This week’s Readings and Sermon for the 7th Sunday of Easter
The Collect for this Sunday
O God the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: we beseech you, leave us not comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 97
The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side. 4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. 7 All worshippers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him. 8 Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgements, O God. 9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. 10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light dawns[for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The New Testament Lesson for this Sunday is from the book of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16 verses 16-34
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ 18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. 20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews 21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ 29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ 31 They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ 32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The 2nd New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Revelation of St John, Chapter 22, verses 12 to 14, 16, 17 and 20 to 21
‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 16 ‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’
17 The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
20 The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel according to St John, Chapter 17, verses 20 to 26
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to John Glory to You, o Lord !
Jesus prayed ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord Praise to You, o Christ !
The sermon this week is from Rev Chich Hewitt
Serious marathon runners will all know of the Comrades Marathon, although it receives no coverage in the UK. It is run annually between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa and is in fact a double marathon of over 50 miles. One year is the down race, and the following year the up race. It is very hilly in both directions, but the height difference between the 2 cities is 600 metres, or nearly 2,000 feet. The record running time is under 6 hours.
One year Gill’s brother was running, and Gill and I, newly wed, had gone down to Durban as seconds. We were staying with a family whose son was also running, and it so happened that they had a visiting retired bishop staying with them. Stephen Neill was a well-known writer who had been a bishop in the church of South India. I had not yet begun theological training, but I had heard of him and had one of his books.
In a general conversation he said that it was a strange coincidence that a day before the race, his sermon text for the day had been, ‘they shall run and not be weary.’ At that stage I did not have the biblical knowledge I have now, and I said rather innocently, ‘where is that from?’ He looked at me sternly; ‘the trouble with you young people is that you don’t know your Bible!’ And he took me off into another room, to put things right.
Anglicans do not have a good record of knowing their bibles, and jokes are often made about this. It is a sad truth. Some have tried reading the bible from cover to cover, and that is not a good approach, It is better to start with one of the Gospels, for instance Mark which is the shortest, possibly the earliest, and one full of action. And then there is Acts, Luke’s second book, and the fifth book of the New Testament. It is a fantastic read, full of adventures, as it tells the story of the beginning of the early Christian church from Pentecost to its spread over much of the known world, and ultimately Rome. Next week is Pentecost, and we will hear the start of that journey.
Today we have another of the action filled chapters, when Paul is in Philippi. In our reading this morning we had the story of the Philippian jailor, but let me start earlier in the chapter before our reading. The earlier part of the chapter was the reading for last week. Paul and Silas were not sure where God was leading them, and the way forward seemed blocked - we are told that when they attempted one thing, the Spirit of Jesus, said ‘no’ - the only time that phrase is used. Then Paul had a vision and a way opened before them to go to Macedonia. If you were listening intently last week, you would have noticed that after Paul had received this vision there is the use of the word ‘we’. When Paul had received this, WE set off. Luke, the author, had actually joined Paul and Silas. Then came the section we read last week, where Lydia came to faith and she and her family were baptised.
Today’s passage began with Paul, Silas and Luke in the garrison town of Philippi; they were being accompanied by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination. Her owner used this gift she had to make money out of her. This girl was shouting out ‘these are servants of the most high God’, which you think would have been good advertising for them, but Paul discerned that this was actually a malevolent spirit at work, so he cast the spirit out of her. Suddenly her owner’s source of revenue had gone, so he managed to stir up a crowd and have Paul and Silas arrested. It was all about money. Paul and Silas were beaten with rods by the officials and thrown into prison.
Now what do you do if you have been unjustly arrested, severely flogged and thrown into prison? Answer -you sing hymns! Once in South Africa, Desmond Tutu, before he was a bishop, was arrested with others and they sang hymns. Their captors were apparently puzzled and not sure how to deal with this. Back to Paul and Silas.
At midnight there was an earthquake, seemingly a miraculous event. the gates of the prison flew open and the prisoners’ chains fell off. It was a responsibility being a jailor in those days. If prisoners escaped you were put to death. The jailor was preparing to kill himself, but Paul said to him.’no, don’t do that - we are all here’. The jailor was out of his depth, and terrified. He said to Paul and Silas, something which we wish many would say to us; ‘sirs, ‘what must I do to be saved?’ Paul’s response is interesting. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household’. Lydia had come to faith, and she and her family were baptised. Now the Philippian jailor had come to faith and he and his household were baptised.
Our society is one where so many families are broken, that we probably don’t understand the family structures of that time. The jailor would have been head of his household, and presumably would have had family influence. Salvation came not just to him, but to his entire household - even though they were probably fast asleep.
Listen to how the story goes. Paul and Silas went and preached to him and his family, and they were baptised because he had come to faith. Can you imagine the jailer waking up his kids. ‘Come on, we are going to be baptised!’ What? What’s that?’ In scripture there is no reference to infants or children being baptised. But there are two or three incidents where there may have been children. This is one of those instances, as with Lydia. What is significant is that everything rested on the faith of the jailor. His entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer. Had the family and servants and all come believe in Jesus, because he had? In today’s world, it only makes sense for the baptism of infants to take place if parents, or at least one parent can proclaim that they have found salvation in Jesus. I only wish this were true of modern-day parents.
I want to go on with the chapter, because there is a political component. Paul was a Roman citizen and should not have been beaten and imprisoned. When the authorities heard about this, they were alarmed - trouble could lie ahead. So they said to the prisoners, ‘you are free now, just leave quietly’. Paul said to the police, ’no ways!’ Go and tell the magistrates they have mistreated Roman citizens, so let them come and escort us out!’ The frightened and humiliated magistrates did just that, asking them to leave the city. It seemed that they did not do this immediately, but stayed longer to build up the faith of the new believers.
There is so much in this chapter, illustrating the joys and challenges of missionary work, and sometimes the hardship; yet there is something fundamental which is easy to miss. They sought God’s leading, and did not embark on their own thing. We know how they were prohibited from beginning work which they thought was right, but somehow, almost certainly in prayer followed by circumstance, the way they were planning was blocked. They no doubt waited on God, and then Paul had this vision.
Going back a chapter or two, this is how Paul and Barnabas began what is called the first missionary journey. The believers were meeting in prayer, and were instructed to undertake a missionary journey. And here, once again, on what is called the second missionary journey, Paul and Silas were directed away from the path they wanted to follow, and went the way the Spirit led. Essential to all we have looked at today is prayer, and waiting on God’s Spirit.
In his prelude to a recent newsletter, Mike spoke of the importance of prayer at this time of change in society, and here is the biblical justification for that. When we are not certain on direction, the first thing is serious prayer. This is the Sunday between ascension and Pentecost, representative of the time after Jesus had ascended and before the Spirit fell on the disciples. What was the focus of their activity, in a time of uncertainty, when they did not know what was going to happen next? They prayed, and were led to find a replacement for Judas. I suspect this was deep and serious prayer, with a special focus. In uncertain times should we not be doing the same?
The Post Communion Prayer for this Sunday
Eternal God, giver of love and power, your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world to preach the gospel of his kingdom: confirm us in this mission, and help us to live the good news we proclaim; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen