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Transformed Imaginations
Imagination (noun): The faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is Read More
Deborah Van Deusen Hunsinger | Read John 20:19-23
Christians today depend completely on the testimony of those
who have lived by faith for generations before us. Like
Thomas, we have not seen the resurrected Jesus with our own
eyes. Yet, if believing depends solely on seeing, the living Word
of God would never have reached across the more than twenty
centuries after his death.
Indeed when it comes to faith, the scriptural witness helps
us understand that we all go astray. We need to be taught to see
with the eyes of faith and hear with ears attuned to God’s Spirit.
For this reason, the author of the Gospel of John emphasizes
the importance of Thomas’s testimony. Universally known as
“doubting Thomas,” scripture bears witness to his transformation
before our very eyes as he becomes “believing Thomas.”
Once he recognizes Jesus by the wounds in his hands and his
side, Thomas exclaims in awe: ”My Lord and my God!”
When we cling to God’s word, we gain access to a palpable
sense of God’s peace even amidst trial and tribulation. We lack
proof for the incomprehensible event of Jesus’ resurrection, and
we cannot build a life of faith based on our rational doubts.
Instead, we are called to believe in the witness of the early apostles
and disciples even though we cannot see or understand how
such miracles are possible.
Like the author of the Gospel of John, we reconstruct our
life narratives in accordance with a miraculous event that our
minds simply cannot comprehend. We are called to believe
even when we cannot see. And with the author of First Peter,
“Although [we] have not seen him, [we] love him.”
Gracious God, reconstruct our life stories in ways that will permit our testimony to be convincing for the generations that come after us. Lead us to live in such accord with your word that our humble witness may be a small but trustworthy parable of love for those who are as yet unborn. Amen.
Psalm 16 and Acts 2 fit together, since the latter quotes the former. Both celebrate God’s presence in human life and the powerful expression of that presence. In his Pentecost sermon Peter sees a messianic application of the psalm to the resurrection of Jesus. First Peter affirms that resurrection creates community, stressing the faith and love of Christians that arise without the experience of physical contact with Jesus. For later generations, belief and commitment are born out of the witness of others.
• Read Acts 2:14a, 22-32. When has a life experience made you, like Peter, feel that your faith was a sham? How did you move past that experience into renewed hope?
• Read Psalm 16. When have you perceived God as refuge? How has your faith in God steadied your life? What is your “goodly heritage”?
• Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. What act of power and grace on God’s part allows you to reconfigure or reinterpret your life story?
• Read John 20:19-31. When have you employed the power to release others from their sin? to leave them in their sin?
Respond by posting a prayer.
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
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