On the First Sunday After Easter

1 John 5:4-12, John 20:19-23

I apologize for getting these out so late the last two weeks! I am hoping next week to be on a better/earlier schedule. For the first Sunday after Easter, the lectionary gives us two readings to consider. The Epistle deals with the new birth by which, through faith, we overcome the world. The Gospel, then, is one of Jesus’ resurrection appearances as relayed in John’s Gospel, when a week after Jesus’ resurrection he appears to his disciples in a closed room, commissions them, and gives them the Holy Spirit that sins may be forgiven. It’s the latter of these two readings that I want to focus on today.