“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” John 20:19-31 Poor Thomas. Thomas has been saddled with the name “Doubting Thomas” for a very long time. No one refers to Peter as “Sinking Peter,” because when he got out of the boat to go to Jesus, he looked down, and started to sink because he got scared.
Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!
Matthew 28:1-10 “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said.” I love the Easter Vigil service of the church. There is no other service quite like it. The lessons we heard at the beginning give us a glimpse at the history of salvation. The lighting of the new fire for the Paschal Candle
The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
Today is the start of Holy Week, the holiest week of the year. From today until next Sunday we will enter into a time of remembrance and participation with Jesus in his last week on earth. Today is called Palm Sunday, but you will notice in your bulletin it has two names. “The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday” Today is the first full day of Passover, which runs for
The Newly Wed Game
Some of you may remember the Newlywed Game on TV. They would invite newly married couples to compete for prizes, by answering questions that they think their spouse would say. The host was Bob Eubanks, and he would ask questions to see how well the newly wed couple knew each other. Bob would ask the wives to step out of the room, then ask the husbands a question like, “What
Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God
“Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God” Exodus 20 St. Paul wrote these words: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making
If any man would come after me
Jesus called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Mark 8:34 In the past few weeks we have heard about the call to follow Jesus. We heard about Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathan’a-el, and how they heard the call, and responded to it. Today, we heard
Forty Days and Forty Nights
“Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18 Of the three Gospel accounts of the temptations in the wilderness, St. Mark’s is the shortest. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited
Transfiguration Sunday – “And they saw Jesus only”
Mar 9:7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. Today is the last Sunday after Epiphany in our calendar. The Season of Epiphany which we just concluded started on January 6, when we commemorated the revealing of Jesus to the world. The word
Evangelism Immediately
Mark 1:29-39 Last week we heard about Jesus teaching in the temple as one with authority, and not as the scribes. There was also a little story about how our Lord met a man with an unclean spirit. That is an interesting way to describe what seems to me to be a demon. The demon recognized Jesus as the Holy One of God. Isn’t it funny that he demons always
Teaching with Authority
Mark 1:21-28 “They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching– with authority!” Of the many people who influence our lives, our school teachers are among the real heroes of this world. I know I was a real challenge to many of my teachers, and most of them exhibited a lot of patience with me. There were a few who I really