Sermon Notes John 20:19-31, I Peter 3-9, Ps. 16

April 27 Ps. 16, John 20:19-31, Acts 2:22-32 I Peter 1:3-9

Forgiveness offers new life to a relationship.It seeks to bury the desire for revenge. At its best, it seeks to let the old hurt itself  be dead and buried. Forgiveness gives a new birth to a relationship.the Easter community’s first tasks than are peace and forgiveness. Perhaps they are inextricably bound.You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.Lewis B. Smedes “Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.”(Henry Ward Beecher)

Easter life is given right away, the breath of the spirit of life.Notice that Jesus does not castigate Thomas, so I wonder if the issue of forgiveness for his questioning is even on the table.He offers Thomas not only what he needed but what the other disciples had received.

Instead of the new life of baptism Jesus gives the breath of life, the spirit of life.the disciples are behind locked doors as closed as the tomb. is worth mentioning that the disciples were not rounded up by Pilate, so did he ever see Jesus as a real political threat?On the other hand, maybe, they need some time to process, including their fear.Jesus says peace be with you, i do not know if this is Greek for Shalom or if it has deeper resonance in the gospel., Jesus shows them his wounds for his identity. Now Jesus opens the door and sends them out.

they are to carry Easter with them.Here is inspiration from the mouth of Christ and the spirit

One of the salutary things in preparing the Saturday night service has been to go through quotations for the theme of the evening from the Scripture selected.  “Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.” ― J.K. Rowling, “Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.” ― Robert Jordan

I Peter new birth into a living hope.can we speak of a dying hope? Yes a dying hope is that we can change people by nagging them into a vision of what they should be.Peter plays on the same theme as the Thomas story. The gift of seeing without first hand sight is astounding.

Amid the transient transitory nature of life, we are given someone stable and eternal and imperishable.this is a move forward into a new future. (discovery of big bang grav. waves)we see a move from the troubles of this world into the hope for something better in a world beyond. We also have a sense of this: you cannot take this gift away from me, no matter how big you are or how small i appear to be. We place so much trust in mere objects.
forgiveness offers a living hope. Instead of piling up resentments that signal the diminution even death of a relationship, it clears the burden of carrying and of being attacked by wrongs, real or imagined, large or small.

The theologian Cynthia Rigby wonders that we can certainly forgive directly, but can we take it upon ourselves to claim or authorize forgiveness for others as outsiders? From this premise she wonders then if forgiveness is available in the Christian community because God does not forgive on behalf of others who have been hurt but as one who has suffered in Jesus Christ.