Sixth Sunday of Easter
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Roman Catholic
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
Episcopal
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 3:(14-17) 18-24
John 14:15-21
Theme For The Day
Friendship with Jesus is a liberating experience.
First Lesson
Acts 10:44-48
The Gentiles' Pentecost
While Peter is preaching about his vision of a gospel that's inclusive of all people, the Holy Spirit falls on all those present, including particularly the Gentile household of Cornelius. There is a mini-Pentecost, with even the Gentiles receiving gifts of the Spirit and prophesying ecstatically. Peter then asks the same question that Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch considered together in last week's selection from Acts: "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (v. 47). And they are baptized.
New Testament Lesson
1 John 5:1-6
Love And Obedience
First John continues with the same themes that have been expressed so far. There is an absolute unity between the Son and the Father; to love one means necessarily to love the other, also. The true sign of loving God is obedience to God's commandments: this love is no mere emotion, but is hard work. It issues in deeds of love. The commandments of God, however, "are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world" (v. 3). The question could be asked, in a sermon, whether it is possible to love God solely, without loving one's fellow human beings; and, conversely, whether it is possible to love other people alone, without also having faith in God? A satisfactory answer to this question could help unite those perpetual factions in the church, those who emphasize evangelism and spirituality on the one hand and those who emphasize social justice on the other.
The Gospel
John 15:9-17
I Chose You
Continuing the "True Vine" discourse, John once again emphasizes several of his distinctive themes: abiding in Christ's love (v. 9), and the necessity of keeping Christ's commandments as a demonstration of genuine love (v. 10). Verse 12 brings a classic expression of the importance of loving sacrificially, as Christ has loved: "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" (vv. 12-13). Those who abide in him are no longer slaves, but "friends" (v. 15). The initiative in the call to discipleship lies with Christ, not the believer: "You did not choose me but I chose you" (v. 16a).
Preaching Possibilities
After several weeks of lexico continuo selections from both the First Letter of John and the Gospel of John, preaching from either the Epistle or Gospel Lesson becomes a challenge. The style of both writers is so repetitious that the same themes occur again and again. They are great themes, to be sure: but preachers will inevitably find themselves scanning the latest selection of texts and asking themselves, "So what's new?"
One possible answer, in this week's selection, is the concept of friendship with Jesus, found in John 15:15: "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...." He is the rabbi and master; they are his followers and servants. Yet Jesus Christ, son of God, raises his servants up. He raises them to friendship.
By the standards of first-century Judaism, this is extraordinary. Relationships between rabbis and pupils are formal and highly structured. Rabbis hold an exalted position in Jewish society. They are to be kind and caring to their disciples, but they generally do not befriend them. What is more, it is extraordinary that Jesus would raise his disciples above the level of servant -- for if Jesus is God's Son, then the disciples, as his servants, already hold an exalted position. In the Bible, only the greats like Moses or Abraham are called "servants of God." In raising the disciples above the level of servant, Jesus is giving them a higher station even than the patriarchs.
By the standards of other world religions, Jesus' friendship with his disciples is even more amazing. The founders of other great religions -- Mohammed, Confucius, Gautama the Buddha, even Moses -- are austere and lofty figures, dwelling (as it were) with one foot in the heavenly places and one on earth. They do not have time for such niceties as friendship. Yet, Jesus' words to his disciples are, "I have called you friends." It's one of the most radically original insights in the annals of religion.
Concretely, being friends with Jesus means three things. First, we are no longer servants. Second, when Jesus is our friend, something changes in our human relationships -- we approach others as friends in a new way. Third, this divine friendship has transforming potential for our lives -- for when we are friends with Jesus, the world itself becomes a friendly place.
Jesus' friendship with us transforms us, and all our relationships as well. Just look at how it is with those people Jesus approaches in the gospels -- he approaches them as friends, and their lives are never the same again. Remember how Jesus walks up to the hated tax collector Zacchaeus, perched up in his sycamore tree? He doesn't shout harshly up to the little man, asking, "Zacchaeus, are you saved?" No, Jesus says instead, "Let's have dinner."
Then there is the woman at the well. In New Testament times, a Jewish man would not approach even an unknown Jewish woman in public -- and the woman at the well wasn't even Jewish. She was a Samaritan, a member of the race Jews despised more than any other. More than that, she was a Samaritan woman of doubtful reputation. Yet this Samaritan woman from the wrong side of the tracks is the one Jesus approaches at the well, to ask for a drink. He treats her as a friend.
Our text from John, "I do not call you servants any longer ... but ... friends," is one of the most alluring, compelling messages in all of scripture. People want to hear that. They need to hear it. Even more than hearing it, our neighbors need to see it lived out, by Christians who know they are Jesus' friends, and who extend that gift of friendship to others.
Prayer For The Day
You have not called us servants, O Christ. You have called us friends: allowing our spirits to soar over every barrier that separates us from true faith. How glorious it is to realize your love for us -- yet how easy it is for our frail hearts to forget it! Keep our hearts ever close to yours, we pray. Amen.
To Illustrate
In the movie, Driving Miss Daisy, the title character is an elegant Southern aristocrat, played by Jessica Tandy. She is getting on in years, and her son has decided she is now a traffic hazard behind the wheel of her car: so he has hired her a chauffeur. The chauffeur, played by Morgan Freeman, is an African-American -- in the South, at the time in history this movie is set, a member of the servant class.
Miss Daisy doesn't like the idea of a chauffeur one bit, and the early part of the movie tells of her stubborn efforts to resist change. In time, though, Miss Daisy discovers that she and her chauffeur, Hoke, have more in common than either one ever imagined.
The two come from different economic classes, it is true. Yet, Miss Daisy is Jewish, and has lived her whole life in the American South -- so both she and Hoke know what discrimination feels like. Both are getting up in years, and know physical limitations. Both have rich memories, extending back over many years.
By the end of the film, Hoke and Miss Daisy are truly each other's best friend. They keep up the pretense of the master-servant relationship, but that's for the world to see. By mutual consent, they have crossed the boundaries of race and class, to discover a friendship that is priceless. In the movie's final scene, Miss Daisy is living in a nursing home, and her son has brought Hoke with him to visit her. It becomes perfectly clear that the person Miss Daisy most wants to see is not her own son, but her chauffeur and friend of many years.
***
It's one of the odd quirks of American history that, in many parts of the South, slavery persisted after the Civil War was over. Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Union troops occupied state capitals across the South. The infamous carpetbaggers were running the state houses. Yet still, in the smaller towns and villages of the rural South, life continued very much as it had before.
The slaves were free, but they couldn't claim their freedom. Acts of Congress had been passed, presidential proclamations had been signed -- and, in many cases, news of those actions had reached the plantations. The changes were too sudden, too far-reaching, to take in all at once. Life on the plantation, for all its hardship and misery, seemed less threatening. So most of the former slaves stayed where they were, and it wasn't long before the oppressive system of sharecropping rose up, a new kind of slavery.
It can be the same way for us, even after we hear Christ calling us "friend." If we've grown up fearing God as a horrible taskmaster, dreading him as the dispenser of harsh punishments, it can be positively threatening to hear God's Son calling us friend. It upsets the applecart. It changes our whole perspective.
We may end up acting much like those former slaves of the American South. Acknowledging that a proclamation has been passed somewhere on high, confessing with our lips that we are free people, we yet live as though we were still in bondage. The shackles are removed; the locked gate is now open -- more fearful yet the open road appears to us, stretching on to who knows where.
***
The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe.
-- George MacDonald
***
You cannot take Jesus to India. You cannot take Jesus to Africa. The call to take Jesus to the heathen is ridiculous. We cannot take Jesus anywhere. He is already in Africa. He is already beside the mother in the hut in India. He is already there loving and healing and ministering. He takes us to join him in his loving service to his children. He has already been there. Before we were born, he was there. Before we could think of going, he was already there. He takes us, we never take him.
-- D. T. Niles
***
He is the Way. Follow him though the Land of Unlikeness;
you will see rare beasts
and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth. Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety:
you will come to a great city
that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life. Love him in the World of the Flesh:
and at your marriage
all its occasions shall dance for joy.
-- W. H. Auden, from the "Christmas Oratorio"
***
E. Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in the African jungle. When he happened upon a native hut, he asked if the man who lived there could guide him out. The native agreed to do so. "All right," said the missionary, "show me the way."
The native said just one word: "Walk." Together they walked for more than an hour, hacking their way through the thick undergrowth with machetes.
When they finally stopped for a rest, the missionary had grown worried. "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?"
"Bwana," replied his companion, "in this place there is no path. I am the path."
***
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.
-- Blaise Pascal
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Roman Catholic
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
Episcopal
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 3:(14-17) 18-24
John 14:15-21
Theme For The Day
Friendship with Jesus is a liberating experience.
First Lesson
Acts 10:44-48
The Gentiles' Pentecost
While Peter is preaching about his vision of a gospel that's inclusive of all people, the Holy Spirit falls on all those present, including particularly the Gentile household of Cornelius. There is a mini-Pentecost, with even the Gentiles receiving gifts of the Spirit and prophesying ecstatically. Peter then asks the same question that Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch considered together in last week's selection from Acts: "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (v. 47). And they are baptized.
New Testament Lesson
1 John 5:1-6
Love And Obedience
First John continues with the same themes that have been expressed so far. There is an absolute unity between the Son and the Father; to love one means necessarily to love the other, also. The true sign of loving God is obedience to God's commandments: this love is no mere emotion, but is hard work. It issues in deeds of love. The commandments of God, however, "are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world" (v. 3). The question could be asked, in a sermon, whether it is possible to love God solely, without loving one's fellow human beings; and, conversely, whether it is possible to love other people alone, without also having faith in God? A satisfactory answer to this question could help unite those perpetual factions in the church, those who emphasize evangelism and spirituality on the one hand and those who emphasize social justice on the other.
The Gospel
John 15:9-17
I Chose You
Continuing the "True Vine" discourse, John once again emphasizes several of his distinctive themes: abiding in Christ's love (v. 9), and the necessity of keeping Christ's commandments as a demonstration of genuine love (v. 10). Verse 12 brings a classic expression of the importance of loving sacrificially, as Christ has loved: "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" (vv. 12-13). Those who abide in him are no longer slaves, but "friends" (v. 15). The initiative in the call to discipleship lies with Christ, not the believer: "You did not choose me but I chose you" (v. 16a).
Preaching Possibilities
After several weeks of lexico continuo selections from both the First Letter of John and the Gospel of John, preaching from either the Epistle or Gospel Lesson becomes a challenge. The style of both writers is so repetitious that the same themes occur again and again. They are great themes, to be sure: but preachers will inevitably find themselves scanning the latest selection of texts and asking themselves, "So what's new?"
One possible answer, in this week's selection, is the concept of friendship with Jesus, found in John 15:15: "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...." He is the rabbi and master; they are his followers and servants. Yet Jesus Christ, son of God, raises his servants up. He raises them to friendship.
By the standards of first-century Judaism, this is extraordinary. Relationships between rabbis and pupils are formal and highly structured. Rabbis hold an exalted position in Jewish society. They are to be kind and caring to their disciples, but they generally do not befriend them. What is more, it is extraordinary that Jesus would raise his disciples above the level of servant -- for if Jesus is God's Son, then the disciples, as his servants, already hold an exalted position. In the Bible, only the greats like Moses or Abraham are called "servants of God." In raising the disciples above the level of servant, Jesus is giving them a higher station even than the patriarchs.
By the standards of other world religions, Jesus' friendship with his disciples is even more amazing. The founders of other great religions -- Mohammed, Confucius, Gautama the Buddha, even Moses -- are austere and lofty figures, dwelling (as it were) with one foot in the heavenly places and one on earth. They do not have time for such niceties as friendship. Yet, Jesus' words to his disciples are, "I have called you friends." It's one of the most radically original insights in the annals of religion.
Concretely, being friends with Jesus means three things. First, we are no longer servants. Second, when Jesus is our friend, something changes in our human relationships -- we approach others as friends in a new way. Third, this divine friendship has transforming potential for our lives -- for when we are friends with Jesus, the world itself becomes a friendly place.
Jesus' friendship with us transforms us, and all our relationships as well. Just look at how it is with those people Jesus approaches in the gospels -- he approaches them as friends, and their lives are never the same again. Remember how Jesus walks up to the hated tax collector Zacchaeus, perched up in his sycamore tree? He doesn't shout harshly up to the little man, asking, "Zacchaeus, are you saved?" No, Jesus says instead, "Let's have dinner."
Then there is the woman at the well. In New Testament times, a Jewish man would not approach even an unknown Jewish woman in public -- and the woman at the well wasn't even Jewish. She was a Samaritan, a member of the race Jews despised more than any other. More than that, she was a Samaritan woman of doubtful reputation. Yet this Samaritan woman from the wrong side of the tracks is the one Jesus approaches at the well, to ask for a drink. He treats her as a friend.
Our text from John, "I do not call you servants any longer ... but ... friends," is one of the most alluring, compelling messages in all of scripture. People want to hear that. They need to hear it. Even more than hearing it, our neighbors need to see it lived out, by Christians who know they are Jesus' friends, and who extend that gift of friendship to others.
Prayer For The Day
You have not called us servants, O Christ. You have called us friends: allowing our spirits to soar over every barrier that separates us from true faith. How glorious it is to realize your love for us -- yet how easy it is for our frail hearts to forget it! Keep our hearts ever close to yours, we pray. Amen.
To Illustrate
In the movie, Driving Miss Daisy, the title character is an elegant Southern aristocrat, played by Jessica Tandy. She is getting on in years, and her son has decided she is now a traffic hazard behind the wheel of her car: so he has hired her a chauffeur. The chauffeur, played by Morgan Freeman, is an African-American -- in the South, at the time in history this movie is set, a member of the servant class.
Miss Daisy doesn't like the idea of a chauffeur one bit, and the early part of the movie tells of her stubborn efforts to resist change. In time, though, Miss Daisy discovers that she and her chauffeur, Hoke, have more in common than either one ever imagined.
The two come from different economic classes, it is true. Yet, Miss Daisy is Jewish, and has lived her whole life in the American South -- so both she and Hoke know what discrimination feels like. Both are getting up in years, and know physical limitations. Both have rich memories, extending back over many years.
By the end of the film, Hoke and Miss Daisy are truly each other's best friend. They keep up the pretense of the master-servant relationship, but that's for the world to see. By mutual consent, they have crossed the boundaries of race and class, to discover a friendship that is priceless. In the movie's final scene, Miss Daisy is living in a nursing home, and her son has brought Hoke with him to visit her. It becomes perfectly clear that the person Miss Daisy most wants to see is not her own son, but her chauffeur and friend of many years.
***
It's one of the odd quirks of American history that, in many parts of the South, slavery persisted after the Civil War was over. Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Union troops occupied state capitals across the South. The infamous carpetbaggers were running the state houses. Yet still, in the smaller towns and villages of the rural South, life continued very much as it had before.
The slaves were free, but they couldn't claim their freedom. Acts of Congress had been passed, presidential proclamations had been signed -- and, in many cases, news of those actions had reached the plantations. The changes were too sudden, too far-reaching, to take in all at once. Life on the plantation, for all its hardship and misery, seemed less threatening. So most of the former slaves stayed where they were, and it wasn't long before the oppressive system of sharecropping rose up, a new kind of slavery.
It can be the same way for us, even after we hear Christ calling us "friend." If we've grown up fearing God as a horrible taskmaster, dreading him as the dispenser of harsh punishments, it can be positively threatening to hear God's Son calling us friend. It upsets the applecart. It changes our whole perspective.
We may end up acting much like those former slaves of the American South. Acknowledging that a proclamation has been passed somewhere on high, confessing with our lips that we are free people, we yet live as though we were still in bondage. The shackles are removed; the locked gate is now open -- more fearful yet the open road appears to us, stretching on to who knows where.
***
The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe.
-- George MacDonald
***
You cannot take Jesus to India. You cannot take Jesus to Africa. The call to take Jesus to the heathen is ridiculous. We cannot take Jesus anywhere. He is already in Africa. He is already beside the mother in the hut in India. He is already there loving and healing and ministering. He takes us to join him in his loving service to his children. He has already been there. Before we were born, he was there. Before we could think of going, he was already there. He takes us, we never take him.
-- D. T. Niles
***
He is the Way. Follow him though the Land of Unlikeness;
you will see rare beasts
and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth. Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety:
you will come to a great city
that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life. Love him in the World of the Flesh:
and at your marriage
all its occasions shall dance for joy.
-- W. H. Auden, from the "Christmas Oratorio"
***
E. Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in the African jungle. When he happened upon a native hut, he asked if the man who lived there could guide him out. The native agreed to do so. "All right," said the missionary, "show me the way."
The native said just one word: "Walk." Together they walked for more than an hour, hacking their way through the thick undergrowth with machetes.
When they finally stopped for a rest, the missionary had grown worried. "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?"
"Bwana," replied his companion, "in this place there is no path. I am the path."
***
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.
-- Blaise Pascal
