Text: John 20:19-31 Sometimes Easter comes late and that has nothing to do with the calendar. As John tells it, Easter comes late for Thomas, but he is not alone. On the first Easter morning, the risen Jesus meets Mary in the garden after which she runs to tell the boys, “I have seen the Lord.” But that night, they don’t throw the party to top all parties. Instead, they lock the doors, close the curtains, and huddle together awash in a puddle of fear. What Mary reported; well

Text: Luke 24:1-12 Dear Joe, I am reading this letter to your family and friends gathered at Cove Presbyterian Church on the day of your baptism. Earlier this morning your mom and dad made promises to teach you about God’s love and the good folks at Cove made promises to show you God’s love. On your baptism day, your grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousin Jackson, were with you or were celebrating with you on screen. As your proud Grand Uncle, it was a day I want to help y

Luke 23:32-43 Among the four Gospel writers, Luke tells the most compelling story of the views expressed by three men nailed to Roman crosses. On each cross we hear a dramatically different view. A view from the first cross: “Look around you. It’s a violent world and only the toughest survive. If you don’t look out for yourself, no one else will. No one! Take a look beneath us. The clothes we were wearing a few minutes ago are being auctioned off with loaded dice. Just look a

First Reflection: Live and Move and . . . Bach was not much older than a boy when he wrote the funeral music we will soon hear. We do not know whose funeral it was and yet it is clearly music for every funeral, for yours, for mine. Drawing on a wealth of Scripture, Bach celebrates life in the midst of death. He celebrates that in God we live and move and have our being. We do so when we are being nursed at our mother’s breast, when we take a seat on the first school bus, when