I.Theme – God dwells with God’s people.
" John the Evangelist" – Cimabue (1301-1302)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Acts 16:9-15
Psalm – Psalm 67
Epistle – Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Gospel – John 14:23-29
Gospel – John 5:1-9
Today’s readings remind us that God dwells with God’s people. In Acts, Paul’s preaching brings about the conversion of Lydia, who opens her home to Paul and Timothy. John, in his Revelation, imagines life in the new Jerusalem, where the lord will be our temple, our sun and moon, our life. In the gospel, Jesus promises us the continuing presence of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.
It’s clear from our Christian Scriptures that the historical Jesus was deeply concerned his ministry be carried on after his death and resurrection. That’s the problem: how do we know what Jesus practically wants us to do in our everyday lives? He certainly didn’t give his followers a step by step journal outlining what he expected. He simply gave them the Holy Spirit, his own Spirit which would not only “remind” us of the things he told his original disciples, but would also “teach” us.
As we prepare for Pentecost, in a sense we are preparing for the renewal of the Holy Spirit. God’s love is powerful and transforming. People we would never expect, like Lydia—a woman who made money by her own means and seemed to have a satisfying life—she was still yearning for more. The man who waited beside the pool for years in the second Gospel ofJohn reading had to help break down the walls of oppression himself before he could escape the oppression that kept him from the healing waters.
From John’s Gospel , we know that the Holy Spirit is working among us and reminding us of what we know, assuring us that we are part of something greater than ourselves, reminding us that God’s love is with us when we love Jesus. And we love Jesus by keeping his words—living out his commandment to love one another.
As we prepare for Pentecost, however, we are preparing for a revival, a renewal, a re-appearing of the Spirit in our lives. Perhaps the Spirit has never left us and has never left the world, but in preparing for it to come again, perhaps we will find the Spirit at work in us in a new way
II. Summary
First Reading – Acts 16:9-15
To the first Gentile converts, Christianity seemed like a sect within Judaism that had opened up to outsiders. That any Jewish group could take that unprecedented step was a great surprise in the ancient Middle East. The book of Acts tries to explain that to those converts. Today’s passage gives details about the controversy. Acts 16:9-15 contains the story of Lydia, one of the “God-fearers,” or Greeks who had come to believe in the One God and were influenced by Jewish teachings, but were gathering separately
The historical reading from Acts describes Paul’s first days in Philippi. Philippi wa s a town with many Gentiles and few Jews .Led there by a mystical experience, a vision of a man beckoning him to come to Macedonia, Paul arrives at the city and proceeds to go where he hopes to find kindred spirits, to the riverside where he encounters and worships with the women gathered there since it was a place of prayer. Paul’s first stop is open air worship, not a traditional religious site. In the spirit of today’s emergent and emerging Christians, Paul goes to where the people are and does not wait for people to come to him.
Paul sought the Jewish community but instead found Lydia, a Gentile who worshiped God but had not converted to Judaism. It is speculated that Lydia was president of the synagogue that met at the river, was a person of substance (“stay at my home”), and a person of influence. She is also a prominent businesswoman.
She is transformed by the message of Jesus through Paul, and has her whole household baptized. Lydia is an outsider; she is not a man, she is not a widow (like Dorcas who we read about last week, as the widows had special status in the early church), nor is she Jewish—but she is influential within her own community. Paul and the others were “convinced” that God had called them to proclaim the Good News to them.
After her conversion, she opens her home as a base for Paul’s ministry and the beginning of the community in Philippi.
Psalm – Psalm 67
Psalm 67 is an ancient blessing, reminding the people to praise God in all they do, and asking for God’s blessings upon the peoples of the earth. This psalm is a thanksgiving for a good harvest. In opposition to the Canaanite fertility religions, the Israelites centered their praise directly upon God and God’s relationship to the peoples of the world rather than upon the processes of nature.
While we often think of God as the God of Israel, there are many places within the Hebrew scriptures such as here where God is seen as the creator of all, the God of all people, and that God’s blessings are not just for a specific group of people, but that God’s blessings are received by all.
The initial phrase, and the final phrase echo the Aaronic blessing (cf. Numbers 6:24-26). There are three sections to the psalm (2, 4, and 6) the first two of which are completed by a common refrain, “May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you!” The final section is completed by a prayer asking for God’s benediction, and a prayer that all might stand in awe of him. The first section is concerned with “your saving ways”, the Law of God. The second section focuses on the cosmic nature of God’s justice and righteousness. The hope of the psalmist is that the graciousness of God in Israel’s harvest will be a sign to the nations of the earth.
Epistle – Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
The book of Revelation tried to encourage persecuted Christians. It uses symbols and the language of mystic visions to conceal its meanings from the persecutors. Today we continue pondering the image of a new Jerusalem, historically the symbol of God’s presence among the people
The ancient Jerusalem had long been for the Jews a token of God’s presence with them. God had aided them in capturing and holding it, in making it their capital, in building the Temple there, and in returning to it after their exile in Babylon. Within the holiest chamber of the Jerusalem Temple, they kept the stone tablets of the Law given to Moses in an enthroned chest known as the ark of the Covenant. God was thought to dwell in a particular way in the space above the ark. This all gives richness to the image of a new Jerusalem. This is, in the end, a metaphor for the Church, which is always called to reveal to the human race God’s presence among us.
The new Jerusalem coming down from heaven is the reverse of humanity’s attempt to build a city and the tower of Babel to rise to God (Genesis 11:1-9). John uses images reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision of the new Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40–48) and the description of the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-14). In contrast to Ezekiel’s vision, there is no temple—no place localizing God’s presence—for the whole city is completely filled with God’s presence and glory. Its light is the glory of God shining through Jesus, the lamp.
The words of Revelation describe the story teller’s experience of being “in the Spirit.” His mystical experience awakens him to God’s vision of the future, the horizon toward which God’s providence is leading all humankind and we might add creation. Frightening darkness is no more; the world is bathed in healing light. Divine light illumines all. People no longer need to seek God solely in religious institutions (churches, temples, and mosques). God’s light encompasses all things; sacred and secular are one holy reality, a thin place transparent
The nations and the kings of the earth, who formerly served Babylon, now come to Jerusalem, whose gates are never shut. All those will enter whose names are written in “the book of life,” who bear the seal of God’s name on their foreheads and the stamp of God’s nature on their lives.
The river and the tree of life, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, bring healing. " On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nation" God’s servants shall worship as they attain to the crowning joy of heaven, the sight of God’s face
Gospel –
John 14:23-29 is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse and brings up the holy spirit.
Jesus’ answers Judas’s (not the one who betrayed him) question about how Jesus will manifest himself to the disciples but not to the world? The question echoes the hope for an unmistakable external occurrence to convince the world. The disciples hoped for the coming of the Messiah to do this; the early Church counted on Jesus’ second coming. The passage is intended to give assurance to a young and persecuted community.
Jesus promises an indwelling presence of both himself and the Father to those who keep his commands. It is both through the Holy Sprit and the gift of peace. The Holy Spirit will teach and remind us of what we need to know, and what we need to know is what Jesus shares next: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives.” This peace emerges from a sense of God’s nearness and an experience of the Spirit’s illumination.
Through the mystery of this dual farewell gift, he can remain with those he loves, while at the same time leaving them. Fear or distress at his departure would be a natural reaction for the disciples. But Jesus can forbid these emotions because he gives the antidote.
First his abiding presence with the disciples after his return to the Father is accomplished in and through the Advocate, as John calls the Holy Spirit. The “Advocate” will serve as a teacher and a “reminder.” When Jesus calls the Spirit the Advocate, he employs the language of the courtroom to show the Spirit’s multiple tasks of bearing witness to Christ, confronting the oppressor and judging the world.
Secondly, Jesus gives the gift of peace, not the superficial greeting and farewell of the world nor the mere cessation of warfare, but the peace of God promised as part of God’s reign. This is the gift of spiritual peace, firm in the righteousness given by God.
Peace enlivens the soul and widens our sense of self beyond the fragile and defensive self to embrace the Spirit of God moving in all things, even if the world falls apart around us. The fearful self, worried about its survival, gives way to a self that sees all things in God, including its individual unfolding, and God in all things. We remain mortal and finite, but our mortality is no longer demoralizing; our mortality is embraced in our relationship to a trustworthy and faithful God
We know that the Holy Spirit is working among us and reminding us of what we know, assuring us that we are part of something greater than ourselves, reminding us that God’s love is with us when we love Jesus. And we love Jesus by keeping his words—living out his commandment to love one another.
In sum, today’s Gospel shows how Christian living is grounded in paradox. First, Jesus is more intimately present now, in His Church, than He had been during earthly life. Second, we are called to profound joy and peace, while assured that suffering and every sort of diminishment characterizes authentic Christian living. Third, the Trinitarian Mystery lies at the heart of revelation. The Father can be encountered in His fullness only though the Son, and the Son is revealed only through the Spirit. The intimate bond of love joining the Trinity of persons into one Godhead is graciously opened up to include us
B. John 5:1-9
What precedes this reading is the confrontation with the Samaritan woman, and a second sign at Cana – a healing. In today’s reading there will be a healing on a Sabbath, which creates its own problems. The lectionary, however, does not lead us down that path but focuses on the healing itself.
John 5:1-9 is the story of a miraculous healing by Jesus on the Sabbath. " Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. "Popular usage had connected this pool, which was fed by a tunnel from outside the walls with water with healing. As the supply “bubbled up” many thought that the disturbance of the water healed
Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made well?” The man explains that he has been kept out of the water by the actions of others. This man had been ill for thirty-eight years and could not walk. The medical condition of the man would have created its own problems in that society (“did this man sin, or did his parents?”) .But Jesus tells him to “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
The one who had lain there awaiting “a disturbance in the water” makes known a power that is beyond the supposed power of water or place. It is the unspoken nature of his faith, made known when he does what Jesus asks of him
By Jesus telling the man to “stand up,” he has literally had him stand up against oppression, against the voices that have told him no, against the very people who have gotten ahead of him and left him behind. If we want to be made well, we must stand up against injustice and oppression. We cannot just look to help ourselves, or we are no better than the ones getting ahead of the man and stepping in his way. We must look to help others in order to find our own healing.
The good news of God’s realm breaks through all our self-imposed barriers. It invites us to think big and pray for great things and act to bring our vision to life. It challenges us to take chances, like the man at the pool risking falling on our faces, so we can stand up on our own, claiming our freedom and agency in light of God’s vision for our lives and the world