The Third Sunday of Easter The Lord be with you A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized Jesus at the breaking of bread.
They were still talking about all this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,
Peace be with you.
In a state of alarm and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost.
But he said,
Why are you so agitated?
And why are these doubts rising in your hearts?
Look at my hands and feet.
Yes,
It is I indeed.
Touch me and see for yourselves.
A ghost has no flesh and bones as you see I have.
And as he said this he showed them his hands and feet.
Their joy was so great that they could not believe it and they stood dumbfounded.
So he said to them,
Have you anything here to eat?
And they offered him a piece of grilled fish,
Which he took and ate before their eyes.
Then he told them,
This is what I meant when I said,
While I was still with you,
That everything written about me in the law of Moses,
In the prophets and in the psalms,
Has to be fulfilled.
He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them,
So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
And that in his name repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be preached to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses to this.
The Gospel of the Lord Isn't it amazing how we can see that Jesus came to remind people once again about the majesty and the power of God and that he would preach a message of forgiveness,
Forgiveness of sins and something that we have seen over the last 2000 years is the focus on repentance.
Now let us take today and just have a look at what does it really mean to sin and what does it mean to repent?
We've been having this discussion in several circles over the past couple of weeks and the meaning of sin is not necessarily something that will lead you to eternal damnation.
Let's maybe take a step back and we talk about prayer.
Every single thing on this planet has been created for the glory of God to be a spiritual experience and it doesn't matter how we describe it.
Some people will do it through the Christian way of saying every moment is prayer,
Others will say every moment is an opportunity to be mindful.
These are all just different expressions of the same thing.
Different expressions of God,
Of the universe,
Of light,
Of love and as we move through our daily lives we oftentimes forget that every single moment is done in communion with God.
Every single moment that we have is holy and that those times that we forget and we do not live our lives completely linked to God or in the flow,
In the light,
Those are the times that we sin.
Those are things that we do on a regular basis.
Many of us forget about the nearness of God.
I know I do often and so sin then is not something that will lead you away.
That is the moment that you forget and when you step out of harmony with God,
With the universe and with your higher self and your higher purpose and that is what we are here to learn as human beings.
We are not born perfect,
None of us are and we do not go through our lives as perfect beings.
We are here to learn,
We are here to grow,
We are here to learn to grow closer to God and to each other and in the Christian expression of God to help each other through compassion and through unconditional love.
So then what does it mean when Christ says He died so that in His name we can repent and the forgiveness of sins could be preached.
So Christ Consciousness is there and came down for us to connect to unconditional love,
To compassion.
Compassion with every single being on this planet,
Every human,
Every animal,
Every plant,
Everything.
Those beings that we can't even see and the forgiveness of sins then is not necessarily somebody absolving you from what you had done.
That forgiveness is returning into harmony,
Becoming mindful once again of your connection with the universe,
With God,
With all beings.
And then repentance is trying to stay in that harmony,
In that flow and in the light of the Lord.
So as we go into this week let us try and remember that when we move out of harmony that is our sin and that it is normal and human to sin.
The Holy pot comes in returning into the fold,
Returning into unity with the Lord,
With God,
With the universe and trying to stay there as much as possible in love.
Amen.
