Worship Notes April 27

Worship Notes

The Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

April 27, 2014

The Season

The forty days of Lent give way to the fifty days of Easter. Easter is not confined to one Sunday, rather it spans a season that includes seven Sundays, culminating on Pentecost, on the fiftieth day. Our Alleluias, set aside during Lent, permeate our joyful season. The Paschal candle, representing the light of the risen Christ, stands front and center in the chancel throughout the season, while our mantra is, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

In Word

Only an event such as the resurrection of Jesus—and the subsequent outpouring of his Spirit—could transform the likes of Peter, who three times denied knowing or associating with Jesus, into a courageous and bold proclaimer of Jesus, crucified and buried, within the context of tremendous hostility from the religious officials, who wanted nothing more than to squelch this “rumor” of Jesus’ resurrection. All the disciples fled for their lives at the crucifixion (though the Gospel writer John has Jesus’ “beloved” disciple at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother, Mary). After the resurrection, these same disciples became the first wave of evangelists, so zealous in their devotion to their resurrected Lord that all but one of them, according to tradition, went to their deaths in their testimony. Only an event such as the resurrection could transform the likes of these cowardly and fearful men into such bold proclaimers.

Our First Lesson takes us to the immediate aftermath of Pentecost, the outpouring of Jesus’ Spirit, and Peter’s bold sermon: “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” Our Second Lesson comes from the First Letter of Peter, encouraging faith among those who have not seen Jesus in the flesh: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy . . .” (1 Peter 1:8). Joy is a defining attribute of the followers of Jesus. If there is a “litmus test” for Christians, is it joy!

In our psalm for today, our psalmist sings, “For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the pit” (Psalm 16:10). No doubt our psalmist’s trust is based in personal experience. Is the psalmist foreshadowing Jesus? In light of the resurrection of Jesus, we can all sing this psalm with assurance and conviction. The psalm concludes, “You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy . . .” (11a). Joy, again!

“Have you believed me because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:29). Jesus’ reply to Thomas is an affirmation of all those who have come after him in the 2000 year history of the Church, the billions of believers who never had the opportunity to see Jesus in the flesh. That includes us! Jesus calls us “blessed”! In the story of Jesus opening the eyes of the man born blind (John 9), Jesus laments that those who have eyes to see do not see, while those who do not see, do see. Believing in Jesus becomes the lens through which believers “see” all of life in a new and marvelous light. In our Gospel for today, the familiar adage, “Seeing is believing,” is turned on its head. Jesus would insist, instead, that “believing is seeing”!

In Song

“We Walk by Faith” (ELW 635) is a marriage between a nineteenth century text and a twentieth century tune. The lyrics sing of the encounter between Jesus and “doubting” Thomas, who, after being invited to put his finger and hand in Jesus’ wounds, exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” So we, too, sing, “We may not touch your hands and side, nor follow where you trod; but in your promise we rejoice, and cry, ‘My Lord and God!’” (stanza 2). The tune name, Shanti, is Sanskrit for “shalom” (“peace”) and also the middle name of the daughter of the composer, Marty Haugen.