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7th Sunday of Easter 8:30 Reflection

  Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11 by  The Rt. Rev. Carol J. Gallagher, PhD It is time for Jesus to depart from his disciples, those people who have been with him through thick and thin. Throughout our lives, we have times when we have to let go of loved ones, even when we wish we had more time together. Jesus is leaving his adopted family, the ones he cares for like a parent.  He knows them intimately. He knows them well enough to understand how quickly they can stray off course, fight with one another, and make a mess of many things. He loves them despite all their foibles, their pettiness, their greed, jealousy, and selfish ways. Human, like us, Jesus prayed for them as one who loved them completely and ached for them to have good productive lives and ministry. He wanted them to get beyond their differences and work together for the good of the world. Like Jesus, we make a constant prayer for those we love: that they are protecte...
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6th Sunday of Easter

  Acts:17:22-31 This is the last time you will get to hear from me during the Easter season, as next week is morning prayer and you will get another rousing sermon from Rev instead.   So I realized I would be remiss if I didn’t take at least some time with the other major voice of the Easter season, the Book of Acts.   I don’t know if you noticed, but for the last 6 weeks our First Lesson instead of coming from the Old Testament as it does the rest of the year, comes from the book of Acts.   Which is wonderful little book wedged between the end of the Gospels and the start of Paul’s letters in the New Testament that tells the story of what happens to the disciples after Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension.   It follows the stories of several of them, mostly Peter and Paul as they travel around spreading the good news of Jesus and founding the first Christian communities.   And it is one of my favorite books in the entire bible, not only because it...
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5th Sunday of Easter

  John 14:1-14 So we are back today in the Gospel of John.   And our lectionary timeline has gone a little wonky again.   So we spent the first 3 weeks of the Easter season hearing stories that all took place basically on Easter day, then we took a weird detour off into the sheepfold for Good Shepherd Sunday last week and now we are going to travel back in time to right before Easter, to Maundy Thursday if you will, to the night of the Last Supper.   Where this week we get to hear the beginning of this very long speech that Jesus gives to his disciples the night before he is crucified.   It is his instructions to his disciples as he prepares them and all who will come after them for life together once he ceases to be there in the flesh with them.   And Jesus begins his long final talk with this disciples with a promise.   A very powerful promise.   Now Jesus doesn’t promise them what they might want or expect, he doesn’t promise them safety ...
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4th Sunday of Easter

  John 10:1-10 Today, this fourth Sunday of Easter is a wonderful little day each year where we get to celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.   Every year we read Psalm 23 paired with a portion of John chapter 10 about shepherds and sheep.   And it is sometimes accompanied by all manner of interesting traditions.   I had one church where they brought in a live lamb every year or another where the children would dress up in sheep costumes and sing.   But don’t worry, I am not going to get up to any crazy shenanigans here this year, but we still do have to think a bit about shepherds and sheep today. As we should, because this image of the Lord as the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep is one of the most pervasive and beloved themes in the entire bible.    From the very beginning of the bible narrative, shepherds have played a key role.   The great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as Moses were all shepherds by trade, who shepherded Go...
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3rd Sunday of Easter

  Luke 24:13-35 We have now reached the third week of the Easter season, but time passes slowly in the lectionary so believe it or not, our Gospel story for today still takes place on Easter Sunday.   Well Easter afternoon to be exact.   In fact, this story sandwiches itself neatly between the other stories we have heard from that fateful day over the last two weeks.   It takes place shortly after Mary and the women see the angels at the empty tomb, and if we read on, in the next few verses after the end of this story we would see that almost immediately after Cleopas and his friend return to Jerusalem, Jesus then appears to the apostles in the upper room in Luke’s version of last week’s story.   But here in the middle we get this beautiful story about Jesus’ journey with these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And in Luke’s Gospel, these two guys are actually the first people to see Jesus alive, which is kind of amazing because they are not otherwise k...
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2nd Sunday of Easter - Reflection 8:30

  Well, Here We AreEaster 2 (C) – 2007 Mary K. Morrison Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Well, here we are again on Thomas Sunday. Good old doubting Thomas. Thomas could be the patron saint of modern people. Thomas was reported to have been a twin, and it’s possible he was an identical twin—as such, he would have known all about mistaken identity. He would have known how easy it is to be wrong about something, even when we see it with our own eyes. He couldn’t take the disciples’ word about having seen Jesus alive; he needed proof; he needed to be sure. Jesus says to Thomas,  “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  That would be us. We didn’t make it to the empty tomb, didn’t see the angels, didn’t hear Jesus call us by name in the garden. We weren’t in the upper room with the other disciples when they got to see Jesus. When we hear the gospel stories, we sometimes identify with the characters in them. Are we like...
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Easter Day

  Matt 28:1-10 Alleluia! Christ is risen!   He has risen indeed Alleluia! Today is the very best day of the church year.   It is a day to throw a party.   We walked the long wilderness road of Lent, we have sat in the quiet, we have listened and sung and prayed, and finally wilderness road has led us home.   And now it is time to celebrate, to cast off the burdens of Lent, to break out the flowers and the finery, to turn up the organ and bring back the alleluia songs, to eat and drink and give away candy and to sing as loud as you can.   And most importantly, today is the day we proclaim Christ’s victory over death for all to see and here. It is the day we tell the Easter story once again, where we proclaim that the tomb is empty and our Lord once crucified and dead has conquered death and been raised to new life.   And it is a day where we celebrate that through his death and resurrection Jesus opened the way to eternal life to all people. ...
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