April 9, 2016

I give thanks to everyone who helped plan, implement and attend the Holy Week services. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil for Peace and Easter Sunday were all well attended! Each service offered an opportunity to reflect on our faith and life. We recalled Jesus’ love, suffering, death and resurrection. As we live into this Easter season, we are invited to continue looking for signs of Jesus love enacted in our daily lives.

One resource preaching resource suggested that we make this week festive and find ways to celebrate resurrection: plan a favorite meal, buy flowers, wear colorful clothing, schedule a massage or whatever else creates a sense of new life and delight. For me, this week includes time away. Time with a dear friend to refresh my spirit and rest my body.
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On Sunday, we will encounter Christ crucified and risen from the dead walking through locked doors. Thomas is absent on the first visit yet present the second time. I leave you with this poem by Pastor Steve Garness-Holmes entitled "For Thomas". Referencing “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20.25) he writes:​

It was not enough for Thomas to be told.
He needed to experience resurrection embodied.
So it is for those around us now.
For many it's a story that's not true.
How then might it be true in our lives?
What might it be about our lives
that seeing them would make people believe
that Christ has indeed been raised?
Maybe to trust love. To care fearlessly.
To risk for the sake of justice and mercy.
To trust God's presence in suffering and bewilderment.
Nothing heroic, just trusting
in God's presence and power
in us and around and beneath and among us.
Maybe if some poor Thomas can sense
how the wounds of love have given us life,
how through our failures and powerlessness
mercy and justice are still alive in us,
how they themselves are embraced and forgiven,
in that moment, as if never before,
​Christ would be raised from the dead.

I am curious to hear from you what word, phrase, or image resonated with you as you read this poem. How might these words invite you to share the Good News of Jesus Christ resurrected with others?

p.s. Please join us for the Fellowship Forum on Sunday as we welcome some of the leadership of the Marshallese JRD UCC church. This is our opportunity, as a congregation, to meet some of the people who worship on Sunday afternoons.