12 May 2024: Seventh Sunday of Easter B

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26	Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20	1 Jn 4:11-16	Jn 17:11b-19
RCL: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26		RCL: 1 Jn 5:9-13	RCL: Jn 7:6-19

Eastertime: finding our own Easter meaning

In the Easter season, Jesus appears to his disciples and explains his resurrection’s meaning; reveals himself as good shepherd, true vine, and one who has laid down his life; and prays for those whom he sends into the world. This week’s readings focus on how we live out Easter’s meaning in our believing community and our lives.

First reading (Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26)

The first reading is the eighth and final part of an eight-week, semi-continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles, written in the late 80s by the same author as Luke’s gospel. Acts continues the story of Jesus and his believing community: the resurrected Jesus returns to the Father and sends the Spirit. Luke’s sequel is the story of the Spirit’s continuing actions in Jesus’ believing community, primarily in the words and actions of Peter and Paul.

In today’s pericope, Peter assumes his community leadership role. The community’s first need is to replace Judas Iscariot, bringing the apostolic number back to twelve. Jesus chooses Twelve special followers to symbolize his intent to restore the twelve tribes of God’s people (Lk 22:29-10). The Twelve, filled with God’s Spirit, will lead the reconstituted people of God after Pentecost. The community ensures that Judas’ successor is qualified: someone present with Jesus from his baptism through his ascension, and a “witness to his resurrection.” The community nominates two candidates, Barsabbas (= “son of one who pleases”) and Matthias (= “gift of God”), but God chooses Matthias through “casting lots,” a traditional Jewish practice of understanding God’s will.

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to show how the risen Jesus, through the Spirit, continues to work in the ekklesia.

Second reading (1 Jn 4:11-16)

The second reading is the sixth and final part of a six-week, semi-continuous reading from the First Letter of John. John the Elder wrote his letters (1 John, 2 John, 3 John) between 100-115 AD to various Johannine communities (ekklesiais), a network of house-churches probably centered around Ephesus. He urges the communities to unity by clearly stating teachings on the incarnation, the love command, the Spirit, the nature of sin, and end-time expectations.

In today’s pericope, the Elder restates from last week’s reading (1 Jn 4:7-10) that we must “love one another.” God’s love, not human love, is the source of our love for one another. God’s love is a transformative process: through our loving one another, the unseen God brings divine love to perfection in us (“God’s love remains in us”). The Elder stresses again our need to remain-in-relationship (μένω/ménō) with God. We know that we remain-in-relationship with God because God “has given us [God’s] Spirit,” who remains or abides in the believing community. The witness (“we have seen and testify”) suggests that the Elder’s community included eyewitnesses who personally saw and heard Jesus’ earthly ministry. The pericope’s final sentence sums up what “God is love” means: God is the source of love. God reveals what love is through God’s life and actions. To remain or abide in love is to remain-in-relationship with God. If a disciple remains in relationship with God, God remains in a mutual relationship with the disciple. Love remains (or abides) in disciples who remain (or abide) in love because God is love.

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to conclude the Elder’s interpretation of Jesus’ transformative and saving act, and to see how disciples interpret and reinterpret Easter.

Gospel (Jn 17:11b-19)

In John’s gospel, Jesus shows his concern for his disciples. Preparing to return to the Father, Jesus asks that the Father protect the fragile disciples as they continue Jesus’ mission in an unbelieving and hostile world.

• Jesus’ concern for his disciples. While in the world, Jesus guards his disciples (“protected them in your name”). Now preparing to return to the Father (“I am coming to you”), Jesus asks the Father to protect them from “the evil one.” Jesus has revealed the Father (“I gave them your word”) to his disciples; the disciples’ “joy” comes from knowing God completely and directly. This joy authenticates a believing community’s religious and spiritual claims, and should permeate the community’s words and actions.
• God’s holiness. Hebrew scripture shows holiness as God’s identifying characteristic, and calls those who follow God to be as holy as God is (Lv 11:44, Lv 19:2, Lv 20:7; also 1 Pt 1:15-16). Jesus asks the Father to “consecrate” (or “sanctify” or make holy) his disciples “in the truth;” that is, God’s word incarnated and revealed in Jesus. God’s holy name (“keep them in your name”) protects them from the evil one who rules the world.
• The disciples in the world. Jesus paints a stark contrast: the Father and Jesus, in unity (“as we are one”) “protect,” “guard,” and remain-in-relationship with disciples, but the “evil one,” commanding and controlling the unbelieving “world,” “hates,” divides, and rejects “the truth.” The world hates Jesus’ disciples because they have accepted “God’s word.” Jesus prays for his disciples, whom he sends into the world to continue his message of God’s saving plan (“as you sent me into the world”). Jesus glorifies the Father because his life, transformational death, and resurrection reveals God and fulfills God’s plan. Disciples glorify Jesus when they continue his mission of revealing God and proclaiming God’s saving plan (“consecrated/made holy in truth”).

Summary and reflection

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. As we come to the end of the Easter season, the readings invite us to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Acts shows Peter reconstituting the Twelve in preparation for Jesus and the Father sending the Spirit and establishing the believing community (the ekklesia or church). The Elder urges his community to remain-in-relationship with God, who is love, so they can reveal and demonstrate God’s love to others. Jesus hands on his mission of revealing God’s plan to his disciples, asking the Father to care for them and make them holy so they can share in the joy of remaining-in-relationship.

The Easter season’s readings challenge us to find our own meanings in the continuing Easter story. With the early believers, we struggle to understand what “to rise from the dead” means. How do we recognize God’s presence and honor God’s will in our daily lives? How do we choose to reveal the God of love to others, both in our community and beyond? How do we express our remaining-in-relation joy in our daily words and actions? How are we living out the meaning of our own Easter story?

—Terence Sherlock

5 May 2024: Sixth Sunday of Easter B

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48	Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4	1 Jn 4:7-10	Jn 15:9-17
RCL: Acts 10:44-48		RCL: 1 Jn 5:1-6

Eastertime: Discipleship as response to God’s love for us

In the Easter season, Jesus appears to his disciples and explains his resurrection’s meaning; reveals himself as good shepherd, true vine, and one who has laid down his life; and prays for those whom he sends into the world. This week’s readings focus on how God loves us and how we love one another.

First reading (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48)

The first reading is the sixth part of an eight-week, semi-continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles, written in the late 80s by the same author as Luke’s gospel. Acts continues the story of Jesus and his believing community: the resurrected Jesus returns to the Father and sends the Spirit. Luke’s sequel is the story of the Spirit’s continuing actions in Jesus’ believing community, primarily in the words and actions of Peter and Paul.

In today’s pericope, Luke’s theology plays out through Peter’s words and actions. Peter slowly realizes that “God shows no partiality.” That is, God accepts anyone who “fears God” (shows God proper “awe” and respect) and “acts uprightly.” While Peter is wrestling with Jewish vs gentile ethnic identity, the Spirit pushes Peter to act. The Spirit “falls on” the gentile Cornelius and his household to show that God’s peace is meant for all. The Jewish believers interpret the Spirit’s appearance as a second Pentecost, using language from Acts 2:1-41 to describe the event (“gift /promise of the Spirit,” “poured out,” “speaking in tongues”). The Spirit’s intervention shows that God “accepts” the gentiles out of “normal” initiation order: first, baptism in Jesus’ name, then the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit’s out-of-order initiative shows that God intends the gentiles to be part of God’s saving plan. The Spirit’s action also suggests that God does not require circumcision for entry into God’s messianic people. The hesitating Peter responds by baptizing Cornelius and his household.

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to show how the risen Jesus, through the Spirit, continues to work in the ekklesia.

Second reading (1 Jn 4:7-10)

The second reading is the fifth part of a six-week, semi-continuous reading from the First Letter of John. John the Elder wrote his letters (1 John, 2 John, 3 John) between 100-115 AD to various Johannine communities (ekklesiais), a network of house-churches probably centered around Ephesus. He urges the communities to unity by clearly stating teachings on the incarnation, the love command, the Spirit, the nature of sin, and end-time expectations.

In today’s pericope, the Elder urges his believing community to love one another, because “love is of God.” God took the initiative to love humans extravagantly and without return, sending God’s son so that we could have eternal “life through him.” Throughout history, God shows love through action. In Hebrew scripture, God expresses love for humans through covenant and God’s continuing faithfulness to the covenant, despite humans’ unfaithfulness. In Christian scripture, God’s expresses love through continued covenant faithfulness, to the point of sending the son as “expiation” for human unfaithfulness (“our sins”). The son’s life and transformative death restores the right relationship between God and humans.

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to continue the Easter story of Jesus’ transformative and saving act, and to see how disciples interpret and reinterpret Easter.

Gospel (Jn 15:9-17)

John’s gospel pericope continues Jesus’ instructions to his disciples about love, remaining-in-relationship, and continuing the Father’s saving mission.

• Remaining in Jesus’ love. The Greek verb μένω/ménō (= “to remain,” “to abide”) implies a continuing or sustained relationship. Just as Jesus remains in relationship with the Father and keeps the Father’s commands, he asks his disciples to remain in relationship with him and to keep his command. When they do this, disciples will (like Jesus) experience the divine joy of knowing the Father and experiencing the Father’s love.
• Love one another as I love you. Jesus offers a love that changes the relationship between God and humans. Jesus invites disciples into intimate friendship and partnership. Jesus reveals the Father and the Father’s caring and saving mission (“I have told you everything I have heard from my Father”). Jesus, soon to “lay down [his] life for [his] friends,” chooses and commissions his disciples and friends to “bear fruit” and continue the Father’s mission. By remaining-in-relationship with him, Jesus and the Father will provide what disciples need to continue his mission; they need only “love one another.”

Summary and reflection

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. Throughout the Easter season, the readings invite us to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Peter slowly comes to realize the breadth and scope of God’s saving plan, which includes gentiles as well as Jews. The Elder reminds his community that God’s love is active and dynamic: God sent the son to give believers eternal life. Jesus teaches his friends that remaining in relationship with him and the Father gives them what they need to bear the fruit of service.

God pushes humans to expand our idea of loving. The readings present God loving us expansively, generously, and superabundantly. Do we hear and act when God steps in and reveals what God’s love, inclusion, and salvation means? Can we acknowledge that God loves us first, and invites us to reflect that divine love as care and concern for others? Do we reserve the time needed to develop friendship with and to remain in relationship with the Father and Jesus?

—Terence Sherlock

28 April 2024: Fifth Sunday of Easter B

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 9:26-31	Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32	1 Jn 3:18-24	Jn 15:1-8
RCL: Acts 8:26-40		RCL: 1 Jn 4:7-21

Eastertime: different ways of living out discipleship

In the Easter season, Jesus appears to his disciples and explains his resurrection’s meaning; reveals himself as good shepherd, true vine, and one who has laid down his life; and prays for those whom he sends into the world. This week’s readings focus on developing discipleship practices.

First reading (Acts 9:26-31)

The first reading is the fifth part of an eight-week, semi-continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles, written in the late 80s by the same author as Luke’s gospel. Acts continues the story of Jesus and his believing community: the resurrected Jesus returns to the Father and sends the Spirit. Luke’s sequel is the story of the Spirit’s continuing actions in Jesus’ believing community, primarily in the words and actions of Peter and Paul.

In today’s pericope, Paul makes his debut in Jerusalem as a believer in Jesus. Because the Jerusalem community knew Paul only as a persecutor (“they were all afraid of him,” see Ac 7:58-8:3), Paul needed Barnabas’ testimony and sponsorship to make him creditable and acceptable to the Jerusalem leadership and disciples. (Gal 1:18-20 may refer to this visit.) Paul explains his personal encounter with Jesus (Ac 9:3-5), conversion, and mission (Ac 9:19-20). As in Damascus (Ac 9:23-24), Paul’s preaching about Jesus gets him in trouble, this time with the Jerusalem Greek-speaking Jews (“Hellenists”). The disciples get him out of town and send him off to his hometown (“Tarsus”) in Cilicia. Despite the episode with Paul, Luke’s closing summary describes the believing community’s growth as peaceful and abundant throughout the region.

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to show how the risen Jesus, through the Spirit, continues to work in the ekklesia.

Second reading (1 Jn 3:18-24)

The second reading is the fourth part of a six-week, semi-continuous reading from the First Letter of John. John the Elder wrote his letters (1 John, 2 John, 3 John) between 100-115 AD to various Johannine communities (ekklesiais), a network of house-churches probably centered around Ephesus. He urges the communities to unity by clearly stating teachings on the incarnation, the love command, the Spirit, the nature of sin, and end-time expectations.

In today’s pericope, the Elder reassures his believing community that, although their hearts might be troubled, they do have eternal life. A recent schism destabilized and traumatized the Johannine community (1 Jn 2:18-19). To encourage his community, the Elder presents evidence that disciples “do love in deed and truth.” First, disciples who “keep [God’s] commandments (“love one another” and “believe in the name of Jesus”) and “do what pleases” God, already belong to the “truth.” Second, disciples who are unsure if they “belong to the truth” should be further consoled (“reassure our hearts,” “have confidence in God”) by God’s continuing care (“receive . . . whatever we ask”). Next, if disciples still feel anxious (“whatever our hearts condemn”), they should know that “God is greater than our hearts;” that is, God loves us and judges us with greater kindness than we judge ourselves. In ancient thought, the “heart” is the seat of human moral choices; today we would call it conscience. Finally, God continues to abide (“remaining in [God] and [God] in us”) in the believing community, and disciples experience God’s presence in the Spirit (“the Spirit [God] gave us”).

The Lectionary editors chose this reading to continue the Easter story of Jesus’ transformative and saving act, and to see how disciples interpret and reinterpret Easter.

Gospel (Jn 15:1-8)

In John’s gospel pericope, Jesus metaphorically describes how he continues to remain-in-relationship with his disciples, sustaining and nourishing them. Using a vineyard image, Jesus connects his unity with the Father and his unity with his disciples. Hebrew scripture uses vines and a vineyards as symbols of Israel (Ps 80:8-19, Is 5:1-7, Jer 2:21, Ez 17:6-8, Ez 19:10-14, Hos 10:1, Ec 24:27). Jesus opens his metaphor with an “I AM” saying, suggesting that he envisions the disciples as the restored Israel.

• The Father’s pruning. The Father is “the vine grower” who tends the plants, cutting off non-productive branches, and cutting back good branches so those branches will produce more fruit. Jesus wordplays on the words “take away” or “cut off” (αἴρω/aírō) and “prune” or “cut back/make clean” (καθαίρω/kathaírō), which sound similar in Greek. Jesus also puns on καθαίρω/kathaírō‘s double meaning (“to prune” and “to purify, to make clean”), telling the disciples that his teaching (“the word I spoke to you”) has already “cleaned them up” to bear abundant fruit.
• “Remaining-in-relationship” with Jesus. Jesus is the “vine” that connects, nourishes, and sustains each branch. John uses the Greek verb μένω/ménō, which means “to remain” or “to abide,” to emphasize discipleship’s relationship aspect: μένω/ménō includes the idea of remaining in relationship or continuing in association. John describes his own believing community’s experience: those who broke relationship with Jesus and left the community (the schism in today’s second reading) stopped producing spiritual fruit and became spiritually dead. Remaining-in-relationship with Jesus makes the Father’s glory visible in a disciple, who continues Jesus’ mission: to reveal the Father to the world.

Summary and reflection

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. Throughout the Easter season, the readings invite us to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Luke shows the recently converted Paul seeking connection with the Jerusalem community. John the Elder consoles his fractured community with evidence that they are remain-in-relationship with God. Jesus’ vine metaphor suggests that remaining-in-relationship also means acting in service and love to glorify God.

The resurrection gives us hope and purpose, but daily life’s differing human views and competing needs can quickly blunt our best intentions. Today’s readings highlight different ways to discover and to practice discipleship. We sympathize with Paul, whose zeal causes fights wherever he goes, while we also appreciate the believing community, who work quietly as the Spirit builds up its numbers. We get comfort from the Elder, who urges us to trust God’s loving-kindness and to love one another, although we might still worry that we’re not doing enough. We need only to listen to Jesus, who calls us to remain-in-relationship with him and continue his work in the world.

—Terence Sherlock