Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

The beautiful Easter theme of “The Lord is Our Shepherd,” alluded to in the John 10:1-10 analogies and expressed so well in Psalm 23 and 1 Peter 2:19-25, is not mentioned in Acts 2:42-47. All or a portion of Ezekiel 37:15-28 would fit the theme of “The Lord is Our Shepherd” exceedingly well. If a Newer Testament selection for the First Reading is desired on this Good Shepherd Sunday, far better than Acts 2:42-47 would be Hebrews 13:20-21: “And may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of the eternal covenant, make you successful in every good endeavor that you undertake, in order that you may always do God’s will, accomplishing in fellowship with us that which is pleasing in God’s sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever! Amen.” This doxology near the end of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not used in any place within the Easter season in this lectionary series. This raises the question of whether it may be appropriate in some instances for a congregation in its worship services to make a few adjustments in the lectionary readings, for example, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter in Series A using Ezekiel 37:15-28 or Hebrews 13:20-21 instead of Acts 2:42-47. There is more flexibility permitted in some denominations and groups than in others. Much depends on the leadership abilities in local congregations.

Psalm 23
In this psalm — so well known to us as Christians because we associate the personal name for the Lord God for Israelites and Jews with Jesus as the Risen Christ — we have the best proclamation of the gospel in the readings appointed for this day. We as Christians perceive Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior in much the same manner as the ancient Israelites and the Jews perceive the Lord God. Within a message based primarily on Psalm 23, we can tell how the Lord has been our Shepherd in our lives and in the lives of people whom we have known. Of course, there have been times when we have been lost and far from the Lord, but somehow the Lord has always found us, as indicated in this text. This message can be expressed in a variety of ways, for example in didactic sermon form, in proclamation form, and in story form.

1 Peter 2:19-25
There is a tremendous message in this fine text. The text should be read well, with good feeling, inflection, and intensity. Each of us, including our children, sometimes is made to suffer when doing the “right” thing rather than the “wrong” thing. We can relate to this text. It is a text that is helpful for all periods of human existence, not only for the period late during the first century when many early followers of Jesus were suffering privation and death at the hands of oppressive advocates of Roman Civil Religion. Jesus is our role model now just as Jesus was the role model for the early followers of Jesus when 1 Peter was written. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Our parents and our church leaders are “under shepherds” for us. We are all “household servants,” as 1 Peter 2:18 indicates.

John 10:1-10
There are two differing analogies in John 10. In this Series A text (10:1-10), the Johannine Jesus is called the “Gate” for the sheep and the shepherd of the sheep leads the sheep through the gate. It is only in 10:11-30, beyond the limits of this Series A text that the Johannine Jesus is called the “Good Shepherd.” Strictly speaking, therefore, John 10:1-10 is not a “Good Shepherd” text; it is a “Gate for the Sheep” text. It is also a text in which — consistent with other portions of the Fourth Gospel — it is claimed that access to God is possible only through the Johannine Jesus. In this text it is claimed all who came prior to the coming of the Johannine Jesus were thieves and robbers (10:8), and the sheep did not hear them. With these exclusivistic claims, the Johannine community created a problem for us. If we take these claims literally, we say through them that Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Suffering Servant of the Isaiah traditions, John the Baptist, and all of the rest of the Israelite saints, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ father Joseph, were thieves and robbers. In their exclusivistic zeal, the leaders and writers within the Johannine community went too far. The best of Christian theology and practice has not and does not follow the writers in the Johannine community in their defamatory anti-Jewish polemic and in their “super-high” exclusivistic Christology. If it had followed them and if we were to follow them today, we would not use Psalm 23 or any of the other Israelite Scriptures passed down through the centuries to us by people who are called “thieves and robbers” in John 10:8. We can, fortunately, and should use the beautiful and pastoral analogies in which the Jesus of history is our primary role model and Jesus as the Risen Christ is our “Gate” and our “Good Shepherd,” our Lord and our Savior.

Acts 2:42-47
In the context of Psalm 23, the 1 Peter 2, and the John 10 readings, Acts 2:42-47 depicts the ideal situation of followers of Jesus who continued the work of the Jesus of history with “glad and generous hearts.” Acts 2:42-47 then may be said to describe the lives of followers of Jesus as they ought to be as sheep following their Good Shepherd. In this way, the Acts 2:42-47 text is supportive of the comforting theme that “The Lord is Our Shepherd.”

The selection for this Fifth Sunday of Easter begins the transition from Easter to Ascension and Pentecost activities, or perhaps, in Fourth Gospel terminology, we should say to Jesus’ absence and anticipated return. With Gospel texts selected from the Gospel According to John and According to Luke, supported by texts from Acts of Apostles and 1 Peter, we have not had a Gospel selection from the Gospel According to Matthew in this Series A year of Matthew since Easter Day itself, and we will not have a Matthean Gospel account again until Trinity Sunday, still four weeks away.

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Psalm 31 might be said to be actually two psalms, two individual laments: 31:1-8 and 31:9-24. In each there is the theme of not only the suffering and deliverance of the psalmist, but also of the absence and the return of the Lord. When the Lord is absent, the psalmist is in distress. When the Lord is present, the psalmist is delivered. It is this relationship between the psalmist’s condition and the absence and return of the Lord that makes Psalm 31, and every other individual lament psalm, appropriate for use with Fourth Gospel reflections over the absence and presence of Jesus as Lord.

Acts 7:55-60
Through this use of Acts 7:55-60 on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, separate from the distractions of the vicious, defamatory name-calling of 7:51-54, we have a preview of the Ascension theme of Jesus at the right hand of God and of the Christian Pentecost theme of followers of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit. In this text, the Lukan playwright also introduced Paul as a Jewish character Saul into this literary drama, unfortunately presenting him as a young man who was watching approvingly while Stephen was being stoned to death.

1 Peter 2:2-10
Isaiah tradition and Psalm tradition texts are used in this selection in order to draw attention to Jesus the Christ as the living stone of great value for those who believe in him. As in other uses of 1 Peter texts, it would be helpful if we would explain to the congregation that the people to whom this epistle was addressed apparently were predominantly of non-Jewish background, even though the writer was probably a Jewish background follower of Jesus. The message of 1 Peter 2:9-10 is most appropriate for Christians who are “first generation” Christians, rather than for those who were born into Christian families. This text, therefore, is most applicable in places where the Church is growing rapidly and where Christians are being persecuted.

John 14:1-14
Even though these verses may have been at one time primarily intended as instructions for followers of Jesus who had gnosticizing tendencies, as we see in the names of those (Thomas and Philip) who question the Johannine Jesus in this account, the text remains instructive and comforting also for us, especially verses 1-3. The place to which Jesus will go and from which Jesus will return is depicted in this text in rather tangible ways as spacious and well-prepared, though nevertheless in somewhat vague terms. We may be grateful that the contention between the leaders of the Johannine community and the gnosticizing Christians generated much of this text. We certainly prefer the situation depicted here to the non-physical expectations of the gnosticizing Christians, even though we deplore the killing of gnosticizing Christians by “orthodox” Christians soon after the latter could utilize the power of the Roman Empire and its oppressive capability during the fourth century.

In retrospect, we must say that it is unfortunate that the claim is made in John 14:6 that no one can go to the Father except through the Johannine Jesus. Most Christians who use this verse today as biblical justification for their “one-wayism” posturing do not realize how narrowly sectarian was the community that provided John 14:6 for us. It is apparent that the members who were the leaders of the Johannine community did not think that other followers of Jesus such as the much more numerous members of communities that developed and used the Synoptic Gospel traditions could “go to the Father.” Their exclusivistic claim was not made for the Jesus of history, or for Jesus as Jesus was perceived by followers of Jesus within the Synoptic communities. Their exclusivistic claim was made for the Johannine Jesus. For them, the Johannine Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Gate into and out of the Sheepfold, the Light of the World, and so forth. As the members of the Johannine community broke fellowship with those who would not tolerate their narrow exclusiveness, the Johannine community’s claims for their view of Jesus were further exaggerated, as even a superficial comparison of how Jesus is portrayed in the Fourth Gospel compared with how Jesus is portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels indicates. Then, in their isolation, the Johannine community leaders and writers desired oneness with the followers of Jesus who were in the communities that had produced the Synoptic Gospels, but on the terms of the Johannine community and its claims of exclusiveness, as we see in the “High Priestly Prayer” of the Johannine Jesus in John 17.

How, then, shall we proclaim Jesus on this Fifth Sunday of Easter this year? Perhaps we would do well to go back to the Jesus of history who pointed to God rather than to himself, rather than to go back to the Johannine Jesus, who is depicted by the Johannine community as having pointed to himself, saying “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Or at least we should recognize and proclaim that the Johannine Jesus is God, and, that God, is, of course, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, for us, and for all who are Christians.

Perhaps the most usable theme that is present in all of these texts selected for us for the Sixth Sunday of Easter in Series A is expressed in Psalm 66:16: “Come and hear, and I will tell you what God has done for me!” There is personal testimony in each of these texts, and there should be personal testimony in the message that we proclaim on Easter 6.

Psalm 66:8-20
Psalm 66 is an excellent example of an individual Hymn of Praise. It illustrates the essential elements of worship among the ancient Israelites, and we can readily see that our worship of God as Christians does not differ greatly from the elements of worship depicted here. Since Psalm 66:8-20 serves so well as individual preparation for worship, it could be sung by a choir or soloist at the conclusion of the organ prelude.

The Newer Testament selections for this occasion provide a strong personal testimony of the message of the resurrection of Jesus within history, as an event from the past that has great significance for the present and for the future. More than anything else, this is what is distinctive about Christianity compared to Judaism and Islam, two religions in which resurrection is also anticipated, but primarily at the end of this world of time and space, on the “judgment day.” The selections from Acts, 1 Peter, and John come to us from different segments of the developing Church from approximately the same time period, around 85-95 CE. In these Newer Testament texts, we have good indications of what the resurrection of Jesus meant to various individuals and groups of followers of Jesus near the end of the first century. Perhaps we will want to incorporate something from each text into our proclamation of the Easter message this weekend as we share our personal testimony of the resurrection of Jesus.

Acts 17:22-31
Perhaps in every congregation there are some persons who, like the Athenians represented in this text, perceive that God is basically “unknown.” In a style reminiscent of classical Greek oratory, the Lukan playwright has Paul address such people skillfully, beginning by meeting them where they are and proclaiming God as known through Jesus, a man chosen by God, raised from the dead, and assigned the responsibility of evaluating the entire inhabited world for God. In these few verses, therefore, the inspired Lukan writer encapsulated what must have been an important aspect of early Christian mission, the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus to intelligent, critically thinking Greeks apart from the context of the Jewish synagogues. By means of the literary drama that we have in Acts 17:16-34, the Lukan writer provided for us a thumbnail sketch of that aspect of the mission.

Even though our own proclamation of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus to people today who are similar in their thinking to the Athenians depicted in this text may be as lacking in outward evidence of success as was the proclamation of the Lukan writer’s Paul in Athens, this kind of proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus remains vitally important. Since Acts 17:22-31 addresses this important aspect of Christian mission more directly than any other Newer Testament text, we should share our personal testimony of the resurrection of Jesus to the “Athenians” where we are this coming weekend. To the people today who are similar to the Athenians depicted in Acts 17, we should admit that from the standpoint of reason God is basically unknowable and unknown to us, but that we “know” God through faith, more specifically here by faith in God as the Risen Christ. To put this in another way, God is known through Jesus in a unique way. We “know” God not by irrefutable reason, but through God-given faith by which we feel God’s presence and God’s actions in our lives. The person of Jesus chosen by God, raised from the dead, and assigned the responsibility of evaluating the entire inhabited world is central in the Christian proclamation.

1 Peter 3:13-22
The reading actually should begin with 1 Peter 3:8. There are five important issues in this text. First, there is the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ (3:18). Second, there is the proclamation of where Jesus as the Christ is now, in heaven, “at the right hand of God” (3:22). Third, there is the proclamation that after Jesus had been raised from the dead he spoke to the spirits of those who had been destroyed at the time of Noah (3:19-20). Fourth, there is the somewhat obscure analogy between salvation on Noah’s Ark and salvation now through Baptism in the name of Jesus as the Christ raised from the dead (3:21). Finally, there is the insight into the effectiveness of suffering, if necessary, as those being addressed are revering Jesus raised from the dead as Lord rather than Caesar as their Lord (3:8-17). Obviously, there is much in this text for us to proclaim.

John 14:15-21
This selection is certainly one of the most beautiful and most meaningful portions of the basic John 14 “farewell discourse” of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. Especially beautiful and meaningful is 14:19c, “Because I live, you too shall live!” Those who hear this message and respond to it will not be left as orphans. Instead, the Spirit of Truth, who is another Paraclete like Jesus, will be with them forever in order to provide for them whatever they may need. In 1 Peter 3:8-22 and in John 14:15-21 God and the People of God are said to be mutual advocates of each other. We are called to proclaim this on the Sixth Sunday of Easter.

Within the three Newer Testament texts designated for the Third Sunday of Easter in Series A the message that God raised Jesus from the dead continues to be proclaimed in a variety of ways. In the Psalm 116 reading there is, of course, no proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus. There is, however, a strong affirmation of life as a gift from the Lord.

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
In this individual Hymn of Praise the psalmist “offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving” to the Lord, realizing that this sacrifice is certainly inadequate as a response to the bountiful life the Lord provides for the psalmist. Nevertheless, thanksgiving and praise to the Lord is the greatest response possible for the psalmist, and this response is offered in the presence of the people assembled for worship.

It is virtually the same for us. The “sacrifice of thanksgiving” is the greatest response we are able to make to God for what God has done and continues to do for us in the resurrection of Jesus and in our own anticipated resurrection from the dead on the last day. For all of this, we thank and praise God.

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
As we use this text in our Christian worship services, it is very important we acknowledge the propensity of the writers of the Four Gospels and of the Lukan playwright repeatedly in Acts of Apostles to remove the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus from the Romans who, with the support of a minute percentage of Jesus’ own people who cooperated with them, were the only ones who crucified anyone in Jerusalem during the first century to the Jews from all over the Roman Empire. Since theologically “our sins” caused the death of Jesus and historically the Romans crucified Jesus, perhaps the best translation of the final expression in Acts 2:36 would be “this Jesus who was crucified,” not “this Jesus whom you crucified!” This translation provides the best translation both theologically and historically, and it would be an appropriate Christian response to the text during this season when Jews throughout the world are, with sadness, observing Yom Hashoah, a Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust.

1 Peter 1:17-23
Here also the writer of 1 Peter provides a good summary of what was being proclaimed to non-Jewish followers of Jesus late during the first century regarding atonement with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. In its reference to “the useless lifestyle that you inherited from your ancestors,” 1 Peter 1:18 is applicable today only among persons who are “first-generation” Christians and for those whose parents’ lifestyle was deplorable. For this reason, it will be helpful to explain to those who will be hearing the reading of 1 Peter 1:17-23 this coming weekend that 1 Peter appears to have been written to followers of Jesus whose ancestors were not Jewish.

Luke 24:13-35
In this well written Lukan account, we have our best biblical illustration of an Easter story sermon. The Lukan writer at first followed Mark 16:1-8 fairly closely in producing Luke 24:1-12, but doubled the Markan young man in white at the empty tomb to two men in white in order to provide two adult male witnesses, and changed “Go to Galilee!” to “Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee,” so that everything associated with the resurrection of Jesus and the beginnings of the proclamation of the gospel would remain in the greater Jerusalem area. Beyond 24:12, however, the Lukan writer composed a new Easter story sermon, drawing materials from 1 Corinthians 15:5 for Luke 24:34 (“The Lord has indeed been raised from the dead and has appeared to Simon!”) and putting special emphasis on how in the Torah and in the Prophetic traditions the Christ event has been foreseen. In this Easter story sermon, the Lukan writer holds the interest of the audience and in the process of sharing of the story proclaims that Jesus is indeed alive, he can be seen but is not always recognized, the Risen Christ is known most fully in the Eucharistic breaking of the bread, and when the Torah and the Prophetic traditions are correctly interpreted they explain the significance of the Christ event. The story sermon continues beyond 24:35, and we are called to continue this Easter story as we, like the Lukan writer, proclaim the Easter message with inspired creativity.

The primary theme of these texts is, implicitly or explicitly, the resurrection of Jesus as the Risen Christ. Nothing in the texts or in our current situations should be permitted to detract from our clear proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus as the Risen Christ this coming weekend.

Psalm 16
The psalmist thanks the Lord for keeping the psalmist alive, on the path of life, safe and secure. Within the context of our Christian worship on the Second Sunday of Easter, the psalmist “becomes” Jesus the Christ raised from the dead, rescued from the grave and from the power of death, and speaking to us. It is entirely proper that we as Christians identify with the psalmist and with Jesus the Christ raised from the dead as we hear these words.

Acts 2:14a, 22-32
In this magnificent second chapter of Acts in which the Lukan playwright took the Israelite festival of thanksgiving to the Lord God for the first fruits of the field and of Scripture and made Pentecost into a Christian festival of the first fruits of people brought together into the Church, we see in the speech to the “Men of Israel” composed for the Peter character in the drama ample evidence of the exegetical technique of this inspired writer. The technique used here involved an almost total disregard for the context and meaning of Psalm 16 in its earlier and continuing Israelite-Jewish setting and a virtually absolute identification of the Lord God of the Israelites with Jesus, now the Lord for Christians. The Israelite psalmist had claimed that the presence of the Lord God had kept the psalmist from death and the grave, preserving the psalmist from destruction and decay. What the Israelite psalmist had said about the psalmist’s self the Lukan writer appropriated as the foresight of David, described now as a prophet, regarding Jesus, who is now identified as the Lord’s Holy One. This type of exegesis is clearly a matter of taking a biblical text and making it say whatever you want it to say with no respect for its earlier meaning as Scripture.

Unfortunately, the Lukan playwright caused the Lukan Peter to indict the “Men of Israel” for the death of Jesus with the words “you, by crucifying him, killed him by using the hands of non-Jewish men!” It is entirely to be expected, therefore, that devout Christians who have been unaware of the process of the development of the Newer Testament accounts and not sensitized to the kind of damage that this type of defamatory anti-Jewish polemic in the Newer Testament has caused to Jewish people for more than nineteen centuries will continue to state as a matter of historical fact that “the Jews killed Jesus.” The essential parts of this text are the major portions of verses 22-24 and 32, as follows: “Hear these words. Jesus, a man given approval from God and recommended to you by God with mighty acts and signs that God performed among you through him, in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, was delivered up to death by those who are not guided by the Torah. God then raised him up, having freed him from the pangs of death, because death was not strong enough to hold him in its power. God has raised Jesus from the dead; all of us are witnesses of this.” The other portions of this text, with their vicious words such as “You killed him, having subjected him to crucifixion!” (2:23b) with their arbitrary exegesis, unfortunately detract greatly from the essential confessional portions presented above. For the greatest effectiveness of these essential confessional portions, we should read only the excerpts listed above this coming Sunday, or choose to read instead only 2:32-33: “God has raised Jesus from the dead; all of us are witnesses of this. Therefore, having been elevated to the position of power at the right hand of God, and having received from God the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit of God, Jesus has bestowed on us this Holy Spirit of God, as you have seen and heard.” This 2:32-33 portion is appropriate and helpful as a message to be proclaimed during the Easter season. The viciously anti-Jewish segments in 2:23b are not. If we are going to use readings from Acts of Apostles as our First Lessons during the Easter season in Series A, we must be much more sensitive and selective than those who developed the lectionary that we are using have been.

John 20:19-31
This is one of the three texts (Luke 24:39-43; John 20:19-31; and John 21:1-14) that provide for us the most fully developed “proofs” of the resurrection of Jesus within our Newer Testament. It is not surprising that all three come from the latter stages of the development of the Gospel traditions. This John 20:19-31 account served its purpose well late in the first century. In it Thomas, who as the representative of “gnosticizing” Christianity in the Fourth Gospel does not believe Jesus would appear in a physical form after his death, is forced to confess that the physically resurrected Jesus is his Lord and God. We should be aware of the use of the name Thomas in the Gospel of Thomas in the Gnostic Library recovered at Nag Hammadi. We should note also the second-century tradition that lists Thomas as the disciple of Jesus who went to proclaim the gospel in India, where escape from the physical body, rather than a return to the physical body, is the goal. This text continues to serve in the Church as a helpful “proof” text that Jesus was certainly raised in a physical form, with a body similar to his body prior to his crucifixion in recognizable ways, but also different in that he was no longer limited by time and place restraints.

The most important way in which this text continues to serve in the Church, however, is that we are in the position, not of Thomas, but of those of whom the Johannine Jesus says, “Blessed are the ones who have not seen and have believed nevertheless.” We believe without seeing the Risen Christ, and for this we are blessed. We are in this respect in the same position as the members of the Johannine community were late in the first century. According to this text, to believe without seeing is more blessed than to believe because we have irrefutable proof. Here we have faith, as faith without proof, at its best. We joyfully believe. The one who is truly a believer does not need proof. If the believer has proof, there is no need to believe.