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Acts 2:42-47; Psalms 118:2-4,13-15,22-24; I Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31 “ Peace be with you” (John 20:21).
Not even the Risen Christ can get through to us if we refuse to acknowledge even the possibility that we do not “know it all.”
All of life is a learning experience. And a whole new, enriched way of life is open to those who are in touch with -- directly connected to -- the Lord Jesus.
The spider, above all other creatures perhaps, knows the value of being connected. The spider’s very life depends on being connected to the fragile threads that constitute its home.
The story is told of a clever spider that managed to construct a most magnificent, beautifully-patterned web, a work of art ...
The web was so marvelously constructed that spiders from all over the area came to have a look at it. The web was so symmetrical that if one could have folded it over at the middle, the two sides would have fit exactly over each other, the design would have matched perfectly. The spider, of course, was very pleased with this creation. Then, one morning, the creature made its usual inspection tour of the web, tightening a knot here, loosening another there. All seemed to be in order, until the spider saw a thread that it didn’t recognize. What could it be? Where did it come from? As the spider checked it out, it discovered that the thread was very long, but it seemed useless. “Who needs it,” the creature thought. And so it bit through the thread, causing the very beautiful web to collapse, and the spider had a big fall. The one essential thread, the thread that held the beautifully-patterned web together, the thread on which the spider’s whole world depended, had been broken -- disconnected.
The web was so marvelously constructed that spiders from all over the area came to have a look at it.
The web was so symmetrical that if one could have folded it over at the middle, the two sides would have fit exactly over each other, the design would have matched perfectly.
The spider, of course, was very pleased with this creation. Then, one morning, the creature made its usual inspection tour of the web, tightening a knot here, loosening another there. All seemed to be in order, until the spider saw a thread that it didn’t recognize. What could it be? Where did it come from?
As the spider checked it out, it discovered that the thread was very long, but it seemed useless. “Who needs it,” the creature thought. And so it bit through the thread, causing the very beautiful web to collapse, and the spider had a big fall.
The one essential thread, the thread that held the beautifully-patterned web together, the thread on which the spider’s whole world depended, had been broken -- disconnected.
The Apostle Paul has written, “There are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13). The Apostle Paul is telling us that the essential thread on which our wholeness of life depends is love -- God’s Love. And oh, how we need it!
In one of the “Broom Hilda” comic strips, the little green witch is seen peering over a high cliff. Across the deep canyon is Gaylord, the buzzard ...
Gaylord is calling to Broom Hilda, “Come over here with me.” Broom Hilda thinks about Gaylord’s directive and then peers over the side of the cliff. “I can’t jump that far,” she says. Gaylord answers, “You’re defeating yourself with negative thinking. I’m writing a book on the power of positive thought in which I prove you can do anything if you have the correct attitude.” Broom Hilda surveys the huge chasm as Gaylord continues, “Tell yourself you can do it, then just do it.” Broom Hilda has now built up her courage and says, “Okay, here I come.” She takes the giant leap, and falls deep into the canyon. Gaylord looks over the edge of the cliff as Broom Hilda disappears. Then he says to himself, “I think I’ll write a chapter on building up your leg muscles.”
Gaylord is calling to Broom Hilda, “Come over here with me.” Broom Hilda thinks about Gaylord’s directive and then peers over the side of the cliff. “I can’t jump that far,” she says. Gaylord answers, “You’re defeating yourself with negative thinking. I’m writing a book on the power of positive thought in which I prove you can do anything if you have the correct attitude.”
Broom Hilda surveys the huge chasm as Gaylord continues, “Tell yourself you can do it, then just do it.” Broom Hilda has now built up her courage and says, “Okay, here I come.” She takes the giant leap, and falls deep into the canyon. Gaylord looks over the edge of the cliff as Broom Hilda disappears. Then he says to himself, “I think I’ll write a chapter on building up your leg muscles.”
In order to become the uniquely fulfilled, joy filled persons God made us to be, we need to work at closing the gap between what we are doing and what we ought to be doing. We need to work at our ability to leap over the chasm that exists between the pattern for life God has designed for us in Jesus Christ and the pattern of our own construction. Which means we need to work at building up our heart muscles -- our capacity to love straight from the heart.
In today’s Gospel Lesson, the Apostle John tells us that on the evening of the first Easter Sunday the Risen Christ appeared to the disciples. He “came and stood among them and He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them His hands and His side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and He said to them again, ‘Peace be with you’” (Jn. 20:19-21).
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve Apostles, often referred to as “Doubting Thomas,” was not with them when Jesus came. And when the other disciples told him “We have seen the Lord,” for Thomas, nothing had changed. No great leap of faith for Doubting Thomas! Consequently, he said, “Unless I see the holes that the nails made in His hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into His side, I refuse to believe” (Jn. 20:25).
Eight days later, the Risen Christ again appears to the disciples, this time Thomas is present, and he has the following little talk with the Lord:
Christ: “Put your finger here; look, here are My hands. Give Me your hand; put it into My side. Doubt no longer but believe.” Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” Christ: “You believe because you can see Me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn. 20:27-29). Happy are those who weave their web of faith in the Risen Christ. Happy are those who recognize the connection between faith in the Risen Christ and genuine peace of mind and heart and soul!
Christ: “Put your finger here; look, here are My hands. Give Me your hand; put it into My side. Doubt no longer but believe.”
Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”
Christ: “You believe because you can see Me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn. 20:27-29).
Happy are those who weave their web of faith in the Risen Christ. Happy are those who recognize the connection between faith in the Risen Christ and genuine peace of mind and heart and soul!
“My peace is My gift to you,” Jesus tells His disciples. How simple, yet how profound! In and through Jesus Christ, God gives us peace. Yet this is no ordinary, worldly peace. “I do not give it as the world gives it,” He says.
Jesus’ gift of peace is “shalom.”
In its deepest meaning, the gift of shalom can be described as the sense of your life’s wholeness, the sense of your life’s purposefulness. It’s the sense that at the deepest level of your being you are destined for total fulfillment.
God is offering us now the peace of shalom.
In the process of going through his mid-life self-evaluation, a man got to thinking about those people whose help had made a difference in his life. He reflected, with special gratitude, on a teacher who stood out in his memory because she had helped him through a crisis of youth ...
Suddenly, he realized that he had never thanked her. He tried to contact her through the school, but he learned that she had been retired for many years. Consequently, he sent her a letter in which he expressed his sincere gratitude. Shortly thereafter, he received a letter in response. It read, “Dear Willie, I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I’m in my eighties, living alone in a small one-room apartment, cooking my own meals and, like the last week of autumn, lingering behind. You will be interested to know that I taught school for fifty years and yours is the first letter of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has in years.”
Suddenly, he realized that he had never thanked her. He tried to contact her through the school, but he learned that she had been retired for many years. Consequently, he sent her a letter in which he expressed his sincere gratitude.
Shortly thereafter, he received a letter in response. It read, “Dear Willie, I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I’m in my eighties, living alone in a small one-room apartment, cooking my own meals and, like the last week of autumn, lingering behind. You will be interested to know that I taught school for fifty years and yours is the first letter of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has in years.”
Two beautiful thoughts emerge from this exchange. First, it brought a ray of sunshine into the life of a lonely elderly woman whom the world has all but abandoned. Second, it was a gift of self-revelation. The man was revealing himself in a personal, intimate manner. He was telling her, in effect, that he was learning how to love in a whole new way. The gift of shalom -- true peace of mind and heart and soul had entered his being and with it the desire to share it.
That is the wonderful thing that happens when men and women open themselves up to the Grace of God. That is the wonderful thing that enables them to begin to weave a magnificent pattern of Christ’ New Life. Being consciously aware of your own infinite value in God’s eyes is the first step toward achieving wholeness of life. Being consciously aware of everyone else’s infinite value in God’s eyes is the second step. And when you have taken both steps, you have woven a pattern of life in which the true spirit of shalom can be revealed and shared.
And note this: In a world of shalom, war and other forms of violence become unthinkable.
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