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Acts 17:22-31
Easter 6A
On this sixth Sunday of the Easter season, we continue our reflections on the Resurrection of Jesus with this fascinating story which shows us how Paul preached the Risen Christ on the continent of Europe. Directed by the Holy Spirit to leave Asia, Paul worked his way down the coast of the Aegean Sea to…
Acts 7:55-60
Easter 5A
On this fifth Sunday of the Easter season, we continue our journey through the Acts of the Apostles or, as some call it, the Acts of the Holy Spirit. That title fits Luke’s constant emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the growth of the early church. That is surely the case in…
Acts 2:42-47
Easter 4A
We are in our fourth Sunday of reflections on Easter, using the book of Acts as our guide. We began on Easter in Acts 10, where we saw the world-changing significance of Christ’s Resurrection in Peter’s startling realization that God includes people from every nation in his covenantal embrace. Then we backed up to Peter’s…
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Easter 3A
As I said last week, the RCL doesn’t want us to celebrate Easter for one glorious day and then move on to something else. It invites us to spend 7 Sundays reflecting on this world changing event with a leisurely journey through the book of Acts. We began on Easter Sunday with Acts 10, where…
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Easter 2A
For those who follow the RCL, Easter is not just a one off event. The RCL devotes 7 Sundays to the Easter season, so that the church has ample opportunity to reflect on the most earthshaking event in history. As a relative newcomer to the Lectionary, I think that is a superb idea. But it…
Acts 10:34-43
Easter Day A
In this (Old Testament?) reading, we hear not the original story about how Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified by Roman soldiers, but a retelling of that story to a Roman soldier. If you want to emphasize the fact of the resurrection in your Easter sermon, choose the Gospel readings for your text. …
Four Pages: Church in Prison
The Shawshank Redemption is at many points a difficult movie to watch. Lots of my friends down at Angola Prison tell me it’s their favourite movie. Everybody has seen it about a hundred times. Perhaps you remember it. Andy, the main character in the movie, suffers sexual assault, beatings, and brutality in prison. Shawshank does…
Acts 10:34-43
Epiphany 1A
On this Sunday on which the RCL invites us to contemplate Jesus’ baptism, it omits the account of Cornelius’ baptism from its Epistolary Lesson. That may at least imply that the RCL is less interested in the Romans or even Jesus’s baptism than with the baptized Jesus (and his Church’s) mission. A mission that has…
Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost C
We have come to the conclusion of our fifty day celebration of Easter. It is fascinating to me that our exit from Dr. Luke’s account of the spread of Easter faith is the on ramp to that whole story. With this Pentecost story, we loop back to where it all began. Even as Luke tells…
Acts 16:16-34
Easter 7C
Our reading for today serves as the exclamation point on Dr. Luke’s history of the Gospel’s spread to the ends of the earth. No, we haven’t gotten to that far horizon yet, but Luke has introduced all the major themes and players that will get us there. This story contains all those elements that will…
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