Holy Textures

John 20:19-31

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

I am going "off lectionary" in order to preach a series of sermons on S.O.S. - Soil for Our Souls, Spiritual Practices that Provide Rich Soil for Our Souls to Flourish. Check the new web site www.soilforoursouls.com. Below is a sermon I have preached on the John text.

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This passage continues telling how the risen Christ was experienced by his followers; this time with the focus being on “doubting” Thomas.

Seeing Life

We know that the texts in the Bible were written down for folks like you and me – people who were not alive at the time of Jesus; people who would only know about Jesus if those who were there wrote down their memories so that they could be told to future generations.

The last few verses in John make this explicitly clear. The “you” in “these are written so that you may come to believe,” is you and you and you and me. These are written so we here today might believe. And, come to believe, as Jesus points out, “without having seen.”

Good Friday Resources

The United Church of Canada's worship resource, Celebrating God's Presence, has - among other blessings - an excellent Prayer of Confession listed in Ash Wednesday. It struck me as also appropriate for Good Friday, possibly to be used in place of the traditional "Remonstrations."

And the poem, No Words, by Anne LeDressay which opens the Preface also struck me as completely appropriate for Good Friday.

For those of you who can open Microsoft Word documents, click here, or click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version.

I've also updated a responsive litany based on The Seven Last Words of Christ. Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version.

Matthew 16:13-28

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Verses 13-20 are part of the Lectionary reading for Year A, August 21 to 27, but I am using it during Lent this year to give my congregation a clearer sense of the events that led to Jesus' arrest, trial, torture and execution.

Interestingly, this pivotal passage occurs outside of the "home turf" of Jesus and his followers, in the district of Caesarea Philippi north of Galilee.

Jesus has been traveling about doing signs, teaching and healing. This has resulted in crowds being drawn to him. It is now time to do some assessing.