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In this episode, Rev. Beverly Gibson and Johnny Gwin discuss the themes and lessons from the story of Doubting Thomas. Thomas needed to see the hands and pierced side of Jesus to believe he had risen. Did he not have enough faith? When in our life are we like Thomas, needed empirical evidence over our faith? Like the Disciples, we can cloister and hide in a room or our beliefs not letting new ideas and unexpected outcomes to enter into our reality. We can create our own prisons within our rigid belief systems, delusions of control and our inflated sense of self-worth. Jesus, in his resurrection, defeated death and unlocked the doors of our fears. Jesus has shown us that life is about living - not death, belief without proof, and to be open to the possibility of the letting the unknown into your world. Our big takeaway this week: joy is in your life, here and now, not just in Heaven.
What You Will Here:
Rev. Gibson's crazy week with the Christ Church Cathedral Steeple raising
The apparitions of Jesus after the resurrection and how can move between worlds and realms.
Fulfillment of prophecy: none would be lost
Johnny talks about the influence of stain glass windows on his weekly SabbaDoodle sketchnotes
Epictetus - We can't change events, but we can change our attitude toward those events
Epictetus and the common language and messages of Buddhism - the search for the good life
Living the good and un-dramatic life
How not to be imprisoned by one's fears
Fighting the human fear of death
Jesus has defeated death, and God loved his creation so much he destroyed death so that his creation might live
Jesus sends us out of the locked door of fear
Faith allows us to believe without seeing
Thomas's job to proclaim the good news and pass that blessing along to those that can not see Jesus
The Commission
Peter - the Acts of The Apostles - proclaiming the truths to the same people who just killed Jesus and was searching for the Disciples
Terminal Witness joke - explained
The tough job of martyrdom - it's no job for a sissy
What "our faith will be tested by fire" means
You can't have faith without doubt
The clear faith of Atheists
Agnostics are lazy, atheists are hard workers
Christopher Hitchins - writer and atheist
Closed debates by true believers
Letting the possibility of the unknown into the world
The illusion of control
Your self-made mental prison - getting stuck and escaping
The joy of the unexpected results
Plato's The Cave allegory - explained
North Korea and their skewed reality and our skewed reality of American Exceptionalism
Epidemic of affluence
Disney's Wall-E as a prophetic story of the future
Having faith in our beliefs and then still being able to question those same beliefs
The danger of faith environments that focus on pain, sin and
Recounting of early church apocryphal sermon - The Harrowing Hell - Jesus goes to Hell to free those that are not made for death, kicking open the doors of Hell, and defeat death
Death would not control life
Adam & Eve are the first to be awoken in Hell
What is hell?
Not being in the presence of God is death - that can be Hell
The faith that is given to us at baptism and we have to choose to access it and grow it
Everlasting life - life in your life
Joy is here and not just in Heaven
Faith as a rechargeable battery - a low energy level indicator and a proper cord to recharge your faith
Peace Is Every Step - book of Buddhist teachings of the emotional knots that tighten inside of you
Learning to live in the new way of living after a death of something - a change
Pentecost - the coming of the Holy Spirit to the whole world not just the Disciples
The death of The Shakers
Being flexible in the hard beliefs and expectations of actions and events in our lives
Readings Referenced:
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