Month: April 2021

As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" [Acts 8:36]. One of the interesting dynamics of the scripture readings appointed for the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost in all three years of the scriptural cycle formed by the Revised Common Lectionary is the fact that the first reading each week comes not from the Old Testament, but rather from Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. The reading for this upcoming Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, is the relatively familiar story of the marvelous, miraculous encounter between Philip and an unnamed…

"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep” [John 10:14-15]. In some portions of the church, this upcoming Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is known as “Shepherd Sunday.” Because of that designation, the Psalter reading in all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary cycle is the beloved Twenty-third. And while the New Testament readings do change in each year of the triennial cycle, the Gospel lesson for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is always one of John’s “shepherd” passages. This year (Year…

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord [John 20:19-20]. Years ago, when the committee that crafted the Revised Common Lectionary considered what might be the most appropriate Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday of Easter (i.e., the Sunday that follows Easter) in each year of the three-year cycle, it did something unusual: it…