Words of Welcome

  Acts 4:5-12 When Peter and John went to the Temple to pray they encountered a man who had been lame since birth. When the man asked for alms, they healed him. After that the man who couldn’t walk got up and danced for joy. This display of excitement on the part of the man who had been healed drew a crowd. As this crowd gathered in Solomon’s Portico, Peter took that opportunity to preach a sermon that focused on the resurrection of Jesus ( Acts 3 ).  When the religious authorities heard about this disturbance in the Temple, they got annoyed, especially because Peter and John were proclaiming “that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead.” You see, the Temple authorities, including Annas the High Priest, were members of the Sadducees Party, which didn’t believe in a resurrection. So they had Peter and John arrested ( Acts 4:1-4 ). This morning we pick up the story on the day Peter and John stood trial in the Temple Court because they had caused a commotion in the Temple. T

John 20:19-31 I like St. Thomas. He’s a realist who isn’t afraid to ask questions. He’s an empiricist who embraces the principle of “seeing is believing.” So, when he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other disciples, he was skeptical. He wanted to see and touch Jesus for himself.   While his skepticism led to an unfortunate nickname of “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas didn’t ask for anything that the other disciples hadn’t already received. The others believed Jesus rose from the dead because he appeared to them. Remember that Jesus’ male disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene’s testimony until he appeared to them. So Thomas was in good company when he made his demands.    Modern folks also struggle to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection. As the eighteenth-century skeptic, David Hume reminds us, resurrection isn’t an everyday occurrence. Even if we embrace the biblical message of resurrection, most of us follow Hume’s skepticism when it comes to other strange