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Christian Resources Library
Notes on the readings
April to June 2007
April
| May | June
* Reading omitted at St Mary's, Temple Balsall
Sunday 1 April, 2007
Palm Sunday (Liturgy of the Passion)
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 a 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 22. 14 – 23. 56 or 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.
Thursday 5 April, 2007
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12. 1 – 4 (5 – 10), 11 – 14
The Last Supper was the Passover Meal, so here are the rubrics for its observance – on the eve of Israel’s great salvation from slavery in Egypt. We have always seen it as the model for our redemption in Christ.
1 Corinthians 11. 23 – 26 *
The oldest telling of the story of the Last Supper, whose actions are the model for the Eucharist – for all times and places.
John 13. 1 – 17, 31b – 35
The washing of the disciples’ feet is an act of deep humility, teaching the bond of love that is to join the followers of Jesus and make them one.
- Pray for a deeper devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist.
- We praise God for our rescue by God from all that threatens us.
- We trust that we can grow in love for each other.
Sunday 8 April, 2007
Easter Day
Isaiah 65. 17 – 25 *
In a lovely poetic passage, theprophet tells of his vision of a new world, where all will be at peace and we shall live in contentment – paradise indeed.
Acts 10. 34 – 43
Peter gives a summary of the story of the salvation brought by Jesus, but the crucial point here is the universal scope of that work; it is for gentiles as well as for Jews. A major step in the Church's life and the spread of the good news.
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 than 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.
Sunday 15 April, 2007
The Second Sunday of Easter
Psalm: Psalm 118
It is a psalm to set the bells ringing and the trumpets sounding: words of pure joy, for the great day is here.
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’.
- We pray not to forget the revolution that being a Christian must mean for us.
- At its heart, is Christian faith a matter of simple allegiance or something more complicated?
- We believe without having ‘seen’.Can we rejoice in that?
- The demands of faith are sometimes grievous. Are we ready for them?
Sunday 22 April, 2007
The Third Sunday of Easter
Zephaniah 3. 14 – 20
The prophet foresees, exuberantly, a time of fulfilment when all shall be well.
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: the priority 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 bread. And then a story about the work from him that follows. Recognition leads 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.
Sunday 29 April, 2007
The 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 7. 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.
Sunday 6 May, 2007
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Family Eucharist 10.00 am
Gospel: John 13.31-35
The 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 for us all.
Baruch 3. 9 – 15, 32 – 36; 4. 1 – 4 *
The prophet paints a familiar picture: of Israel’s duty to obey God’s will and follow his teaching.
Genesis 22. 1 – 18 *
The dramatic and terrifying story of the near-death of Isaac by God’s command. Abraham is steadfast in faith and the boy is spared. Christians have seen it as a sort-of-sign of the giving of Jesus: see Rom. 8.32.
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.
Sunday 13 May, 2007
The 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 comes 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 14. 23 – 29
Jesus promises the Spirit as the continuer of his own presence: in other words, God’s saving work will not slacken.
- 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.
Thursday 17 May, 2007
Ascension Day
Acts 1. 1 – 11
This act, assuring Jesus’ triumph, marks the transition to the time of the Church.
Ephesians 1. 15 – 23 *
The writer sings a hymn of adoration for Christ in the heavenly endorsement of his triumph.
Luke 24. 44 – 53
Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus’ heavenly withdrawal at the end of Easter Day – and the disciples go to the Temple, keeping the link with Israel.
- Pray to identify with Christ as joining earth and heaven.
- We praise God for his gifts in Christ.
- Can we bear too strong a sense of glory?
Sunday 20 May, 2007
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Psalm: Psalm 97
God’s wonder and greatness simply take the breath away.
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 as bridegroom and bride, united by love and longing and by 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.
Sunday 27 May, 2007
Day of 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 ‘high’ 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.
Sunday 3 June, 2007
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. We do not live in a haphazard chaos.
- 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.
Sunday 10 June, 2007
The First Sunday after Trinity (Proper 5)
1 Kings 17. 8 – 16 (17 – 24)
Elijah the prophet gives miraculous succour to a vulnerable woman and her son.
Galatians 1. 11 – 24
Paul’s own account of his convesion: he describes it as an inner revelation of Christ, and it was also his call to the role of ‘apostle’ or emissary of Christ to non-Jews. But in due course, he did make contact with the Church’s existing leaders, Peter and James.
Luke 7. 11 – 17
For a widow to lose her son was a tragedy indeed in the world of the time – not just emotional disaster but economic ruin. Jesus rescues them from the depths, like Elijah of old.
- Pray for those who endure tragedy.
- Praise God for the work of Paul the apostle.
- Pray for all who undertake apostolic work.
Sunday 17 June, 2007
The Second Sunday after Trinity (Proper 6 )
Psalm 32
God is our great teacher who shows us how to lead our lives.
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.
Sunday 24 June, 2007
The Birth of John the Baptist
Isaiah 40. 1 – 11
These words are taken up in the Gospels when they write about the role of John the Baptist as herald for Jesus. In origin they looked to Israel's return from captivity in Babylon in the 5th century BC; and that in turn is compared to the release from Egyptian slavery under Moses centuries before.
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 stern 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 all, whoever we are.
Luke 1. 57 – 66, 80
The birth of John the Baptist is one of the building blocks in the structure of Christ’s coming among us.
- It is good to see liberation as the constant will of God.
- How much is the cause of sheer righteousness worth to us?
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