Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133, 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31
Lucy Calhoun
My name is Lucy Calhoun, I’m 16 years old, I go to Montgomery Catholic, and and I’ve grown up going to Ascension. It has been home to my family and I my whole life. Going to church has always been a part of me and I don’t remember anything different. I loved going to Sunday school with Mrs. Nan and all my wonderful teachers throughout the years, and singing songs with my friends in children’s church with Mrs. Tiffany. Racing to ring the bells after church, and sitting by the fishpond drinking lemonade in the warm sun after the service. Sliding down the waterslide on Ascension Day, and stuffing my face with pancakes in Ascension Hall on Fat Tuesday. When I was little I even begged my Grandmom for her fancy cup from the Mardi Gras parade because it looked like a chalice, so I could celebrate the Eucharist with my American Girl dolls of course! Growing up going to church shaped me into the person I am today. It even showed me my home away from home. I could talk about wonderful Camp McDowell forever. It really is God’s backyard and it has brought me to some of my closest friends. I will be forever grateful that Ascension and camp have been such important parts of my life growing up.
Today I’m going to be talking about God’s plan. I don’t know about y’all but I love a good encouraging bible verse. We’ve all heard them, and one that always sticks with me is Jerimiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” As beautiful as this verse is, it’s tough to believe it when you need it. I find myself asking how God has a plan when my whole life has been turned upside down in a week. As some of you probably know, my dad got a new job and my family is moving to Fairhope. It was the most unexpected news I’d ever received, and I just didn’t know what to think. I’ve lived in Montgomery my whole life and I never imagined I’d be leaving before graduating. It was really hard to remember God has a plan. But, during this Easter season, one of the ways I feel full confidence in God’s plan is through his passion. In the same way Taylor Swift leaves Easter eggs giving us little hints about her next album, Jesus gives us Easter eggs about his sacrifice. If anyone is lost, an Easter egg is when little clues and hints are given that all tie together in the end. Jesus did that for us. He had a perfect plan and many did not understand at first. I just love the history of it all.
Jesus was crucified during the Jewish festival of the Passover. We all remember the story. God’s people were enslaved in Egypt and God sent a bunch of plagues. That’s where we get the camp song Pharaoh Pharaoh. lt’s a song we sing that goes through the story of Moses telling Pharaoh to let God’s people go. One of the plagues God sent was the death of the firstborn. God asked all his people to kill a spotless male lamb, spread the blood on the doorpost of their houses, and eat the flesh of their sacrifice. This practice protected God’s chosen from the curse of death. The execution of Jesus took place during the Passover festival in Jerusalem. In the temple, priests began to slaughter the lambs at about Noon on the day of preparation for the Passover, and John tells us that Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified at “about noon” on the day of preparation. Jesus’ sacrifice was made at the same time the lambs were sacrificed. During his crucifixion, Jesus was brutally beaten and scourged, but none of his bones were broken, just like the spotless lamb. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He saved us from the curse of death. He was the spotless lamb free from the blemish of sin sent to carry the weight of our mistakes on the cross. Now, I’ve heard the story of the passion countless times, but it’s not until recently that it really started to mean something to me. It’s like I was sensitized to the story. l had heard it so many times in Sunday school and VBS. I’ve really related it to the thought that God had perfectly planned out his life, death, and resurrection, and he spent the whole Old Testament setting the building blocks for his plan of redemption.
It’s the little things, the Easter eggs that tie Jesus’ passover all together. Jesus was crucified on Golgotha. also known as Mount Moriah. The same mountain where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Right before Issac was sacrificed God said no, I will provide the lamb. Jesus was the lamb hundreds of years later. Sacrificed in the same place. All the random Bible stories you learn in Sunday school aren’t so random. They are all intentionally written and all tie together in a bigger picture. All the parallels in God’s plan can’t be a coincidence. They give me full confidence in Jesus and his plan. Not only his intricate plan for salvation but his plan for my life. I feel like we can all relate to Thomas in today’s gospel. Jesus comes to the disciples and shows them his wounds. Thomas wasn’t there for Jesus’s visit and when the other disciples tell him Jesus came he says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the marks of the nails on his side, I will not believe.” A week later Jesus came and said to Thomas, ”Put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Sometimes I feel like Thomas in my own way. I feel like God isn’t listening to me because I see no change in my struggles and no answers to my prayers. But just like Jesus told Thomas I try to remember, to not doubt, but believe. Just because my prayers aren’t answered the way I want them to be doesn’t mean they aren’t answered the way God wants them to be. Just like Jesus says in Jeremiah 29:11, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Living the Christian life doesn’t mean it’s all butterflies and rainbows. I think sometimes we think that saying we trust God and put our faith in Him means we will live a peaceful and undisturbed life. Just because we may experience suffering doesn’t mean God has abandoned us or that our prayers go unanswered. Sometimes, though we may not see it, the suffering God puts us through is part of His bigger plan. Living the Christian life is living like Jesus. Jesus had happy times and sad times. Jesus rejoiced and Jesus wept, but Jesus also suffered. When we go through suffering so we can have a resurrection, so we can have our Easter and say Hallelujah. The hard things we go through may make us feel abandoned and isolated, but that’s when we stand up in the midst of our hardship and say I will praise God. I will not doubt and I will trust in Him. I would like to close my sermon with one of my favorite quotes. “Life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of the faithful, so be swift to love and make haste to be kind and go in peace to love and serve the lord.”
Thanks be to God.