April 3, 2016 (full size gallery)
This week was yet another act in the unveiling of Spring. The tulips and red buds in particular came out while blooms continued on many of the other flowers. The weather which had cleared earlier in the week turned cloudy by the end of the week with intermittent sunshine. Weather was cooler on Saturday and Sunday. It may have cleared the way for many of trees to sprout leaves this Sunday.
Easter 2 is sometimes known as "Low Sunday." The name "Low Sunday" is sometimes said to derive from its relative unimportance compared to the solemnities of Easter Day. Sometimes the first 8 days of Easter are called the "Octave of Easter." Traditionally, the newly-baptised would receive baptismal gowns that would be worn until this day. The bulletin for today is here
For Low Sunday we had 35 which was not too low. Preceding the service was the conclusion of "Growing a Rule of Life’ at 10am where we put together ideas from the preceding weeks into creating our own personal rules of life. Overall those who had attended the study felt it was beneficial though it was not enough time to fully develop the concept.
This Sunday we continued with our musical tutorial series "St. Peter’s Sings". We have done10 sections which you can view here. Today it was repetitions and 1st and 2nd endings which were prevalent though many of the hymns we sang today
Today after the service was a different "Ladies Night Out" where the men would accompany the ladies to the Riverside Theatre in Fredericksburg to see "My Fair Lady". No one had to worry about cooking !
The first two Sundays in Easter Tide the 50 days after Easter contain post resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Here is a timeline of the Post Resurrection sightings of Jesus. You can see the story of Thomas, the focus of Easter 2, appears somewhere between Easter Sunday and 8 days later. The readings are here
The first Sunday after Easter is usually this story of Thomas. This year the sermon was on the concept of peace. Here are excepts:
Jesus says “Peace be with you” to the disciples not once, but three times in today’s gospel reading. What does this mean ?
First of all, God’s peace is forgiving and merciful. These were the disciples who had deserted him in his hour of need. Peter had even denied him publicly three times after his arrest. Jesus is holding out his wounded hands and offering to them God’s peace—a forgiving peace that is rich in mercy.
Second, a quality of God’s peace is joy. We heard in today’s gospel that when the disciples saw Jesus with his wounded, forgiving and merciful hands stretched out to them, they rejoiced.
They experienced the same sort of joy that the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 150. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Hallelujah!” This gladness and rejoicing is a sure sign of God’s presence with us and a sign of God’s kingdom active on this earth.
Third, God’s peace helps us remember who we are in light of whose we are, as Bishop Gulick likes to say.
Thomas hadn’t been with the disciples the first time that Jesus appeared. When Jesus comes back a week later and Thomas is there, Jesus doesn’t criticize Thomas for wanting visible proof for himself. And so Thomas, upon hearing, “Peace be with you,” and seeing those hands, has the revelation that leads to these words—“My Lord, and my God!”
Fourth, God’s peace is not just for us, but for all the world. God’s peace is for us to share with each other and for the world, and for all of creation. In fact, the more of God’s peace we share with others and with God’s good creation, the more peace we’ll find in our own hands. Since the fourth century, people have been sent from church with the words we use every Sunday—to go out in peace to love and serve the Lord.