He shewed unto them His Hands and His side

First Sunday after Easter, April 23rd, 2017

In the Twentieth Chapter of St. John's Gospel,  the evangelist tells us when the disciples were gathered together after Our Blessed Lord had been crucified and laid to rest in the tomb.  St John relates in verse 19 that "the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews."  Our Lord appeared to them and we can only imagine their utter shock and disbelief if we were in their position at that time.  After after Our Blessed Saviour had greeted them, St John tells us:  " . . . . He shewed unto them His hands and His side. "

How often when we are in disbelief about something . . .  anything . . . do we have to show the evidence to show what we are talking about?  If we get cut doing something, we run and show the cut.  Or if a storm has gone through and knocked down a tree or at the very least knocked down heavy branches, you tell somebody to come and look at this.  "Oh, look at that  . . . . "  As humans, we are physical beings.  We see with our eyes.  We feel with the touch of our hands.  We hear with our ears.  We want to experience something first hand by seeing it for ourselves.  Our Lord knew this and this is why He showed the disciples His wounds.  He wanted them to see with their own eyes the "evidence" that it was Him.  

In our own life . . .  for those of us who claim the name of "Christian,"  . . . . . the question remains how do we show the "evidence" of our faith?  As mentioned above, we are able to see with our eyes, for example, the result of a storm . . .  or a car crash.  We can see the fruit of our labour when we work hard on a project and we see it after completion.  Such as building an addition on a house, cleaning and organizing a room, etc.  We can see the results with our eyes with examples such as those mentioned.  But how do we "see" a person's faith?  Faith is definitely something that is internal to each one of us.  Faith itself is not something that we can "see" physically with our eyes.  And yet the faith that we have inside of us.  The faith that we have internally that demonstrates our love for God.  This same faith is translated into action.  The way that we treat others.  The way that we are moved with compassion.  The things that we do for others around us that are less fortunate.  These are all examples of how we can "see" faith.  

As human beings, we want to "see the evidence," we want to see with our own eyes.  Let us all work on "showing" others our love of God.  Let others see how much we love God by how we live our lives.  As I often say in my sermons, the majority of people that you encounter this week probably do not ever go to church.  For those people they will only see the face of Christ as it is found in you.  If this is true, what will the world see?

Mass is celebrated every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  St. Margaret Anglican Church worships in the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.  Join St. Margaret so that you can spend part of your Sunday morning worshiping God, hearing the Word of God in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, receive Him in His Precious Body and Blood.