4th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the 4th Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 4: 8-12
2. Psalms 118: 1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
3. 1 John 3: 1-2
4. John 10: 11-18

1. We are Jesus' resurrection glory
• How can we become imitators of Christ, without becoming mere imitations?
• What does it really mean to carry on His ministry?
• What does that say about our prayer life?
2. Blessed with rejection
• Jesus was rejected by His people, by all of humanity.  Can you think of any saints who have been similarly rejected?
• Do you think that rejection was somehow necessary or pivotal for that saint's ministry.
• What does that say about our lives as Jesus' followers?
• How does that make you feel?
• How do you tell that rejection you face is because you are His follower, not something more mundane, like bad hygiene?
3. Image and likeness of God
• The epistles speak often of "the world", worldly pleasures, and so on.  Just what is meant by that, what does it include?
• If the world truly does not know us, know what's best for us, what will make us happy, what does that say about the values that the world tries to offer us?
• How do you think we might better distance ourselves from those values of the world?
• How might we help each other in that regard?
4. It's not what you know but who you're known by
• Who are some folks who look to you for example?
• What is it that you think they see in you?
• What sort of responsibilities do you have to them?
• Ask these same questions about you to someone else and see what you get.

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Would anyone describe me as a healing presence?
2. Who/what do I put my trust in?
3. When was the last time that I shared my life with someone who really knew me?
4. Is there anyone that I would lay down my life for?

Trust is hard

In his book Jacob the Baker, a woman asks Jacob if he trusts God.
To which Jacob replies "Faith uses its strength to develop trust."

Paul tells us in Hebrews "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Faith is a gift, freely given.  None of us earns it.

By faith, we are able to see the visible for what it truly is
A manifestation, a shadow of what is not visible.

And by gazing at this whole picture, in all its wholeness
We can see the hand of God far more clearly.

Seeing God's movements, His ongoing creation
Shows us His character, His generative generosity.

We learn that God is true
True to His own nature, to who He is revealing Himself as.

That Vision tells us that God is with us in ways unfathomable
And yet so intimate.

And as we gaze with that Vision upon that Vision of a much wider realness
We grow in confidence that He is always there, always Present.

And trust becomes the only possible outcome
It is our only response.

Shalom!