Preparing for Worship - April 12, 2026

The Second Sunday of Easter is known as Quasimodo Geniti Sunday - a Latin phrase that comes from 1 Peter 2:2 and means “like newborn babies.” Peter says, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation - if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” We all start out as “infants” in the faith, and the Easter season is a great time to grow in knowledge and strength through God’s Word.

The Old Testament lesson is from Ezekiel 37:1-14. Ezekiel writes from captivity in Babylon, with the Jews in a hopeless situation, pictured by the valley of dry bones. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.”  Could the Jewish nation and people rise again? They could and would by the power of God and His Holy Spirit, even as God had breathed into the first man the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). God promised, through Ezekiel: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live. And I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” This happened when Jews were allowed to return to their homeland, with the help of leaders of other nations. From those Jews came our Savior Jesus, “the Author of Life” (Acts 3:14-15) - the new and eternal life He won for us by His saving work. This was His gift to His own people, too, until so many rejected Him and God’s will in Christ, and in their rebellion against God and Christ and the Romans, their city and nation were destroyed again in 70 AD and even more so in the early 100s AD. This is a picture image of our lives, too. Paul says that we were “dead” in our trespasses and sins, like those dry bones, until “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-7). We have new and eternal life in Christ, continuing to trust in Him, and one day, even our dry bones, our bodies, will be raised, changed, glorified, and reunited with our souls, on the last day (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

The Psalm is Psalm 33. The psalmist has a new song of joy and thanks to sing to the Lord, for the word and work of the Lord are upright and faithful and fill the earth with His steadfast love (especially, we know now, in the Good News of Christ our Savior). By the Word of the Lord and the breath of His mouth, all things were made, and He continues to watch over the nations. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Nations are not saved by their own armies and strength. Blessed are those who hope in God’s steadfast love and who wait on the Lord and hope in Him and trust in His Holy Name.

The disciples and “doubting Thomas” had to learn to trust in the Name of Jesus, no matter what, in our Gospel lesson, from John 20:19-31. Jesus had died, and their hopes were crushed. They were living in fear and failure when the risen Lord Jesus appeared to them and twice offered them His peace and forgiveness and the gift of the life-giving Holy Spirit, so that they could be “sent out” to share God’s forgiving love in Christ. Even Thomas, who made demands on Christ and refused to believe, had everything forgiven and was given faith in Christ as “His Lord and His God.” And Jesus gave the promise that even those who had never seen Him in person could be brought to believe and have new life in His name, through the Holy Spirit working also through the Word of God and the witness of these disciples.

That is what is described also in the Epistle lesson, from 1 John 5:4-10. We are called “little children,” newborn babies born from God through our baptism and the Word. The sinful world, apart from God, has all sorts of wisdom, but we listen to the Spirit of Truth and the Word of God, which He has inspired for us (2 Timothy 3:14-17). This Word centers in “God, who is Love,” and His Son, Jesus, “that we might live through Him.” We are called to love one another, but it is not our love that saves us. “In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning, forgiving sacrifice) for our sins.” Through Him, we are God’s dear little children. That is our hope, now and eternally, as we keep receiving the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word (1 Peter 2:2) and remembering our baptism and receiving the Lord’s Supper, as we are able.