Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Readings for Sunday, April 8, 2018

Hello Everyone,

Christ Is Risen! Christ Is Risen, Indeed!

Grace and Peace in our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ.

Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful celebration of Easter we had on Sunday. If you missed Easter Worship, you have a second chance for this coming Sunday, April 8, is Orthodox Easter. I have fond memories of visiting the family of a friend, who was Greek, of my grandfather's on Orthodox Easter and eating lamb, stuffed grape leaves, and baklava. I may have to go to a restaurant that serves lamb next Sunday.

We are in the "season" of Easter, the time from Easter Sunday to, but not including, Pentecost Sunday. Our readings will be from "The Acts of the Apostles", "The First Letter of John", and "The Gospel According to John". (The one exception will be Sunday, April 15, when the Gospel reading is from Luke.)

I am thinking about a series of sermons based on the "First Letter of John" and the Gospel readings titled "Light, Life, and Love: Our Response to Resurrection". What does it mean to live as a Follower of Jesus Christ? What does it mean to be called "Christian"?

Our scripture lessons for this week are:

Acts 4:32-35 – The community of believers sharing everything so that none are in need. Is this possible in the 21st century? Why Not?

Psalm 133 – Three verses! “How good it is when kindred live together in unity!” Community united in the love of God which is life everlasting.

1 John 1:1-2:2 – We know Jesus therefore we know God. In Jesus we see that God is light and that there is no darkness in God at all. One of the passages in the New Testament that seems to advance the idea of universal redemption is verse 2:2. “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Wow! What do you think?

John 20:19-31 – Jesus appears to 10 of the 11 remaining disciples on the day of his resurrection and gives them the Spirit. The missing disciple, Thomas, will not believe without proof (oh how I am so like Thomas). Jesus appears again on the following Sunday and shows Thomas his wounds. Notice that Jesus bears the marks of a victim yet twice declares, “Peace be with you.” It seems to me that too many 21st century American Christians want to claim the marks of victimhood (“We are being persecuted by society/government/advocacy groups!”) yet seem to not want to make or bring peace.

Have a great week serving God by serving others. See you in church!

Peace in Christ, our Risen Lord and Savior,
Pastor Gary

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