Easter

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

Our glimpse of the Christian community in today’s first reading is an idealized picture, a kind of utopian dream. It depicts the primitive church more in its eschatological fulfillment than as it probably really was. Four characteristics of that community are given: apostolic teaching, community, Eucharist, and prayer. The signs and wonders that were performed by the apostles were primarily cures, evidence that the eschatological age of fulfillment had dawned. This miraculous activity filled the bystanders with awe, the conventional response of human beings who have witnessed the extraordinary power of God. The risen Lord brought others into their midst and made their numbers increase.

The short reading from 1 Peter contains a variety of themes: praise of God, Christology, soteriology, eschatology. It opens with a doxology patterned after a Jewish hymn of praise of God. Out of this theocentric perspective, the author develops his Christology, declaring that Jesus is the mediator of the salvation that comes from God. The new life that believers receive from God is eschatological in nature, looking to the future for the fulfillment of God’s promise. The hope to which the new life looks is eschatological, the inheritance that accompanies it is eschatological, and the salvation that it guarantees is eschatological. This is the living hope to which Christians are born.

Thomas is the hinge that connects the two Resurrection appearances in the Gospel. Absent for the first event, he is the central character of the second. Thomas represents the second generation of Christians who are called to believe on the testimony of others. The faith required of him is, in a way, more demanding than that required of those who actually encountered the risen Lord. Jesus states that Thomas’ ultimate faith does not compare with the faith of those who do not enjoy any sensible experience of the Lord. Thomas should be remembered, not because he was absent or because he doubted, but because like us he was called to believe on the word of others.

Jan 14 2025

Resurrection Happens Now

Some say we are only a series of neurons that come together for a little while and eventually decompose; in the meantime, the purpose of life is to have as pleasant a time as possible. A rather limiting vision, no? Easter is my starting point for rebuttal.

Easter calls us to include resurrection in our vision of life. This is not always easy. It wasn’t when it first happened. You can see why Mary Magdalene, seeing that the stone had been removed, would conclude that the body had been stolen. And you can understand how Peter never got beyond seeing a bunch of burial cloths over in the corner without concluding Jesus was raised. Only the beloved disciple “saw and believed” (John 20:8).

We are never told what the tipping point was for the beloved disciple. Was it all those times resting his head near Jesus, watching, listening . . . and knowing? Resurrection experiences have a long history. If you have had a relationship that you thought was totally over come back to life, you know that resurrection happens. If you have had an experience of going nowhere with a project, then it suddenly kicks in, you know that resurrection happens. If you know someone held captive by an addiction and see them break free and begin the process of recovery, you know resurrection happens.

Easter invites us to consider our experiences of resurrection and move to the conclusion: resurrections have been happening for a long time. It’s just a matter of seeing and believing.

Consider/Discuss

Have you had any resurrection experiences lately?
What does it mean to you that you share in resurrection life even now?

Responding to the Word

We pray through Jesus, God’s Son, whose resurrection was the Father’s answer to death and violence. Jesus is the Word of God, the last word of God’s unconditional love for us. There is one very simple response to this: Alleluia! Praise God!

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

In today’s first reading, Peter announces that the story of Jesus from his baptism, through his ministry, to his death and resurrection has been reported all over the land. He explains the mystery of Jesus in terms of prophetic expectation, at once both reinterpreting earlier prophetic tradition and developing new theological insight. With just a few words, Peter places Jesus at the heart of both the prophetic and the apocalyptic traditions of Israel. He insists that the power of the Resurrection is not circumscribed by ethnic or religious origin. It is open to all who believe in Jesus. This is truly good news to the Gentiles.

The passage from Colossians contains the fundamental teaching about the Resurrection and how it transforms the lives of Christians. It is set against the backdrop of ancient cosmology. Two different realms are delineated: the world above and the world below. Christ rose from the dead and is now in the realm of heaven, seated at God’s right hand. Christians believe that they are joined to Christ. Having died with him, they have also risen with him. Here is an example of the complex eschatological view, “already, but not yet.” Joined to Christ, Christians are living in the final age already, but this age of fulfillment is not yet complete.

The Resurrection stories begin with a report of Mary Magdalene’s visit to the tomb. The stone had been moved, but she does not entertain the possibility of Jesus’ resurrection, only the removal of his body. She runs off to tell Peter and “the other disciple” (John 20:2). The choice of this reading for Easter Sunday highlights the incomprehensibility of the event. The fact that neither Mary, probably Jesus’ closest female disciple, nor Peter, the leader of the Christian community, was prepared spontaneously to embrace the truth of the Resurrection should caution us lest we too glibly presume to grasp it. There is much in the reality of the Resurrection that continues to challenge us.

Jan 10 2025

The Erupting Spirit

She whispered under her breath, “Lord, have mercy.” The others in the room echoed, “Lord, have mercy.” It was not a church but a hospital room. Gospel music was playing softly on the player on the windowsill. She smiled, “Lord, have mercy God almighty, I am coming home!” Words of faith—the Spirit of God overflowed within her and her joy erupted into words.

The feast of Pentecost is the day to celebrate the gift of speech! Some of us speak for a living. Preachers preach often in the Easter season. Teachers talk the whole school year through. Sometimes we may wonder, where does the power come from to speak effectively? And do words make any difference in this world that is already so full of words?

The experience of the Spirit in the second chapter of Acts came to seemingly dried-up and disheartened disciples. The Spirit rushed upon them like a mighty wind! Out of their emptiness, Acts tells us, three thousand people were converted and the church was born. At that moment, Christian preaching was also born. What if Peter had not spoken? What if he had remained silent? The Spirit so filled him that he had to speak. He had to speak. His joy bubbled up into words, telling the glorious story of Jesus’ resurrection. Human speech matters more than we can ever imagine.

Our words matter, too. On this holy day of empowering, do we hunger for those we love to meet the living God? If so, what words do we speak? We have to discern our words carefully. But joy bubbling into words of faith, even when they are hesitant, can have an effect. For if those we love have not heard, how are they going to believe? Come, Holy Spirit, fill the words of your faithful!

Consider/Discuss

Jesus breathed on his future preachers and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This tender waft of Jesus’ air became the mighty wind of Pentecost. Who has breathed on you words that have transformed your life?
Faith is caught as much as it is taught. Yet words are necessary. We have to speak. Where do you struggle with speaking—talk too little? too much? too unthinkingly? too carefully? Spend a little time in prayer, discerning where your words may have hurt and how very much your words of love matter. What do you need to do to become a more Holy Spirit–inspired speaker?

Living and Praying with the Word

On this holy day of days, Holy Spirit, erupt within us. Send tongues of fire upon us so that we are aflame with your joy. We cannot fulfill our mission on our own strength. You are the Delight of delights, the Wonder of wonders. We are thrilled to exult in you. You are Holy Wisdom; fill us this day so that your inspired words radiate out through us into a world hungry for your glory.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Pentecost was the Greek name for the summer harvest festival held fifty days after Passover (Deuteronomy 16:9–12). It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals in which “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” were expected to come to Jerusalem. At the sound of a strong driving wind these same Jews rush to the scene to discover Jesus’ disciples speaking in their various languages. Ultimately, the Spirit’s work will not be limited to the “gift of tongues,” but this along with the power to speak of “the mighty acts of God” is the most immediate effect of Pentecost. With the coming of the Spirit, the disciples are equipped to further Jesus’ mission to gather “all nations” to God, beginning with Israel.

Socioeconomic divisions in Corinth have been exacerbated by a tendency to interpret different charisms of the Spirit as status indicators. Paul emphasizes that God has endowed the Corinthians with a variety of gifts—different gifts, different forms of service, different workings—that are meant to enrich the community, not divide it. They have not been given to individuals as much as they have been given to the community as a whole, and for the whole community’s benefit. The fact that the same Spirit is responsible for the variety of gifts means that, ultimately, they are meant to unify the one body of Christ, which the Spirit is building and unifying through those same gifts.

In John’s Gospel the risen Lord bestows the Spirit on his followers not at Pentecost but on the evening of the Resurrection. Compelled by fear to barricade themselves behind doors, they nevertheless suddenly discover that Christ has been able to enter into their midst. Although some of his disciples may have good reason to fear even him, having abandoned him at his darkest hour, Jesus greets them immediately with peace. His wounds are offered not as a reproach, but as evidence that it is he, the wounded Jesus, who greets them with twice peace, a sign of reconciliation. Breathing on them the promised Holy Spirit (14:15–17), Jesus empowers them to offer that same reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins.