Grow! Pray! Study! Daily Guide from the United Methodist Church
of the Resurrection - Tuesday, 4 February 2014 – "Happy are those who
don't see and yet believe"
Daily Scripture: John 20:
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,
and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of
the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they
are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have
seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his
hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I
will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and
Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger
here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt
but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to
him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Footnotes:
a. John 20:24 Gk Didymus
Reflection Questions:
The disciples, crippled with shock and grief, were in hiding
after Jesus' death. They feared the Roman authorities would come for them next,
and they thought Jesus' mission had died with him on the cross. Then the
resurrected Jesus appeared to them, and commissioned them to continue his work.
Jesus encouraged all of his followers to believe in him even when they can't
physically see him.
The disciple Thomas gets the nickname "Doubting
Thomas" from this story. But who could blame him? Jesus resurrection was
(and is) the most astonishing, miraculous event in history. Jesus called all
his followers to believe and trust in him, even when they can't physically see
him. In what areas of your life do you have "Thomas" moments, when
it's hard to trust that God is at work? When have you been able to join Thomas
in responding to Jesus, "My Lord and my God"?
In verse 21, Jesus said to the disciples, "As the Father
sent me, so I am sending you." He meant that call for all the disciples,
including Thomas! Perfect faith or having all the answers are not
pre-requisites for joining in God's mission to the world. The real Jesus uses
ordinary people (doubts and questions included) to accomplish great things
every day. Ask God to show you how he can use you, just as you are, to be a
light to those around you today.
Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, sometimes it's hard to believe and trust you in all
areas of my life. Help me to believe in you today, even when it's hard to see
how you're working in my life. Amen.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014 - Insight from Shawn Simpson
Shawn Simpson serves as the Director of Technical Arts and
Operations at The Church of the Resurrection’s West campus in Olathe, KS.
I’m a big fan of using metaphors, analogies, and hyperbole. In a
communications class in high school, I once had one day to write and deliver a
three minute informative speech on a topic drawn from a hat. I had a one word
topic: “Finesse.” After thinking on it for a little while, and rejecting the
idea of writing a speech about hair care products, I chose to speak on the
delicate use of spoken and written language. In some book that I couldn’t
possibly recall, I found a quote that described finesse as “the difference
between using chopsticks to gently pick up your food versus stabbing it with a
fork.” That quote stuck out to me and immediately made a connection to how I
like to write and communicate.
When I was teaching audio engineering in my previous life, I
probably overused analogies and metaphors. My students weren’t often people
with a lot of education in areas that would make understanding the more
abstract elements easier. My solution was to break down concepts into real
world comparisons. While I wasn’t blazing any new trails in education, I did
feel like I was breaking down some barriers that stood between my students’
musical ambitions and effectively using the tools to realize them. So rather
than stabbing the ideas with a fork, I’d try to show them the size and shape of
what we were looking at so they could pick it up themselves. Rather than a
close examination of digital synchronization between multiple devices, we’d
discuss the use of a cadence in marching armies. Rather than getting into the
specifics of hard disk optimization for playback, I’d tell them about how their
big water heater works as compared to a tankless system.
Like my students and their inexperience in the science and math
of audio engineering, I lack a lot of fundamental character discipline that a
teacher like Jesus would have. No matter how many times I explained the 1’s and
0’s of a digital audio system, it would be lost on someone who speaks in bars
and beats. Hammering me over the head with rules to get into heaven is just as
likely to be lost, given what I lack in understanding. Enter Jesus, who cuts
directly TO the point, but without beating the same drum. Rather than “sin is
bad and you shouldn’t do it…” we get “if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it
out and throw it away…because it’s better to go to heaven with one eye than
hell with two.” For a person who may know the rules, but not exactly how to
apply them, this is a very helpful passage. Like the GPS says, Jesus is telling
us to do whatever we have to in order to leave sin behind and seek the kingdom
of God.
(And in case anyone cares, I think I got a B+ on the
speech. I’m pretty sure I tried to pack
as many neat metaphors and analogies into three minutes as I could and ended up
delivering a jumbled mess.)
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United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, KS 66224 United States
(913)897-0120
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