May 2022 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Unity

Seventh Sunday of Easter; 29 May 2022; Easter 7C (RCL); Acts 16:16-34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26.

This is one of those passages in John in which boundaries are blurred. If you listen to it (rather than read it), by the end, you’re not sure who is in whom. I think that is precisely the evangelist’s point. If we entrust our lives to one another, then our lives will overlap. Jesus has entrusted his life to us, and in that life is the Father, so our lives and the divine life overlap. We are one just as the Trinity is one (even though John does not use the concept of Trinity, he comes close). Just as we share in the divine life, we share in each other’s lives.

A spirit of peace

Sixth Sunday of Easter; 22 May 2022; Easter 6C (RCL); Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5; John 14:23-29.

I always wonder if the author of the Book of Revelation could have had any idea that his (I presume he was male) book would end up as the last book of the Christian canon. I know that such is impossible as there was no canon for another couple of centuries after he completed his work, but this passage makes a perfect end to the overarching story of scripture.

Little children

Fifth Sunday of Easter; 15 May 2022; Easter 5C (RCL); Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35.

This passage in John, like so many passages, seems to be full of non sequiturs. We jump from the mutual glorification of Father and Son, to Jesus’ address to his disciples, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer,” and his statement that they cannot come where he is going, to a new commandment. It seems like three unrelated sayings.