Untitled Episode

Today's gospel reading is from John chapter twenty, beginning with the nineteenth verse.

Let us listen to the word of God.

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.

And after he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

And then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

But Thomas, who was called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came, 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 I put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.

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.

And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hand.

Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

Do not doubt, but believe.

Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.

And 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.

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Now the interesting thing is God has been sending people out for generations.

God sent Abraham and Sarah to a new land.

God sent Moses out of the desert back into Egypt.

God sends Jonah to Nineveh.

But Jonah doesn't listen very well.

He goes the opposite direction.

He winds up in the belly of a giant fish, and eventually Jonah goes to the very place that God sent him.

To Nineveh.

They're not supposed to stay in their comfortable little bubbles.

God has always sent them out to be in community with others.

Now, somehow with modern conveniences we have, we just we like to be home, don't we?

But I'm not gonna blame television or video games or computers and smartphones for making us homebodies.

They're easy targets and they certainly contribute to keeping us home.

I'm gonna blame air conditioning.

It wasn't too long ago that people used to sit out on their porches.

They'd be out there because it was hot indoors.

People would keep their windows open to catch a nice breeze.

You remember these?

May maybe some of you remember these days.

But then when air conditioning came, what do you do?

You have to close all the windows, you have to close all the doors, you have to seal it all nice and shut.

And then slowly but surely those evenings on the front porch dissipated, and new technologies have kept us indoors in our homes with doors and windows closed.

These days, most of us just want to be home.

We make our houses nice.

We have giant television, so we don't even need to go to the movies.

Some of us just like to be homebodies.

But that's not what we're called to do.

We're supposed to go out into the world.

Jesus sends us out.

Now, if it were up to us, maybe we'd stay in our little comfortable group.

Maybe we'd sit all the time in that front third pew on the left.

However, Jesus sends us out.

And the only trouble is our world is a scary place sometimes.

Might make us uncomfortable.

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how leading up to World War II, uh, England knew a major air offensive would against London was inevitable.

This is what he says.

One of the foremost military theorists of the day estimated that in the first week of any German attack, London could see a quarter of a million civilian deaths and injuries.

In 1937, on the eve of the war, the British military command issued a report with the direst prediction of all.

A sustained German bombing would leave 600,000 people dead, 1.2 million wounded, and create mass panic in the streets.

People refused to go to work, industrial production would grind to a halt, the army would be useless.

And then in the fall of 1940, the long-anticipated attack began.

Over a period of eight months, beginning with 57 consecutive nights of devastating bombardment, German bombers thundered across the skies above London.

Another 46,000 were injured.

Million buildings were damaged, destroyed.

It was everything the British government had feared, except that every one of their predictions about how Londoners would react turned out to be wrong.

Panic never came.

Many women and children were evacuated to the countryside as the bombing started, but people who needed to stay in the city by and large stayed.

And as the blitz continued, as the German assaults grew heavier and heavier, the British authorities began to observe, to their astonishment, not just courage in the face of bombing, but something closer to indifference.

He said the bombs divided the population into three groups.

Those who were killed, those who experienced near misses, which left them traumatized, shocked, just like they had predicted.

And then there was a third group.

Those who experienced remote misses.

Now, in a metropolitan area of more than eight million people, there were so many more remote misses than deaths, and near misses, the bombing has the opposite effect.

Experiencing a morale boost from having survived the experience unscathed is what happened.

While we do not want people to go through such things, Gladwell argued that their suffering gives them the courage to challenge conventional ideas and to do things other people are afraid to do.

And now they're sent by Jesus with them the power of the Holy Spirit.

And they go out to all the people, to all the world emboldened, no longer fearing death or anything.

Sometimes I think we wish for God to show up in these magnificent, miraculous, fantastical ways.

But this is more like how God has always worked in and through regular, ordinary people who were sent with a mission.

A mission to share God's love and kindness and compassion and grace to a world that desperately needs those very things.

So they made these signs.

Remember these?

They said, out and about.

And we gave them to people popsicle sticks.

Take pictures while you were out and about.

This is what Jesus calls his disciples to do.

He sends us to go out and about.

Where is God sending you?

This week, a three-week class to learn more about other religions.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam is starting.

Doesn't matter what religion we believe, we are all God's children, and our task is to learn and respect and to love everyone.

Maybe God's sending you to go to this world of religion class.

We have a pack event to help feed children coming up.

God sending you to help feed hungry children.

Of course, God sends us out to bigger than just church events.

Jesus sends us to all the world.

Maybe someone you know.

Or maybe you're the one who needs help.

Someone around here, or anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ, or Jesus sends us to help those in need.

Share love and compassion and grace.

We're not called to sit in our same church pew or cozy up in our homes.

We're not those kind of people.

I know some of you are those kind of folks.

But when we leave this parking lot, we're sent out into the world.

As we leave this place, we're called to go out and about.

As we go out and about, may we share Christ's love and compassion and kindness.

May we share God's grace and forgiveness.

Joy and joy.

What did Jesus say three times?

To all of God's children.

And in all in the world.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

At this time it is my joy and um opportunity to welcome one of our new members, Barb Ward, back into our midst.

You've been here for a little while.

We're glad you're coming back.

That you will be a new member.

On behalf of the session, I present Barb Ward, who has been received into the membership of this church by reaffirmation of faith.

In baptism, you were acclaimed by God, marked as Christ, owned forever, and joined in his body by the Holy Spirit.

You come to us then not as a stranger, but as a friend in Christ and member of the household of God.

We rejoice that you now desire to join with this congregation in the worship and mission of the church as a member of the body of Christ.

Let us all reaffirm the faith into which we are baptized.

We invite all to stand and to share in saying the Apostles' Creed together.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of a body, and life everlasting.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Barbara, we have professed our faith as one body.

Will you be a faithful member of this congregation?

Share in its worship and mission through your prayers and gifts, your study and service, and so fulfill your calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Will you, with God's help?

Let us pray.

Holy God, thank you for calling us to be your people and joining us to Christ's body, the church.

We praise you for leading Barb to this congregation.

Empower us by your spirit.

That we might love one another as Christ loved us, honoring him and all that we say and do, giving our lives and service to others through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

Barb, we welcome you to this church family.

Kind of a fun circle back, and um, we're welcoming you to its worship and ministry, and we send you out into the world.

Let us welcome Barb as she's part of the panel.

If you found this podcast inspirational and would like to support the First Love Ministry programs at First Presbyterian Church, please send any contributions to First Presbyterian Church at 870 West College, Jacksonville, Illinois.

Our zip code is 62650.

Our phone is 217-245-4189.

You can contact our secretary there for 20 hours of 981 and 4 PM.