Sixth Week of Easter (Year A)
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Coming to faith is analogous to falling in
love. One cannot fall in love in the abstract. Love comes through an encounter
with another person. The same is true of faith. If faith is a relationship with
the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come
through an encounter with them. And the Spirit is the one who makes this
presence known.
– Craig
R. Koester, Luther Seminary
Theme: Divine
Intimacy
As a reporter, my richest story lines
involved advocacy. By telling the narratives of deaths on an unsafe road,
insufficient affordable housing, kids’ services that were missing the mark, or
families financially abusing their elders, attention was focused on services
for these populations.
I didn’t see my transition into social
services coming, but looking back, I was being prepared for it for 15 years at
the newspaper. I learned how to research, how to question policies and
practices, which people and agencies were ground-breakers, and who were the
underserved people of the community.
Jesus told the disciples that his Father
would send another Advocate. Jesus, the initial Advocate, came alongside the
poor and powerless, the disenfranchised and despairing, the hurting and
hopeless. He taught his disciples to become advocates too. And the Spirit,
abiding with and in us, encourages us to be advocates, too.
Did I say encourages us?
The Spirit, she shoves us. Drags us,
sometimes kicking and screaming, into our roles as advocates. She’s one fierce,
determined wind.
Your Spirit-blown advocacy doesn’t look like
mine. We all were differently created and gifted for the Spirit to act on us.
My aunt is moved by animal advocacy. She
transports dogs for a rescue organization. Another friend raises money to
ensure local students have meals over the weekend. Another is empowered to work
with veterans, still others with disabled children and adults.
Paul understood this. Can you hear the Spirit
blowing through “he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of
the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps
grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us.”
The life and breath of some people at my church
arrives in worship and music, and to others in service and hospitality. But
Spirit is not far from each of them.
The writer of the Epistle was filled with the
gift of encouragement to Christians being persecuted for the sake of the
Gospel. Keep doing what you are doing, the writer urges, and let your lives be
a Spirit-led testimony of our Lord. And Jesus promised that the disciples would
soon receive the gift of the Spirit, following his resurrection and ascension.
If they had any clue what that Pentecost day would look like, and how it would
turn their lives upside down, they would have run and not looked back, but on
this night, Jesus’ promise of another Advocate was reassuring.
Today’s lessons not only announce the
imminent arrival of the Spirit, they also dispel the separation some believers
picture between us and the three persons of the Trinity. This is no unknown
God, Paul says, “indeed, he is not far from each one of us.”
The Psalmist praises God who truly listens
and acts on our prayers. In 1 Peter, the writer says Christ suffered “in order
to bring you to God.” A marvelous picture of reconciliation – closing the gap
between God and us. And in Jesus’ words, John weaves Source, Son and Spirit
together with us. You know the Spirit, Jesus says, “because he [sic] abides
with you, and he will be in you.” Then, Jesus connects the rest of the Godhead
with us: “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and
I in you.”
God doesn’t dwell at a distance “light-years
away,” as Marty Haugen wrote in a favorite opening hymn, “Gather Us In.” No,
God is abiding “here in this place,” every place Spirit blows us to advocate
and celebrate, worship and love.
(You always are welcome to respond with your thoughts and reflections in the
comments section at the bottom of the blog post.)
Faith App: When you come alongside someone as an advocate, speaking truth and sharing love, the Spirit is abiding with you. Reveal God to the world, one person at a time, as you do what the Spirit leads you to do.
HYMN/SONG SUGGESTIONS
Gather Us
In, ELW 532
Come Down, O Love Divine, ELW 804
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus, ELW 392
(vs. 2 would make a great hymn of praise or closing verse)
Come, Thou Almighty King, ELW 408
Go, My Children, with My Blessing, ELW 543
God Is Here, ELW 526
Come, Ye Disconsolate, ELW 607
Rise, O Church, like Christ Arisen, ELW 548
We Know That Christ Is Raised, ELW 449
More Than You Think I Am, Danny
Gokey
You Are I Am, Mercy Me
Here With Me, MercyMe
In the Secret, Sonicflood
Show Me Your Glory, Third Day
LESSONS
Acts 17:22-31 The God who made the world and everything in
it … does not live in shrines.
Psalm 66:8-20 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of God’s
praise be heard.
1 Peter 3:13-22 Jesus went through it all – was put to death
and then made alive – to bring us to God.
John 14:15-21 In a little while the world will no longer
see me, but you will see me.
OPENING LITANY based on Psalm
66:8-20
L: Christ Is Risen!
C: He Is Risen, Indeed!
L: Bless the one true
God, O people of the earth,
C: Shout for joy -- let
your praises rise to the sky!
L: To the One keeping us
safe on the high road;
C: Eternal Friend, beside
us from first step to last.
L: In the refiner’s fire
you’ve tested us, O God;
C: We fell into traps and
struggled with our loads.
L: People ran us down,
even crushed our spirits,
C: Fires and floods
raged, but you pulled us through.
L: When I was desperate,
I made promises galore,
C: Now that you rescued
me, I’m keeping my word.
L: My dearest
possessions, the finest of my livestock,
C: I bring them to your
altar, in dedication to you.
L: Here’s what’s been
done for me, listen to my account,
C: Almighty God heard my
heartfelt cries, came to my aid.
L: I expected to be
ignored, or even rejected for my sin,
C: But, unbelievable as
it sounds, God drew nearer to me.
CONFESSION
L: We bring our words of worship and songs of
praise,
C: To this holy sanctuary where we’ve heard you
abide,
L: But you’ve left our shrines, preferring our
living temples.
C: Forgive us, Lord, and reveal yourself to our
searching eyes.
L: We live at arm’s distance, disguising our
fears,
C: Hiding our questions, our burdens and cries,
L: But Easter replaces our hopelessness with
hope,
C: Center us, Lord, and settle gently in our
anxious hearts.
L: We are God’s children, offspring of a common
past,
C: Shared world and desires shaped by the
Divine,
L: But fractured and flawed, from households to
humankind.
C: Restore us, Lord, and send healing to our
broken lives.
(Silent reflection)
L: In our confession, we
pray together,
C: Most
Merciful God … we confess that we struggle with the mystery of who you are. We
search and grope to see you and know you. Our words are inadequate to explain
that the One who gives us life and breath, the Maker of the world and
everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, also can listen to our cries
and dwell within us. Allow us to live the questions, revealing yourself to us
as we continue this journey.
Hear this Good News: If we had to explain God
perfectly to be accepted as God’s children, none of us would pass the test.
Fortunately, faith is our hope in a God too great to explain, and so basic even
children can grasp “God is Love.” Today, just rest in God who abides with and
in you. Don’t overthink it – simply feel and know it from your heart. You are
God’s beloved child, forgiven and set free to love like God loves.
In the name of God the Creator, God our
brother Jesus, and God the Spirit who comes alongside us.
Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
L: We pray together,
C: God so
near us … we pray with thanksgiving for your promise to be with us always. You’ve
never left us orphaned; you have been and will be with us forever as our Creator,
as our brother Jesus, and as the Spirit of truth. Keep revealing yourself to us
as we seek to know you, groping to find you, only to discover you are as near
as our breath, steadfast as our heartbeats.
Amen.
COMMUNION BLESSING
L: We pray together,
C: We give you thanks, most gracious God, for
your constant presence in this bread, the intimate relationship in this
cup. Here at this table, your Spirit of
truth surrounds us in our community of faith, our commitment to justice and
compassion for our community and world. Send us out, not orphaned, but one with
your Spirit, to come alongside others and show them your love. Amen.
SENDING
L: Do not fear as the
world fears,
C: Be bold – the Spirit
lives in you!
L: You are full of truth,
full of grace,
C: Share the Spirit
everywhere you go!
L: Go now, filled with hope, to love and to serve the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God!
First Reading Acts 17:22-31
(NRSV)
22 Then
Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely
religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the
city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an
altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as
unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world
and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human
hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life
and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he
made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their
existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so
that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find
him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In
him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have
said,
‘For
we too are his offspring.’
29 Since
we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or
silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While
God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people
everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he
will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and
of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Second Reading 1 Peter 3:13-22
(NRSV)
Setting the Scene: Following Christ in the late first century
has no resemblance to following Christ today. Followers of the Way were apt to
be criticized, bullied and tortured by the Roman occupation force, their
families, and the Jews around them. Hold onto your hope, the writer says.
13 Now
who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But
even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear
what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your
hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone
who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16 yet
do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when
you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be
put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if
suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For
Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in
the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he
went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who
in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah,
during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were
saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now
saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for
a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who
has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities,
and powers made subject to him.
Gospel John 14:15-21
(NRSV)
Setting the Scene: Continuing with his farewell to his
disciples, Jesus promises the disciples they will have a future together. Yes,
he said, he will die. Yes, he will return to his Father. But never again will
they (or we) be left alone.
15 “If
you love me, you will keep my
commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Advocate, to
be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him,
because he abides with you, and he will be in
you.
18 “I
will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little
while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you
also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my
Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my
commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be
loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
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