Easter

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

One of the best-known descriptions of the early Christian community states some of its most highly prized values. The picture sketched is probably more spiritually idealized than it is historically accurate. The principal values are unity in mind and heart, the sharing of possessions, and apostolic witness. Unity of mind and heart characterizes the Greek concept of friendship; sharing possessions is a Jewish value. Thus communal harmony espouses values from both cultures. The ideals of this community are noble. They hold out a way of life that might appear to be an ideal, yet through the grace of the Resurrection is attainable.

The reading from the Letter of John is a testimony to Trinitarian faith. It describes God as the One who begets (the Father); it identifies Jesus as the Son of God; and it credits the Spirit as the one who testifies to the triumph of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It also sketches the way believers participate in this Trinitarian reality. The reading moves from faith and love to obedience. Jesus alone shares in God’s own nature, and thereby can refashion women and men into children of God. It is through faith in him that believers can conquer the evils that threaten them.

Two Resurrection appearances form a kind of diptych. Thomas is the hinge that connects them. Absent for the first event, he is the central character of the second. Thomas is less a doubter than the representative of Christians like us, 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. We may judge him harshly, but Jesus does not. Instead, he invites Thomas to touch him, an invitation not extended earlier to the other disciples. Thomas then declares that the risen Lord is God, a profession of faith that out strips that of the others.

Jan 30 2025

He Has Risen! Alleluia!

“This is the day the Lord has made! Alleluia!” the Church sings today. This is the day that defines who we are as believers. If a belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not at the top of your list of essential beliefs, then it is time to go back to school for a little remedial Christianity.

From the beginning this belief was what set the followers of Jesus apart from their fellow Jews. Paul even provides a listing of those, including himself, who had had an experience of the risen Lord (see 1 Corinthians 15:5–8). He goes on to make the very clear statement, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is vain; you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

Peter the denier became Peter the bold proclaimer of the risen Lord, first to the crowds that gathered to hear him on Pentecost, then to the members of the Sanhedrin, and then in the house of Cornelius the Roman centurion. Tradition tells us the others also went about preaching and teaching that God had raised Jesus from the dead.

In the first three Gospels, angels or men dressed in white give the good news of Jesus’ resurrection to the women who had come to the tomb. John’s Gospel presents Mary Magdalene, who believes the body was stolen; Peter, who sees only an empty tomb and the discarded wrappings; and the beloved disciple. Only this last disciple “saw and believed.” He is the model of all who see with the eyes of Easter faith—all who want to.

Consider/Discuss

With whom do you identify—Peter, Mary Magdalene, or the beloved disciple? Why?
Why does Paul say that if Christ has not risen, our faith is in vain? Do you see the belief in the resurrection of Jesus as being at the heart of our faith?

Responding to the Word

All powerful, life-giving Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not the first to whom you have sent an angel, we are not the first to see the empty tomb or the garments neatly folded, and still we say: Alleluia! We believe. Deepen our faith in the resurrection of your Son, our Lord.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Peter’s teaching regarding the Resurrection includes several important aspects. Clearly a work of God, it is a genuine resurrection from the dead, not merely a resuscitation. That it occurred three days after Jesus’ death is evidence of this. That Jesus was seen by some, ate and drank with several of his followers, Peter among them, demonstrates that the appearances of the risen Christ were genuine physical experiences and not some kind of hallucinations. Finally, the fruits of the Resurrection are both transformative and all-encompassing. Thus Peter explains the mystery of Jesus in terms of prophetic expectation, reinterpreting earlier prophetic tradition and developing new religious insight.

Set against the backdrop of ancient cosmology, the passage from Colossians contains the fundamental teaching about the Resurrection and the way it transforms the lives of Christians. Christ rose from the dead and is now in heaven. Enthroned there, Christ both enjoys God’s favor and, at God’s “right hand,” bestows blessings on others and administers God’s righteousness. Having gone through the death of human life, Christ has been raised to a new life. In a new and total way, Christ’s being is rooted in God. Christians should now turn their attention away from the things of this world and commit themselves to the things of heaven.

The Resurrection stories begin with a report of Mary Magdalene’s visit to the tomb. No explanation for her visit is given. Details about the burial wrappings are significant. They are still in the tomb, though the body is not. If the body had been merely transported to another tomb, burial wrappings would still have been needed and taken along. It is unusual that Resurrection faith would spring forth from an experience of the empty tomb rather than from an appearance of the risen Lord, but it is the case here. The reading ends on a curious note: they did not understand the scriptures concerning the resurrection of Jesus.

Jan 27 2025

Called to Holiness

As I came to the end of today’s Gospel, I got stuck on the word “consecrated.” Jesus says it three times—asking God to consecrate “them,” consecrating himself for “them” and that “they” be consecrated in truth. What in the world does “consecrated” mean? I went to look up it up.

From the Greek sense of the word, consecrated means to sanctify, make holy, purify, or set apart. Its opposite is “common.” Jesus asks his Father to make his apostles holy, set apart, to make them saints. He gives himself up for them. The Holy Spirit will come to sanctify, purify, and set them apart as special for God.

As I type this sentence about being “set apart,” I look up from my laptop. To the right of the dining room table where I write, is a cabinet of dishes that our family has “set apart.” On the top shelf in the back, are fifteen of my mom’s crystal goblets that we bring out only for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are not “common.” We handle them carefully.

So does holiness mean to be “set apart,” placed on the shelf in the heavenly “cupboard of the saints” like those goblets? Is holiness limited to those whom we designate “consecrated” and those who live in monasteries? Does Jesus’ “them” include us common folks as well? Is he praying for our holiness, too?

In the same cupboard, we also have some heavy earthenware dishes decorated with oak leaves. They are not delicate. They are special to us, too.

God’s children are as inexhaustibly varied as fine china and earthenware dishes. You and I—we are each unique and distinct. Each of us is created to become holy, divinized, and godlike, in our own particular way. We each have a sacred purpose in this world.

Consider/Discuss

Unlike the self-help books that tell us that we are special and “you can do this,” we cannot divinize ourselves. The self-help movement suggests to us that we can get “better” under our own steam. How is that working for you? To be made holy, to be divinized, and to become god-like—that is a high calling, a great adventure. We need a helper. Jesus prays for the coming of the Holy Spirit. What happens if we disregard the presence of the Holy One in our midst and try just to “do it” on our own?
Our world begs for holy and ethical people, not just in the Church, but in families, business, law, carpentry, technology, politics, caretaking, medicine, plumbing, and teaching. It doesn’t matter where you rest your head. God wants you and me to be holy. What does it mean to be continually made afresh in the image and likeness of God? What is your route to holiness?

Living and Praying with the Word

Dear God, sometimes I feel that holiness is a word meant for someone else. I stumble around breaking things. I mess up. I am not fine china in a glass-enclosed cabinet. I am just as comfortable in my boots in the dirt as on my knees in a church building. But if that’s okay with you, then I offer myself to you for sanctification. It won’t look like someone else’s holiness, but I’ll give you what I’ve got. You have given me a sense of your presence deep in my heart. Since you want me to be holy and pure and good, then, please make it so.

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Before the church can begin its work after the Ascension, it must replace Judas. Since Jesus had declared that the apostles would rule over the tribes of Israel (Luke 22:28–30), there must be twelve of them. Peter begins by noting that Judas’ betrayal was already anticipated in scripture, perhaps referring to Psalm 41:10 (see John 13:18), meaning that his act had been folded into the divine plan. Scripture also points out the next step, which is found in Peter’s citation of Psalm 109:8. The choice of Matthias is likewise guided by God. The throwing of lots was a divinely sanctioned way of discerning God’s will in ancient Israel (Leviticus 16:8; Joshua 18:6–8).

The second reading picks up the idea being developed in the reading from the Sixth Sunday. There John emphasized the divine love made manifest in the sending of the Son (4:7–10). As adopted children of God, Christians must take on the image of their heavenly Father, showing the same love for one another that God has shown for all humanity. Just as those who saw Jesus saw the Father (John 14:9), now those who see Christians should be able to see the Father, who “remains” in them. In effect, through the power of the Spirit, Christians come to enjoy much the same relationship with God the Father as Jesus does. This incredible status is the work and sign of God’s love.

The Gospel reading comes from Jesus’ extended farewell prayer for his disciples. A key feature of this prayer is the distinction between those who are “consecrated in truth” and those who “belong to the world,” or that sphere of human society that is hostile to God. The prayer acknowledges that Jesus’ disciples must continue to live among those whose values and actions are opposed to the divine will, and even overtly antagonistic to it. They cannot be taken away from the world; in fact, they are sent to it to continue Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ prayer is that they will remain safely “in the truth,” which means in effect to “remain” in Jesus. This, and only this, will protect them from the evil one, whose realm “the world” is.