amen