Worship Notes May 4, 2014

Worship Notes

The Third Sunday of Easter

Year A

May 4, 2014

                                                                    

The Season

Easter is not just one Sunday of the year; rather, it is an entire season. It is a “week of weeks,” encompassing seven Sundays, totaling 49 days, culminating on the 50^th day, Pentecost, this year falling June 8. Thus we proclaim throughout these many days, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!” Throughout the season, we turn from the Old Testament to the New, to the book of Acts, for our First Lesson each Sunday. In addition, the Gospel reading for every Sunday of Easter, in all three lectionary cycles, comes from John, except for today, this Third Sunday of Easter.

In Word

In our First Lesson, the Apostle Peter picks up where he left off last Sunday. The setting is Jerusalem immediately following Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all the apostles and those with them (in this we anticipate our own celebration of Pentecost in June!). Those who heard Peter’s powerful words were “cut to the heart” and asked, “What should we do?” Peter’s reply: “Repent, and be baptized . . .” As a result, some three thousand persons were baptized. Thus, Peter is the envy of every preacher who has come after him!

In the Psalter, we revisit Psalm 116, which we sang barely two weeks ago on Maundy Thursday. Verse 13 sings, “I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” On Maundy Thursday, the emphasis was on Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples and his impending death. Today we sing of Jesus being made known to us in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup, as the story in our Gospel relays.

Our lectionary takes us to 1 Peter for our Second Lesson throughout these Sundays of Easter. It is difficult for us to imagine the transformation that took place in the life of this man who three times denied knowing or associating with Jesus now so boldly proclaiming Christ! Peter speaks from personal experience when he declares, “You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). Peter himself knew that newness of life!

“But we had hoped . . .” In the Gospel for today, the two followers of Jesus are leaving Jerusalem, going back to their former lives, perhaps, disillusioned by the death of Jesus and confused by the reports of his resurrection. “But we had hoped . . .” could well summarize the dashed hoped and dreams of so many of us. But then Jesus reveals himself in their midst—in our midst—and their lives—our lives—are transformed. These two men return to Jerusalem, renewed by the word and presence of Jesus.

In Song

Our opening hymn, “We Know That Christ Is Raised,” (ELW 449), is an Easter hymn rich in baptismal imagery. As Christ was raised from the dead, we too are raised anew in baptism, and our song is, “Hallelujah!” As Christ was revealed to the two men in the breaking of the bread, we sing, “. . . as Christ’s new body takes on flesh and blood.” We are Christ’s body in the world. John B. Geyer penned these words in Cambridge, England, while, literally around the corner, scientists were producing living cells, “the baby in the test tube,” as he wrote. The author had in mind the tune we are singing today, Engelberg, as he wrote his lyrics.