Journeying through the Revised Common Lectionary
Readings for April 19, 2015
Third Sunday of Easter
THE READINGS
First Reading: Acts 3:12-19
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or
why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has
glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate,
though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and
asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised
from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made
this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him
this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this
way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would
suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out . . .”
Worth Noting: This speech comes immediately after Peter cures a man crippled from birth. Luke
portrays the conversion process as proceeding from powerful speeches. Is that your experience? To
Francis of Assisi is attributed the statement “Preach always; if necessary use words.” Which is the
more powerful form of testimony?
Psalm 4
Answer me when I call, O God of my right!
You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?
How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?
But know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.
When you are disturbed, do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the LORD.
There are many who say, “O that we might see some good!
Let the light of your face shine on us, O LORD!”
You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.
Worth Noting: The LORD commands right sacrifices. What right sacrifices do we offer?
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Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and
that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do
know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all
who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin
is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen
him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right
is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Worth Noting: Here are mysteries we may never fully grasp but can contemplate forever with profit.
For what could be better than being a child of God? “To be like God,” says the author. Is not the
child like the parent? Is there something about our DNA that will be changed when God is
revealed?
Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39
Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does
not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have
you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with
you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms
must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them,
“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
Worth Noting: The Gospel of Luke is filled with stories of Jesus eating, here with his disciples. In
an important sense, all of these meals are Eucharists, thanksgivings. In this they all resemble a
family Thanksgiving feast. Do we eat all of our meals with a sense of Thanksgiving?
CONNECTING WITH THE SCRIPTURES
Entering into the Scriptures
Exactly where in the prophets is a suffering Messiah foretold? It’s pretty hard to find,
to tell the truth. Contemporary Judaism certainly knows nothing about such predictions. A
search of the Old Testament provides no clear text proof of this claim.
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What the Old Testament and our own experience make clear, however, is that
prophets suffer at the hands of the powerful. Jeremiah provides the classic example of the
persecuted prophet – thrown down a well in punishment for his words. As we have noted
many times, God calls the prophet to do two things: To comfort the afflicted and to afflict
the comfortable. Either will provoke the wrath of the powerful.
Christians saw something different in Jesus, one called to be both prophet and
messiah. These are not the same functions, as the Messiah is the Anointed One, the one
chosen to lead God’s people. Jesus provides a different way to lead, not to lead by force but
by love and compassion; not to seek political dominance, but justice for the poor.
“Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Small Minds”
What is sin? These readings are more than a bit confusing about this. The Psalmist
cautions “When you are disturbed, do not sin.” Are we more likely to be sinners when we
are disturbed? Why would that be? The letter from John seems to make a clear, hard
distinction between those who sin and those who do not. The latter are righteous, in right
relationship with God, while the former are not.
But wait a minute: Just last week, didn’t we read
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8-9).
We do not wish to be convicted of “foolish consistency,” but still: What can we make of all
of this?
Starting from scratch, the Bible generally understands “sin” as an impersonal force in
the universe opposing the divine. “Sin” and “evil” rule the world outside the community of
the righteous – the observant Jews for the Psalmist, and Jesus followers for New Testament
authors. This is a worldview shared by many today.
The Johannine community understood sin somewhat differently, as willful unbelief.
But “belief” was not understood as an “intellectual assent to certain theological propositions,
but an opening of oneself to the knowledge and glory of God revealed in Jesus.”1 Then sin is
the rejection of that knowledge and glory when it is revealed in Jesus. Perhaps simplistically,
the Johannine community defined sin as the rejection, when offered, of the revelation of
Jesus.
Trying to achieve consistency, one might say that disturbing the transmission or
acceptance of that revelation may lead to sin. We all recognize that sin is around us, that we
are imperfect followers of Jesus’ revelation. In that we are susceptible to sin. But the
message we take from Jesus is that his life, and the life of God, is dedicated to the claiming
of the world and each of us from the domination of sin. That is the revelation to which we
turn and return.
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R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospels and Letters of John (Nashville, Abingdon Press: 1998) 92.
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Prompting Conversations
Does the Johannine community’s definition of sin – rejection of Jesus’ revelation –
make sense to you?
What is your sense of sin? Is it simply a personal decision or is it an independent,
malevolent force?
Prophets usually stand “outside” an institution or system and criticize it. Do you
know prophets who stand within the system to both criticize and lead change in the
system?
Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
“Journeying through the Revised Common Lectionary” © 2014 St Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Weekly postings may
be accessed at http://sttims.net/adulted/journeying-through-the-lectionary/.
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