What's it like to be absent from some special event when everyone else is present for it? We miss out on what took place - sort of a "you had to be there" moment. Thomas was absent for Easter. He wasn't present on that first Easter evening when Jesus came into the midst of his frightened disciples who were huddled behind locked doors. Thomas' absence made him doubtful and uncertain about the truth of Jesus' resurrection. One week later, Thomas got the proof he demanded - putting his fingers and hand into the wounds of Jesus. Jesus doesn't praise Thomas, but He does call blessed those who have not seen, and yet believe. And this is all of us who walk by faith, and not by sight, trusting in our risen Savior

We don't find Jesus in the empty tomb, but in the community of his Church at the Lord's Supper. There, his astonishing gift of new life - for this world and the next - is given anew.

The three days of Maundy Thursday-Good Friday-Easter Vigil and Day invite us to do a lot of remembering. The season of Lent begins with a call to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Jesus' institution of the Lord's Supper on the night of his betrayal also calls us to remember - "Do this in remembrance of me." This remembering is vitally important because we are so prone to forget all that God in Christ has done for us. Our remembering leads us to repentance, but also to rejoicing - rejoicing that Jesus comes to us in his holy Supper and gives us his very Body and Blood for the strengthening of our faith.

As Mary freely poured out the aromatic ointment to anoint Jesus at Bethany, Jesus would pour out his life on the cross. God's extravagant love surrounds us as His forgiven people.

God gives his people -- prophets included -- a merciful and gracious second chance in the waters of Holy Baptism.

There, deep beneath the wind and waves in the belly of the great big fish, Jonah prayed to God. Even after Jonah had stubbornly refused to accept the mission God had given him to do, and had run in the opposite direction, even then God didn't shut the door on his reluctant prophet. In the hour of deepest need, when we find ourselves in life-threatening situations, we (like Jonah) cry out to God in all our need because there is nowhere else to turn. God makes a way where there is no way, as He did with Jonah. Jonah's experience in the belly of that great big fish points us ahead to Jesus' own suffering, death, and resurrection. And it is in Jesus and all that He has done for us that we are delivered in our own time of need.

Repentance is not actually an emotion or feeling, although it can produce strong emotions and feelings within us. What does repentance look like? Jesus helps us to understand this change of heart and mind, this returning to the Lord, with the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13. Repentane that is real can and will produce fruits of repentance - just as John the Baptist exhorted the people of his day: "Bear fruits that are worthy of repentance." The unproductive fig tree is a picture of our own lives - on the verge of being cut down by order of the Master! And yet the Gardener pleads for the unproductive fig tree. He will dig around it and put manure on it to fertilize it. In the same way, Jesus pleads for us, his unproductive people. His redeeming blood is the fertilizer of forgiveness that sinks down deep into our roots, nourishing our life with his death, so that we might bear fruits that are indeed worthy of repentance.

As God provided for Jonah -- despite the prophet's stubborn actions and attitude -- we can see the Lord's beckoning grace at work. We reflect on God's provision for our needs of body and soul as we look again to the Sign of Jonah.

Our journey through “An Emotional Lent” continues as we hear Jesus call out in grief over Jerusalem’s rejection of God’s messengers. As the fulfillment and embodiment of the Gospel message, Jesus came to deliver forgiveness of sin. The world, though, rejected him. In this time of Lent, we reflect on the grief that Jesus felt for our sake, knowing that he calls us to come to him and know the shelter of his wings.

There are countless stories of individuals whose lives have been spared in the midst of horrific storms. One such individual is Jonah, the prophet in the Old Testament. Called by God to preach judgment against the mighty Assyrian capital city of Ninevah, Jonah instead chose to run in the opposite direction. The ship he was on was caught in a terrible storm at sea, and his life - and the lives of the other people on board - was spared only when Jonah instructed them to throwh him overboard. Reluctantly, they did so. There was another whose life was sacrificed, and that is Jesus, who willingly gave his life on the cross for our sins. In difficult and challenging storms of life, Jesus invites us to cry out to him. In his mercy, e hears and helps.