![]() Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" John 20:19-31 Easter People believe in God’s promised possibilities because they have heard of or witnessed what once seemed impossible. Thomas wasn’t there. He’d heard of the possibility that Jesus was alive again. The women running from the grave had born witness to them, carrying word of this new life with joy and wonder like carrying a just born infant. But Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus joined his fearful friends locked in the upper room. Thomas had overcome his fear, fear of neighbors roused by insurgent emotions, fear of what might happen next. He’d gone out, gotten his back up. So its not surprising that his defense mechanisms were still on alert when he returned. "I can’t believe it," he says, when he returns to the awestruck company. "Unless I can touch his wounds for myself, I can’t believe he is alive. " And so we know what’s on Thomas’ mind. He’s fixed on the horrible wounds that took Jesus down, the places the blood drained form Jesus’ body and the tendons tore under the strain of a strung up body’s weight. Believing what someone else told him, even if it was the second set of “someones,” was too much, or maybe not enough. "It’s not a risk I’m willing to take," says Thomas. But in reality, he’s more ready than he knows. Because when Jesus shows up again, Thomas is overcome with wonder-full love and gratitude. “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus says those words that seal Thomas’ reputation in our imaginations. Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." What is it Jesus wants US to believe, ready or not? When we choose the Lord “as our chosen portion and cup” as Psalm 16 sings, The boundary lines fall for us in pleasant places because we have chosen to live within God’s possibility. We choose to leave the fearful tomb. The extraordinary becomes ordinary, not an ordinary that is taken for granted, but an everyday way of inspired, Spirit breathed, living. The reality that hunger can be eliminated in our world is not overcome by fear that our standard of living will be diminished. Underestimated Churches become hope full and overestimated churches shed all expectations but God's. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 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. God has more than we know and is ready for us to believe, or not. Easter People believe in God’s promised possibilities because they have heard of or witnessed what once seemed impossible. Psalm 16 (8:30 Celebration) UMH page 748 with response Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you." As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips. The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The community of persons closest to us has the power to keep us in the tomb of fear or to call us into the daybreak of hope. Do those around us call us to huddle more closely together and bolt the doors of our upper room? Or do they help us throw the doors open because we have experienced together the freeing call to action which is the Spirit of Jesus in our midst? Sr. Lauretta Mather
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Karen L MunsonUnited Methodist Pastor & Liturgical Artist Archives
September 2015
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