An order of service for the first Sunday after Easter
The Incredulity of
Saint Thomas, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, the light
of your love shines on,
illuminating the places where you are present.
As the bewildered disciples pondered the stories of your appearance,
you penetrated the darkness of their fear and doubt with your word of peace.
You showed them the appalling marks of evil pierced on your hands and feet.
You opened their minds to understand why you had to die to defeat such evil and death.
Increase our understanding, we pray,
and open our minds and hearts to receive you, Lord.
Speak your word of peace to us and let your love shine on any dark areas in our lives.
May this worship which we offer in your name be a worthy response to your love and your sacrifice for us.
illuminating the places where you are present.
As the bewildered disciples pondered the stories of your appearance,
you penetrated the darkness of their fear and doubt with your word of peace.
You showed them the appalling marks of evil pierced on your hands and feet.
You opened their minds to understand why you had to die to defeat such evil and death.
Increase our understanding, we pray,
and open our minds and hearts to receive you, Lord.
Speak your word of peace to us and let your love shine on any dark areas in our lives.
May this worship which we offer in your name be a worthy response to your love and your sacrifice for us.
Amen.
~ written by Moira Laidlaw, and posted on the Liturgies
Online blog.
http://www.liturgiesonline.com.au/
http://www.liturgiesonline.com.au/
PRAYER
OF CONFESSION*
Even though we have come through the joy of Easter and the
triumphant Easter songs, yet we doubt, Lord. Like Thomas who walked the Judean
countryside with Jesus, we still have trouble believing in the resurrection of
Jesus. We easily slip back into the darkness of doubts. We move the joy of
Easter into the past and continue in a downward path to confusion. Shine your
bright light of joy upon us. Lighten our dark path. Help us to believe, even
though we have not seen you, touched your hands and side. Help us to proclaim
Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Do not fear, dear friends. Jesus is among us, offering us
new life and hope. Nothing can prevent God's love for us. Rejoice, for you have
been made new in Christ. Amen.
Bible Reading:
John 20:19-31
19 When it was evening on that
day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples
had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and
said, "Peace be with you."
20
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
so I send you."
22
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the
Holy Spirit.
23
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins
of any, they are retained."
24
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when
Jesus came.
25
So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said
to them, "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."
26
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
"Peace be with you."
27
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out
your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
28
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
29
Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
30
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book.
31 But
these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Reflection
The resurrection happened a
week ago. The disciples were still struggling with the magnitude of the event.
After all, the unthinkable had happened. A dead man was alive again! How could
that be?
The disciples had witnessed
the horrific crucifixion, they saw that the Roman soldiers made sure that Jesus
was dead. They watched from afar when they took his battered body down from the
cross and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb and rolled a large boulder across the entrance.
As if that were not enough, the stone was sealed with the official sign of Rome
and an armed guard was placed around the sealed entrance. No one could get in, and
certainly, no one could get out. So on that first Easter morning, when the
women who encountered the empty tomb became the first witnesses of the resurrection
and told the disciples whom they had seen, the disciples didn’t believe them
(Mark 16:11). It was too unbelievable!
But then, in today’s gospel,
the risen Christ come and stands among his disciples and shows them the marks
of the nails and the spear (v.20), and they rejoiced! They didn’t understand
how this happened but when they saw these marks, they believed that it was
indeed Jesus. And that’s an important fact that we often overlook. The reaction
of the disciples when they first heard about the resurrection was
disbelief. It was only when they saw Jesus that they believed.
But for some unknown reason, tradition has picked up only on Thomas’ disbelief.
He has become the example of all those who are disbelieving, all those who are
sceptical, all those who doubt, hence the phrase: ‘Doubting Thomas.’ But as we
saw, this designation is neither accurate nor fair, because all the disciples initially
doubted not just Thomas.
That said, there are at least
three things that we can reflect on from Thomas encounter with the risen Jesus.
First, let us think about
Thomas’ disadvantage. Unlike the other disciples, Thomas was a late-comer
to the scene. We know that when Jesus came and made himself known to the
disciples and showed them the nail and spear marks (vs.19-20), Thomas was absent:
“But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them
when Jesus came” (v.24). Thus, when he did eventually meet up with the disciples,
he was at a disadvantage. Think about it. All that the disciples were talking
about was their encounter with the risen Jesus: “… the other disciples told
him, "We have seen the Lord.” (v.25a). The dead Jesus was
now alive, they had seen him, and that would have dominated their conversation.
Thomas felt left out. It was so unfair. Such a tremendous event had occurred and
he had missed it. He was at a disadvantage.
Have you ever felt that you are
at a disadvantage? Have you felt that everyone else has good things happening
to them, things working out to their advantage but you are the underdog? You are
the one at a disadvantage? That was Thomas’ experience. Even someone as close
to Jesus as Thomas felt like that. He felt left out. Such feelings are real and
part of our human experience. But what happened then?
Second, Thomas’ disadvantage
brings us face to face with Thomas’ doubt. Because Thomas felt that he
had been left out, that his friends had had a better experience than he himself
(they had seen Jesus alive again and he hadn’t), his natural response was to
minimise their experience, to challenge their experience, and to doubt the very
truth of what they were saying to him. Hence, we see his almost knee-jerk
reaction when they tell him about Jesus’ visit. He says: "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"
(v.25b). As I said earlier, it is easy to villainize Thomas for saying this and
making him into Thomas the Doubter or Doubting Thomas. But remember, he didn’t have
the experience that all the other disciples had. They had already had the proof
he was requesting (v.20a). They too doubted before they had the proof, but we
never talk of a doubting Peter or a doubting Andrew….
Thomas’ disadvantage caused
him to doubt. We do that too. Our struggles cause us to question the fairness
of life. We doubt that anything good can happen to us because it hasn’t yet happened.
We let our despair get the better of us. We become sceptical, critical and
hardened. We doubt the power of God to do great things anymore, because we now
believe that we are not important anymore to God. If God really loves us, why
does he ‘leave us out’? Why has my life turned out like this when everyone else
has moved on? Doubt too is part of our humanness. It is easier to question and
to doubt than it is to believe.
If the narrative ended on this
note, it would have been a very sad state of affairs indeed. But thankfully, it
doesn’t. The third and final truth we encounter is Thomas’ devotion. In an
instant, his questions, his doubts are dispelled and we hear him crying out: "My
Lord and my God!" (v.28b). The reason for this transformation is the direct
intervention by the risen Christ. He comes again, and it is as if this second
appearance is exclusively for Thomas: “Then Jesus said to Thomas, "Put
your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt but believe."” (v.27). The important thing to note in
this encounter is that Jesus met Thomas where he was – with his doubts and
questions, in that place where he was feeling very sorry for himself, nursing the
unfairness of it all, holding on to his disadvantage. And it is that hurt, that
disadvantage, that pain, that doubt that Jesus addresses: “you want tangible proof,
Thomas? Here it is. Touch and see.” We will never know whether Thomas actually
touched and saw. But we do know that because of that encounter, his doubt changed
to devotion. He knew instantaneously that Jesus met him where he was
and his disbelief turned to belief.
We can be encouraged by this
encounter. The risen Christ knows exactly what we are going through, what we
are experiencing, what we are struggling with; he knows our questions, he knows
our doubts and he comes to us and stands alongside us and invites us to
encounter him. May we too, like Thomas, be able to rise up above ourselves and cry
out with true and heartfelt devotion: “My Lord and my God!” The risen Christ
never leaves us in our struggles. He reaches down to us and raises us up to
him. In him we have fullness of life. In him we have hope. In him the clouds of
despair and doubt are scattered, for he is our Lord, he is our God.
Amen
Prayer
This morning we come to you
as people here who are filled with doubts; when we look at all that’s happening
around us,
we wonder where you are and whether you are listening to our prayer.
When we are confused and even doubt the purpose of our life,
when we are faced with feelings of meaningless and despair,
when we have that sinking feeling,
give us the wisdom to turn to you.
Lord we want to believe, help our unbelief!
Give us faith, small as a mustard seed,
so that we can be your faithful people,
believing in your power to save,
believing in your power to reign supreme,
believing that we can share this good news
with everyone we meet.
We ask all this in Jesus’ name.
we wonder where you are and whether you are listening to our prayer.
When we are confused and even doubt the purpose of our life,
when we are faced with feelings of meaningless and despair,
when we have that sinking feeling,
give us the wisdom to turn to you.
Lord we want to believe, help our unbelief!
Give us faith, small as a mustard seed,
so that we can be your faithful people,
believing in your power to save,
believing in your power to reign supreme,
believing that we can share this good news
with everyone we meet.
We ask all this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
~ situationally adapted version of a prayer written by
Carol Penner, and posted on her Leading in Worship blog.
http://carolpenner.typepad.com/
http://carolpenner.typepad.com/
BENEDICTION
*
Go from this place in peace and joy
to serve the Lord.
We rejoice in the good news we have heard and go to serve God in all that we do.
May God's blessing continue in and through you to others
May God's love also pour into your heart this day and always. Amen
We rejoice in the good news we have heard and go to serve God in all that we do.
May God's blessing continue in and through you to others
May God's love also pour into your heart this day and always. Amen
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