Sunday 9th May - 6th of Easter (white)
Theme: New life in action
Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Acts 16:9-15 John 14:23-29 Ps 67
Theme: New life in action
Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Acts 16:9-15 John 14:23-29 Ps 67
Collect:
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.
Comment
Today is Rogation Sunday, when we ask God to bless the crops and livestock of the land. In the days before maps, there would be a procession around the boundary of the parish, with prayer for God’s protection. It was also a time to bless the poor, so it is appropriate that Christian Aid week begins today.
Rogation Sunday in this country comes at a hopeful time of year, when winter gives way to new life, light and warmth. In the Gospel reading Jesus looks beyond the cross to his resurrection and ascension, and his return to the Father who sent him – and that was a cause for joy, for in the presence of God the Father there is the greatest possible joy. Jesus would no longer be physically with his disciples. But in his place Jesus would leave something even better: the Holy Spirit, who would be the channel of God’s presence, his teaching, and his peace.
Jesus could only be ‘God with us’, while he was here on earth – and he could only be in one place at one time. By his death and resurrection he has opened the way for the Holy Spirit to come, and he is ‘God within us’. The Holy Spirit is able to be in every Christian at the same time.
When he is in us, God is in us – and that includes the Father and the Son, for the Holy Spirit’s presence somehow means that the Father and the Son are making their home in us. We cannot get any closer to God than that!
The Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ teaching, and helps us to understand it and take it to heart. This is so important. Any relationship with God must be on his own terms, and must be true to reality – the reality of who God is, the reality of who we are, and the reality of the world we live in. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to face these realities by leading us into all truth – not all at once, but as we walk with him along life’s journey.
We have to respond – that is part of facing reality. And the proper response to Jesus’ teaching is obedience – letting that teaching shape our lives. A relationship with Jesus that does not involve complete obedience is not a loving relationship, for it is not a relationship with Jesus as he really is, the Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords. If we love him, we will put his will above our own. If our new life is not seen in action, it is not alive!
The result of this relationship with the Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit, is ‘peace’. ‘Peace’ in the Bible is not simply the absence of strife, but the presence of wholeness and harmony. There is a peace which the world can give us when all circumstances are good – when all is going well, and all our relationships are good. The peace that Jesus gives, however, is not dependent on circumstances. It is inner peace and harmony, based on being in the right place in God’s plan and having God in his rightful place in our lives. It is peace with God, above everything else, and that is possible even when everything seems to be going wrong.
Jesus said all this just before his crucifixion. Things could hardly have been worse, as far as his disciples were concerned. When Jesus was betrayed and put to death they did not feel this peace! Yet those events were the very things that gave us peace: by his stripes we are healed.
We live in hope.
Questions
1) What difference does it make to have the Holy Spirit of God within us?
2) How is God’s new life seen in action in us today?
3) What is the connection between inner peace, love and obedience?
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.
Comment
Today is Rogation Sunday, when we ask God to bless the crops and livestock of the land. In the days before maps, there would be a procession around the boundary of the parish, with prayer for God’s protection. It was also a time to bless the poor, so it is appropriate that Christian Aid week begins today.
Rogation Sunday in this country comes at a hopeful time of year, when winter gives way to new life, light and warmth. In the Gospel reading Jesus looks beyond the cross to his resurrection and ascension, and his return to the Father who sent him – and that was a cause for joy, for in the presence of God the Father there is the greatest possible joy. Jesus would no longer be physically with his disciples. But in his place Jesus would leave something even better: the Holy Spirit, who would be the channel of God’s presence, his teaching, and his peace.
Jesus could only be ‘God with us’, while he was here on earth – and he could only be in one place at one time. By his death and resurrection he has opened the way for the Holy Spirit to come, and he is ‘God within us’. The Holy Spirit is able to be in every Christian at the same time.
When he is in us, God is in us – and that includes the Father and the Son, for the Holy Spirit’s presence somehow means that the Father and the Son are making their home in us. We cannot get any closer to God than that!
The Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ teaching, and helps us to understand it and take it to heart. This is so important. Any relationship with God must be on his own terms, and must be true to reality – the reality of who God is, the reality of who we are, and the reality of the world we live in. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to face these realities by leading us into all truth – not all at once, but as we walk with him along life’s journey.
We have to respond – that is part of facing reality. And the proper response to Jesus’ teaching is obedience – letting that teaching shape our lives. A relationship with Jesus that does not involve complete obedience is not a loving relationship, for it is not a relationship with Jesus as he really is, the Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords. If we love him, we will put his will above our own. If our new life is not seen in action, it is not alive!
The result of this relationship with the Father and the Son, through the Holy Spirit, is ‘peace’. ‘Peace’ in the Bible is not simply the absence of strife, but the presence of wholeness and harmony. There is a peace which the world can give us when all circumstances are good – when all is going well, and all our relationships are good. The peace that Jesus gives, however, is not dependent on circumstances. It is inner peace and harmony, based on being in the right place in God’s plan and having God in his rightful place in our lives. It is peace with God, above everything else, and that is possible even when everything seems to be going wrong.
Jesus said all this just before his crucifixion. Things could hardly have been worse, as far as his disciples were concerned. When Jesus was betrayed and put to death they did not feel this peace! Yet those events were the very things that gave us peace: by his stripes we are healed.
We live in hope.
Questions
1) What difference does it make to have the Holy Spirit of God within us?
2) How is God’s new life seen in action in us today?
3) What is the connection between inner peace, love and obedience?