e-vo for week of April 7

Dearest e-votees-

This Sunday—the one immediately after Easter—was referred to as “Intern Sunday” at seminary. The supervising pastor would have preached on Easter and so this Sunday would fall to the intern. For churches without an intern it would then pass to the associate pastor. Attendance is often pretty low for this Sunday (it is after Easter and Holy Week and whatnot people just need a break, right?).

It is unfortunate that it works out like that because the Thomas text is powerful and gritty and real. It engages the resurrection as it impacts the lives of those who lay claim to Jesus. Hopefully our lives can be touched by the power and grit and reality of this engaging Easter account.

Peace,
Karl

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19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin ), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 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." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:19-31, NRSV

A few points:

Jesus comes in through the locked doors. The obstacles we use to barricade ourselves away from God’s love are not sufficient. There is a powerful song by Julie Miller called “He Walks Through Walls” (from album of the same name). If you want to hear it for free you can at

http://www.rhapsody.com/julie-miller/he-walks-through-walls

Jesus shows up twice and both times walks through the shut/locked doors bringing a word of “Peace.” Where in your life could you use some of this peace from God?


Thomas has been given an unfortunate nickname. Thomas wants to have his faith authenticated. It is a pretty remarkable claim that the other disciples told him in “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas wasn’t lacking in faith nor courage. He was the one who said “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” in John 11:11b when Jesus tells the disciples they are going to Bethany to raise Lazarus. Thomas was also the courageous one to speak what probably everyone was thinking—“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” in John 14. Faithful yet questioning Thomas would be a much better nickname but it will never catch on—too bad.


“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” Sometimes we forget what a narrow slice of Jesus we have in scripture. We have almost nothing of his childhood (birth/flight to Egypt --> 12 at the temple --> adult ministry). We have no clear picture of what happened to Joseph or how Jesus related to his earthly father. We have no sense of how Jesus got through puberty and adolescence without sin. I wish we had so much more. But what we have is sufficient. We are still reading the book and people are still coming to faith—thanks be to God.



For our contemporary service at church we have been incorporating videos intended to provoke thought and response. This week we are using one from Sermon Spice called Blindness. You can see it at

http://www.sermonspice.com/product/28891/blindness

It in stark manner shows how Jesus turns lives upside down taking death to life, blindness to sight, doubt to faith. It seems to be fitting to show when considering Thomas—his questions, his experience and the labels that have been dropped on him over the years. Perhaps this has been your experience. It has been mine.


God, stir us to believe and trust in you. Help us know that there is nothing—being lost, being blind, being broken, being tired, being afraid, being ________, being ________—nothing, that can separate us from you. Walk through our locked doors and into our barricaded hearts and bring life. Amen.