Join Us For Third Sunday After Easter, May 7th, 2017

Third Sunday After Easter, May 7th, 2017

I have often thought that it is nearly impossible for us to know what the Apostles and Disciples felt back when Our Blessed Lord walked the earth and also after His Crucifixion and Resurrection.  In other words, those of us living today have known this history for two thousand years now.  We've "read the book," so to speak.  "We've seen the movie," so to speak.  We know how the story ends because it has been ingrained into us by our parents and their parents before them and their parents before them, etc. etc. etc.  Hard as we try, we will never know the fear and the uncertainty . . . . the mixture of emotions . . . . . the unknowing of what was going to happen next . . . . . for the Apostles.  They saw their beloved friend, teacher, master taken in by the authorities and then die on the Cross.  They saw with their own eyes this same man being buried in the tomb.  And then three days later they saw this man rise again from this same tomb.

In the Sixteenth Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, Our Blessed Saviour has gathered the Apostles around Him and He is attempting to explain to them the events that would be forthcoming regarding the Crucifixion and Resurrection.  "A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall se Me, because I go to the Father."  (St. John 16:16)  And now after all that they have seen and heard and witnessed in the three or so years they have known Him, Our Blessed Lord is telling them that He is leaving their presence.  Certainly, we can almost imagine the disappointment they were feeling as Our Blessed Lord was telling them this news.  We can try to envision their confusion as He tells them He is leaving.  If we place ourselves in their shoes, so to speak, we can only imagine the wide range of emotions that we would be feeling.   And at the end of the passage Our Lord tells them:  ". . . . . but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you " (St. John 16:22)

All of us, I am quite sure, can think of a time where we lost someone very dear to us.  It might have been losing someone to death.  Or it simply might have been "losing" someone that moved far away to a different state.  I can think in my own life about the times that I have lost beloved family members . . . . whether it be my grandparents . . . or my uncle  . . .  or even my own mother.  I can think of friends who were very close to me that I lost contact with because either they moved or I moved.  And yet in either scenario, the memory of these people so close to me at one time are still close to me because I have their memories in my mind and in my heart.  As Our Lord said, no-one can take your joy from you.  Nobody can take your memories from you.  For the Christian, the joy that we have is the knowledge that Our Blessed Saviour is not only part of our life, He is the Saviour of our life.  He is our Saviour.  He is our Teacher.  We carry Our Blessed Saviour with us in our heart everywhere we go.  He is with us always.  This is where our joy comes from that "no may taketh from you."  Our joy is Our Blessed Saviour.  Our joy is our relationship with God.  Our joy can only come from having a personal relationship with Our Lord.  So many people try to find their "joy" in worldly things:   material possessions . . . . wealth . . . . power . . . . drink . . . .  drugs . . . .  All of those worldly joys ultimately fade away . . . but the joy we receive from a relationship with God can never fade away.  It will never disappoint.  There are a lot of things that can be taken away from us, but our relationship with God can never be taken away.

St. Margaret Church meets every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  We gather together in the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis.  Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Join us as we gather together communally as God's family to worship Our Heavenly Father and receive the Precious Body and Blood of Christ to strengthen and nourish us for our journey called "life."