East2B24.  Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35.  “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.”  Perhaps they thought that Jesus was coming back very soon and so they readily got rid of their earthly goods, since they saw no need to care for themselves in the long term on earth.  So deep was their faith in the Lord.

John 20:19-31.  Jesus came dispelling their fear behind locked doors saying, “Peace be with you.”  What joy they had who had thought that all had ended in his bloody death on the cross to now see their resurrected Jesus.  Jesus, knowing that he would ascend into heaven, prepares to have his work continue on earth by sending his Apostles to do what he was doing.  “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  Thomas, who was not present at the appearance of Jesus, demands physical proof that Jesus has arisen.  Proof is given him as a call to all who live after Thomas that we are called not to believe because we see but to believe because we have faith.  “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”  We belong to the believers who have not seen and so our belief is all the more praiseworthy.  Not everything that Jesus did is written but what is written is “written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” What is written guides us to believe in what we have not seen.

1 John 5:1-6.  “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God.”   That means that, if we believe that Jesus is our Savior, then we are a child of God.”  “Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  We are in the world but do not belong to the world (John 17) for the world is only the dirt of the earth without the spirit and breathe of God.  Our faith embraces our heavenly ancestry & heritage with its heavenly inheritance.  We have been made to belong to what is heavenly, not worldly, because God made us in his own image, after his own likeness. (Genesis 1:26a)