{"id":253,"date":"2019-04-28T23:30:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T23:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=253"},"modified":"2019-04-28T23:30:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T23:30:49","slug":"second-sunday-of-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/04\/28\/second-sunday-of-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Sunday of Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John\n20:19-31<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is risen! (Alleluia) Grace\nto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare a lot of important passages in Scripture that we read throughout the year. Today\u2019s\nGospel is one such passage and hidden within the story of Jesus\u2019 resurrection\nand Thomas\u2019 apparent doubting, there is a passage that we often overlook that\ndescribes Jesus giving the Disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit; I was first taught\nabout this hidden passage during my Confirmation instruction. The passage is\nthe foundation for a section of the old Small Catechism called the Office of\nthe Keys. One reason we often pass it by, without much discussion, is that it\ntalks about Jesus, himself giving the Holy Spirit to his Disciples, throwing\nout of whack our church calendars: it is not until after the Ascension that we as\nthe church celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit as coming to the Disciples, (Pentecost),\nbut it also gets overlooked because of the importance we put on the story of\nThomas and doubting. It seems we don\u2019t want to confuse people\u2019s understanding\nof the gift of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwe miss something by ignoring this passage. The truth is, Jesus seems to have given\nthe Disciples and his other followers gifts of the Holy Spirit, on this occasion\nand at other times, gifts of the Spirit that may have been of a more limited\nnature. Today\u2019s reading speaks of Jesus, giving the Holy Spirit\u2019s gift of the\npower to forgive and not to forgive, right after Jesus was raised from the dead,\nbut before his ascension. These are Jesus\u2019 words to his Disciples: \u201cReceive the\nHoly Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you\nretain the sins of any, they are retained.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ncan\u2019t tell you how impactful this verse has been to me, in my personal life and\nin my ministry. My pastor, way back when, taught my confirmation class that as\nwe accept the faith that is given us and as we live into this faith, these\nwords spoken by Jesus, carry down through the centuries to us. I struggled with\nthe implications of these words. What they mean, is that with regard to issues\nof sin, God literally listens to us; if we forgive someone, God forgives that\nperson and if we decide not to forgive someone, God doesn\u2019t forgive that\nperson. Jesus\u2019 words have always made me feel, powerful and laid on me a great\nburden of responsibility. I\u2019ve struggled most of my life with their implications.\nAs a student in confirmation class, I remember feeling a bit excited by the\npower; for a while I purposefully retained the things my brother did to me, as\nsins, and held them against him. My kids mind thought, I may not be able to\nbeat him in a fight, but I can certainly see him punished in eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maturity,\nchanged my way of looking at things. What he did to me, did not deserve God\u2019s\npunishment; and, to be totally honest, I may have contributed, at least a\nlittle, to his anger at me, leading to our fights. This gift of the Holy Spirit,\nthough powerful, is really not about power. This gift of offering God\u2019s\nforgiveness and withholding it, is about God\u2019s love and mercy; it is about\nJesus\u2019 sacrifice and the forgiveness he earned for us all, on the cross. Retaining\nanother\u2019s sins against them, was something that could be done, but the love of\nJesus should be what leads us to retain these sins, and then only until we can\nhelp the person to understand God\u2019s love in Jesus Christ; its goal is not to get\nsome sense of vengeance or to bring about God\u2019s punishment, but always to provide\nhope for repentance and forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nI have come to better understanding Jesus\u2019 reason for offering this gift, I\u2019ve\nbecome a person who wants, with every opportunity to forgive; the gift of the\nHoly Spirit has placed on me a heavy responsibility to help lead others to\nrepentance so that they may know forgiveness. I\u2019ve often been accused of\nforgiving too easily and too often and not getting angry at people when I\nshould, because of this gift. I resist with all my strength the urge to hold\nanother\u2019s sins against them, it is not my place to hold grudges or to retain\nsins as a way of settling my personal disputes. Still, there are times when it\nis important to confront people with their failure to love, with their choices\nthat go against the will of God and the love of Jesus. And it is important, to\nremind these people of these failings and sins, until they are ready or willing\nto change for the better, possibly confess their sins, and try to make things\nright with those they have hurt. I\u2019ve learned that forgiveness and the retaining\nof sins is never about me, unless it is me that has sinned, both forgiving sin\nand retaining sin is about helping others to become right with their Lord, to\nlove their family, friends, neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\nall the challenges that the Lord has thrown my way, this has been the hardest\nand maybe what has best directed my ministry. Clergy are often charged with the\nresponsibility of helping those in their congregations to move away from sinful\npractices, to become more loving and to confess their sins and make restitution\nwhen possible, and then to offer Jesus\u2019 most generous forgiveness. But it is\nnot just clergy who are given this gift; Martin Luther described the membership\nof the Lutheran Church as the \u201cpriesthood of all believers.\u201d So, this is not\nabout those who have gone to seminary, or wear this little white collar; Luther\nunderstood the \u201cOffice of the Keys,\u201d the right to forgive and retain sins, is\nsomething that rests in the hands of every member of the Body of Christ, every\nChristian. That means each of you! There is a great deal of power entrusted to\nyou! To us! More important there is great responsibility and with this gift there\nare numerous opportunities, for us, to teach and demonstrate the forgiveness\nand love of Jesus Christ. Be generous in forgiving and retain a person\u2019s sin\nonly when you are committed to share Jesus\u2019 forgiveness and lead the sinner to\nrepentance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 20:19-31 He is risen! (Alleluia) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ There are a lot of important passages in Scripture that we read throughout the year. Today\u2019s Gospel is one such passage and hidden within the story of Jesus\u2019 resurrection and Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}