Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 12, 2024 (Easter 7B)

Tirage nomination de saint Matthias (Election of St. Matthias by drawing lots), 12th century painting in the parish church of the vallée de l’Aisne, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Our readings for the last Sunday after Easter mark a pause in time, a moment when the world is about to turn. Our first reading from Acts finds the apostles gathering just after Jesus has ascended into heaven, lifted up into a cloud. Next week, on Pentecost Sunday, we will hear of the Holy Spirit coming down like wind and fire, inspiring the apostles to take the Gospel into the world. But now, as they ask God’s guidance for an uncertain future, they cast lots and choose Matthias to take the place in their numbers left by the departure of Judas, the traitor who betrayed Jesus.

Psalm: Psalm 1

The first of the Psalms begins the book with a promise: Happiness awaits those who walk in the way of God. The 150 Psalms, the ancient hymns of the Jerusalem temple, sing an emotional range from joy to fear to anger to sadness to thanksgiving, but the joy of following God provides a recurring bass line. Psalm 1 also celebrates delight in the law, the Torah, understood not as mere regulation but God’s holy teaching: God showing us how to live in love of God and neighbor.

Second Reading: 1 John 5:9-13

Our Eastertide voyage through the first Letter of John concludes this week in its last chapter. This letter is thought to have been written in the spirit of John’s Gospel by members of the Johannine community decades after the Gospel. Its consistent, uplifting theme assures us in these verses that we gain eternal life through God’s love given us in Jesus: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Gospel: John 17:6-19

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus spends the night before his crucifixion praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the apostles wait and try not to fall asleep. John’s Gospel offers a very different account. In this telling we hear Jesus talking to his disciples after the last supper. Jesus prays for them, preparing them to move ahead after he has gone . Having protected and guarded the apostles – losing only Judas from the flock – Jesus asks God to protect them. Jesus will send them out into the world, as God had sent Jesus out into the world.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 5, 2024 (Easter 6B)

The Last Supper (1464-1467), oil painting on panel by Dieric Bouts (c.1420-1475), Altarpiece, St. Peter’s Church, Leuven, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 10:44-48

Sunday’s readings build on the theme that we heard last Sunday: God’s love pours out on all the world, and we are called to love each other as God loves us. Our first reading marks a key turning point in Acts: The joyful reaction of a Gentile crowd to Peter’s teaching reveals to the apostles that the Holy Spirit comes to everyone, not only Jewish Christians but Gentiles too. Everyone. Peter asks, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” The answer is clear: Baptism is for all. As we heard in last week’s reading about the Ethiopian eunuch, “Here is water. What is to prevent it?”

Psalm: Psalm 98

Filled with triumphant spirit, Psalm 98 rings out a resounding faith in God’s power to win victory for Israel over all the earth. This is an occasion for rejoicing, calling not only for the people but for all the earth – the sea, the rivers and the hills – to lift up their voices and sing. Consistent with the theme that runs through this day’s readings, God’s victory is not for Israel alone. God will judge not only Israel but all the people of the earth with mercy and equity.

Second Reading: 1 John 5:1-6

Our second reading and Gospel this week continue seamlessly where last Sunday’s readings left off, expanding on similar themes. We are commanded to love one another as Jesus loves us. Now we learn in the First Letter of John that the way to love God – to become a child of God – is by obeying God’s commandments, a direction that follows the Jewish tradition of love for God’s law and teaching. In words that echo the triumphant sentiment of today’s Psalm, we hear that our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God brings God’s victory into the world.

Gospel: John 15:9-17

Mark’s, Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels all three tell us that Jesus taught – in the spirit of the essential Jewish prayer, the Shema – that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and soul and strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now in John’s Gospel we hear Jesus expanding on this theme. Just as God has loved Jesus, he tells his apostles during his final discourse, so Jesus loves us. Therefore, he tells them, “Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Through faith, he adds, continuing the metaphor of the vine and the branches from last week’s Gospel, we go out and bear fruit that will last.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 28, 2024 (Easter 5B)

The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch (1626). Oil painting on oak panel by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 8:26-40

Hear this assuring message through Sunday’s readings: God’s abiding love is open to all humankind. God showers love upon us as a free gift. The gently humorous story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in the first reading from Acts recounts a reality of the infant church: All are welcome, no matter who they are. Even an Ethiopian eunuch – a foreigner with a high position in a strange land, but barred from full participation in Judaism because his physical condition made him biblically unclean – was eagerly welcomed as an equal. With mutual joy, right there on the spot, Philip baptized him as one of the community.

Psalm: Psalm 22:24-30

This relatively short passage comes from a longer Psalm that begins with the memorable words that Jesus uttered from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But the despairing tone of the first two verses quickly turns to the idea we hear in this reading, a statement that resonates with Philip’s warm welcome to the Ethiopian eunuch: God is the ruler of all the world’s nations: those already born and all those yet to come. We live for God, we serve God, we praise God, and we fulfill our vow to God by caring for the poor and feeding the hungry.

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

The verses selected from the first letter of John for this reading both reflect and add to Jesus’ unforgettable promise as told by John the Evangelist: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you … love one another as I have loved you.” (We will hear that passage, by the way, in next Sunday’s Gospel.) This reading, like the passage from 1 John that we heard last week, assures us of God’s love, and in doing so it calls us to action. “Love one another” is not just a suggestion: It incorporates a covenant promise. If we can’t love our sisters and brothers, how can we make room in our hearts for God?

Gospel: John 15:1-8

For the remaining Sundays of Eastertide, our Gospel readings will draw from John’s account of Jesus’s long farewell to his disciples at the Last Supper. It might seem odd in the joy of Eastertide to return to Jesus’s last gathering with his apostles before his passion and death, but consider this: Now we celebrate the fulfillment of the promises that Jesus made on that tense and fearful night. In this section, Jesus uses the vineyard as an extended metaphor for our relationship with God through Christ: God prunes the vine’s weaker branches in order to make the remaining vines strong and productive. We must abide in God as God abides in us; otherwise we risk being pruned and discarded like the weaker vines. When we abide in God through Jesus, living in God like a sturdy branch on a nurturing vine, we remain strong and fruitful.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 21, 2024 (Easter 4B)

Ancient Greek Orthodox icon of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 4:5-12

The Fourth Sunday after Easter is also called “Good Shepherd Sunday” for its focus on God’s protective love. In the first reading from The Acts of the Apostles, we see Peter, brave and bold with the power of the Holy Spirit. He and John have been arrested by the Temple authorities for causing a stir by healing a paralyzed man, then preaching that the resurrected Jesus is the Messiah. Unafraid, Peter tells them that they are the ones who crucified Jesus, whom God then raised from the dead. Quoting the verses from Psalm 118 that we also read recently on Palm Sunday and Easter, Peter declares that Jesus – the stone they had rejected – has become the cornerstone of salvation.

Psalm: Psalm 23

Many Christians know this beautiful Psalm so well – perhaps in the cadences of King James – that we can recite it from memory. But sometimes familiarity robs us of the beauty of rediscovering the details. Try reading it now with fresh eyes and mind. Take it slowly, one verse at a time. Breathe deeply and visualize yourself and your loved ones in each line: walking with God through the green pastures, past the still waters and through the dark valley, then sitting down at God’s table for an unforgettable banquet. God loves us all, always. What could be more comforting than that?

Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

Jesus loved us so much that he laid down his life for us. But wait! “And we ought to lay down our lives for one another”? That following phrase makes things a little more complicated! Just as God loves us, we are to love each other, to help our brothers and sisters in need, not just in what we say but in what we do. We are to be not only sheep, but shepherds, too. Filled with God’s love, we are called to be bold, just as Peter was bold in the first reading. We seek to be fired by the Holy Spirit, just as Peter was inspired.

Gospel: John 10:11-18

If we read this passage from John’s Gospel in its full context, this seemingly simple narrative resonates with the day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts, the authorities confronted Peter and John over their healing and preaching. Here, the Pharisees are angry and alarmed because Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath, prompting people to speak of him as the Messiah. When Jesus responds by declaring himself the Good Shepherd; he is pushing back hard: If the people are harmless sheep, he implies that it is the Pharisees who are the vicious wolves that prey upon them. Jesus declares that he will lay down his life for the sheep and that he will live again.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 14, 2024 (Easter 3B)

Christ Appears to the Disciples in Galilee (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-c.1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Florence, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.

First Reading: Acts 3:12-19

Christ, the Messiah, has come for all the world: This promise resonates through Sunday’s readings. In the first reading from Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, have healed a man who could not walk. This astounded all those who saw the beggar joyfully moving about and praising God in the temple. In words that startle us now with their harsh anti-Judaism, Peter tells the crowd that the man was healed through the power of Jesus, the Messiah, whom they had rejected and had killed, but who will forgive them if they turn to him. Language like this, sadly, permeates Acts, which was written a generation after the destruction of the Temple, when Christians and Jews were angrily drawing apart.

Psalm: Psalm 4

In contrast with the many Psalms of anger and lamentation that call on God to crush and destroy the foe, Psalm 4 raises a more quiet and trusting confidence that’s echoed in the Taize hymn: “O Lord, hear my prayer … when I call, answer me.” The Psalmist sings for a people who face severe persecution from enemies, yet stand strong in confidence in a loving and faithful God. We join our voices with theirs, asking that the light of God’s countenance shine upon us and give us peace.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-7

Echoing the themes of this week’s passage from Acts, the author of the First Letter of John assures members of the early church that God’s love revealed to us through Jesus makes us the children of God, and that the world will eventually come to know this. Meanwhile, the writer concludes, doing what is right keeps us in relationship with God through Jesus and thus free from sin, for there is surely no sin in Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

This week we read a resurrection story from Luke. We pick up just after Luke’s account of two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus but did not recognize him until he broke bread. Now the disciples are together again, and Jesus suddenly appears among them and wishes them shalom. Their first response is not joy but surprise and terror, as if a ghost had materialized in the room. Much as he had done for Thomas in John’s Gospel, Jesus invited them to touch his wounds. Then he asked for something to eat, and he took a piece of fish, perhaps to show that he is no ghost but flesh and blood. Jesus declares himself the Messiah foretold in the Scriptures, and says that repentance and forgiveness of sins will go out in his name to all nations.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 7, 2024 (Easter 2B)

Christ Appears to the Disciples at the Table after the Resurrection (1308-1311). Tempera on wood panel from the Maesta Altarpiece of Siena by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 4:32-35

Christ is risen, and we move forward with joy into the 50 days of Eastertide. Throughout this fifty-day period, our Sunday first readings will be selections from the Acts of the Apostles, the evangelist Luke’s story of the life of the early church. In his Gospel, Luke consistently emphasizes Jesus’s command to shun riches and to serve the poor, the weak and the oppressed. It should be no surprise, then, that in Acts Luke presents the practice of sharing all possessions and caring for the poor as the customary lifestyle of the apostles. This practice would be a hard sell in 21st century politics, which might give us food for thought as we ponder Jesus’s promise of good news to the poor.

Psalm: Psalm 133

Sounding a theme that resonates with the sharing lifestyle that Luke presents in the early church in Acts, the Psalmist celebrates the joy of a community that lives in unity like brothers and sisters. The earthy image of anointing oil running down Aaron’s head, beard and robe may sound odd to our modern ears. But, like the familiar Gospel story of the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive ointment, this reminds us that the most desirable luxuries are not to be hoarded but abundantly shared.

Second Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:2

Our second readings during Eastertide will take us through the First Letter of John. Although this letter was almost certainly not written by the evangelist we know as John, its emphasis on love and on Jesus as the Word and the Light is consistent with the style of John’s Gospel. This document may well have originated later in the same early Christian community that gave us John’s Gospel. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” Sunday’s verses tell us, adding the assurance that, when we confess our sins, God will forgive us and restore our righteousness through Christ.

Gospel: John 20:19-31

Jesus has died. Christ has risen! And now Jesus begins appearing to the disciples, often in mysterious ways that defy imagining. The doors are locked. The apostles are terrified. Then Jesus suddenly appears in the locked room, and their fear is transformed to joy. Thomas, who had missed Jesus’s first appearance to the others, remains doubtful. For this he is remembered forever as “Doubting Thomas.” But Jesus understands. And Thomas, too, like all the others, goes on to testify that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that we all have life in his name.