We are now in the Easter Season or Easter-tide or the Great 50 Days of Easter. It’s the period between Easter Day and Pentecost. This year Pentecost is on May 28.
It is spring and there are signs of new life everywhere. The
things that seemed, just a short time ago, to be dry sticks or rotting bulbs
are putting on leaves and bursting into bloom. It is no wonder that all ancient
peoples had a festival celebrating new beginnings in the spring. New life is to
be seen everywhere. None is more dramatic than the Resurrection of Jesus and
his triumph over death.
During this season we hear the post-Resurrection appearances
of Jesus to the disciples. We look for the Risen Christ in our own lives. Today’s
readings are all about the promise of New Life that comes to us because of the
Resurrection. We remember that, as the Epistle this week says, [God] by his
great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…In this you rejoice, even if now
for a little while you have had to suffer various trials…even though you do not
see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious
joy... (I Peter 1:3-9)
During the Easter season, we typically don’t have a reading
from the Hebrew Scriptures. The first lesson for Sunday is from Acts. In
Peter’s first sermon in Acts, he refers to Psalm 16 when he says, David
spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to
Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ This Jesus God raised up,
and of that all of us are witnesses. (Acts 2:14a, 22-32)
The Gospel from John 20 tells how Jesus gave new hope to his
disciples. Jesus comes to them while they are still hiding behind locked doors.
He says, Peace be with you, breathes the gift of the Holy Spirit on them.
He tells them as the Father has sent me, so I send you. The reading also
tells of Thomas’ doubt because he wasn’t present for the visit, and his own
life-changing encounter with the Risen Lord. The reading concludes with the
promise to all generations since that these [signs] are written so that you
may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through
believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31) We are heirs
of the promise of new life that was manifest in the Resurrection.
Psalm 16, written generations earlier, proclaims, You are
my Lord, my good above all other…my portion and my cup. The Psalm concludes
by saying, You will show me the path of life; in your presence
there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
It is a Psalm that remembers God is the giver of all life. The Living Bible
translation rejoices, I am always thinking of the Lord; and because he is so
near, I never need to stumble or fall. Heart, body, and soul are filled with
joy.
What new life are you seeing around you, and in your life during
these days since Easter?
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Psalm 16 1 Protect me,
O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my
good above all other.” (Book of Common
Prayer) |
Save me, O God,
because I have come to you for refuge. 2 I said to him, “You are my Lord; I have
no other help but yours.” 3 I want the company of the godly men and women in the
land; they are the true nobility. 4 Those choosing other gods shall all be filled
with sorrow; I will not offer the sacrifices they do or even speak the names of
their gods. 5 The Lord himself
is my inheritance, my prize. He is my food and drink, my highest joy! He guards
all that is mine. 6 He sees that I am given pleasant brooks and meadows as my
share! What a wonderful inheritance! 7 I will bless the Lord who counsels me;
he gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do. 8 I am always
thinking of the Lord; and because he is so near, I never need to stumble or fall. 9 Heart, body,
and soul are filled with joy. 10 For you will not leave me among the dead; you
will not allow your beloved one to rot in the grave. 11 You have let me experience
the joys of life and the exquisite pleasures of your own eternal presence. (Living Bible) |
