Sixth Sunday of Easter
READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
- First reading
- Acts 17:22-31
- Psalm
- Psalm 66:8-20
- Second reading
- 1 Peter 3:13-22
- Gospel
- John 14:15-21
The first reading from Acts:
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 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.
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, 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.
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, 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.
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.’ 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.
While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.”
The gospel from John:
Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
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.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
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.”
Sermon:
Our first reading this Sunday is from Acts and is a famous speech by the apostle Paul to the Athenians in Greece. He began “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 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 is the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth.” Today we cannot assume that all people who go to church are Christian. What is the revelation by God that is to be believed? Why is Paul’s speech famous? First, it is by Paul. Second, it was to the pagan world. It is a timeless speech that tries to find a common ground, even though this would have even been strange to the Athenians. The Jews wanted a sign. The Greeks wanted philosophical reasoning. One revelation we present is the crucifixion of Christ. Paul ends with “(God) 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.” Pastor Stevenson in his sermon talks about the fundamental revelations.