by Lilly Lewin
This week, the lectionary reading keeps the Easter story going with a look at Thomas in John 20. I’ve always loved Thomas. He isn’t afraid to say what he thinks and he asks great questions…
“Master, we don’t know where you’re going, so how could we know the way there?” and Jesus answers him, with “I AM THE WAY, the truth, and the Life. ” (John 14:4-6) In the midst of social distancing and the strangeness of this pandemic you may be feeling a lot like Thomas. We all want to know what’s real and we all have lots of questions! And if you are like me, you really want to touch Jesus and know he’s here!
I’ve always loved this painting by Caravaggio called “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” painted in 1602. It helps me visualize the scene.
CONSIDER THE PAINTING. Look at it closely. Spend some time.
Allow God to speak to you. Look, Consider and Listen…
NOW READ THE TEXT …put your imagination to work…picture the story in your mind.
Read the passage 2-3 times and soak it in. You can even check out different versions at Bible Gateway.
John 20: 19-29
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Some questions to consider, you might take time to journal from them.
What speaks to you today? What do you notice from the passage that you didn’t notice before?
How does the painting help you understand the passage?
Is there an aspect of the painting that stands out?
What emotions, feelings come up as you reflect on the painting and the passage?
Is there a word or phrase in the passage that leaps out at you?
Do you find yourself in the room the first time Jesus appears or the second?
Are you feeling the Peace of Christ with you today? Or are you in need of more peace?
Are you having an easy time of believing right now or do you need Jesus to prove himself…to prove he’s real?
TALK to God about this..
It’s totally OK with God if you have doubts…God’s not afraid of your doubts or your questions …
In the midst of social distancing and the strangeness of this pandemic you may be feeling a lot like Thomas. Talk to Jesus about where you are and what you are feeling.
What would it take for you to believe right now?
What things help you see, touch, feel and experience Jesus?
Allow God to show you…
Take time to TOUCH JESUS’ Wounds today. Jesus is here in our fear, in our anxiety and in our suffering.
How does that feel?
Jesus is willing to show you his hands, his feet and let you touch his side…
ARE YOU WILLING to let Him? ARE YOU WILLING to touch him and allow him to help you believe again?
ALLOW Jesus to hold your doubts and fears and your unbelief today.
GOING DEEPER:
My good friend artist Scott Erickson has a great image and meditation relating to Thomas that he posted on Instagram this week. Check it out and read his meditation/reflection How does his painting help you understand the passage in John?
Watch this video describing Caravaggio’s painting
Check out this link for more contemporary views of this painting, Which one speaks to you?
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
by Barbie Perks
As I write, the world is in a full-blown panic attack due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are times when I flick through different news channels and begin to feel the anxiety rise in me too. We flew out of Tanzania back to South Africa on a routine trip, and find ourselves locked down with friends for the duration. Family members came back to South Africa for the Chinese New Year holiday, and were locked out of returning, and now, just as they were preparing to return, are locked in!
I have been pondering a section of Scripture the last few days, one that is not often referenced these days. Genesis 6:5-6 says,
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he has made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” So God told Noah, “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God…” (v9) to build an ark to prepare for the calamity that was coming upon the earth.
It’s not my place to comment on the state of the world or to pass judgment; what I am wanting to focus on is how Noah was obedient to the call of the Lord to build that ark, to provision it and receive the animals and to then go in to it with his family and be shut up in that ark for as long as it took. He had no idea really of what was going to happen, no idea of the destruction that was coming through the rain and the flooding. Genesis 7:16 “….then the Lord shut him in”. Noah was locked down – a position we find ourselves in, although we do so semi-voluntarily. Through technology we are able to communicate with others and receive information about what is going on in the rest of the world so we are not isolated in the sense that Noah and his family were.
What I find amazing is that it rained for 40 days and nights, and then the earth was flooded for 150 days. (Gen 7:12, 17 and 24) Then the water receded, and if you check the numbers, it’s just over a year that has passed by the time God says to Noah “come out of the ark…” (Gen 8:15) There are currently countries considering extending their lockdowns, border closures and travel restrictions. Life as we know it has already changed dramatically for many of us, and it will continue to change. There are many, many ways that this pandemic is affecting us globally, and we cannot begin to imagine how far-reaching its effects will be as time goes by.
What I do know is that God, our God, is sovereign over all situations, including this pandemic. While we are locked down, we have time to read, consider, pray, and wait on God. We have time to reflect, to repent, and to draw near to God. We have time to count our blessings, to connect with family and friends, to recover from the chronic exhaustion of just living in this hectic world. We have time to intercede for others, the only thing some of us can do to mitigate this disaster.
May the Lord be close to you during this time, whatever your situation, whatever your concern.
I have found this video very helpful:
by Emily Huff, including photos, used with permission.
In light of church gatherings not happening for Easter, our family wanted to do something to help the neighborhood celebrate and mark Easter together in a special way. We sent out email invitations to neighbors to let them know we would be flowering a cross outside our home on Easter Sunday, and we invited them to pick up some flowers from a store when they were out grabbing groceries or to pick some from their gardens to bring to add to the cross to celebrate that He is risen indeed!
My parents had done this for years at their church in Nashville, and we felt that this was the year to make one for Seattle.
Directions from my dad sent to us to make our Easter cross
The making of our Seattle Easter cross over Palm Sunday weekend
It was indeed a spectacular and life-giving day getting to see this cross that we put in our yard for Easter 2020 be filled with glory through the day. Though we are grateful for online communication, there is nothing like seeing real people rather than the one-inch picture of someone on your screen during a Zoom call. We were so blessed to get to see friends come by (6 feet away of course) to flower our Easter cross. We hope to make this a new tradition, and we look forward to being able to actually hug friends who come by next year.
See pictures of the cross through the day and then of all the beautiful people that filled our cups with such joy.
7:00 am
7:30 am
11:30 am
3:00 pm
Our pet bunny is taking notice!
9:00 pm
bubbles and chocolate egg party favors for people walking by
And God came down,
said he would appear when we least expected.
And God came here,
slipping in behind a door left open.
Appearing like an angel bearing gifts.
And we were too fearful
to believe,
too blind to see,
restless for peace,
too anxious to trust the darkness
easing,
shifting its dark wings,
its swirling skirts.
As we,
locked into a corner,
felt the great crevice of separateness widening,
opening underneath.
Yes, into this God appeared,
timed his arriving to when
we might be most in need,
most lost,
in all the ways we had failed to live,
and save ourselves.
And like with Lazarus,
God drew in,
first crying for the knowledge of
our losses,
and then turning to the business at hand,
of raising the dead,
of placing us upon our feet
again
hope-filled, and
expectant.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2020
by Lisa DeRosa
This year, Holy Humour Sunday is April 19th (the first Sunday after Easter)! It is a great reminder that we must have fun in our lives, even if we have to schedule it to make the time for it. Let’s keep the Spirit of Easter alive this coming Sunday as we enjoy a little fun and laughter!
One great way to celebrate is by signing up for The Gift of Wonder Retreat! Clint Baldwin, the Executive Director/CEO of Word Made Flesh, told us recently that:
As times grow bleaker the gift of wonder (and The Gift of Wonder) takes on increasing poignancy. It feels a bit odd to suggest this because I also think that, really, the gift of wonder is always vital. But I see the gift of wonder as being part of that light that shines in the darkness that the darkness cannot overcome. May the Lord grace us with the ability to consciously choose to pursue the gift of wonder during these times and, in the midst of our difficulties, may we continue to be delighted at the presents and Presence of the Lord all around us.
We are so grateful for the participation so far and look forward to the webinars for those currently enrolled in the retreat. We will provide special, private webinars for study groups or book groups of 10 or more people. Have your group leader contact us for details. Check out the link below for the free preview and to sign up!
For other fun ideas for Holy Humour Sunday, see our post from last year: What Did We Do With Holy Humour Sunday?
by Christine Sine
Easter Sunday is over but the Easter season is just beginning, and and I love the psalms that mark the praise and rejoicing of this season. In fact I jumped ahead a bit and have been meditating on some of them quite a bit over the last few weeks as spring has burst forth in all its glory around us. You might say Easter resurrection has been in the air with its hope and promise for several weeks now.
Celtic tree of life cross
So today I pulled out what I call my resurrection cross and spent time meditating on it. I love to trace its braiding and the pattern of the tree bursting out with life from this instrument of torture. It’s message is so profound and so startling, and it fills me with hope.
As for many of us, Easter has held fresh meaning for me this year. The contrast between the despair of Good Friday and the hope of Easter Sunday is reflected in the despair that has filled many of us over the last few weeks. Yet there is hope and I look out now on a world that is so much living with vibrant new life that I cannot imagine that the despair is forever. We live today in anticipation of this new hope and new life and God’s beautiful creation seems to be leading the way.
A Cosmic Chorus of Praise
Spring garden
Psalm 148 is one of my favourite resurrection psalms and I love the incredible sense of cosmic rejoicing that is expressed especially in The Passion Translation. And today as I read it I was reminded that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey surrounded by a ragtag band of rejoicing followers but these followers now are joined by the whole cosmos – how magnificent, how majestic, how amazing.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Let the skies be filled with praise
and the highest heavens with the shouts of glory!
2 Go ahead—praise him, all you his messengers!
Praise him some more, all you heavenly hosts!
3 Keep it up, sun and moon!
Don’t stop now, all you twinkling stars of light!
4 Take it up even higher—up to the highest heavens,
until the cosmic chorus thunders his praise![a]
5 Let the entire universe erupt with praise to God.
From nothing to something he spoke and created it all.
6 He established the cosmos to last forever,
and he stands behind his commands
so his orders will never be revoked.
7 Let the earth join in with this parade of praise!
You mighty creatures of the ocean’s depths,
echo in exaltation!
8 Lightning, hail, snow, and clouds,
and the stormy winds that fulfill his word.
9 Bring your melody, O mountains and hills;
trees of the forest and field, harmonize your praise!
10–12 Praise him, all beasts and birds, mice and men,
kings, queens, princes, and princesses,
young men and maidens, children and babes,
old and young alike, everyone everywhere!
13 Let them all join in with this orchestra of praise.
For the name of the Lord is the only name we raise!
His stunning splendor ascends higher than the heavens.
14 He anoints his people with strength and authority,
showing his great favor to all his godly lovers,
even to his princely people, Israel,
who are so close to his heart.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Read through this psalm several times and imagine the rejoicing of the whole creation that is going on around you. What is your response to the Easter story this year? How do you enter into that rejoicing? What wells up inside you as you consider the parade of praise that you are a part of? What could you do to encourage others to join the parade?
Magnolia in bloom
As I contemplate this over the weekend and then walked around the neighbourhood where daffodils, tulips, magnolias, cherry blossoms and many others are singing their joyous praise to God, the following prayer/poem welled up within me:
Creator God
Majestic maker of all things,
Sculptor and architect of the entire universe,
We sit in awe and wonder of your love.
We listen to the breath of earth and song of heaven,
And join with the Son of God and child of earth,
To add our human voices to creation’s song.
Let the skies sing for joy,
And the earth join the chorus.
Listen to the oceans thunder,
And watch the fields echo with ecstatic praise.
Let the weeds in pavement cracks shout out,
Until every swaying tree of forest,
And city street join in,
And together we lift our songs,
Of joyous praise to God.
(Inspired by Psalm 96 and 148)
by Carol Dixon
While I have been confined to the house in the recent weeks, I have thought a lot about gardens. I am a terrible gardener, yet I love visiting gardens and reading about gardens. It is wonderful that one of the earliest stories in the Bible is about a garden.
‘The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. In this garden, He made the ground full of glorious life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the centre of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river meandered through Eden to irrigate the garden, and from there it separated into four smaller rivers that flowed out from it.’
I like to imagine Adam and Eve waking and seeing the garden for the first time. What did they notice first I wonder? And when the first night came after the glory of daylight, were they afraid and thought the light had gone forever What relief and joy they must have felt when the light dawned again.
The spiritual writer Margaret Silf in her book Landscapes of Light has this to say about Gardens:
What I wonder does a garden mean for you? Summer days enjoying the scent of new-mown grass and the fragrance of flowers? Birdsong? Vegetables and herbs that travel only the distance between your kitchen garden and your table? Or maybe hard work, an aching back, an invincible army of weeds.
Would it surprise you to discover that God is to be found in the labour as well as the love, in the heart’s aching as well as in the heart’s desire? The word ‘paradise’ in its ancient Persian, Hebrew and Greek forms, originally meant ‘a sacred enclosure’. Your heart is a garden, the place you go to meet God in prayer and the place where God meets you to help you tend the sacredness you share.
What kind of garden are you in today I wonder – a garden of hope and joy, or a garden of suffering?
If it is the latter, I find that a hymn that helps me is the beautiful ‘When my love for Christ grows weak’
The poet Samuel Longfellow added an extra verse:
And I praise will firmer faith
Christ who vanquished pain and death
And to Christ enthroned above
Raise my song of selfless love.
In times of darkness, let us remember that the light will return. After our times of isolation, we will walk in the garden again. Meanwhile in our times of confinement let’s remember the warmth of the sun, the softness of the rain on our faces, the gentleness of the grass beneath our feet, the return of the dawn. And in all let us never forget the life-giving love of God that surrounds us.
Easter Garden
Lord we have seen you walking
The garden at dewy dawning;
Lord we have heard you talking
As birdsongs greet the morning;
And Lord we have met you living
Where once we thought you dead;
And we rejoice to find yo-u
Blessing the broken bread.
Lord we have seen you caring
For those who were filled with sorrow;
Lord we have heard you sharing
Your hope for a new tomorrow;
And Lord we have felt you filling
Our lives with your love divine,
And we receive your new life
As we sha-re bread and wine.
© Carol Dixon (Tune Silent witness Handel)
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