John 20:19-31 Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. It just sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. It was the highpoint of last week’s Easter liturgy. It was today’s opening acclamation and will be for the next several weeks. But here’s what I wonder. Is it really that simple? That … Continue reading He Came Back – A Sermon on John 20:19-31
What if we really believed God is uniquely present and active in the circumstances of each of our lives, speaking a word? What if we truly believed there would be a fulfillment of the word spoken? What if instead of allowing our circumstances to determine what we believe we allowed our believing to reinterpret the circumstances? That would be blessed believing, Elizabeth and Mary type … Continue reading Believing Like Mary and Elizabeth
“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.” That one sentence has left Thomas forever labeled Doubting Thomas. That’s the Thomas with whom we are most familiar. Maybe, however, there’s another side to Thomas, a twin, that we often overlook. That’s the … Continue reading Struggling to Believe the Resurrection, John 20:19-31
“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
When I look at the various situations and circumstances of my life, the joys and sorrows, the successes and failures, the hopes and the disappointments, the struggles and the accomplishments, I so want to find hidden within them a fulfillment of something spoken to me by the Lord. I don’t think I’m alone in that. I don’t think I am all that different from you or anyone else. I think we all want that, even if we don’t know it. We want to believe.
We want to believe that our life and existence are more than our circumstances. We want to discover a value and meaning that is lasting and not situational. We want to know and experience God is with us. We long for something beyond the circumstances. It’s not about denying or ignoring our circumstances. It’s about believing through the circumstances rather than in the circumstances. It is a different way of believing than what we are used to.
Most of the time we take the facts of a situation, as we see them, and, using reason, come to a conclusion. That’s our usual way of believing. It’s characterized by rational thought, deductive analysis, and scientific thinking. We allow the circumstances of our lives to determine or at least strongly influence what we believe about God, the world, others, and our selves. Continue reading “You are More than the Circumstances of your Life”
