The Text:
Acts 7:55-60
7:55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
7:56 "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"
7:57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
7:58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
7:59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
7:60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
31:1 In you, O LORD, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me.
31:2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.
31:3 You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and guide me,
31:4 take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
31:5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
31:15 My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
31:16 Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
1 Peter 2:2-10
2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-
2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
2:4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and
2:5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
2:6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
2:7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,"
2:8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
John 14:1-14
14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
14:2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going."
14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
14:12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14:14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
Links to the lessons:
"There is a man with a radio ministry who has been claiming that Christians will be "raptured", that is taken into the air to meet Jesus this coming Saturday. Those of us left on earth will "suffer" for five months until the world ends in October. Now this isn't a new phenomena. People have been predicting the final judgement of God for centuries. That someone in this age does it is hardly surprising. What is atrocious about it is that followers of his have sold homes, gathered up belongings and gotten ready for this big day.
What is puzzling to me is how all of these people are certain that they are the chosen of God, that they will be the ones who are raptured and the rest of us will be left behind. That is always what is puzzling about these things. The quiet judgement that pours from this prophecy is astounding. To simply denounce it is not really helpful. After Saturday, when nothing of this sort happens, we will be left with a failed prophet who will do everything that he can think of to tell us why the date was wrong, or that somehow God has chosen another time. I don't think that our prophet will tell us that he is simply wrong about the whole thing.
What I would like to suggest is that we all submit to God's judgement here and now. That we look at ourselves and confess our sins and look at each other with compassion and love. That is certainly what Jesus asked us to do, to get us closer to the beings that were created by God to be objects of his perfect love. That is certainly the reason that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to become human like us to know our hopes and dreams and to have a first hand understanding of how humanity is limited and full of sin. That our Lord went to the cross willingly for us so that by his resurrection we can come to some kind of understanding of the ultimate Grace of God is the most astounding thing that has ever happened. How we understand this becomes the basis for how we live our lives and how we relate to each other. May God bless our prophet in the days following Saturday. May he know that he is certainly on of the redeemed by God who I suspect he believes has contempt for most of us. "
~ Rodge Wood is a retired Episcopal Priest who has just moved back to Pittsburgh, with wife, Rosie, and near where two of their daughters live. He was the Rector of Christ Church, North Hills in Pittsburgh for 18 years before he retired. We were privileged to have him serve as an interim priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in St. Albans, WV.
(Click the above link to read more from Nannette Sawyer in Blogging Toward Sunday, The Christian Century)
"The story this week from the Gospel of John is an intimate tale of fidelity, commitment and trust. In the midst of feelings of abandonment, betrayal, grief and fear, Jesus comforts his disciples. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says to them.
But how could they
not be troubled? He’s told them he’s about to die, that Judas is about to betray him, that Peter is about to deny him,
and that he’s going somewhere they can’t go. “Where, where, where?” they clamor.
In comforting them, Jesus tells his disciples to trust. Many translations use the English word “believe” for the Greek
pisteuo, but we have so flattened this word that it conveys to most listeners the sense of intellectual assent.
Pisteuo has more of a connotation of trust and fidelity. It’s a relationship thing, not an intellectual thing... "
Nanette Sawyer
Nanette Sawyer is the founding pastor of Wicker Park Grace in Chicago and the author of
Hospitality: The Sacred Art (Skylight Paths).
What is it in our human nature that persistently wants to turn grace into law, inclusion to exclusion, plenitude into penury? (Click this link to read more from "I am listening..." by Peter Wood, a minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and live in Port Alfred, South Africa.) ...
"All the divisions are healed in Jesus. There is unity and accommodation for all. There is no need to go anywhere, for Jesus has come to us. There is no need to search any further for it right here. Just lay down., you are home already.
When Richard has spoken inclusively, and people throw at him, “But Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life…NO ONE…” Richard replies in his lovely gentle manner, “When Jesus said ‘I am the way the truth and the life’, it means that you are NOT...”
How tragic then, that this passage has become the war-cry of exclusivist and triumphalist Christian dogma that uses the very words of the all including Jesus as a sword of separatist isolation from others.
As Jesus has pointed out in this passage if we don’t see the unity in all this, we really don’t get it. “How can you say, show us the Father?”
Perhaps the best rejoinder to those who use the words of Jesus in this passage to be judgemental and exclusive, comes from that master of the one-liner and the succinct, snappy answer, Richard Rohr.
