Rev Bill

I have posted my sermon from this morning on my sermon blog. It’s the second in my Easter series on “Easter Means Changed Lives” — based on John 20:19-31 and entitled: Easter Means Changed Lives: Thomas’ Story.

Here’s a portion of it:

So — what changed Thomas?
What happened to him?
What happened was that He finally had his opportunity to see and experience the risen Lord — to put his hands in the nail prints — and believe – and this changed his life.
In a sense, he became a “blood brother” with Christ.
My best friend as I was growing up was John Mackintosh.
John and I lived about a block from each other — and we saw each other almost every day. We were in the same grade in school — after school we would usually do things together — we roomed together for the first 3 years in college — he was a groomsman in Sally and my wedding.
When we were about 6 years old we became interested in Indians — as many boys that age do. We decided that we would bond our friendship in the way we had heard many Indians did. This is not the most
hygienic thing to do but in 1961 we didn’t know about things like AIDS — so I would not recommend this practice to young people today — but John and I went to our secret hiding place one day — I pricked the middle finger on my right hand and he pricked his — letting the blood flow freely. We then touched fingers — and let our blood mingle.
We were blood brothers.
People who knew us said that we began to act alike talk alike — do things alike. We thought to ourselves that this is what blood brothers did.
Well, Thomas became a “blood brother” with the risen Christ.
He put his hand in Jesus’ nail-pierced hand and His pierced side.
In a very real sense, he became a blood-brother with Christ — his risen Lord — as his hands touched the wounds of Christ. At that moment he began to believe in the new life the risen Christ offered him – and began working to change the world with the power of the risen Christ.

You can read the entire sermon here.

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