Joy Lutheran Church Ocala, Florida

Thomas got bad press as a doubter.  The resurrected Jesus had appeared to his disciples, but Tomas was missing.  When the others told Thomas what had happened, he replied, “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.”  Next Sunday Jesus appeared to the disciples again, but this time Thomas was among them. Jesus invites Thomas to examine his wounds, and says, “Do not doubt, but believe. Thomas declares, “My Lord and My God!” Jesus mildly rebukes him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Poor doubting Thomas.

Back up a moment. The first time Jesus appeared to the disciples “he showed them his hands and his side.” They had received what Thomas wanted. There is no indication that any of them believed that Jesus had risen from the dead until they saw him except for John, the beloved disciple..That means Thomas wasn’t the odd one because he doubted. He represents the typical person who has trouble believing. And he was a chosen apostle.

Do you ever wonder about the story of Jesus. Did it really happen? Did he really rise from the dead? You’re in good company. Doubt is probably the case for most followers of Jesus. Yet they follow. The struggle we Christians have is not to drive out doubt, but to act in spite of doubt. 

Don’t worry about doubts.

Read John 20:224-29 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

I have a number of pet peeves, and as I’ve grown older I seem to have even more. I’m turning into an old curmudgeon. Here are a few of them. (1) I am amazed, and bothered, by all the people who buy cars without turn signals. (2) As a retired math teacher, I feel that my profession has failed; there are lots of people that can’t count. This is especially evident at the 20-item-or-less checkout lane at Walmart. (3) Another failing of our educational system is that in kindergarten many children never learned to color between the lines. You can tell this because as adults they park their cars straddling the lines and take up two parking spaces. (4) There has been a lot in the news about self-driving cars. This technology is in its infancy, but apparently many think it has been perfected for shopping carts and leave them randomly in the parking lots. Note that each of these peeves is the result of another person’s action.

Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and then He implies that everyone is our neighbor. He even tells us to love our enemies. Does that mean that we have to love those responsible for our pet peeves? Does that mean I have to love that woman in the white Lexus who left her shopping cart smack-dab in the middle of the space I was starting to pull into, which was the only free space in sight? The answer is clear; He does. It’s hard, at least for me. The four peeves I mentioned are recurring and are like thorns in my side, constantly pricking me.

In 2 Corinthians Paul confesses to having a thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what it was, but Paul admits to the weakness and pleaded to the Lord to remove it. Instead, the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul says that he delights in his weakness, because then Christ’s power can rest in him. By myself I probably can’t bring myself to love those whose acts peeve me, but by admitting my weakness and accepting Christ’s power in me, it becomes possible.

Paul’s experience with his thorn is described in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Please read this moving passage and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim

My family was (is) not wealthy by any means. When your father is an elementary school principal, well  – you get the picture. And yet, we always had everything we needed. Granted, our summer vacations were not at time shares or five–star resorts (they were tent camping at KOA) but we saw a lot of the country and the major destinations.

My wife Debbie’s family? Maybe not the polar opposite, but very different. They enjoyed a much more lavish life than I was used to. A house with a pool on a waterway. Nicer cars. Fancy restaurants. A trip to Europe. Reconciling the two made for some unease in my parents. But when love deepens, going from the Cupid arrow to willing to share in the compromises and struggles in life, then you see God’s guiding hand in the reconciled life.           I have not given Debbie the kind of modestly affluent life she could have had, but we are rich in spirit. She has never complained or expressed regret. Still I struggle with the fact that I have perceived meagerness as an inability to give more. I am so far removed from the widow in the temple whom Jesus observed giving everything she had. Everything she lived on. That is a level of trust I may never achieve.

I wonder, now that I’m a pastor, if  I should expect that the wealthiest parishioners will naturally give the majority of the church budget. Like many people these days, I feel anger and resentful that the wealthiest in our country seem to evade the taxation that breaks the rest of us. It’s a fool’s errand. Daily I need to confess how I feel. I confess my attitude toward those who are well off, not able or willing to consider that they thank the Giver and respond accordingly, whether I’m aware of it or not. It is the unconditional love of God that holds it all together, and we must not judge or question His wealth given with no strings attached.

Pastor Art

Some more surefooted than others, we come,

Clutching walkers, leaning on canes, we come forward.

We kneel before our Lord,

Uncertain of getting up, some of us stand.

We hear our name.

We hold up hands to take the bread,

Our hands may tremble, but we reach up.

With fingers steady or fumbling, we take the cup.

We offer our Amen for the gift we receive.

Tis’ the gift of Christ’s body and blood.

Together we come for this gift of God’s grace.

Judy

The Supper of the Lord, by Laurence Rosania
Recorded live on August 27, 2017, by the Sunday 7pm Catholic Choir
at St. Francis De Sales Church in Ajax, Ontario

Peter shares with us some GREAT news! I Peter 1:3-5: “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.” (The Message version)

Think about this for a moment. Has there ever been a time on this earth when there were no quarrels? No wars? No political upheaval? No sadness? No grief? No dying? Read the Old Testament and you lose count of the land wars, the Kings in turmoil, the unrest and rampant sin. Hm, kinda’ sounds like the world we live in now!

The Great news from Peter is a reminder that Jesus saved us by giving His life for us. Knowing Him as our Lord and Savior, grants us a new life in Christ. God is in control.  Turn over the reins and look to your future.  Verse 5 says it beautifully in this translation: “…you will have it all, life healed and whole!” Hallelujah, He is risen. He is risen indeed!

You have everything to live for and look forward to…see it! Trust in the Lord with your whole heart and know that believing in Him, building your faith, trusting in your future…you will have it all with Jesus! He loves you unconditionally.

Be blessed

Jill

Here are six quips (clever and sometimes humorous remarks) I read some time ago. I saved them in my “blog” file to use at a later date. Today is that date. While they may not be humorous, they are clever and have great meaning.

1. Once all villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That is faith.
2. When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them.  That is trust.
3. Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set alarms to wake up. That is hope.
4. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence.
5. We see the world suffering, but still we get married and have children. That is love.
6. An old man wore a shirt that said, “I am not 80 years old. I am 17 with 63 years of experience. That is attitude.

These quips all have simple messages, but share the lessons we learn from our Lord.  If we have faith in God, we are confident He loves us unconditionally. We know we can trust Him to walk with us, guide us and give us hope we will live with Him eternally in the place He has prepared for us.

For all the earthly gifts God has given us and all the promises He makes to us if we believe in Him and follow in His ways, we need to have an attitude of gratitude for all He does! Thanks be to God!

Patty

Do you think that it is a little strange that when Jesus appears to his disciples after the Easter Resurrection, they don’t recognize him? This happens more than once.  

It happened to Mary in the garden on Easter morning when she went to perform the funeral rites on his body. He was gone from the tomb, and she was frightened. She bumped into a man whom she thought was the gardener and asked him what he had done with Jesus’ body. When he speaks her name, she immediately recognizes that it is Jesus in a very different form and rejoices that he has returned to the living. 

Jesus approaches two unnamed disciples on their way to Emmaus. They don’t recognize this stranger, but they start up a conversation with him and ask him to join them for dinner. At the table, Jesus blesses and breaks the bread, and the disciples realize who he is.  Their eyes are opened.  

Then, there are the apostles trying to fish on the Sea of Galilee. While they are in the boat, they see a man on the shore who they don’t recognize. This “stranger” tells them to put the net on the other side of the boat which results in 153 fish! (I have always been fascinated by that number 153, but that for another day). 

There is quite a bit of comment about this phenomenon on the world wide web. The Bible doesn’t provide us with a clear explanation. Scholars have suggested it might be the light, the distance, the surprise of His return from the dead. None of these reasons satisfy my confusion.  

One scholastic comment that I found made sense to me: “knowing Jesus in the flesh was not the same as knowing him as a resurrected son of God.” (Biblical Hermeneutics 2019) 

Here’s my personal take on this situation: Jesus’ earthly body was glorified as will happen to ours when we return to the Father. However, I feel that there is a greater lesson available to us in not being able to identify Jesus. 

Perhaps the lesson is-let’s treat everyone we meet as if they are Christ Jesus. How do we really know that it isn’t Christ? What does it really matter if we give kindness and love to everyone, we meet regardless of who they are, where they come from or where they are going. How do we really know these people are not sent from God to enrich our lives and help us love God more? 

Remember God loves you unconditionally. He loves the people that come into your life unconditionally and He might just accompany one of those folks someday.  

Terri 

Remember how scary the appearance of the Wicked Witch of the West was in the Wizard of Oz? Out of a plume of red smoke stepped the green-faced, back-gowned witch portrayed by actress Margaret Hamilton. Her performance has terrified little kids for generations. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.”  

All sorts of details have been published about her performance including the way she was terribly burned by the fire that surrounded her exit from Munchkinland. Much less has been written about her personal life, but in reality, she was nothing like the wicked witch. Many other actors have remarked about her kindness and generosity. She had been a schoolteacher before her acting career and continued her interest in children and education throughout her life even serving on the Beverly Hills Board of Education. She supported numerous charities. She was an active member of the Presbyterian church and the founder of Beverly Hills Presbyterian Preschool. There is an interview in which she talks about her faith in God. 

Does her faith surprise you? I really had to dig to get this information. Margaret Hamilton was a person who lived out her Christian faith, but didn’t make a display of doing so. She didn’t pose for pictures with a big Bible in hand. She expressed her faith in what she did. That’s something every Christian should do.

I wish I could have met Margaret Hamilton. I might have learned something about being a Christian from the Wicked Witch of the West. Thank you, dear lady.

Read 1 John 3:18 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Yesterday was a special in our family. The gentleman of my household shares a birthday with our youngest granddaughter. She delightedly turned 20! He, on the other end of the journey of life, rejoices that he is still well and able to celebrate this shared birthday with her.

Birthdays turn our focus on age, our own and others. At least for that day we are very much aware that the number on our personal calendar of life has just flipped over to the next digit. Sometimes we welcome that new number, sometimes we groan at this reckoning of time.

I remember turning 16 – what a thrill! I could earn real money at a part-time job!

I remember turning 30 – believe it or not I cringed at that one. My twenties were over; I felt so old!

I remember birthday #50 – ah, said I, the half way point of life! (Optimistic wasn’t I?)

Life gives us no guarantees. None of us can count the days of our life, nor would we want to. But we can open our eyes each morning in gratitude for the day we have been given. And when it is a special day, all the more reason to give thanks to God.

In Psalm 90:12, Moses offers these words of wisdom: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” I don’t think Moses was being a pessimist here, rather a simple realist. Our days are numbered. We are blessed with a limited time on this earth. When we remember this simple fact, we are encouraged to cherish the opportunities provided by each new day – “that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Remember, your loving God has loved you unconditionally from the day you were born until this very day. And He will never stop loving you . . .

Judy

IT was never God’s intention to pull the wool over our eyes. His Word is plain as day. Yet it still is something we wrestle and struggle with. The gift of scripture is that it always leads to conversation. Our individually, wonderfully created selves interpret what we read in an infinite number of ways.

          But it’s still true.

True at all times and in all places. We learn and grow from it and in it. Then there are the times it’s tricky. We question whether we’re actually supposed to do literally everything it says. Of course not; otherwise we’d all be walking around maimed. We would be slaughtering all of our supposed enemies. “Love your neighbor”. Wow. We make a royal mess of that!

This is where Luther’s Catechism helps us out some. It follows up every command with “What does this mean?”

           I think we never stop asking questions of scripture. That’s how we learn. We all struggle with what to take literally and what is strictly contextual (only applies to the time it was written). God’s Word invites us into holy conversation. We have an ongoing dialogue with Him and what we believe He has recorded for us. They are ultimately words of true life; the ideal. Read it and digest it spiritually and prayerfully. Let the Bible scholars analyze it. Don’t get too much head and logic into it; allow it to embrace your heart with unconditional love.

Pastor Art