The Text for Sunday, April 27th,2014, the 2nd Sunday of Easter

First Reading: Acts 2:14a, 22–32

^14aBut Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,  ²²You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know —  ²³this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.  ²⁴But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.  ²⁵For David says concerning him,

'I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;

  ²⁶therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

moreover my flesh will live in hope.

  ²⁷For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

or let your Holy One experience corruption.

  ²⁸You have made known to me the ways of life;

you will make me full of gladness with your presence.'

  ²⁹Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  ³⁰Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne.  ³¹Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,

'He was not abandoned to Hades,

nor did his flesh experience corruption.'

  ³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:3–9

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  ⁵who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  ⁶In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,  ⁷so that the genuineness of your faith — being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  ⁸Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,  ⁹for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Gospel: John 20:19–31

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."  ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  ²¹Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  ²⁵So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."  ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."  ²⁸Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"  ²⁹Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.