Ascension Of The Lord (Cycle A, B, C)
The Ascension of the Lord texts in Luke-Acts (Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11) accomplish four major objectives. First, they provide an explanation of where the Risen Christ is now. Second, they provide an explanation of why the Risen Christ was seen by many followers of Jesus during the first few weeks after his crucifixion and resurrection but is being seen in the same way no longer. Third, they provide assurance that the Risen Christ is still with us spiritually and that the Risen Christ will return. Finally, they establish more clearly the responsibilities of the followers of Jesus to be witnesses of the Risen Christ throughout the world.
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C
The emphasis in these texts selected for the Sixth Sunday of Easter this year is clearly on “good things” and on the belief that all good things come from God, as the Prayer of the Day specifies: “Bountiful God, you gather your people into your realm, and you promise us food from your tree of life. Nourish us with your word, that empowered by your Spirit we may love one another and the world you have made, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C
The texts selected for Easter 5 in The Revised Common Lectionary are indicative of a transition from emphasis on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a saving action for a limited number of his followers to sharing the message of salvation within a much broader arena. The Johannine Jesus in John 13:31-35 requires that his followers must love one another after he departs from them, just as he has loved them. Within a vivid literary drama in Acts 11:1-18 Peter in ecstasy in a vision is shown and convinced that the saving action of God in Christ must be shared as a gift from God to people beyond the community of initial followers of Jesus. It must be shared not merely with people who have a “clean” Jewish background, but also with non-Jewish background people whom Peter had previously considered to be impure and unclean. In the vision of the new heaven and new earth after the oppressive Roman Empire and all wicked people have been removed, it is acclaimed in Revelation 21:1-6 that God will live among God’s people in a situation in which there will no longer be any pain, mourning, weeping, and death. During a much earlier period, this had also been the ideal situation depicted by the writer of Psalm 148, a messianic age in which all the angels of heaven, all of the creatures and elements of God’s creation, and all people, men and women, young and old will praise the name of the Lord.
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C
There is a message of confidence and assurance in each of these four texts chosen for Easter 4 in Series C.
Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle C
A major unifying factor for each of the texts selected for Easter 3 in Series C is the theme, “The Redeemer Revealed.” The Lord (Adonai) is, of course, the Redeemer revealed to the distressed psalmist in Psalm 30. The Lord (Jesus) raised from the dead is the Redeemer revealed to Paul in Acts 9:1-6 (7-20), the Redeemer revealed as the Lamb who was slain in Revelation 5:11-14, and as the Host in a shared meal in John 21:1-19.