Today we celebrated the 2nd Sunday of Easter with much joy.
This week
Tuesday – 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Below is an exciting message from Liz:
Saturday April 22nd – 7pm in St Mary’s Cathedral in Great Western Road (flyer attached).
Glasgow Chamber Choir is getting together again with our Dutch friends in the St Joris Chamber Choir from Amersfoort for what should be a great concert on Saturday. We are singing Bruckner’s Mass in E minor which is accompanied by wind and brass, as well as pieces for unaccompanied choir by Mahler, Vaughan Williams and James Macmillan (who we hope is making a guest appearance to conduct the short piece he wrote for the Queen’s funeral). The concert is at the unusual time of 7pm in St Mary’s Cathedral in Great Western Road (flyer attached).
If you can’t make it on Saturday, the Bruckner is being sung again in Glasgow Cathedral (the old one!) on Sunday morning as part of their morning service at 11am. Liz
Still not too late to donate – The Bishop’s Lent Appeal this year is for the Mothers’ Union’s Away From It All (AFIA) project which provides holidays for families who would not otherwise be able to get away for a break.
There are several ways of giving.
- Take a Lent box home and return to the church after Easter
- Donate in the basket which will be on the coffee table during the remainder of Lent
- make a payment to the church bank account, clearly labelled Lent Appeal. The account is St Andrew’s Church Vestry, sort code 80-08-98 account number 00794929
There is also a Just Giving page online – Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway is fundraising for Mothers Union Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway (justgiving.com)
Readings for next Sunday – 3rd Sunday of Easter – Acts 2:14,36-41 1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke 24:13-35
Today’s readings – Acts 2:14,22-32 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-end
Today is commonly referred to as “Low” Sunday. The joy and celebration of Easter is over, today is seen as just another ordinary, run-of-the-mill Sunday, often with a low turnout.
But anyone who looks at today in that light is mistaken. Liturgically speaking today is not the First Sunday after Easter. It is the Second Sunday of Easter. Easter is not an end; it is a beginning, it is the beginning of new life, a re-creation.
The Church devotes seven Sundays to exploring the Easter message and its implications for us its Easter people. Last week we celebrated the victory of life over death. In the remainder of the Easter season, we examine what that victory means for the disciples and for us.
Today’s Gospel events begin on the Day of the Resurrection. We join the disciples late that evening and find them frightened hiding behind closed doors. Jesus then appears to them in that room and only after he bestowed his peace upon them did, they recognize him. He breathed his Holy Spirit upon them and sent them out as God had sent him.
But eight days later the disciples were back behind closed doors. So, Jesus came to them again and gave them his peace. Jesus came to the disciples. He forgave them. He transformed them.
The point is Jesus came to the disciples.
In every post-resurrection appearance, Jesus appeared to the disciples wherever they were. To Mary Magdalene sobbing in the garden, to the disciples cowering behind closed doors at what was probably the lowest point in their lives, crushed by despair, consumed by grief, and overwhelmed by doubt.
Jesus sought them out. Even though they continually failed to recognize him, even though they continued to hide and probably didn’t even deserve a second visit, Jesus came to them again.
And so, he comes to us, as he comes to all people in adversity. When misery overwhelms hope, when faith dissolves to doubt, when fear replaces courage, when loneliness devours us, God finds us and comes to us wherever we are.
We may not recognize him at first, but he comes. God comes to us repeatedly. It may be in the kind deed of a stranger, in words of encouragement from a colleague, in the embrace of a friend, or even in difficult words of tough love from our family. God comes to us. He comes with his love and with his forgiveness.
Jesus also forgave the disciples. He tried many times during his ministry to explain to them the fate that awaited him. He explained but they never really got it. In the end, they deserted and denied him, and even after hearing about the resurrection, they hid.
When Jesus found them behind hiding that first evening and again, the following week – afraid, but perhaps also embarrassed by their many failures, too confused to believe or reluctant even to hope – when he found them hiding, he didn’t argue with them, he didn’t criticise them. He forgave them.
His first words to the disciples on both occasions were “Peace be with you.” This was neither the peace of a casual greeting nor a wish. It was a healing gift, a restoration of their relationship with God. It was new life, Easter life.
We’re just as human as the disciples and just as likely to hide behind closed doors. We hide because of fear, possibly because of shame or embarrassment.
There are times when we’re wounded, sorrowful, or afraid, or even worse, have caused another to be so. Maybe our faith wavers frequently or even disappears entirely at times.
Each of us has our own special set of doors behind which we hide. But no matter how often we slip back behind those doors, God offers us peace, love, and mercy. God offers us the restoration of right relationships, new life, Easter life.
Jesus transformed the disciples. After forgiving them, Jesus breathed his spirit into the disciples. He breathed his spirit into them and sent them out. It may have taken them several tries, but they emerged. Emerged from fear, failure, and doubt, from behind closed doors and into the world. It was not an end, but a beginning. They were no longer disciples but apostles. They were no longer followers but active participants in Jesus’ mission.
Through baptism and the sacrament, we also have received his Holy Spirit and are sent out from behind our individual doors. And so, we leave behind our fear, doubt, and embarrassment and begin a new life.
A life filled with the hope of the resurrection, an Easter life.
As God transformed the disciples, he also transforms us.
“We are his Easter people and alleluia is our song.”
Amen