Redeemer Lutheran and St. Theodore
On Sunday, April 12, the congregations of Redeemer Lutheran Church and St. Theodore of Canterbury Episcopal Church will celebrate the second Sunday of Easter with Rev. Murray Finck presiding at the 10:30 a.m. Holy Communion service at 13564 St. Andrews Drive. All are welcome.
There will be a short special congregational meeting after the service. Then, people are welcome to join for fellowship in the Fellowship Hall with coffee, tea, cookies and snacks.
The bazaar committee has decided to meet for the assembly of crafts every Monday in April at 10 a.m. The next meeting is Monday, April 13, downstairs in the Fellowship Hall. The congregation will provide the planned projects with directions, guidance, and all the materials. All are welcome. This will help prepare for the spring bazaar on April 30-May 2 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
The Gospel lesson for this week is from John 20:19–31.
There are times in the Gospels when people can see themselves in the place of one of the people in the Gospels. Sometimes, it’s Peter because he is often willing to plunge right in and frequently gets called out by Jesus. Then, there is Thomas in this week’s Gospel. He was sent out for a food run and when he comes back, the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” His reaction is much like what many people’s would have been: “I won’t believe it until I see it.”
Believers today don’t get to see Jesus walking around. This requires faith, which is helped by community. The difficulty of trying to go it alone in faith is that there is only room for people to see themselves: their own thoughts, reflection, wants and needs. For church to happen, people need a community.
When a believer goes through a time when they do not see the Lord working in their life, they need the community to say, “We have seen the Lord,” and sometimes a believer needs to be the person to say it to others.
Believers need to come to an understanding, flawed as it may be, of the risen Lord. They must be an example of word and sacrament to others who need to hear and experience Jesus.
