Prayer: Jesus, friend and Savior, guide me with the gift of your Holy Spirit. Open my heart to what my eyes can’t see. Unleash my faith and trust in God’s eternal love. Amen.
Reading: John 20:19-31 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: I love stories that rely on a hero confronting his doubt, surviving and succeeding after a reliance on pure, blind faith. I think of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Jones has to take that treacherous step into seeming emptiness, trusting that something will save him – remember the wonder of the materialization of the camouflaged bridge with a shift in the camera angle? Luke’s doubt must be overcome in order to use The Force. And how lame would A Field of Dreams have been if Ray had been promised in concrete terms who would come, if he built it? These heroes embody the kind of belief I wish I had. They rise above the average person who would more likely sit stymied, waiting to see some evidence before risking everything. Poor old Thomas, who gets such a bad rap in this passage. The story too often ends with verse 29 and Jesus’ scolding. Yet who doesn’t think it just a little unfair that the other disciples got to see the hands and side of the Savior from the start and received the Holy Spirit directly from His breath. Is it a wonder that when told of something so amazing, Thomas couldn’t believe it? A shame, yes, but a usual reaction. Most of us are afraid to put our trust in the perception of another, to let our guard down without knowing firsthand that what they think they saw was real. Sometimes, it is really hard to believe even a wonderful thing without proof. Yet that is exactly what the author of this book demands – to “come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah” based on the Word of the gospels. To have blind faith. --Heather LeBlanc
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
Anyone is welcome to contribute! If you'd like to write for us, please e-mail [email protected] Email
Get our daily devotions delivered to your e-mail box each day by signing up below:
Archives
May 2022
Subscribe |