CCC Blog

“Seeing is Believing”

But Thomas … one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came …  he said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails… I will not believe.”                                                                                                                                    John 20:24-25

It was exactly one week after Easter in 2007 or 2008. We were living in Baton Rouge at the time. It was a glorious afternoon in early spring and after worship I decided to go for a run. I had just turned onto Hagerstown from Stones River (all the streets in our subdivision were named for Civil War battle sites) when I stepped on a nail. I didn’t see it, but didn’t need to. I felt it.  It was a biggie,  penetrating the heel of my shoe all the way into my skin. I certainly didn’t need to go to the hospital but the nail had punctured the skin and left a decent-sized blood stain on my sock. I had to call off the run and hobble home. I limped in the door to find Amy and Thomas in the living room. “You’ll never guess what happened to me,” I said and proceeded to tell them about my injury. My son looked up from the page he was coloring (he was about 5 or 6 at the time) and said with great boldness, “No way, dad.  I don’t believe you. I won’t believe you unless you show me the nail mark in your foot first.” Did I mention his name is Thomas?

A week (after the resurrection) … Thomas was with them … and Jesus came and stood among them and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my   hands …”

John 20:26-27

 The Disciple Thomas will be our focus in worship this week. Unfortunately, he’s remembered for the name “Doubting Thomas,” as this one event in his life has determined the way history views him. But his skepticism represents a fundamental theme in the Gospel of John — Believing without seeing. Not   everyone, after all, would (or will) have an experience with the risen Jesus Christ in the flesh as the disciples did. In that sense, the story of Thomas asking to see the nail marks is designed to move us to v. 29 of chapter 20. Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me (Thomas)?  Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have come to believe.”

Doubt and skepticism are things we experience because we are human. Even the popular phrase, “Trust but verify,” is a bit of an oxymoronic homage to doubt and skepticism (after all, can you really trust if you have to verify first?).  And yet as Thomas shows us faith does emerge from skepticism. Untold billions have come to follow the path of Christ over a span of two millennia without having “seen” the risen Christ. We will spend the sermon time this week considering how faith emerges from doubt. I invite you to think of times in your life when you have been skeptical, but God gave you faith in the midst of it (maybe it was a financial situation you came through; or a health situation; or something else). Some situations are admittedly easier to find trust in the midst of than others, but God desires our faith to be strengthened through them all – and not be dependent on concrete and tangible realities for its existence.   

  Blessings – Michael

“A-Ha Moments”

In our scripture last Sunday (John 20:1-10), one of Jesus’ disciples had a profound “A-Ha” moment. He’s officially called the “Other Disciple” (as compared to Peter), or “the Beloved Disciple” (because he’s known as the “one whom Jesus loved”). Tradition claims that he is John the author of the Gospel and that’s how we referred to him in the sermon.  When he arrived at the tomb on the first Easter, entered the tomb and saw the stone rolled away and linen wrappings on the ground, he “sees and believes.” At that moment, everything that Jesus had done and said came back to him and a light of faith turned on within him. “A-Ha,” he realized, “I get it now.”  He didn’t yet understand the full extent of the resurrection, but faith changed him. 

As it so happens, I finished a book this past Saturday called “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South.” It’s the true story of a former Grand Cyclops of the KKK and an African-American female neighborhood organizer working together on a school desegregation project in Durham, NC, in the early 1970s. From this work developed an enduring friendship such that when CP Ellis died in 2005, Ann Atwater was the only     non-family member to attend the funeral. Ellis, the former Grand Cyclops, had an “A-Ha” moment through his interactions with Atwater. But author Osha Gray Davidson writes this about it: “The single unifying element in the history of transformations in the West, (such as) Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus … is the instantaneousness of the process … the psychological equivalent of a lightning strike…” This was not Ellis’ experience.  Just because he had discovered a commonality of experience between himself and Atwater didn’t mean he would immediately leave the Klan and join the NAACP. But still, it is no  exaggeration to say that C.P. had been profoundly moved by the experience and even changed by it – although he could not have said how. Perhaps the best way of putting it is to say that a door previously unknown to C.P. had been opened. 

Ellis’ “A-ha” moment was not sudden change, but more like a slow, meandering journey of transformation and it echoed in my mind as I heard Jodie Walwer’s testimony in worship on Sunday.  She described part of her life story, reflecting honestly on a state of discontentment she was experiencing several years ago; how this led to continual prayer about her situation but the realization that no sudden lights or “neon signs” were given in return; yet how God guided her to a conversation with a career counselor and how that one conversation began a long and slow – but steady – path toward career change, and ultimate hope from an initial place of despair. 

 God moves in each of our lives in different ways.  Sometimes they are with   sudden lightning flashes or in single moments of new perspective and  understanding.  And sometimes they are in ways that shape and refine us over days, weeks, months and possibly years.  As you reflect on your own life story, how has God worked in your life to create transformation within you?  How has the process of coming to “A-Ha” unfolded in your life?      

Blessings – Michael

“Family Planning”

As many of you may know, our administrative assistant Ashely Sparks is  expecting a child in the next few days or weeks and is thus preparing to take some maternity leave. The anticipated time off will begin April 23, and she hopes to return on May 21 (but as we all know with childbirth, neither Ashely nor the church is fully in control of baby’s exact arrival time). At this time,  however, I wanted to share with you four (4) things to know about, and do, as Ashely prepares for this exciting time in her family’s life.

Be Prayerful. First and foremost, we love and care for Ashely as a person and wish to surround her, Alex, Ourin, Kisa and baby with all of our  spiritual support. Specfically we invite you to pray for a safe delivery and for health and joy for the entire family. 

Be Informed. To help with Ashely’s most visible duties, we have some  volunteers coming in to assist us.

Theresa Fulk will be preparing The Visitor and worship bulletins, so you will see her in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Kathy Matherly has helped with attendance documentation and will continue to do so.

Additionally, we would like to have volunteers sit at Ashely’s work station to do three (3) things: a) answer the phone;   b) take messages; and c) buzz people in the west entrance.  Note: we are not asking these volunteers to have all the answers to queries from callers, but rather to direct them to appropriate staff.  Volunteers will sit in the Welcome  Center Monday – Friday in two shifts: From 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and from 12:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Be Helpful. Thanks to Sandy Garver, all of the morning shifts for the  Welcome Center receptionist position are covered! But there are still openings on some afternoons.  If you are free to help us out from 12:30 – 5:00 p.m. on any of the dates listed below, please email me ( ), and we’ll get you on the schedule. Thank you in advance.

April 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 30

May 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25

Be Flexible and Patient.  Every one of our staff persons are valuable to us and were any of them to be gone for an extended time, we would  notice just how much they do. Therefore, no one is going to be  expected to “replace” Ashely during her leave.  That would be asking too much of anyone.  Rather, all of us on staff – and the volunteers coming in – hope to chip in and do what we can to make Ashely’s  absence less noticeable. But we ask you to be reasonably flexible in your expectations and patient in your handling with us. We trust that if we all afford one another these gifts and courtesies, things will go as smoothly as possible until Ashely returns. Should you need, you may email Yvonne Boyd ( ) with office questions you may have. 

Blessings – Michael

"I Come to the Garden…”

What’s your favorite Easter symbol?  There is no shortage of options from which to choose.  Among the secular choices, there are bunnies, chicks, colored eggs, jelly beans and all types of chocolate.  On the purely sacred side, there is (of course) the empty cross and tomb. Then there are a few “hybrid” symbols: seemingly secular things that have taken on sacred significance, such as a           sunrise; a butterfly; and a church full of lilies.  But I wonder where “garden” ranks on your list? Though our unseasonably cool (read: cold!) Spring temperatures might not call gardening to mind this Easter season, the image of “garden” is perhaps the most appropriate of all the Easter symbols.

Humanity’s story (and thus the story of salvation) began in a garden.  Adam and Eve dwelled in the garden of Eden, living blissfully and at peace until they ate of the forbidden fruit.  At this point they were sent from the garden and ever since that day, humanity has been trying to find its way back in – or better put, back home.  As St. Augustine so famously and poetically said, “Our souls are restless, O God, until they find their rest in you.” The garden is the place where we are closest to God and dwell without worry, sorrow or fear.  

It should not come as a surprise, then, that in the Greek language of scripture, the word for “paradise” literally means “garden.”  Thus, to be in paradise and dwell in the presence of God is to be in a garden. The use of the garden image in this way is a logical one from a practical standpoint.  Recall that Adam’s curse for having eaten from the forbidden tree was that he would earn his living by the sweat of his brow. The ground would be so hard to cultivate, that it would only ever come with extraordinary effort.  Having been to the Holy Land, I can attest to how rocky, dry and dusty parts of this territory are. It makes sense, therefore   that   the   predominant  image  of  paradise for  one  like  Adam be a garden. A lush, wet, green, fertile garden that produces abundantly without much work or effort.  

From a spiritual standpoint, the image of garden is just as significant.  When Mary Magdelene meets the risen Jesus Christ on that first Easter, she mistakes him for the gardener (Jn. 20:11-18), which means that the first Easter took place in  a   garden.   With   the   resurrection   of   Jesus   Christ,   we  are  back  in  the garden.  The  story is  complete.  We have  found  our way  home.  Or  …  as Tina emphasized in her sermon this past Sunday, we didn’t find our way home as much as God, in Christ, found us and provided the way back in.  With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the story of salvation has come full circle.  And all we have to do is believe that he is the one to provide us access back in.

Regardless of which Easter image or symbol you name as your favorite, may you from now on include “garden” from among the options.  

Blessings – Michael