Sunday 27th April, 2nd Sunday of Easter, 1st after Easter

Have you seen God? Our gospel reading for the main service today emphasises the importance of experience as a foundation for discipleship. Thomas, feeling left out and still in grief after his experience of Jesus’ crucifixion, is unable to accept the news of resurrection until Jesus makes it real to him in a visible, tangible way that his senses are unable to refuse. In response, he is the first character in John’s Gospel to recognise that Jesus is, in fact, God. Jesus then affirms the faith of those who believe without seeing, but my experience of nurturing discipleship and ministry teaches me that although we all find the reality of God in different ways, ultimately for each of us there is a foundational something, a touchstone that says to us, “This is true. This is real. This matters.” For some it’s the beauty and grandeur of nature, for some the conviction of Scripture, for some the love they have received from others in Jesus’ name, for some a powerful mystical experience. We can lose sight of God as we wander through the world: we all need that place of encounter as something we can return to and find God again. Where is yours?

Every blessing,

Roger.