NOTES: 1] Tradition has it the disciples were in the 'upper room' where the Last Supper was held. It may have been at MK's home. 2] v.19 probably means the Judean Jews, & their leaders at national level. 3] Peace (= well being) is the traditional Jewish greeting.

WARMING UP: What role does fear play in our lives? Has that changed after N.Y., Bali, Madrid, etc?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week’s Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

19-23   What kind of emotions might be rife in that upper room if we were the ones gathered there? Do we still 'lock ourselves in behind doors' because of our fears? What kind of doors? What kind of fears? Which is more important to us: how Jesus got into that room, or how we get out from behind our own 'locked doors'? Does peace at the personal level play much part in our well-being? Does the hype about the film 'The Passion of the Christ' raise any questions about the necessity or otherwise of 'seeing' the Passion for ourselves? What about 'seeing' the Resurrection?
            Do we feel at all 'sent'? By the Father? By Jesus? By the Spirit? By the church? Are there enough gaps there for us to fall through if & when it suits us? If, as some say, there's a prevailing air of 'un-sentness' (to coin a phrase!) in most churches today, what can we learn from these events here? What relationship can we see between Jesus' breathing of the Spirit here, & later at Pentecost? Given the controversies that have raged over whether human beings can forgive sin, how can we best under- stand what's happening here, & how it applies to us today?
            Does the churches' failure to be very effective for God today have anything to do with whether we're conscious of, & celebrate our own forgiven-ness? What difference has being freed from our sins made to our lives?

24-29  Is the nickname 'doubting' a fair one when applied to Thomas? Is his / our doubting necessarily negative? At what point does doubt become negative, destructive of faith & life? Would we believe any more strongly if we were somehow able to touch Jesus' hands & side, physically? Have we ever had some experience of God that's made us join Thomas in his "my Lord & my God"? If we have, where has that led us? If we haven't, where has that left us?
           Is it a good thing or a bad that we have to 'believe without seeing' so far as the events of Jesus' life, especially his Passion & Resurrection are concerned? What about those who still won't believe without seeing in some sense? Is it time we took more seriously that it's Jesus' presence in us & among us as His Body that doubters need to see? How much is it because they don't like what they see in us & among us that they go on doubting?

30-31  What 'signs' of Jesus raised presence among us can we still see today? Or has all that kind of thing stopped long ago? Do we have some little 'book' of our own that keeps a record of such signs in our own life? Even though The Big Book is long closed? Are we more dependent, personally, upon The Big Book, the book of our own life-experiences, or both, for our understanding of Jesus as 'the Messiah, the Son of God'? Is our grasp of that sufficient enough for us to recognize that we 'have life in his name'? And celebrate it? Can others see that life in us too? And celebrate it?