Sunday Service time
change!!! Evening Prayer service at 5pm,
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Mrs.
Jane Barnett has offered to lead Evening Prayer at 5pm this Sunday. Morning Prayer will be cancelled for Sunday
morning April 15. Please join Jane and
others in our church for Evening Prayer at 5pm Sunday, April 15th. 10am services will continue Sunday
April 22, 2018. More news as soon as I
have it.
EASTER
II - B - 18 JOHN 20. 19-31
“LOW
SUNDAY”
Today,
being the Sunday that follows Easter Day is often referred to as “low Sunday”
for obvious reasons. In many churches, there are more absent than present on
this day. It is as if having attended Church on Easter Sunday and heard the acclamation
“He is risen!” one can now return to one’s normal routine without giving it a
second thought.
Unfortunately
many do, for the Church only sees them on Easter - and maybe Christmas! We have
become so accustomed to attending Church on Easter Day that we forget that we
are to live the Easter faith day by day.
Today’s
gospel reading follows the Easter story from John. The scene is the upper room.
It is the evening of the day of resurrection. Peter and the other disciple who
had accompanied him early that morning to the empty tomb to check out Mary
Magdalene’ report have returned. They are in hiding along with the other
disciples because they were afraid that the Jews might seek them out and do to
them what they had done to Jesus.
One can only imagine what they were discussing. The scene is proof that they did
not understand about the resurrection. They were not yet Easter Christians.
They were on the other side of the cross. Likewise, it was a “low Sunday” for
them as they were not all present. Thomas was absent.
Was
he not afraid of being arrested? On the other hand, was he so despondent that
he did not care what might happen to him now that his lord had been crucified?
Regardless of why, he was absent. That is when the surprise of Easter confronted
those who were hiding in the upper room. The risen Christ appeared in their
midst. “Peace be with you.”
When
he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
were glad when they saw the Lord. Christ’ peace dispelled their fear. It was
the marks of the crucifixion, the wounds of love that convinced them that it
was indeed the risen Lord who was speaking to them and was now in their
presence.
Christ
gives them a second “peace” before he commissions them to go out and complete
his work in the world by continuing the ministry of reconciliation. To do so he
empowers them with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the authority to forgive
sins.
We
do not have their response. What we have is a change of scene. Thomas returns
and is told what has happened. However, Thomas did not believe them. Perhaps he
thought they had seen a vision or else they were hallucinating. If they had
seen him, as they said, and had received his gifts of power, joy, and the
commission to continue his work, why were they still there? Why were they not
out on the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming his resurrection?
Thomas’
doubt represents that of all who came after him. “Unless I see in his hands the
print of the nails… and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” The
gathered disciple’s report of the risen Lord’s appearance to them in Thomas’
absence did not convince him. The doubt of Thomas was not a doubt of resistance
to truth, but one that desperately desired a truthful answer - a doubt which
gave birth to faith when the answer was revealed eight days later.
This
time they are all together, including Thomas. The risen Lord came and stood
among them bringing his peace yet a third time. Jesus signals Thomas out. “Put
your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my
side; do not be faithless, but believing.” St. John does not report whether or
not Thomas complied with the Lord’s request.
In
my heart, I have always felt that he did not, although he was bold to say that
he not only wanted to see for himself, but touch Jesus. Seeing the risen Christ
bearing the marks of the crucifixion face to face was enough to convince him
that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.
Whether
he touched Jesus or not the conversion of Thomas’ doubt into faith led him to
the clearest confession of Christ’ divinity, addressing Jesus as my Lord and my
God. Thomas’ faith is resurrected by his personal encounter with the risen
lord.
Unlike
Thomas and the other disciples, we have not seen Him as they did. What are our
credentials for declaring, “He is risen”?
Should we believe because the Church says so? Although we have never seen Him, as the
disciples saw him, we can see him in the face of friend or stranger who
manifests the natural love of Christ in their relationship to another human
being.
We
can see him in the person who kneels next to us at the altar to receive the
sacrament of His Body and Blood as one redeemed as our self. In the sacrament,
we can touch him. We are blessed because we have not seen him, as they did, and
yet we believe in Him.
He
continues to give us his peace, which passes all of our human understanding at
the very times when we need it most, in times of hopelessness and despair, in
times of doubt and fear. Though His Peace He makes His presence known in the
gift of new life He gives to those who believe.
The
Resurrection of Jesus brings into being the Church as the Body of Christ. It’s
unity, its commission, its endowment. All that Jesus has won is now given to
his disciples and through them to all who have come after them. There is,
however, a difference between something being achieved and something being
implemented.
How
do we, as individuals and as Church respond to a doubting world? How do we spread
the “good news” to other cultures and people who are not thinking about God’s
kingdom, who are not waiting for a messiah, who do not look at the world
through the lens of the cross and see that salvation has come through the death
and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth? That is the Easter challenge.
Today’s
gospel builds up into a dramatic climax from the immaterial evidence of the
empty tomb to the risen Christ alive and in the presence of those who believed
in him. Our faith rests not in an empty tomb or for that matter on an empty
cross. Nor did theirs. Thankfully our faith and belief in the risen Lord is not
confined to a yearly acclamation.
The
disciples learned to live the Easter faith day by day and to tell the Easter
story from a personal experience. That is what convinced other people to
believe without having seen Him. That is how the disciples met the Easter
challenge.
This is how we meet it today by living the
Easter faith as a people blessed for having not seen and yet believing. And by
telling our story of how the risen Lord has made and continues to make himself
known to us by giving us His Peace and the gift of new life in Him.
Christ
is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! AMEN+
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