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Christian Resources Library
Readings April to June 2004
April
| May | June
4 April
Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50. 4 - 9a
This passage is about an anonymous victim of persecution who does not
waver in his trust in God. From early times, Christians have seen in
it foreshadowing of Jesus' suffering. notice the power of the victim's
non-resistance - both towards the tormentors and towards the persecution
itself. He can even see his suffering as a gift from God, the route
to great good. So it is with Jesus.
Philippians 2. 5 - 11
This passage is thought to be an early Christian hymn. Paul puts it
into his letter as a summary of the faith, in effect an early creed.
Perhaps we should think of all creeds as 'hymns' - not sort-of-legal
statements but poetic acts of praise to God. The hymn tells of the extreme
humility of Christ's act in putting aside his heavenly status and in
accepting human life at its most degraded. His triumphant reward is
the source of our own confidence in God.
Luke 23. 1 - 49
Luke depicts Christ's final hours as a kind of sermon to move our hearts
and nourish our characters. in his extremity, he show three exemplary
qualities. First, he asks for the forgiveness of those who put him to
death. Second, from the cross itself. he makes his last convert, the
penitent thief. Third, he dies with assured surrender of himself to
God, as son to father. And, rightly, the crowds of bystanders are moved.
- Good comes out of evil especially when we accept its onslaught.
- It is in venturing all that we have the chance of the greater gain
to our inner selves.
- We may do most good in bad times by steadfastly holding to the course
of generosity.
8 April
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12. 1 - 4, 11 - 14
1 Corinthians11. 23 - 26
John 13. 1 - 7, 31b - 35
The Gospel too insists on our unity in receiving Christ's great humility,
expressed in the washing of feet. None of us is too good for that and
we are at one. So there is only one rule for our lives that we need
attend to: that we love on another.
- Today we return to our Christian roots as God's people - and we
rediscover who and what we are.
- So love begins with each other: we pray to hold that clear as we
work out its meaning for us in the complexities of life.
11 April
Easter Day
1 Corinthians 15. 19 - 26
Paul's converts have what to us may seem an unlikely distortion of faith:
they think of themselves as already, in their inner selves, 'risen'
completely to new life - no longer part of ordinary human society. No,
says Paul, there is always a greater future ahead of us, however great
the presents of God. And on that future we must keep our eyes. Here,
he tells how he thinks it will work out for the world; but Go9d's ultimate
triumph is the key point for faith. In the meantime, we are 'on the
way', serving God in the here and now.
Luke 24. 1 - 12
All the Gospels have a version of this story of Easter morning, where
women are the first witnesses of the deserted tomb. In our day, people
seem often to be greatly attached to the graves and corpses and body-parts
of their loved ones. So it is good to remember that, with and like our
Lord, we are bigger and more important that that earthly level of things.
What matters is the God-given greatness of what we are for and what
we add up to.
- Pray for boldness to stretch up to God's purpose for you. No virtue
in false humility.
- Pray to recognize the greater future that always lies ahead for
each of us.
- Amazement is a great quality to cultivate in our relationship with
God.
18 April
Easter 2
Acts 5. 27 - 32
Like the other speeches in Acts, by apostles and others, this one is
a brief summary of the Christian message. What was new - and offensive
- about the new faith was its centring on Jesus. his life, his shameful
death and amazing resurrection represented a new direction in God's
gift of himself to his people: and novelty is often not the route to
popularity.
Revelation 1. 4 - 8
The author of the Book of Revelation opens with letters to seven Christian
congregations in towns in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), for whom he writes
his book. It echoes words about Israel in Exodus 19 ('he made us a kingdom
of priests') and speaks of their marvellous new status - now close to
God and his chosen ones, because of Jesus' victory.
John 20. 19 -31
Some Christians identify easily with Thomas' hesitations, others are
inclined to regret them. But there is room, it seems, for both kinds
of response. And John offers his Gospel with the single aim of bringing
us, by whatever means, to 'life in his name'.
- At its heart, is Christian faith a matter of simple allegiance or
something more complicated?
- We believe that without having 'seen': can we rejoice in that?
- The demands of faith are sometimes grievous: are we ready for that?
25 April
Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 9. 1 - 6 (7 - 20)
We read the story of Paul's conversion from being a persecutor of Jesus'
followers to become not just a simple Christian but the one who opened
the Church up freely to non-Jews. It was the first key turning-point
in the history of the Church - and we still live in the light of it.
Revelation 5. 11 - 14
The vision of John makes one things abundantly clear: thepriority of
worship in the scheme of things. it is the offering due from all creation
to God and to Christ, crucified and now vindicated.
John 21. 1 - 19
This is a story about recognition: we know the Lord in the sharing of
the gift of his ever- nourishing read. And then a story about the work
fro him that follows: recognition leased to service and even to death.
- Past turning-points are gifts of God that make all the difference.
- Worship is the basis on which all Christian 'following' rests.
- Pray for readiness to recognize the call of God, and then to respond.
2 May
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 9. 36 - 43
Peter performs a miracle that reminds us of the acts of Jesus. The writer
of Acts wants us to see that, unique as he was, his followers do not
live simply on memories of a great time past, but as servants of the
living God and the present Lord.
Revelation 6. 9 - 17
As always, John's vision of heaven is one of worship. Here, the worshippers
centre on those who have suffered martyrdom for their faith in Christ.
Such suffering is the keenest test of the reality of commitment. Since
that early time, martyrs have always had a place of special honour among
Christian people, as the sharpest reminders of the total difference
that faith must make.
John 10. 22 - 30
There comes a point when no more can be done to bring about faith -
in ourselves or in others. We 'see' or we fail to see. But to have come
to faith is the key to the fullness of our relationship with God, and
colours everything about us at all levels.
- The Church lives now as the people of God in the present time, not
in a mist of nostalgia.
- Suffering of one kind or another has always been the hall-mark of
faith.
- Pray to know the stability of our life in Christ - and yet be ever
on the move.
9 May
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 11. 1 - 18
From time to time, the Church faces a major decision, as recently over
women's ordination. The earliest such issue was on the question whether,
if you were a gentile, to be a Christian entailed first becoming a Jew.
In broader terms, what it means to say that the Christian gospel fulfils
Judaism. Does it mean supersede or build upon. If it had not been settled
in a liberal way, life might still be very different fro us all.
Revelation 21. 1 - 6
Revelation draws towards its close with a wonderful vision of how everything
must surely end up: in beautiful perfection, with heaven and earth renewed,
all that is negative banished and all things summed up in the love of
God. Nothing less can satisfy.
John 13. 31 - 35
Love, for the Gospel of John, is the cement that binds together the
Christian community. In this Gospel as a whole, we have no other command
of Jesus. It is as if we are being told: Love one another truly, and
you will judge aright on other moral issues. We are put on trust, and
it is a risky business!
- For the Church to do the right things, it is not always enough to
stick to the past.
- To do right now, we should have a vision for the future.
- Pray to love so purely that good judgment will follow.
16 May
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 16. 9 - 15
This passage tells of a momentous development in the spread of Christianity:
for the first time Paul moves to what was already called Europe. He
come to Philippi, in northern Greece, and, in the rest of the chapter,
we can read of the imprisonment he suffers - and of the conversion of
the jailer, followed by his baptism, along with his family. It is the
first instance we have for the baptism of small children. A big landmark
in our history.
Revelation 21, 10 22 - 22.5
This beautiful vision of the new world that embodies God's perfection
uses poetic themes familiar from the Old Testament: Jerusalem the holy
city of God, the centre of God's world; the tree of life in Eden; God
seen as wonderful and glorious light. The old images grow and are transformed
in the Christian poet's pen.
John 5. 1 - 9
This is one of the few stories in the Gospel of John that remind us
of the other Gospels, with their many tales of Jesus' healings of the
sick. Archaeology had discovered the site that is here described.
- Thanks for our Christian past is surely a good thought and prayer
to nourish.
- So too, by contrast, is a lively hope for the future perfection
that God wills.
- Jesus the healer is a signal and guarantee of that hope.
23 May
Easter 7
Acts 16.16-34
This striking story contains the earliest reference to children being
baptized: it happens to the jailer at Philippi 'and his entire family'.
In each of the amazing stories in Acts, we meet the breaking of some
patch of new ground in the Christian mission. So the message began its
extraordinary spread, first across the Mediterranean world, here to
Greece (indeed, to Europe for the first time).
Revelation 22.12-14, 16-17, 20-21
The final passage of Revelation is ecstatic in its use of the strong
image of Jesus and his people being as bridegroom to bride: united by
love and longing and the desire for fulfilment of every hope.
John 17.20-26
This chapter of the Gospel of John is a prayer of Jesus to God, whereby
his followers are united with God through him. It expresses the intensity
of the relationship that he establishes in the union of a single love.
- The taking root of the Christian faith is liable to be in unforeseen
ways.
- We long for the consummation of the relationship with God which
Jesus gives to us.
- Pray for readiness to receive the love of God in all its depth.
30 May
Pentecost (Whit Sunday)
Acts 2.1-21
The Holy Spirit means God as powerfully involved among us - and the
story gives a striking example of such power that has made its mark
on the Christian imagination, especially in its promise of universality.
Romans 8.14-17
For Paul, 'the Spirit' signifies God at work now, in the present, in
the lives of those who love and serve him. It is the sign and the spur
for our union with God.
John 14.8-17 (25-27)
For John's Gospel, the Spirit is a way of assuring us that the time
of Jesus was not an all-time 'hi,-,h', the like of which we can never
see again. On the contrary, 'the Spirit' means that what Jesus was and
did then is still true and available for his own.
- The Christian message soon broke free of its original bounds: it
is universal in its scope.
- The Spirit is the gift of God's presence and the sign of our hope.
- Pray to live in the present as the gift of our loving and powerful
God.
6 June
Trinity Sunday
Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31
Old Jewish poetry used the image of God's 'wisdom': seen as his beloved
companion and agent in the creation of everything. It was a way of expressing
the belief that the world was at root an intelligible and orderly design
of God - not a chaotic or random place, where things can go anyhow.
Experience might point us either way, and Proverbs reassures us.
Romans 5.1-5
This passage is at the heart of Paul's vision of Christian faith. Christ's
coming means that we are freely and with bountiful grace accepted and
empowered by God - not because we deserve it but because he loves us.
John 16.12-15
We sometimes speak as if there were on the one hand Jesus, with his
message and his example, and then, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit,
less defined in our minds but certainly different. Not so: the Spirit
is simply a way of speaking of the permanent and ever-fresh legacy of
Christ among us. God is not divided but is ever-new in his coming to
us.
- The creation is made by God's wisdom: it is a thought that is both
the deepest root of modern science and also of our struggle to make
sense of the world around us.
- Is it not our greatest reassurance to know God accepts and restores
us because he loves us, not because of our fitful efforts?
- Jesus is the true picture of God in human terms once and, with
endless variation, for ever.
13 June
Trinity 1 (Proper 6)
1 Kings 21.1b-10 (11-14), 15-21a
The story of Naboth's vineyard resonates in every society at every time.
Once, such exploitation of the weaker by the stronger could (if you
were very bold) be seen as an offence against God's righteousness. Now,
we deal with it as an affront to human rights and go to the courts.
Progress?
Galatians 2.15-21
Paul deals with the grave issue facing Christians of his time and his
circle: must a Christian be a Jew as the basis of his or her identity?
No thunders Paul, cutting through any such ideas: Christ is all-embracing
and all-sufficient as our route to God. Anything further merely blurs
the truth.
Luke 7.36-8.3
Jesus proclaims the need for only penitence and loving devotion if we
are to come to God. Mere correctness, especially if grudgingly offered,
gets us nowhere, however respectable it is thought to be.
- Social justice is inside, not outside, the concerns of God.
- We should keep hold of the simple essentials of Christian allegiance.
- Pray never to lose the sense of directness in our relationship with
God.
20 June
2nd after Trinity (Proper 7)
1 Kings 19.1-4, (5), 8-15a
One of the great stories about Elijah, the out-of-line prophet who stuck
to his guns at great cost to his comfort. He was no friend to the authorities,
but his assurance came from God made known, not in great and noisy signs
but in the 'sound of sheer silence'.
Galatians 3.23-29
This passage gives us one of Paul's more positive thoughts about God's
gift of the Jewish Law through Moses long ago: it was a kind of stem
childminder in the time of our immaturity. Nevertheless, says Paul,
its day is now over. Taken over 'into Christ', we are mature -~ and
more, our background is irrelevant. Race, gender and class no longer
divide us; for Christ unites us.
Luke 8.26-29
To most modem people, this is not one of the most congenial Gospel stories.
We have to realize that in the first century, people saw what we call
serious mental illness as the result of possession by evil spirits,
agents of Satan; and they were not strong on animal rights. To such
conditions, as to other ills, Jesus brings healing and new order.
- Does it ring bells to experience God as 'the sound of sheer silence'?
- How much is the cause of sheer righteousness worth to us?
- Does the Church (do we) succeed in believing that we are 'all one
in Christ Jesus'?
27 June
Trinity 3
1 Kings 19.15-16, 19-21
As in many societies, so in Ancient Israel, the 'holy man' was an ambiguous
figure: mysteriously attractive because he had the gift of speaking
truth and doing right without fudging; but also forbidding and frightening
because he told you what you would prefer not to hear and to do what
you would rather leave undone. No wonder Elisha hesitated. See the Gospel
below for the same principle still at work.
Galatians 5.1, 13-2-5
Paul was a great advocate of freedom, but he did not mean liberty to
do as all our impulses tell us. The pressure of God leads us to find
our freedom in all kinds of splendid single-minded virtue, united in
our purpose on behalf of God.
Luke 9. 51-62
Echoing the story of Elijah's summons to Elisha, Luke tells how Jesus'
call gave no-room for hesitation. And it was a call not to ease but
to strenuous 'following', even to death and certainly it flew in the
face of ordinary customs and expectations of humdrum duty. So it was
and so it may still be.
- First we admire Elijah and his like, then we wonder how far we can
travel along their road.
- Pray for the gift of singlemindedness at the heart of life.
- The search for our true liberty is constant; we can do worse things
with our time than concentrate on its demands.
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