The Faith of Stephen

Readings: Psalm 31:1-16, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14, Acts 7:55-60
Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, NY, May 22nd 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here.

Christian history gives us many examples of people whose faith stood firm when under threat. The great, great, granddaddy of them all is Stephen whose martyrdom was the subject of our Bible reading.

Today we have baptized a little one into the faith. These are challenging days for the traditional church. Many congregations are shrinking, some churches even closing. Others are just hanging in there. As we look ten, twenty, thirty, forty years down the road, it remains unclear exactly what the role of the church as we know it will be in people’s lives.

We have promised together this morning, parents, family and congregation to raise our children in the way of Jesus Christ. Are there lessons we can learn from the faith of Stephen that can help us pursue that journey?

A little about Stephen. Stephen never set out to be a great example of faith. He was somebody who became involved in the earliest Christian community attracted by their desire to help others. When the apostles were looking for someone to offer practical help caring for widows and orphans and ensuring jobs that needed doing were taken care of, Stephen was there. They made him a deacon in the church. As he was going about helping others he was challenged to explain what he was doing and why. Stephen became increasingly articulate and able to account for what he believed.

Because of his testimony to Jesus Christ he ran into trouble with the Sanhedrin, a body of religious people opposed to the message of Christianity. Put on trial before them he gives a long speech about the history of their faith, from Abraham, through Joseph and Moses all the way to Solomon who built the temple. He points out how every step of the way people opposed the work of God and even put to death some of the prophets.

His speech reaches a major point of confrontation when he speaks about Jesus, telling the Sanhedrin; “Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—“ (Act 7:52 NIV). It is at that point the Sanhedrin loses control and the trial turns into a lynching. They put him to death by stoning him. It is during this terrible ordeal that the faith of Stephen is truly revealed.

The first thing we see about Stephen’s faith is the Secret of his courage.

Stephen was aware that things were turning nasty. The trial he was being subjected to was based upon trumped up charges that he was part of a plot to overthrow the temple and destroy the way of life the good folk of the Sanhedrin had practiced for centuries. It was a double whammy of heresy and terrorism!

But Stephen has his eyes set on a higher prize. Stephen’s focus when he offered to serve as a deacon was the love of Jesus Christ. As he realized that Christ had died for him, he sought to live for others. As he experienced the Holy Spirit empowering him for service he knew that the living Christ was with him.

Jesus taught that whatever we do for those less fortunate than ourselves was service we were giving to Him. That as we sought to be His hands reaching out to serve others and His feet carrying the message of His resurrection to the world, then we would know His presence with us. Stephen kept his eyes on Jesus and kept in step with the things the Holy Spirit was seeking to do through his life.

Even as he faces death he lifts up his eyes and declares to his persecutors “Don’t you see Him?” As our text has it; “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

Stephen had that wonderful ability of being able to look beyond the current circumstances, however bleak they had become, and see glimpses of glory. We could call that ‘seeing the bigger picture’ but it’s something more than that. He saw a need as an opportunity to serve. He saw a trial as an opportunity to testify to faith in Jesus Christ. He saw his death as a doorway into the nearer presence of God. Jesus Christ truly was the focus of his life.

A second thing we see in Stephen is the Selflessness of his prayer

We read in verses 59-60 “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." “

Robert W. Wall in the ‘New International Bible Commentary’ writes; “The most compelling evidence of the depth of Stephen’s spiritual life is the content of his prayers. Similar to Jesus’ dying words, Stephen prays for the forgiveness of his enemies at the very moment of their apparent triumph over him and his witness. He does not ridicule his executioners, nor does he express regret for his untimely death. He prays for their salvation: It is what and for whom he prays, and not that he prays, that gives his death its most profound meaning.”

Stephen hadn’t minced his words. He had accused the Sanhedrin of being one of the agents responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Yet all the time he is praying for them that they will see the error of their ways and come to the knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ that had so captivated his own heart. Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies. Here was Stephen trying to put that into practice.

It is never easy to forgive those who have wronged us. We tend to hold grudges and hope, if not for revenge, that at least some negative karma will kick in and that those who hurt us will get what we think they deserve. How startlingly different is the way of Stephen. Even as the stones pound his body he prays for his executioners forgiveness.

We live today in a world that seems obsessed with vengeance and revenge. On an international scale down to the actions of individuals it seems it’s justifiable to hit back as hard as we can. As long as we continue to ride that hate train, so the violence continues to escalate. Only forgiveness and love can break that circle. Only when we stop looking for people to blame can we start rebuilding hope.

Our churches have a tremendous role to play in offering the forgiving love of Jesus Christ to others. In proclaiming that with God there is forgiveness and acceptance for all because Jesus Christ died for all, as He prayed “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”

The death of Stephen had an impact. Particularly upon one hate-filled zealot who held the coats whilst others threw the stones. We read in verse 58 “The witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”

A third thing we see about Stephen is the Strength of his witness.

This Saul who held the coats was to become Paul the great apostle to the Gentiles whose letters and theology are such an important part of the New Testament writings. St. Augustine, a great Christian writer of a later generation, tells us that “The church owes Paul to the prayers of Stephen.”

Later in the Book of Acts when Paul is giving testimony before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem he prays to Jesus, “When the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.” (Act 22:20 NIV). The strength of Stephen’s witness had left its mark.

We can not easily measure the results of faithfulness to God. The impact of our witness on others cannot be predicted. We are often faced with apparent failure. Being stoned for his faith wasn’t exactly what we’d call a high point in Stephen’s career! Looked at in any other way than through the lens of faith, it appears a pointless and tragic end to a life full of great promise.

The testimony of Scripture appears to be that God has a habit of turning places of hopelessness into places filled with possibility. A Cross of suffering and death became bathed in the light of Resurrection and Ascension. Disciples in an upper room cowering away in fear of the authorities were set aflame by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and openly began declaring the Good News of Jesus Christ. Saul, the great persecutor of the faith, is blinded by the light in the midst of his hatred, becomes a great spokesperson and interpreter of the faith.

Today we have baptized a new life into our fellowship. None of us can say what the future holds for any of us. But we can take encouragement and find direction from those like Stephen who were shining examples of what real discipleship looks like.

We saw the secret of his courage. Stephen looked beyond the immediate crisis and saw the glory and victory of Jesus Christ over all things. His focus was clear and true.

We saw the selflessness of his prayer. Stephens heart desire was to serve. He began as a deacon. He prayed for those he served. He prayed for those who persecuted him. So we are called to pray for each other. When we get along, but especially when we don’t. We are called to be forgiving of others because we are forgiven by God, in and through Jesus Christ.

We saw the strength of his witness. It turned people’s lives around. People like Saul who became the apostle Paul. We have no idea of the impact a faithful life can make upon others. But we can seek to be faithful!

No, these are not easy days for people of faith. Take courage from Stephen. Look to the glory of God for your inspiration. When others hurt you take no revenge but seek forgiveness and break that viscous cycle of recrimination. Be faithful not because you can see the results but because you know that’s how a person of God is meant to live!

And to God’s name be the glory. Amen.

Rev Adrian J. Pratt

TARTAN SUNDAY : CELEBRATING OUR HERITAGE

" Presidents, Movie stars, Astronauts and I"
Readings: Psalm 32: 1-5, Hebrews 12:1-2, Matthew 4:1-11
Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, NY, May 15th 2011

A printable PDF copy of this sermon can be found here.

For Tartan Sunday this year our readings focus on the account of the Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness. The temptations that came to Jesus were devilish intents designed to make Him forget who He was, abandon His purpose, and declare Himself accountable to only Himself. A temptation for all church communities is to forget their roots, to lose their purpose and forget that they are not individual Kingdoms but part of the larger body of Christ.

In the first temptation, ‘Turn the Stones into Bread’ Jesus is faced with an urgent need; the most basic need of food. How easy it is in the face of pressing needs to want that which provides a quick solution at any cost.

The point that Jesus makes is that we can't live just by bread alone, we need something more. We need the Word, we need to know and hear that God is living and active in our lives and our world. Yes, there needs to be bread, but there also needs to be stones. Stones are for making roadways not feeding stomachs. Foundations can not be made out of bread.

There have always been congregations who prefer to separate from their roots, and cut themselves off from denominational ties. I am glad that this church is not some independent body that feels it has no need of any other part of the body of Christ. I rejoice that we do not put a message out to the world that we and only we have a monopoly on the truth. I celebrate that we are part of something larger than a church building at 717 St Luke’s Place, Baldwin.

I rejoice that there is a Presbytery of Long Island and a Presbyterian Church of the USA and a worldwide community of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. I rejoice that wherever I go in the world there are those who will identify me as their brother in Christ. I rejoice because if that were not so, I would not be here.

Celebrate the Stones. Celebrate the Rock of your Heritage. Celebrate the family God has called you to be part of. Yes we need our daily bread, but we also need the stones, representing something solid that has stood the test of time. We need stones and we need bread. We don't need to turn one into the other.

The second temptation Jesus faced was to ‘Throw Himself from the temple roof’, so as to demonstrate that those words in Scripture about God taking care of His chosen one would come to pass.

It would be quite a gimmick wouldn't it, to put an advert in the newspaper, "Come and see Pastor Adrian fly. Next Sunday he will be climbing the tower. At 10:15 he will launch out into the air, do a double back-flip, and return to the ground unharmed. See the angels descend from heaven and bear him up on their wings - Just as Scripture says - Come witness this amazing miracle - founded on the Word of Almighty God."

That would be the morning that an ambulance arrived and took me away in a straight jacket. I know I do some unusual things on occasions, but there's a difference between crazy and stupid.

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test" counteracts Jesus to the devilish twisting of the Scriptures words. The tempter knew that there was a power in the Scriptures words. He sought to use those words for his own ends, as many do.

Our heritage calls us not to put the Lord to the test by foolish actions that would jeopardize our past. Our heritage reminds us that there is a difference between launching out in faith and jumping off the church roof.

Today we celebrate our Scottish roots. We celebrate those who in Scotland refused to compromise what they held most dear and turned a nation to embrace the Presbyterian faith. We celebrate the message that still comes to us through their confessions. We celebrate those who launched out in faith to bring that faith to a New World.

The Scots Confession insists that the marks of a true church are its faithfulness to scripture, its nurture by the sacraments and discipline in both its private and public life. On the solid rock of such teaching we continue to build.

Losing your heritage can be an expensive mistake. I heard recently of a man who on a trip to Scotland visited a Castle which bore his families name. Near the castle's entrance a woman was taking tickets. The man jokingly told her that he had come from the United States to claim his castle. "Oh, good!" she replied. "You owe us nine hundred years in back taxes."

Heritage matters. It’s something that is priceless, that can’t be replaced. We all need a sense of where we have come from in order to see where we are going. We need to be informed by the past to guide our decisions in the future, that we may be prevented from taking foolhardy actions that would dishonor those who came before us.

Then there’s the third temptation. Satan tempts Jesus by offering all the world to Him. "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." Jesus is not moved. He counteracts the devilish lie with a simple statement, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'”

That too is our heritage. That too is our calling. Our Christian past has been formed by those who took that command with utmost seriousness, those who refused to bow down to the gods of their day but sought to live out their convictions with integrity and action.

In February 1549, Reformer John Knox, the man who would eventually become the great architect of Scottish Presbyterianism, spent 19 months as a slave on a French ship. Along with other prisoners he was chained to a bench and rowed throughout the day while an officer watched over them with a whip in hand. His French overseers also sought to re-convert him to the Catholic faith he had strongly rejected.

He tells of an incident on board when a picture of the virgin Mary was placed in front of a Scotsman on the ship (most probably himself) and was commanded to kiss the image, as a sign of worship. He refused and threw it into the sea, saying, "Let our Lady now save herself: she is light enough: let her learn to swim." Scripture says “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” After that, according to Knox, the Scottish prisoners were no longer forced to perform such devotions.

One could give many other examples of those who struggled to establish the Presbyterian faith in the midst of hostile circumstances. That is not to say they never made mistakes nor demonstrated all the signs of fallen humanity that are common to all of us, but rather to suggest to you that as Presbyterians we are in the company of many who have made their mark on history.

Presidents Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Rutherford B Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harris, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were Presbyterians. In 1963 Presbyterian Eugene Carson Blake was one of the speakers alongside Martin Luther King that addressed the crowd of 200,000 who marched in Washington. Presbyterian Condoleezza Rice served as Secretary of State from 2005–2009.

Presbyterians Mark Twain and William Faulkner had a huge influence on American literature. Presbyterian author Pearl Buck’s novel ‘The Good Earth’ won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Presbyterian DeWitt Wallace founded the “Readers Digest”. Presbyterian Henry Luce founded “Time” magazine.

One of my favorite movies of all time, “It’s a wonderful life’ starred a Presbyterian actor, Jimmy Stewart. John Wayne, Richard Burton, Greer Garson, Shirley Temple and Debbie Reynolds also claimed Presbyterian roots. Many of you (or at least your children) grew up being heavily influenced by an ordained Presbyterian minister, called Mr. Rogers, whose neighborhood still has a place on P.B.S.

In 1962 Presbyterian John Glenn took his first trip orbiting the earth. In 1983 Presbyterian Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger. Presbyterian Ralph Winter was the movie producer of Science Fiction classics such as Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the Star Trek series of films.

Of course I’m name dropping! But there’s a time and a place to hold your head up high and recognize that you belong to a body of faithful people that continue to shape the world. That alone gives a good reason to celebrate our Heritage on Tartan Sunday. There is, after all, nothing wrong being in the company of astronauts, movie stars and presidents.

Yet the real strength of Presbyterianism, as it is with any other tradition, lies not with how many of the influential or praiseworthy one can name, but how real in our own lives is worship of the Lord our God and service of Jesus Christ. Such devotion transcends any denominational barriers and unites us to faithful people of all places and all traditions.

Whilst history connects us with those who have gone before and helps us sort out what we need to keep and what we need to let go of, we also have to consider what legacy we are leaving to those who will come after us. My prayer is that we will be faithful, as those who came before us were faithful. That our faith will be something living and vibrant that calls others to share in the love of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Adrian J Pratt

A NEW COMMANDMENT

Reading: Acts 9:1-6, (7-20), Psalm 139:1-14, Revelation 5:11-14, John 13:31-35
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on May 8th 2011

A printable PDF copy can be found here

Today is Mother's Day. Seemed like a good day for thinking about the nature of the most mysterious gift life offers to us, the one that many of us first experienced through our parents, the gift of love.

Our reading today gave us these words; Jesus says "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

This verse places before us three ideas about love.

Firstly; Loving each other is always new!

Inviting people to love one another really wasn’t a particularly revolutionary or even a new idea. Yet it seems every generation has a moment when they rediscover love. From the flower power hippies of the nineteen-sixties to the tunes playing in our teen’s headsets, words about love flow back and forth. But the love that Jesus speaks of is neither the romantic love of attraction or even the affectionate love shared in family life, but love defined by the Greek word – agapé.

‘Agapé’ love is love defined by self-giving. It is an action, not an emotion. You can’t dictate emotions. You only command actions. You cannot force a family to get along with one another. You cannot instruct a person to fall head over heels in romantic love with somebody else. Those sorts of love don’t work like that!

The new commandment of Jesus is not an invitation to wax lyrical about moonlight encounters or family life but is a call to action. That to be followers of Jesus Christ we are invited to choose to live in a way that counts others needs and aspirations as equally significant as our own. Love that is not all about us, but about all of us.

Many of us have seen a glimpse of the ‘agapé’ kind of love in our mothers (and fathers) or whoever brought us up. In retrospect we see how they sacrificed so that their children could have greater opportunities then they themselves ever enjoyed. As I think about the difficult times my own parents faced, particularly during the conflict of the second world war and the bleak years that came afterwards, I realize how much they sacrificed so that myself and my brother and sister could do things my parents could only dream of.

Jesus says, ‘A new commandment’ I give to you. But it wasn’t so much ‘new’ as ‘renewed’ and ‘refocused’. The Israelites had always been taught that to love God was of utmost importance. Likewise, the love of their neighbor was at the root of their system of both law and religion.

Jesus recasts the command, as though this were the latest edition or newest release and He declares ‘A new commandment I give you. That you love one another”. Self-giving love is always renewing love. Active ‘agapé’ love is a force that revitalizes and changes and creates new opportunity and new hope where previously there was hopelessness or despair.

As though anticipating that we will ask, “Well what does this kind of love look like? How can we follow this command to love when we have no example to follow?” the next part of our verses declares; ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’

2 We are called to love because we are loved

Christian love is response to the love of Jesus Christ. It is not love that seeks to gain anything or win any favor from God, but love that flows from the knowledge of what God has done for us, in and through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God does not say, “If you just love me enough, I’ll bless your life”. Rather, through Jesus Christ, God declares “You are loved! You are blessed! You are my precious children!”

One of the most profound descriptions of the Christian understanding of God is given in 1 John 4:8. Three simple words. ‘God is love’. And the word used for ‘love’ is again “Agapé” self-giving, outpouring, love. Love that seeks the absolute best of the other. Love that never gives up or ever dies.

One of my favorite Bible commentators of old, Matthew Henry comments; ‘God is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of God’s law and gospel: And every one that loves… is born of God, The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love.”

Knowing that we are loved is such a tremendously empowering and freeing thing! Understanding that the love of God is nothing that we have to earn or qualify for but that it is the nature of God to claim us as God’s own, no matter what and no matter ‘who’, can revolutionize our spiritual life.

Some of us were blessed with mothers whom we knew just loved us because we were their children, because we were their offspring, their labor of love! And nothing could change that, even though we knew, at times, we must have nearly broken their hearts and caused them many sleepless nights and many prayers. They just carried on loving us and caring for us and wanting the best for us!

Such is the nature of love that God has towards us. Never gives up on us. Claims us as beloved children. Not because of who we are, but because God is ‘agapé’; God is self giving, self-abandoning love.

Lest we wonder how far that love is prepared to go, we need look no further than the Cross. At the Cross, God declares that whatever God-forsaken experience life may drag us through, God will go there for us and with us.

In Christ God takes our sins, our pains, our fears, all the hell of life, into His heart. Then through the light of resurrection God bathes the Cross in glory and declares, ‘See? Nothing can you take you from my love. Now go change the world!

Which brings us to the final part of this verse “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

3 Love is our primary way of demonstrating discipleship.

One of the joys for myself of belonging to the Long Island Presbytery is a small but committed book study group that meet occasionally to study together a book by author Brian Mclaren titled ‘A New Kind of Christianity’. In a chapter titled ‘What do we do about the church?” he ask what the churches main task should be and comes to a very basic conclusion.

He writes, “Of many possible answers, there is one to which I am continually drawn, embarrassingly obvious and simple to understand, but also embarrassingly challenging to do; the church exists to form Christlike people, people of Christlike love. It exists to save them from the great danger of wasting their lives, becoming something less than and other than they were intended to be, gaining the world but losing their souls.”

The purpose of the church is not to fill pews, create programs or moderate in matters or morality but to nurture lovers! Lovers who have the ‘agapé’ love capacity of wonderful mothers.

The reverse of that is of course to say that unless we dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of ‘agapé’ love then nobody is going to know that we are disciples and nothing is going to change. It’s just going to be the same old, same old.

That’s why we began today be considering that love, though nothing new, is always new, always fresh, always refocusing our lives and recreating opportunity. Such is the work of God in our midst. A refreshing wind. A ray of light. A beam of hope. Something that reminds us that because we are loved, so, in the security of Jesus love, we can discover the passion for loving others.

It is the work of God’s Spirit to both open up our hearts to the need of Jesus love, and to fill us with the presence of His love. It is not possible to obey the command of God to love others unless we allow ourselves to be loved by God. We learn to love in relationship. It is those who experience love who learn to pass it along.

On this Mothers Day as we celebrate love that has blessed us and formed our lives, I offer you again these words of Jesus; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

May God enable us all to grow deeper in both our experience and practice of love. Amen.

TOM THE DOUBTER

In many small towns in Wales you had a lot of people called ‘Jones’. E.g ‘Tom Jones’. To save confusion people used to refer to people by their occupation as well as their surname. So Tom Jones would be ‘Jones the pop-star”, the butcher would be ‘Jones the Meat’, the baker be ‘Jones the Bread’. We even had an undertaker known as ‘Jones the death’.

Our bible story today was about a disciple who became known to history as ‘Doubting Thomas’. If he had been a Welshman maybe he would have been ‘Jones the Unbeliever’.

The story.
Women to the tomb. See Jesus alive. Tell the men. They don’t believe.
Couple of men go to the tomb. Discover Jesus is alive. Tell the others they don’t believe!
They are all together… except for Thomas… in a locked room. Jesus appears to them. They all believe. Tell Thomas. ‘Where were you? We saw Jesus!” Tom says; “I don’t believe it! The Bible reading actually reads:-

John 20: 25 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 it."

We can all be like Jones the Unbeliever. The resurrection is a most unbelievable thing to understand. We don’t easily take other peoples words for it! We, like Thomas, want firsthand experience! Just because millions of people since the first disciples declare they believe it, doesn’t convince us.

Thomas had seen Jesus murdered. He knew that the Romans, when they crucified people, did a thorough job. They would be in big trouble if they didn’t… particularly when it came to getting rid of a troublemaker like Jesus. The last thing they wanted was rumors that they had not done their job properly.

The way Jesus died had really impacted Thomas. He remembered the cruelty of the nails. He remembered the moment a spear was stabbed into Jesus side to make sure He was really dead. It’s almost as though he believed that the other disciples had seen something… a ghost … an apparition… but whatever it was they had seen … it wasn’t Jesus. Couldn’t have been. Because Thomas had seen the nails and spear.

But a week later they were still arguing about it… and Jesus appeared to them again. This time Thomas was there. He singles Thomas out and says, as we heard in our Bible reading (verse 27)… "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

It’s more than Thomas can take. He never does reach out his hand, but falls on his knees and says, ‘My Lord, My God!” Thomas the Doubter becomes Thomas the Believer!
Jesus said something very interesting to Thomas. He said "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

We cannot go back to that upper room and be with the very first disciples on that day Jesus appeared to them. That’s not going to happen.

But we are fortunate that Jesus has left us other ways we can experience His love. We have the stories and letters of the New Testament, that tell us, not only what Jesus and the very first disciples got up to, but also all about people who came after the first disciples. People like Paul, who never met Jesus before He was crucified, yet still experienced His love in ways that convinced Him that Jesus was alive.

We have the stories of people over two thousand years, from every generation and culture, who share that same message, that Jesus is alive and that His love can change our lives through the power of His Holy Spirit. I’m one of those people whom the love of Jesus has changed and who believes in His resurrection power to change.

We also have the communion that we are celebrating today. Thomas said that he needed to see the scars and touch the wounds of Jesus before he would believe it. Jesus invites us to remember Him, not through seeing and touching, but through taking and tasting.

We break bread to remind ourselves that Jesus body was broken on the Cross. And that He allowed that to happen in order that our broken lives can be put back together by the love of God just as His was in His resurrection.

We drink wine that reminds us of the blood that flowed from His side when He was pierced by a soldier’s sword. As we drink it down it can remind us that God wants His love to flow into our lives and fill us with the desire and strength to make this world a better place, by loving each other just like Jesus loved us.

People sometimes tell me that, for reasons they can’t explain, they feel the presence of Jesus in a special way as they share in bread and wine in community with others. They just know Jesus died for them and that His living love is going to get them through whatever life brings their way!

Jesus invites us all to place our faith in Him. To trust that God is able to do for us all the things we cannot do for our selves. Forgive our sins. Renew our lives. Grant us strength to serve. Grant us insight to understand His Word in Scripture. All this is the work of God’s Spirit going on around us and within us, guiding and leading us in the ways of God’s Kingdom.

A great place to travel on our faith journey is to come to this table and receive the elements of bread and wine, visible reminders of the scars and wound that Thomas said helped him believe. Maybe today in faith we also can come too Jesus and declare “My Lord and My God!”

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt