Worshipfully Speaking – April 2016
April, Scripturally Speaking
We are on the road, again, with Jesus—this time to the Mount of Ascension. (You remember that—during Epiphany and Lent—we were on the road with him, first, to the Mount of Transfiguration, and then to the Mount of Calvary.) Following his resurrection, Jesus is seen and experienced by his followers in private, almost family-like, occasions for revelation; as he prepares to ascend to the Father. And we are permitted to overhear what he tells them, in our gospel lections.
You may have noticed that the lections from the Hebrew Bible are replaced by lections from the Book of Acts—to reveal to us how the first followers in the first churches were dealing with the inevitable clashes and struggles of an infant faith in an increasingly hostile and fragmented world. And the usual ‘epistle’ lections find us, instead, in an apocalyptic book, The Revelation to John, which deals with The Faith in clashes and struggles in a cosmic scope.
APRIL 3, 2016…………EMMAUS SUNDAY…………..SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Psalm 150 Acts 5.27-32 Revelation 1.4-8 Luke 24.13-35
First-Sunday Service of the Eucharist
ALSO THOMAS SUNDAY AND LOW SUNDAY
APRIL 10, 2016………………………………………………THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
Psalm 30 Acts 9.1-6 (7-20) Revelation 5.11-14 John 21.1-19
“The Fishermen’s Lament”
Also CONFERENCE NATIVE AMERICAN SUNDAY
APRIL 17, 2016…..GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY……FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Psalm 23 Acts 9.36-43 Revelation 7.9-17 John 10.22-40
“Who Is Your Shepherd?”
APRIL 24, 2016………………………………………………FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Psalm 148 Acts 11.1-18 Revelation 21.1-6 John 13.31-38
“Family Talk”
ALSO FESTIVAL OF GOD’S CREATION (Sunday closest to Earth Day—April 22)
As always, I hope and pray that you will take the time needed to read these groups of lections prior to their Sunday, so that you will be ‘prepared’ to receive the message in worship.
