The First Day

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli with Foundry UMC, April 12, 2026, the second Sunday of Easter.

Text:  John 20:19-31

 

This Sunday, the second Sunday of Easter, the church traditionally calls, “Low Sunday.”  And that is quite often how it feels.  Easter Sunday was great.  But now, just a few days have gone by and we find ourselves at some distance from the Easter joy.  And we may wonder—was it all a dream?  Did God really defeat death in the resurrection of Jesus?  Is God’s love stronger than the forces of despair?  These questions are Easter questions and how we answer them really does have life or death consequences.  

 

For if death has the last word, if the forces of injustice, despair, and defeat are all there is, then we might as well hunker down, get by as best we can and make do with what we have.

 

We have heard the story that Jesus is risen from the dead.  And like Thomas, even though we’ve heard the witnesses who swear that it’s true, we may not be buying it.  Or maybe we figure—“Ok, Jesus might have been resurrected…so what does that have to do with me?”  What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for us and the way we live—not someday, but today?  Is change, “newness of life,” possible for folks like us?  Can we hope for change, slaves that we are to habit, routine, the predictable and the patterned?  

 

The stories and scriptures of the Bible teach us that there is a difference between knowing about something and being changed by something.  There is a difference between having heard that Jesus is raised and to be changed by that reality.  As one religious scholar has put it:  there is a difference between knowing a doctrine of salvation and being saved.  

 

In our Gospel stories of Easter and in the story we get this week of the disciples and Thomas there are folks who are told that Jesus is raised from the dead—and pretty much they don’t believe it just from hearing the words.  Certainly we don’t see an immediate change in them.  

 

In our Gospel today, the disciples have been told that Jesus is raised and that Mary Magdalene has seen him and spoken to him—and there the disciples sit:  locked up in fear.  And when Thomas is told that Jesus has appeared to the other disciples, he comes right out and says that he needs proof or he will not believe.  We can hear something again and again, we can understand it on an intellectual level, but that’s not the same thing as being changed and formed by that thing.  We don’t really know something until it changes our lives.  

 

// All of us know what that’s like—knowing something in our head but not being able to translate it into any meaningful action. Paul makes this abundantly clear in his own struggle with “knowing” the good, but being unable to “do” the good that he knows and wants to do. So if understanding what Easter is about, understanding it intellectually, will not affect our lives in any significant way, then what are the alternatives?

 

What if, based on our hearing of the story, we tried to ease our way into new life?  This, in most cases, is much more realistic and, frankly, a bit less intimidating than thinking that we’re supposed to be transformed all in one bright flash of light.  Harvard psychologist Jermone Brunner says that persons more normally act their way into a manner of thinking than think their way into a manner of acting.  In other words—we don’t usually change because we figured something out.

We change because we started doing something new.

Easter isn’t something you think your way into.

It’s something you live your way into.

So how might we “act our way into new life –into Easter?”

I once heard about a guy who often dragged in to work after his “play hard” weekends.  He was asked one Monday morning what he’d done over the weekend.  The guy replied, “I did a favor for a buddy of mine…some construction work.”  

 

The next Monday, the guy was asked again about his weekend.  He replied, “I helped my friend out again on that building project.  I guess it is some kind of charity his church is working on.”  

 

The next Monday, when asked about how his weekend was, the guy said, “I bonded with a guy named Leonard while we figured out how to install a toilet.”  

The next Monday, the reply was “I helped build a house so that this family—Maria and John and their three kids—would finally have a real home to live in.”  

 

The next week, he said “I spent the weekend making a difference with my friends from Trinity UMC.”  

And the next Monday, when asked what had happened over the weekend, the guy replied, “God has changed my life!”  

 

Often times, we know how far we need to travel to reach any place of wholeness, we look at our lives and at our communities, at our habits and at our struggles, and the sheer immensity or uncertainty of the road ahead is enough to keep us from taking a single step.  It’s like those moments of life when there is so much to attend to that, in thinking about it all at once, you grow so overwhelmed, that you attend to nothing, which in turn, makes you feel even more overwhelmed.  

 

What if you took things one small step at a time, tackling the smaller challenges first, or putting your energy into one very important piece of what is on your plate?  Just get your foot on the path, just take one small step toward that vision of wholeness that is God’s vision for you.  Take a step.  Install a toilet.  Join a team.  Play with your children.  Make a friend.  Forgive someone.  Organize that pile.  Make a donation.  Live in the needs of the day.

 

I got to thinking about the fact that the story of those disciples in that locked room happened when it was still the first day of the week…it was still Easter day…still resurrection day. It was also the first day of the rest of their lives… They weren’t doing anything. They hadn’t yet been changed by the astonishing truth of God’s power over sin and fear and death. They had heard about it, but then the risen Jesus showed up.  Everything changed after that.  Jesus came speaking words of peace.  He let Thomas “act his way into new life,” by drawing close and touching his broken body. And that made all the difference. And then he sent them out to live, to act, to proclaim, to heal, to love, to build the Kindom of God.  

 

Today is the first day of the week…the first day of the rest of your life.  Even if you’re here today feeling far away from Easter joy, wondering whether change is really possible in your life, doubting God’s presence or that any of what we proclaim is really true—even if you find yourself in one of those places today, we are all given an opportunity to act our way toward Easter together.  We don’t see the human Jesus here today. But again, just as he did over 2000 years ago, the risen Christ comes to his gathered disciples on the first day of the rest of our lives. Jesus meets us right here, wherever we are in our lives of faith and questioning, and offers us peace, offers us his broken body, breathes life into us. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” and then blesses us with the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit won’t let you sit still for long… 

 

So don’t wait to feel ready. Don’t wait to be certain. Don’t wait to believe perfectly. Take a step. Live your way into Easter. Because today—

is still the first day.