Easter 2, April 12, 2015 (full size gallery)
A beautiful spring day in the 70’s on Easter 2. We had 34 people today on traditionally a "low Sunday." The tulip magnolia was at its height. The petals covered the parking lot and picnic table. The new apple tree in the back has it leaves. All in all a stimulating and invigorating day!
We celebrated Brad’s birthday – hitting the "6-0." Catherine finally was able to read some questions from the question box. Announcements included the listening sessions on race this Saturday and the Community Give coming up. This was the beginning of the UTO spring ingathering. Catherine extolled the virtues of the UTO – we put together a grant in February for refurbishing the kitchen. It will be submitted to the national church later in the year. The bulletin is here.
The scriptures this week and for most of Eastertide from Easter to Pentecost are about the developing Christian Community after Jesus resurrection.
The Psalm written centuries earlier extols the wondrous joys of being together in community. It is a blessing – more is done for everyone. The Acts reading demonstrate this. The Acts reading says that the community’s purpose was to give testimony and witness to Jesus’ resurrection, and they lived out the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. The early church was able to share what they owned to those in need.
However, it is included individuals in that community who were apprehensive when it came to accepting the resurrection. This included the Apostle Thomas who was not with the disciples when Jesus appeared and doubted until touching Jesus wounds in that locked room. Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." David Lose wrote this week about the need to expand our concept of reality sometimes in our lives.
The sermon looks at both of these issues – that of the community and the individual. Ultimately the passage is useful since it helps us "be witnesses to the resurrection in our world."
For the individual, we have to remember the source of our possessions which get in our way.
"So our possessions and our desire for possessions get in the way of our being united with God and with one another. I contend that this passage reminds us to put God back in place ahead of our possessions, and to act as if we really mean what we say sometimes at the offertory. “All things come from Thee, O Lord, and of your own have we given Thee.”
The story of Thomas is one is a common one in our time "when we believe that we possess the truth and that others must see the world our way."
"Every year, good old Doubting Thomas shows up in the gospel reading on the second Sunday after Easter. So they tell Thomas, who missed Jesus on that evening of the first day of the week that they have seen the Lord. And Thomas says that he needs proof before he’s going to believe this tale.
"They could have said that he was no longer worthy to be one of them and banished him from the group because he didn’t see it their way.
"Instead, the writer of John simply says that Thomas and Jesus work it out between themselves when Jesus returns the following week.
"When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the Risen Lord at work in the world around us, we realize that our job is to help the Risen Lord, rather than to believe that we are the ones who will change the world with our version of the truth. Our job is simply to love the one God with all our heart, soul and might, and to reflect God’s glory, love and peace in the world through the ways in which we choose to live our lives and use our possessions.
"In the violence, tumult, mayhem and hatred that holds the word in its thrall in our day, the way we can best love God and to make the Risen Lord visible in this world is to breathe God’s peace into our hearts and to become people of peace so that we can breathe God’s life giving peace out into the world and be in unity with one another."
Commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia, Washington:
"There are great stewardship implications in all the lessons for this Sunday giving us a vision of the Church and its work in the world. Starting with the Gospel, if we listen closely, we can hear the imperative for the Church to reach out with compassion and touch those who are wounded in our midst, with the echoes from Matthew 25 letting us know that we will encounter the Risen Christ in that interchange. Thomas certainly experienced that! What may not be so clear to us as Matthew 25 is the imperative in John 20 for us to do this as the Apostolic community.
"We are called to an Incarnational faith, we cannot escape the human element if we are to be true to who Jesus has called us to be. I had a priest in our diocese that said he learned as a curate that when the Church was involved in meeting the needs of those in its community, (putting their hands in the wounds of the world) that giving would be fruitful. I think there is much to be said about the community that authentically reaches out, experiences the Risen Christ in these encounters, and proclaims their Apostolic experiences to one another as such. Our souls yearn for meaningful life-giving interchanges and we are glad to give of ourselves and our resources for the community and ministry that bears these authentic relationships. Our passage from the first chapter of 1 John describes this very truth in great depth, and the stewardship message within John’s words here are rich.
"In the lesson from Acts we hear of a community that has been dispossessed itself of its possessions. No longer do the things they own have power over or possess them – like so many material things in our culture possess their "owners." This community described in Acts 4, is one that understands that the things that they have, really all that they have and all that they are, can be used to realize the Kingdom of God in their midst. This is a kingdom where the needs of everyone are met with compassion and grace, giving meaning to all.
"What we find in all of these lessons is that people desire to be involved in meaningful endeavors in their lives. In the midst of ministry with and to others we encounter the Risen Christ, and we find what it means truly to live through living and giving of ourselves and our possessions to life in his name.
"What are we willing to be dispossessed of in our lives to reach out to others and behold how good and pleasant it is when we live in unity with one another in the name of Christ?
How are we risking placing our hands in the wounds of the world to encounter and proclaim the Risen Lord?"