Collect
God our redeemer, you have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son: grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
Risen Christ, by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples: help your Church to obey your command and draw the nations to the fire of your love, to the glory of God the Father.
Post Communion
God our Father, whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life: may we thirst for you, the spring of life and source of goodness, through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Readings
Acts – 10.44–48
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
Psalm
1 Sing to the Lord a new song, ♦
for he has done marvellous things.
2 His own right hand and his holy arm ♦
have won for him the victory.
3 The Lord has made known his salvation; ♦
his deliverance has he openly shown in the sight of the nations.
4 He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness towards the house of Israel, ♦
and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
5 Sound praises to the Lord, all the earth; ♦
break into singing and make music.
6 Make music to the Lord with the lyre, ♦
with the lyre and the voice of melody.
7 With trumpets and the sound of the horn ♦
sound praises before the Lord, the King.
8 Let the sea thunder and all that fills it, ♦
the world and all that dwell upon it.
9 Let the rivers clap their hands ♦
and let the hills ring out together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
10 In righteousness shall he judge the world ♦
and the peoples with equity.
Epistle – I John 5.1–6
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
Gospel – John 15.9–17
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Sermon on Easter vi
They “were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” I would ask us to ponder this question, “Aren’t we all dumbfounded when something happens which we would never expect?” But then again, the real question is – “shouldn’t we always amazed by everything that happens all around us?”
The “Jews” of the bible are amazed by what was happening right there in front of them probably because of their feelings of “entitlement” under the Torah. They were a proud people who had a definite view of their place in the world. They are the people of God whose tradition of the Law and the Prophets set them apart from all the other people of the Levant, even more so nowadays with the three religious traditions of the area in conflict. Their history distinguishes them. The prophets in the bible testify as to how God has dealt with Israel distinctly. One of these unique voices is that the prophet Joel (2:28-32). He set very high expectations about the end of days. He lets us know that “God was going to pour out His Spirit on all mankind and their sons and daughters would prophesy, old men would dream dreams, young men would see visions, and even male and female servants would have the Holy Sprit poured out on them.”
Joel was speaking to and about Israel itself. Anyone who had a connection to the people of God would be touched and their lives would be blessed by miracles – speaking in tongues, or prophesy, or dreaming dreams – from the leaders in their palaces to the servants in the humblest of dwellings. This prophecy of Joel is a transformation of the whole of the kingdom of Israel, isn’t it? Truth would be declaimed by all, from the king of Israel’s theocracy to the very least of God’s subjects. Everyone in Israel would be worthy of God’s love and care. Every Israelite would speak about what was righteous and good. Everyone would see what should be the case for all and do it. It is salvation in the here and now for Israel. In fact, I have to say, it was an expectation of the coming Kingdom of God, not unlike the preaching of Jesus.
This passage of Joel, I would say, was a well-known saying at the time of Jesus, at the beginning of the Church, but especially within the Church which developed inside Jewish communities. It was one of the many prophecies which spoke to the messianic expectation amongst Jews during the Roman occupation of Israel. It is no wonder that Peter and the disciples, all those Jewish followers of the way of Jesus, were “astounded” as in this story from Acts. This Jewish stance is revealed throughout Acts and in Paul’s letters to the young churches which he visited and fostered in their infancy.
The gift of this Spirit was supposed to be limited to the chosen people. At least that was the way Joel was usually interpreted in this period. Don’t we all know about the sailcloth of Peter’s dream where all of God’s creation was offered to him? Don’t we all know of Paul’s saying that there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ? There are many other sayings you can think of, aren’t there?
However, we are absolutely sure that a new universalism became the norm for the nascent church (and for the Church of our time), aren’t we? The christian community had been a sect within Judaism, but it transformed itself with the inclusion of the outcast, the stranger, and even the gentile. That new openness becomes the ethos of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. It became a reality when Constantine became a Christian and the empire followed him. All of Paul’s letters describe the freedom and the openness of the fellowship. Those who followed the way of Christ lived in open love especially towards everyone who professed the name of Jesus Christ. We hear this in all the NT in some way, but especially in the letters of Paul and John.
Here in Acts, we have that exclusive Jewish expectation being expressed and it is rejected. The questions are asked – ‘Is everyone worthy of the Holy Spirit? Are they worthy of baptism, to be washed clean of sin and made whole in Christ?’ We still struggle with this dilemma, don’t we? Some say it is universal, others restrict it – a question which raises its head even in communities like ours today. This passage speaks of a major change in the early church’s behaviour. At the time of Jesus, the christian fellowship was a gathering of brethren, a family descended from Moses which kept the Torah and respected the prophets. The interpretation of the Law plays a big part in this closed community past and present. This tradition of discussing the Law became the source of the most important of Jewish literature, the Mishnah, the Talmud and the Midrash. The practice in Judaism is that everyone (well, certainly the men, depending on the community) should extend their learning of the Law, through reading and discussion. When they gathered together, they became the rabbi and the local congregation.
This tradition of dialogue about the Law continues today in christian house-groups in local churches throughout the world. Even we here sometimes echo this old custom when we gather around coffee and talk about the address given during worship, or even when we meet at the pub and talk about the news of the day in relation to the good, or in relation to the question, “What would Jesus do in this situation?” Even if we don’t say that exactly.
We are not as intense about the question of the Law as Hassidic Jews, to be sure. They gather around their rebbe and discuss Torah at length, so much so that there are stories of wives feeling abandoned. However, we skirt about the question of how God might be in our lives when we talk seriously with one another. We do not explicitly question our behaviour against the Torah, but I believe the expression of our religiosity does come out when we question whether it is good to do something particular. I think we do ask ourselves whether we fulfill the one law Jesus thrust on us – to love God and one another. I am convinced we have that one commandment at the very back of our minds all the time, even though we may not bring it to the front of our attention.
I wonder whether the words of Joel are how we understood this bringing the Law to mind. When we do focus on the Law, don’t we seem to blow everything apart? Nothing is as it might appear to us when we are under the thrall of the everyday, when we go along without explicit thought of what we are doing, without what they call “mindfullness”.
Joel is reminding us that the dreams and prophecies which we tell others about may seem strange to them. We may be speaking a foreign tongue to our neighbours because they do not have the loving freedom in their lives which Jesus promises or the guidance of the one Law of life.
That is what was astounding for “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter” – they could not believe that even gentiles could enjoy christian agape as fully as themselves. That is what is mind-blowing. That is what is challenging life as they know it. I think that is the point of this episode: we have to recognise that the Spirit flows everywhere – we merely have to accept it as part of life in all its fullness – for each and every one of us and experience its richness and joy.