Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 17, 2015

Saint Matthias from the workshop of Simone Martini, Siena, Italy, c. 1284 – 1344.

This reading marks a pause in time, a moment when the world is about to turn. In the verses just before, Jesus was taken into heaven, lifted up into a cloud. In the verses that follow, the Holy Spirit will come down upon the people on the first Pentecost with a rush of wind, in tongues of fire, inspiring them to take the Gospel into the world. But first there is business to be taken care of: Judas, the traitor, must be replaced. First the disciples discern two worthy candidates. Then, asking God to guide them, they cast lots; and Matthias joins the Twelve.

Psalm: Psalm 1

The book of Psalms opens with a promise of happiness for those who walk in the way of God. The Psalter runs an emotional gamut from joy to fear to sadness to faith, but the joy of following God resonates throughout. This Psalm also celebrates delight in the law, another recurring theme. Take care, however, not to weigh down this word with modern English context. The original sense of the Hebrew word “Torah” is not ‘law” but “teaching,” God showing us how to live in love of God and neighbor.

Second Reading: 1 John 5:9-13

We now come to the final chapter of our six-week tour through the first Letter of John, a document thought to have been written in the spirit of John’s Gospel by later members of the John community. Its consistent, uplifting theme continues today, assuring us that we gain eternal life through God’s love given us in Jesus. We give testimony to the world through our faith in this amazing gift.

Gospel: John 17:6-19

In the Gospel four weeks ago, we heard John’s account of Jesus declaring himself the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. Today, as we approach the end of Jesus’ extended farewell conversation with his disciples at the Last Supper, those themes return. Having protected and guarded the apostles – losing only judas from the flock – Jesus now asks God to protect them as Jesus sends them out into the world, as God had sent Jesus out into the world.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 10, 2015

Jesus giving the Farewell Discourse to his eleven remaining disciples, from the Maesta by Duccio, 1308-1311.

Last week in an earlier passage in Acts, we heard of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch. Now the leaders of the early church recognize that the Holy Spirit comes to everyone, not only Jews but Gentiles as well: 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 everyone. “Here is water.” What is to prevent it?

Psalm: Psalm 98

Filled with triumphant spirit, this Psalm rings out a resounding faith in God’s power to win victory for Israel over all the earth. This is an occasion for rejoicing, for not only 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 today’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

Both this reading and today’s Gospel pick up where last week’s readings left off, and both continue similar themes. We were told to love one another as Jesus loves us. Now we are told to love God by obeying God’s commandments (a command that carries out the Jewish tradition of love for God’s law and teaching). In words that might remind us 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

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus declared that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now in John’s Gospel Jesus shows us how to do that: ‘This is my commandment, that you 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 our faith we go out and bear fruit, like the branches of the vine that were not pruned. Through our faith we love one another as God loves us.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 3, 2015

“Christ the True Vine,” Orthodox icon, Athens, 16th century.

This sweet, funny story carried a powerful message to the young church a few generations after Jesus: This church is open to all, no matter who you are; joining the community through baptism is as easy as asking for it. Even an Ethiopian – a foreigner from a strange land and a eunuch as well, barred from Judaism because his physical condition renders him biblically unclean – is welcome as an equal. So with mutual joy, just like that, Philip baptizes him as one of us.

Psalm: Psalm 22:24-30

A traditional hymn of praise, today’s Psalm carries a message that resonates with Philip’s warm welcome to the Ethiopian eunuch: God is the ruler of all nations, all the world, 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 making sure that the poor are cared for and the hungry are fed.

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

These verses echo and expand upon John the Evangelist’s memorable words, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you … love one another as I have loved you,” which, by the way, we will hear in next week’s Gospel. It is tempting to bask in the warm assurance that God loves us, but note well that we are called to action too: “Love one another” is not just a suggestion: It is half of a covenant. If we can’t love our brothers and sisters, how can we make room in our hearts for God?

Gospel: John 15:1-8

In John’s account of Jesus’ extended farewell to his disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus uses the vineyard as an extended metaphor. Describing vineyard practice that continues to this day, Jesus imagines God cutting out weak branches in order to make the vine strong and productive. If we do not abide in God as God abides in us, we risk being pruned and discarded like the weak vines. Abide in God through Jesus, though – live in God like a sturdy branch on a nurturing vine – and we will be strong and fruitful.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for April 26, 2015

Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Medieval print.

Peter has come a long way since having denied Jesus three times on the night of Jesus’ arrest. Peter and John have been arrested by the Temple authorities, who were upset because they healed a paralyzed man and have been preaching the resurrected Christ. This time Peter speaks with bold confidence. He declares that the disciples are healing though Jesus, whom God raised from the dead as the cornerstone of salvation. What changed Peter? Sent forth by the risen Christ to “feed my sheep,” he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Psalm: Psalm 23

When Christians read these familiar verses, we tend to visualize the loving face of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who walks beside us. After all, Jesus declares himself the Good Shepherd in the verses of John’s Gospel that we hear today. Originally, however, the people sang this Psalm as a hymn of praise to the God who brought them out of exile and led them home, serving them a lavish banquet while their vanquished enemies could only look on.

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 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, fired by the Holy Spirit just as Peter was inspired.

Gospel: John 10:11-18

In its context in John’s Gospel, this seemingly simple “Good Shepherd” narrative looks somewhat like Peter and John in Acts: The Pharisees are angry because Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath, and they are alarmed that people are beginning to speak of Jesus as the Messiah. Seen in this light, Jesus is pushing back. He likens the people to helpless sheep, and the Pharisees to wolves who prey on them. In words that the writer of John’s letter will recall, Jesus declares that he will lay down his life for the sheep – all the world’s sheep – and that he will live again.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for April 19, 2015

Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room. Sixth century CE, Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.

Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, have healed a man who could not walk, to the amazement of everyone who saw the once-lame beggar in the Temple, walking and praising God. 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. Anti-Jewish 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

The Psalmist sings for a people who face severe persecution from enemies, yet stand strong in confidence in a loving and faithful God. In contrast with more warlike Psalms that call on God to crush and destroy the foe, Psalm 4 exalts a more quiet and trusting confidence. We ask God to have mercy, to hear our prayers. We ask that the light of God’s countenance be shone upon us, and we are grateful that we can sleep in peace, knowing that God is watching over us.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-7

Echoing the themes of today’s passage from Acts, the author, speaking to the early church, assures us 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, staying in right relationship with God through Jesus keeps us free from sin, for there is surely no sin in Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

Turning to Luke for another resurrection appearance, we have skipped over the story of two disciples who met Jesus on the Emmaus road but did not recognize him until he broke bread. Now the disciples are together again, and Jesus appears! Their first response, however, is not joy but surprise and terror, as if a ghost had appeared! Much as he had done for Thomas in John’s Gospel, Jesus invited them to examine and 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. He declares himself the Messiah foretold in the Scriptures, and declares that repentance and forgiveness of sins will go out in his name to all nations.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for April 12, 2015

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Rembrandt, 1634. Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

Throughout Eastertide, our First Readings will be taken 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’ 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. Is there a message in this for us today?

Psalm: Psalm 133

Sounding a theme that resonates with the sharing lifestyle that Luke presents in the early church, the Psalmist hails 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 perhaps our ancestors heard in it a sense of abundantly sharing our most desirable luxuries.

Second Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:2

Our Eastertide readings will take us through the First Letter of John in our Second Readings. This letter was probably not written by John the Evangelist, but its emphasis on love, and on Jesus as the Word and the Light, is consistent with the style of John’s Gospel, and hints that it may have come from the same early Christian community. You may recognize its message, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” as a familiar Lenten Opening Sentence for Morning Prayer.

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; and suddenly Jesus is there with them in the locked room, and fear is transformed to joy. Thomas, who missed Jesus’ first appearance, remains doubtful, and for this he is remembered forever as “Doubting Thomas.” Who wouldn’t doubt, though? Wouldn’t you? But Jesus surely understands. And Thomas, too, with all the rest, goes on to testify that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that we all have life in his name.