Readings:   Acts 3, 13-19, I know that you acted out of ignorance; Psalm 4, Lord, let your face shine on us; 1 John 2, 1-5, Whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him; Luke 24, 35-48, Peace be with you.

Acts: A review–

Author:  Luke, the author of both The Gospel and Acts.  Today we get Luke twice, in the first reading with Acts and in the last reading, today's Gospel. 

While we are on the subject, Luke's gospel story today is a compliment to last week's gospel story by John.  Both John & Luke find the apostles in a locked room, Jesus appears, and he says, "Peace."  Both focus on the physical, last week on Thomas demanding to see the wounds, this week Jesus eating.  What does he eat?   Why so much focus on the physical? 

Candle Lighting, Georgie doing the honors

Date:  written about 40-60 years after Jesus death, i.e., ca. 70-100 A.D.

Subject: Two parts.  Part one covers chapters 1-8, which focus on the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost, plus their effect on the community.  The rest of the book, i.e., chapters 9-28, the focus is on Paul, his conversion & travels.  

Today's Selection:  

The scene is this, just like last week.   Peter & John have just healed a lame man at the door of the temple.  The people come rushing to see.  Peter & John say, "Hey, we did not do it."  In fact, Jesus did it and he has been raised from the dead.  This caught the attention of the priests and authorities who had the two arrested and put before the council.  They are released the next day after a warning not to talk about this Jesus.  Then they return to the local community of believers. 

 Today we go back to the time just after the healing of the lame man.  The people have rushed to see the phenomenon and ask Peter & John to explain.  Today's reading is their explanation.

Where is The Lord Here?

This morning I want to talk about something that has been tearing up my spirit.  Anybody heard of a little dog named Justice? 

He was a street dog, a puppy.  He died mercifully a week ago Friday.  Justice was apparently a peaceful, affectionate little puppy running around the streets of Pleasant Grove. 

One day he had the misfortune to be noticed by some teen boys who were loafing around looking for some amusement.  They decided to amuse themselves with little Justice.  So, as happens occasionally in a group of boys, they began to pester him. 

Offertory with Marsha, Connie & John

Things got bad.  One kid put a rope around Justice’s neck and tried to hang him from a fence.  When that did not satisfy them, another boy doused the puppy with charcoal lighter fluid and set him on fire.  He ran around frantically.

At this point some woman in a nearby apartment ran out with water & an old T shirt to aid Justice.  Someone else called the police and they found Justice shivering & hiding behind an air conditioning compressor. 

They called an animal shelter who called DFW Rescue Me, because Justice needed intensive care.  A big rig truck driver from Denton got involved and actually shuttled Justice around from his daytime treatment to his nighttime treatment.   To the very end, even when his blood pressure was so low, Justice continued to wag in appreciation his little white tipped tail.

What would you like to do to those boys?  There is a $5000 reward.

Leo arrives

Luke’s message today describes how the Lord appeared among them two times and said, “Peace be with you.”  Is he present in this event?  I   would like to propose that yes, God is in this event, even as ugly as it is.  I see three possibilities. 

First, I see God in the woman who had the courage to come out of her apartment and rescue Justice.  She did not know what would happen.  Those boys could have turned on her.  It happens.

Secondly, I see God in the truck driver who shepherded Justice between his day & night treatment centers.  His name was Wenger.  He is from Denton.  This happened in Pleasant Grove, opposites in the Metroplex.  Wenger showed great kindness to the little street puppy. 

Emma, What happened to the Easter Eggs?

Finally, the boys. Yes, God is in the boys.  They acted out of their shadow sides, but they are still works of God.  I have worked with kids and adults like this.  Two speculations coming from my experiences.

First, I bet you when these boys were puppies they, too, were treated badly.  Maybe not set on fire, but hurt & hurt repeatedly to a point where they are responding to the world with anger.  Hurt breeds anger, anger breeds violence.  I want to hurt others because I hurt.

Secondly, I bet that because of feedback that they are bad, they think they are bad.  And act it out.  The kid has nothing to lose.  He is already a loser.  I thought I was bad when I was a kid and I wasn’t. 

So, where do you see The Lord in all this?

Curtis with Marlene, Meredith, & Brent

Reference: Dallas Morning, News, Jacquielynn Floyd, Metro section, April 18, 2012

 Video:  Candle Lighting (2 Min.)

Readings:   Acts 4, 32-35, They had everything in common; Psalm 118, Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, his love is everlasting; 1 John 5, 1-6, Everyone who loves the Father loves the one begotten by him; John 20, 19-31, Jesus came and stood in their midst.

Mike reading John

Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, Mike Carrell

In the Smithsonian Magazine that I was reading in my doctor’s office recently, there was a photograph entitled Tricycle and Memphis, 1970.  It was a color photograph presented in the first showing of color photography as an art medium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1972.  It was a colorful picture of an old but sturdy tricycle with a blue seat with red rubber grips on a curved handlebar. It had some white spots of paint that had somehow been splattered on the seat, frame and wheels. 

I could tell that the camera had been held at a very low angle to indeed give the tricycle the look of elegance, like a chariot it encompassed almost the whole picture.  In the diminished background you could see a couple of one story flat roofed houses, one with a carport.  One art critic found it perfect, another perfectly awful. 

Brooklyn lights our Easter candle with help from her mom, Erin

The critic who found it perfect understood the context within which it had been placed—the diminished background, the fading away of the old Memphis was the result of a blossoming Southern culture that had begun in the Memphis of 1970, with bold new music, art, and literature.  The paint splatter an indication that the blossoming was a work in progress.

Today we are told of the importance of signs within the gospels.  However, if we want to understand the signs, we too must understand them in the context of the gospel teachings in which we find them!

Success, light & warmth

Some of you will remember being taught by question and answer.  First we were given the question, ‘What is a sacrament?’  Then we were given the answer to memorize: ‘A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.’    If one were to translate that word sign into Greek, the Greek word chosen would be the word used for sign in our reading today. 

Remember a couple of months ago when the leper came and knelt before Jesus saying, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean,’ There is a sign being given when Jesus says, ‘I do choose. Be made clean.’  We can come to understand the sign because of the context of the teaching in which it was placed.  At the end of that teaching Jesus was proclaiming the good news to those who crowded around him. 

Offertory, Judy, Jerry, & Joan

This good news, ‘In the Father’s plan of salvation the Messiah had come to us as the Lamb of God,’ fulfills what came before it in the teaching that stated that the Mosaic Law required the offering of an unblemished lamb for the leper’s sins.  So we know that these words of Christ has brought forgiveness to the man—the meaning of the sign.

I presented you a sign from the Luke gospel during a Christmas season homily. I told you that of the Christ child in a manger dressed in swaddling clothes was a sign of the Church.  The manger was a feeding trough; the child wrapped in the shroud of the linen strips was the Lamb of God from which were come to be fed the Word and the Bread of Life.    We come to understand this from the context of the teaching because the shepherds watching over the flock by night are the twelve watching over their lambs, that’s us, who desire for us to be fed with Christ’s words and the Loaves blessed and broken to become the bread blessed and broken for others. 

The Catholic catechism teaches that, ‘The Church draws its life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so she becomes Christ’s body.’ 

The Kless family, Cara, Christine, Sean, & Ed

Today’s gospel reading just happens to be an entire teaching from the initial ending of the John gospel.  To paraphrase, we are told the signs of the gospels were written so that we might believe that the Messiah has come to us as the Christ, the Lamb of God, to bring forgiveness to our sins and union with the Father through him. 

This is why, like Thomas, we are to place our hand into the pierced side of the body of Christ, because Christ’s body symbolizes the Church, the body of Christ alive in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This wisdom must give specific meaning to the story within the context of this last teaching: ‘For as the Father has sent me, so I send you, in the peace that comes from being forgiven and with the power and authority of the Spirit breathed upon us to be the bread blessed and broken to the ends of the earth.

Over time, I will help you come to understand that all of the resurrection teachings of the Gospels are about the Church! 

Cole

Now, let me give you a brief insight as to why the inspired writers added another ending to the John gospel that consists of two additional teachings.  Both the Mark gospel and the Matthew gospel have a second teaching about the loaves and fishes.  The loaves, fishes and leftovers are signs, when understood correctly, that describe the mission Christ gives to his disciples, and us, to take the good news to the ends of the earth. The 5 loaves and the 7 loaves are the twelve disciples who have been called to become the Bread they eat.  We are the leftovers! From us are to come other leftovers!  

The gospel of Luke was not written with this second teaching because its writers wrote a whole book, called the Acts of the Apostles, to describe the mission to the ends of the earth; one of its teachings is about the 7.  Since the inspired writers of the John gospel placed an obvious ending to their gospel, they must have envisioned another book to complement Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.  Later, after a decision was made not to do this, two inspired teachings were added to the original John gospel—one a teaching about the 7. 

The first would present how all the stories of the four gospels were used in the mission to the ends of the earth.  Since Luke’s Acts continuously describe the persecution of the Apostle Paul, not one of the twelve, the last teaching in the John gospel was written to incorporate the persecution of the Apostle Peter.   Recall that I suggested to you to read the Sermon of the Mount from the Matthew gospel during Lent.  The beatitudes end with, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for the sake of the Christ, ‘Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The context of each of our personal stories is not complete.  How will others remember us as leftovers blessed and broken for others? 

Leo with John

Readings:   Acts 10, 34, 37-43, This man God raised; Psalm 118, This day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad; 1 Corinthians 5, 6-8, A little yeast leavens all the dough; John 20, 1-9, Mary of Magdal came to the tomb early.

Leo lighting the Easter Candle with his mom, Shonda

Acts: 

Author: Most likely Luke, who wrote the Gospel with his name and who followed and copied some of Mark's material. 

Date: ca. 70-100 A.D., therefore ca. 40 years after the death of Jesus. 

Subject: the ministry of Paul & the 12 Apostles after the death of Jesus.

        Chapters 1-8 deal with the Resurrection, Ascension, & Pentecost (Holy Spirit)

        Chapters 8- 28 deal with Paul's conversion & ministry.

The DeGenovas, Alison, Sabrina, & John

Today's selection: Two visions/dreams have just occurred:

        1. Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army and a Gentile, has a vision in which he is instructed to go to a town called Joppa and talk with a man named Peter.

        2.  Peter has a vision in which a sheet held by its 4 corners comes down and is full of all kinds of animals.  A voice says, "Eat."  Peter refuses because of the law of ritual impurity, i.e., some animals are ritually impure and it is prohibited to eat them.  But the voice insists.  At this point three of Cornelius' people arrive and invite him to come to Cornelius' house.  This vision symbolizes that even Gentiles who are ritually impure are invited to the new Christian community.

Becky & Lily

Our selection takes up just after Peter arrives at Cornelius' house, finds a group of Cornelius' friends, is invited to speak to them, and he begins.  The following is what he says to the group of Gentiles gathered in Cornelius' house.

Meaning of the Word Easter: the origin of the use of Easter seems lost in history.  Probably not from Latin, which uses pasqua.  Probably not coming from a German goddess of spring, which some have suggested.  May have emerged from early Celtic converts (British Isles), who wanted to use their own words for Christian feasts, rather than Latin words.

The Quads are growing!

The Resurection Today

Last Satuday there was a picnic.  This was not your ordinary picnic.  It took place in Flower Mound on the west side of town, the Circle R Ranch.  It went from about 10:30 to 2:30 on one of our recent beautiful days.

The picnic was for kids handicapped in some way. 

Love for the Kids Picnic

There was another picnic before Christmas, this one for underprivileged kids.  3,000 younger kids poured in and ran all over the place for about 5 hours. 

This past picnic the kids were not running around.  Many of them came in wheel chairs or prams.  They were often physically misshapen.  They frequently could not speak.  But they could smile and they did.

I volunteered to work at the photo area.  This was really well run by two black guys with their camera, lap top, and printer, as well as another guy who arranged the families, and two girls who provided decoration.  The families could choose their decorations or get ups from 4 themes represented in pictures, like Easter, cowboy, fireman, and so forth.   They hardly needed me for crowd control like the December picnic I worked. 

Love for the Kids Picnic, Photo Shop

What I did mostly was watch and touch, and be touched.  I was close to tears with so many of these kids and with their families.  I shared this with some of the team and they, too, said they were likewise moved.  I wanted to hug the kids and hug the parents.

Because I was not greatly needed I moved to the welcome post.  Here I was touched again.  People were trickling in, so I began talking with a lady who was also welcoming kids and families.  It was her first time to volunteer.  Eventually she talked about her son, about 40 years old and slightly handicapped.   He had been shot a month or so ago at the downtown Dart train stop. 

Emmit Cronin, 2 weeks old

I did not know what to say.  She was in tears and I too, especially because of her attitude.  She was grateful.  She was thankful for the long life her impaired son had had. 

I talk about these simple events because for me they are Easter events, Resurrection events.  The characteristics of this type of an event: more life, more peace, and gratitude. 

The kids were not so unusual.  The talk with the lady, Terry, was pretty routine in the beginning.  Similar things happen all the time.  I went to touch these people.  But I was touched.   I came away with more life, more peace, and so much more gratitude for so much. 

The Cronins, Amanda, Ben, & Emmit, an Easter Event

What is the Easter event in your life today?

Readings:   John 12, 12-16 (Story of Jesus entry into Jerusalem); Isaiah 50, 4-7, I gave my back to those who beat me; Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?; Philippians 2, 6-11, He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave; Mark 14, 15, 1-39, The Passion.

The community processes out of the cafetorium into the hall where the singing begins and Mike & Ryan lead the procession back into the main celebration area

Because of the extraordinary amount of reading in this celebration, there is no homily.

The reenactment of the Entry into Jerusalem with palms

Special Note: Holy Thursday & Good Friday Services, the home of Curtis & Mabel, 7:00 P.M.

As each person enters into the cafetorium they and their palms are blessed and cleansed with water

Emma with the help of her mother, Beth, lights the 6 candles of Lent