RENEWsletter for April 11, 2010 - 2nd Easter

Dear Friends of Renewal,
The Scriptures for Sunday jump all over the centuries from the evening of Resurrection Day to hundreds of years before when the Psalmist predicts a promotion, to the first few weeks after the Ascension of Jesus, to late in the First Century with a story about a time that is yet in our future.

The readings for this coming Second Sunday of the Easter Season can be found on the web at http://www.usccb.org/nab/041110.shtml, and in your Bible at:

Acts 5.12-16
Psalm 118.2-4, 13-15, 22-24 (with v. 1)
Revelation 1.9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
John 20.19-31

I'm going to take these readings in chronological order this time and start with the Responsorial Psalm. Look at Ps. 118.22. "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Science fiction writers have speculated what would happen if a rocket ship were swallowed up by a black hole. A black hole is a super-dense star whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape and everything that falls into it is crushed into a very tiny space. But writers suggest that the object will emerge somewhere else in the Universe at a "white hole". There is no evidence for the existence of these white holes, but the idea illustrates what I like to call "the Principle of the Paradox". This is a concept that occurs in the Bible when something that happens is exactly the opposite of what one would expect. (For example, Luke 9.24. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.") Jesus was aware of this Psalm and knew that though he was to be crucified, God would raise him from the dead and make him a "cornerstone" of faith for millennia to come. For "his mercy endures forever!" (vs. 2-4).

Next we come to the time of the Gospel Reading. Jesus had been crucified the Friday before. It was Sunday now, and only some women had seen him. But now he showed up at the place where the frightened disciples were holed up. The doors were locked, and the disciples were worried about what to do next when they suddenly realized Jesus was standing there (John 20.19). Their joy was overwhelming (v. 20). At first they must have thought things would return to the way they were before that trouble with the Sanhedrin. But Jesus had news for them. "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you," he said (v. 21). Peace? With the chief priests out there getting people crucified? Send us? But we're all stones the builders have rejected.... Surely thoughts like that were going through their heads. But then Jesus breathed on them and the Holy Spirit entered them (v. 22). Suddenly the Principle of the Paradox made perfect sense. They were to become cornerstones.

The First Reading is next chronologically. Peter indeed has become a cornerstone of faith in the risen Lord. This scene takes place after Christ has ascended to heaven and there is no more physical evidence of his material existence. But the work of Jesus -- healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead -- continued to be carried out by the apostles (Acts 5.12). And great numbers of people, all without Doubting Thomas's hang up about "seeing's believing", came to a belief that the risen, no longer visible Lord Jesus was the healer of souls (v. 14).

Lastly we come to the Second Reading from Revelation. This was possibly written by the same John who wrote the Gospel. He was marooned on an island called Patmos and it was there that he received the visions and inspiration to write the Book of Revelation (Rev 1.9). Jesus appears to him in human form (v. 13), yet not merely human. Jesus is no longer riding the stream of time. He is in his eternal body and has access to all times, first and last, past, present and future (see vs. 17, 18). His command to John is to write about all the things that have happened, are happening at that time, and that will happen (v. 19). And he, Jesus, was just the one to show him all those things.

We humans walk through our lives one minute, hour, day at a time. We remember the past with nostalgia or regret, we notice what's happening around us in real time and smile or frown, and we look forward to or dread the future. But our Savior doesn't walk through time. He was around before the creation of the Universe, he'll be around long after the Universe is finished, and he's around today, now, this very second. He is in control and he says to us, as he said to John who was scared to half to death on that island, "Don't be afraid..." (Rev 1.17).

As we work through our lives day by day, we need not be afraid. Our Friend and Brother, our Savior Jesus Christ, is there beside us to turn disaster into blessing, mourning into dancing, and fear into peace. He truly is risen!

Randy Jones
"Those who give up too soon miss the chance to become a cornerstone!"