E2A.  Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47.  This Epistle reading begins with the word ‘they’ who, from the verses preceding this Sunday Epistle, were the three thousand converted to faith in Jesus by Peter’s sermon.  The Apostles continued to teach them as they all lived together sharing all their physical resources, meeting together in the temple area and “breaking bread together in their homes.”  They were meeting the temple area because at that early time they still thought of themselves as Jews.  It would appear that ‘breaking bread together’, what we call now the Mass, was done in the context of the family meal without a priest/presbyter.  There is the conjecture that the lifestyle of having all things in common arose of their commonly held assumption that Christ’s second coming, when the universe would come to an end, was near and so there was no need to provide for the future but simply use up the physical things they already had.  Later Paul would collect money from the people to whom he preached for the poor Christians in Jerusalem who were living in poverty because of the practice of not providing for the future. (Romans 15:25-28; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8 & 9; Galatians 2:10)  They lived in an idyllic joy.  “Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”  God kept enriching his Church with many miracles which made the Church very attractive to the people of Jerusalem.  “And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

John 20:19-31.  John’s gospel has a different timeline than the Synoptics’.  This gospel begins, “On the evening of the first day of the week,” which is our Easter day.  However, shortly after his greeting to the Apostles, it relates, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  For John Pentecost occurs on Easter day.  With the Spirit the Apostles receive the power to forgive sins, which the Jews had reserved to only God Himself.  Of course, we believe that both the Spirit and the power to forgive sins are given to the Church because the Apostles represent the Church, the new Israel, God’s new people.  The joy of the Apostles upon seeing Jesus alive and well was very great.  On this occasion, Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Jesus commissions the Apostles and also the whole Church to go forth and bring all people to accept Jesus as their Christ and God.  What is written in these Scriptures is not so much a record of the past as a message to the future calling upon us to be likewise believers as those followers of the Christ in the past.

Thomas whose personality is revealed here and in other places in the Scriptures represents the down-to-earth show-me types who have a very hard time moving past the ordinary everyday material world.  He says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, etc., I will not believe.”  In other words I will not put my trust in what I cannot physically see, especially of a man who I know is dead.  When Jesus does show himself to Thomas, Thomas recognizes in the risen Jesus not only someone human but even more importantly someone divine, “My Lord and my God!”  The belief that is the entrusting of our lives to someone goes beyond just knowing that something is true because there is something there that is a physical reality.  The faith or belief that is the entrusting of our lives to someone requires that we see in that person a quality that is greater than anything that the merely physical can reveal.  The lesson that Jesus gives us for all times is: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

John seems to end his gospel twice: here in John 20:30-31 and in John 21:24-25, recognizing that it is impossible to get down everything in the written word of what Jesus did or said, nor is it necessary.  What is written is not written to say it all but “that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of god, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

1 Peter 1:3-9.

“Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet you believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Once again the theme of not seeing but believing is repeated.  “As we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)  “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)  To know is to see; I do not need to believe in what I see, since my eyes tell me I know it is right in front of me.  Belief or trust is to recognize something as true even though I cannot physically verify it by seeing it to be so.  The resurrection of Christ requires faith; the redemption gained for us by Jesus to eternal life requires faith, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”