Tag: Easter 5B (RCL)

Fruit that lasts

Sixth Sunday of Easter; 5 May 2024; Easter 6B (RCL); Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17.

This passage in John’s Gospel continues the “I AM the vine” speech. Just as we are to abide in Jesus in order to bear fruit, Jesus has abided in the Father’s love, and we are to love one another as Jesus and the Father have loved one another, and as Jesus has loved us — that is, to entrust our lives to one another. Notice that Jesus does not exhort us to obey his commandments (as does the author of the First Epistle of John), but rather to keep them. The verb used for “to keep” implies guarding or protecting something precious. Without too much of a stretch, we could translate this, “If you treasure my commandments.”

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Anything you wish

Fifth Sunday of Easter; 28 April 2024; Easter 5B (RCL); Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8.

The image of the vine is a guiding metaphor in the Old Testament for Israel. Psalm 80, a psalm of complaint in which Israel questions why God has not restored Jerusalem, speaks of Israel as a vine: You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations and planted it. Then after describing God’s care for the vine, the psalmist goes on to complain: Why have you broken down its wall, so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes. And then begs: Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted.

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