Easter 2B

[RCL] Acts 4:32-35, Psalm 133, 1 John 1:1-2:2, John 20:19-31 God is light and in God, there is no darkness at all. When we walk in the light that is God, we have fellowship with one another. How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! Amen. On this first Sunday…

RCL: Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31 Alleluia, Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia. The Second Sunday of Easter is very dependable. (Not just with attendance.) This is Thomas’ Sunday, and every year the Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ special appearance among the Apostles to greet Thomas. There’s…

Today, the first Sunday after Easter, is traditionally known as Low Sunday. Low Sunday—that’s a tremendously unflattering nickname for us as the Church. Last week we presented the triumph of the church year. We announced to the world the Good News of Jesus Christ: Jesus died and rose again to new life for love of…

Last Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we proclaimed with joy and wonder: “He is risen!” That was the theme for the day, that was the truth renewed and declared. The stone is rolled away! The Lord is alive! And what we have is an empty tomb. The women came…

We’re at that time of year again. Easter Day is past and once more we’re reading about Thomas, who evidently just can’t believe Jesus has been raised from the dead. But don’t we love this story? We love Thomas. We love to chuckle indulgently over his lack of faith, because we certainly don’t have trouble…

Martin Luther once said, “That upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” Luther was talking about what it means to have a god. He says, “A god means that from which we expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that…

This Gospel in John is what is traditionally read every year on the first Sunday after Easter. For reasons that become less and less clear to me, we somewhat smugly refer to this as “Doubting Thomas Sunday.” Which is too bad. It is too bad because such a designation reinforces a number of misunderstandings and…

I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It This is the title of a collection of columns by the late and irascible journalist Mike Royko. Note the interesting context of doubt: doubt standing in the place of certainty, Royko’s certainty that his observations about Chicago city politics and life in general are right on the…

Dealing with doubt is a fundamental fact of human existence — a fact for Christians, even for Apostles, no less than for unbelievers. The classic doubter is Thomas — as we see in today’s Gospel reading. He was the one who was skeptical when the other disciples told him that the risen Christ had appeared…

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,…” For fear of the Jews…. Who were the disciples afraid of, really? Exactly who was threatening them, who might be after them? John is different than the other three gospels,…