From Rev. Ben –
This Sunday is “Doubting Thomas Sunday.” It is called that because each year, on the Sunday after Easter, the Revised Common Lectionary suggests that churches read and consider the story of the Apostle Thomas and his doubts. Because it always has seemed important to me that believers also doubt, this has always seemed like an important Sunday to observe each year. This year it seems especially important because we are living through what I hope are the waning days of a pandemic, when the importance of believing in science and the efficacy of vaccines seems to go against my usual support for the importance of doubting.
Also, this week is special because all of the liturgies and prayers (and part of the sermon too) are taken from the work of poets I like: Mary Oliver, Carl Sandburg, W. B. Yates, and Wendell Berry. My plan, originally, was to make some kind of connection between poetry and doubts, but it didn’t happen. Instead I wrote a sermon while suffering the side affects of a Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
View April 11th Celebration online
- Marcia’s prelude is an arrangement of the hymn “We Know that Christ is Raised”, set to the tune “Engleberg” by Charles Villers Stanford,
- I will welcome you to celebration,
- Jennifer Hansen and her children, Layla, Myra and Adah will call us to celebration,
- The opening hymn is “Now the Green Blade Riseth”,
- Tara Flannagan will lead us in a prayer for peace,
- Pat Schwinn will read John 20:19-28,
- I will preach a seron on doubt and as I do I ask your forbearance for the sound of power tools in the background (the good news is that real progress is being made on the new staircase outside the education building, the bad news is that it messed up my sermon a little bit),
- This week’s special music is Kim singing Mozart’s “Alleluia”, accompanied by Kim and her son, William Keys,
- I will lead us in a pastoral prayer,
- The closing hymn is “Guide My Feet”,
- We will have another video from folks in the congregation working on climate change issues, and
- I will close us with a family life video.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.