Psalm: Psalm 23
Acts: Acts
4:5-12
Gospel: John 10:11-18
Epistle: 1 John 3:16-24
This week we continue where we left off last week, exploring the early days of the Christian movement. The way the narrative of the book of Acts reads, the events in Acts 4 happen quite soon after the event of Pentecost, which was about 50 days after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. So we are talking about a short period of time when all of these events are happening. We went over this a lot last week concerning both the bravery of Peter and the other disciples, and also in terms of understanding the religious authorities' and crowd's reaction. Jesus' name no doubt still had great cache; to his admirers, sorrow and fear because they did not yet understand the resurrection, and to his detractors, anger and fear that the name of Jesus was still being proclaimed. Peter kind of ratchets up the language this week in words before the Sanhedrin especially in his ending remarks:
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. (vs. 12)
Peter leaves no one in doubt about who he thinks Jesus is. To say that there is salvation from no one else but Jesus and that only by his name must we be saved is to say that Jesus is God. Full stop. Jesus is God!
Psalm: Psalm 4
Acts: Acts
3:12-19
Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48
Epistle: 1 John 3:1-7
We continue this week looking at the early days of the fledgling Christian movement. In our reading from the book of Luke we have the first episode of Jesus visiting his disciples after his resurrection. In Acts we have the beginning of Peter's second recorded sermon in Acts. The reading from Luke presents the more "traditional" appearance of Jesus in the locked upper room or at least what we might first think of when we think of resurrection appearances by Jesus. We explored John's retelling of this event last week. There are some notable differences however between the way Luke told the story and John did. To begin with, Luke has an interlude, between the episode with the women at the tomb and Jesus' appearance to his disciples, the two men on the road to Emmaus, which is absent in John. The Lectionary has us skipping over that account this year in favor of Jesus' first encounter with the disciples. After Jesus appeared to the two men heading to Emmaus, the two men rush back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples they saw Jesus. As they are relating the tale, Jesus appears to all of them. Much of that is different than the way John told the story. The other noticeable difference is that in John's telling Thomas is absent at this first encounter and thus we get the subsequent account of Jesus appearing and encouraging Thomas despite his doubting. But in Luke all 11 disciples are present for this first post-resurrection encounter with Jesus. In both Luke and John Jesus' shows them his wounds to both encourage them and to alleviate any fears that he is just a spirit. And then in both accounts Jesus offers them a kind of commission, much like the Great Commission in Matthew. But, whereas John also says Jesus gave his disciples the Holy Spirit at this point, the lukan Jesus only tells them to wait in Jerusalem until they receive the Holy Spirit. Luke later tells us that story in the opening chapters of Acts.
Psalm: Psalm 133
Acts: Acts
4:32-35
Gospel: John 20:19-31
Epistle: 1 John 1:1-2:2
Today we continue the season Easter, which runs from now through Pentecost. Thus our Gospel reading this week immediately follows the episode of last week between Mary Magdalene and Jesus on Easter morning and still takes place on that first Easter Sunday. That evening, Jesus appeared to the disciples in a locked room, encouraged them, and in the Gospel of John immediately breathed on them the Holy Spirit. Of course, we are all familiar with the fact that Thomas for some reason missed that first encounter and brashly proclaimed that he would never believe in Jesus' Resurrection unless he could touch the nail-pierced hands and place his hand in Jesus' side. Although we have heard this story many times, we can't forget that Jesus goes out of his way to engage Thomas and invite him into the community. He confronted Thomas right where he was, but then immediately moved to grace and an offer of community.
First Reading
Acts 10:34-43
or Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Second
Reading
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
Gospel
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8
Happy Resurrection Sunday! The Church celebrates some holidays on basically arbitrary dates, but Easter is the one holiday, connected to Passover, where we can actually date the time of year when the event occurred. So every year, around the time the Jews celebrate Passover, Christian's celebrate the new meaning of Passover given through Jesus. The Resurrection is the the central event that makes Christianity legitimate and true. I know I brought this Scripture up last year, but it becomes so crucial as to why Easter is such a big deal. In 1 Cor. 15, a few verses after our reading today, Paul writes:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. (17-19)
The Resurrection is the vindication and validation that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus also predicted that he would rise again after three days, had he not done so, then he would have been a liar. The Resurrection also anticipates and provides the hope for the new heaven and new earth coming (and indeed already breaking in) in Christ. The Resurrection also anticipates the resurrection all who follow Christ will experience.
