2nd Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the second Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 4: 32-35
   
2. Psalm 118: 2-4, 13-15, 22-24
   
3. 1 John 5: 1-6
   
4. John 20: 19-31
   

• Building community
  
• In our daily struggle to make ends meet, prepare for eventual retirement and any other anticipated or unanticipated events in our lives, it's easy to lose track of the connectedness (it's a word, look it up) that we are heir to as a people of God.
• What are some of the communities that you belong to right now?
• How do they provide you strength, resilience, meaning in your life?
• What are your contributions to each of those communities?
• Do you think that you are the richer for your participation in those communities?
• Are you actively making any of those communities better?
  

• Finding divine mercy
  
• God's mercy has sustained all of us throughout our lives, but sometimes, it's hard to see that mercy for what it is.
• When was a time that you particularly felt the mercy of God?
• How did you come to understand that God's gift to you at that point in time was mercy?
• Do you ever tell anyone else about that event, or others like it, in your life?
• How should you share those sorts of stories?
  

• Training for victory
  
• It's easy to get discouraged when you look at the sweep of history over the past few decades.  It seems as though our entire culture is turning its back on treasured values that once sustained us as a people, in favor of "lesser gods" that offer nothing more than quick gratification.
• Do you feel as though your actions, your decisions, your prayer has any hope against the trends that you see all around you?
• Do you feel as though things are only going to get worse before they get better?
• What do you think is going to turn these large trends around?
• How are you preparing for that turn around?
  

• The human touch
  
• Thomas wanted to experience Jesus for himself, not just rely on the testimony of others.  Today we face similar challenges.  It's not enough to have a "second-hand faith" that we inherit from someone else, we are each called to appropriate our faith ourselves.  And we cannot merely believe today just because we have always believed.  Our faith must be ever aborning, ever deepening, ever finding new vitality.
• How did you first come to faith in God?
• How is your faith today different from that early faith that you had?
• What are you doing to nurture that faith in your life?
• How would you like to be nurturing that faith in your life?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God calling me to deeper connectedness?
   
2. Where am I missing the mercy that God is extending to me today?
   
3. What is the bigger picture, the context that I am in?
   
4. Where is God leading me to deeper relationship with Him?

Those Glorious Wounds

Jesus, in my own small way, I want to walk with you.

Feel the disappointment that you felt when Peter denied you.

Tell you that your friend will come through this trial and emerge the stronger.

 

Look you in the eyes when those soldiers mock and beat you -

Because they don't understand you,

Because they have no idea how much they too, need you.

 

Carry your cross to the extent that I'm able.

Knowing that only you can die for me.

Knowing the ghastly weight of my sin on your shoulders far outweighs this wood.

 

Hold your hand when your mother beholds your battered visage.

Comfort you that she will find comfort in you.

Assure you that I will take her into my home.

 

Bring you a veil to wipe your brow of its blood and tears.

Not because that makes so much of a difference at the time.

But to let you know that you are not alone amid this swirling chaos.

 

Grant me the courage to touch your glorious wounds -

That I might find strength and humility in their depths.

And come to find Your Presence in my trials.

 

Shalom!