Author: admin4ws

This feast day takes its name from the Latin word for “announcement,” and refers to when, in the Gospel according to Luke, Mary received the news of Jesus’ birth from the angel Gabriel. In the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible, the word commonly translated as “angel” in fact refers to a “messenger” of God, whose purpose is to relate God’s will. Indeed, the name Gabriel itself means “God is my strength” in Hebrew. The readings that culminate in today’s Gospel portion all relate to how God’s might is manifested in birth and marital relations, as well as when people seek to do God’s will.

The First Reading
Isaiah 7:10-14
A Sign of Deliverance

In the first of today’s readings, the nation of Judah and its king, Ahaz, face a profound threat from two kings to their north, Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel. In the midst of this political crisis, Ahaz refuses to receive Isaiah’s word, perhaps in fear of its implications. Isaiah nevertheless declares that word—a sign of deliverance from the immediate threat. The promise is set within the span of time marked by a pregnancy and the newborn’s weaning. The fulfillment of that promised deliverance will confirm for the king and people what the child’s name declares, that “God is with us.”
—

The Lord spoke again to Ahaz: “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, be it as deep as Sheol or stretching high above.” But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask, so that I do not test the Lord.”

So Isaiah said, “Listen, then, House of David: Is it not enough for you to exasperate people, that you exasperate my God, too? Therefore, my Lord indeed will give you a sign. Here—this young woman is pregnant and will give birth to a son. She will name him, ‘Immanuel.’”

The Psalm
Psalm 45
A Poem for a Royal Wedding

Psalm 45 extols an unnamed Israelite king and the princess who is about to become his bride. The king is just and powerful; his bride, beautiful and adorned in gold. The reference in verse 6 to the king as God’s anointed is one foundation for the Christian understanding that the king depicted here is Jesus. This interpretation, however, ignores many of the psalm’s other details. The psalm’s distinctive first verse deserves note. Uniquely among the psalms, the author here refers to his own poetic impulse and skill (verse 1).
—

For the director, according to “Lilies,” of the sons of Korah, a poem of discernment, a song of love.

1. My heart is stirred by a good thing.
   I recite my verses to a king.
   My tongue is the pen of a skilled scribe.
2. You are the most beautiful among men.
   Grace is poured out on your lips.
   Therefore, God blesses you always.
3. Strap your sword onto your thigh, mighty one!—
   your splendor and majesty!
4. In your majesty, find success!
   Ride in the cause of truth and righteous humility.
   May your right hand make you skilled in awesome deeds!
5. Your arrows are sharp—
   nations will fall under you!—
   into the heart of the king’s enemies.
6. Your throne—wondrous king!—forever and ever.
   A scepter of fairness is the scepter of your reign.
7. You love justice and hate evil.
   Therefore, wondrous king, your God anointed you
   with oil of gladness, over your companions.
8. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia-cinnamon infuse all your garments.
   From ivory palaces, stringed instruments give you joy.
9. Daughters of kings are among your prized women.
   The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.
10. Listen, daughter! Look! Turn your ear!
    Forget your people and your father’s house.
11.      The king craves your beauty.
    Since he is your lord,
    bow to him.
12. With a gift, daughter of Tyre, the richest of people will seek your favor.
13. All-glorious, a king’s daughter is within, her raiment of embroidered gold.
14.      In many-colored cloth she is led to the king.
    Maidens, her attendants, after her are brought to you.
15.      They are led in happiness and joy.
    They enter a royal palace.
16. Your sons will take the place of your ancestors.
    You will appoint them princes throughout the land.
17. I will commemorate your name in every generation.
    Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever.

or Psalm 40:5-10
Proclaiming God’s Greatness

The psalmist declares the need publicly to extol God’s wonders and mighty deeds that rescue God’s followers from harm. Such public proclamation follows God’s instruction (verse 8) and pleases God even more than animal sacrifice (verse 6). The portion of the psalm in this reading reflects on God’s past actions in redeeming the psalmist from danger. In the verses that follow, which are excluded here, the psalmist sets out the hope that God similarly will offer protection from threats and dangers that the psalmist currently faces.
—

5. Many deeds have you yourself done, Lord, my God—
   your wonderous plans for us!
   None compare to you.
   Were I to open my mouth and speak these things,
   they would be more than can be told!
6. Sacrifice and offerings you do not desire—
   you have opened my ears.
   A burnt- or sin-offering you do not demand.
7. Then I said, “Here! I have come!
   In a book-scroll, it is written for me:
8.      To do your will, my God, is my desire.
   Your instruction is at my core.”
9. I reported tidings of righteousness in a vast congregation.
   I will not restrain my lips,
   you know, Lord.
10. Your righteousness I did not hide within my heart.
    Your faithfulness and redeeming power I have told.
    I have not concealed your steadfast love and fidelity
    for a vast congregation.

The Second Reading
Hebrews 10:4-10
Jesus as the Fulfillment of Animal Sacrifice

The Epistle to the Hebrews argues in detail that the literal requirements of sacrifice set out in the Scriptures of Israel were intended for this world, not the world to come that Jesus opens up. Even as sacrifices serve effectively to atone for sin in the earthly Temple, they also set the pattern for the offering of Jesus’ body to remove sin entirely for the time that is to come. The word order of Psalm 40, today’s alternate psalm reading, adjusted by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews so as to apply to Jesus, provides scriptural support for the argument.
—

It is simply impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to remove sin. That is why, when Jesus comes into the world, he says:
Sacrifice and offerings you do not desire; yet you provided me a body. You take no
pleasure in burnt-offerings or sin-offerings. Then I said, “Here! I have come! In a
book-scroll, it is written for me: To do your will, God.”
First he states that God does not want or take pleasure in sacrifices, oblations, burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, although these things are offered according to the Law. Then he asserts, “Here, I have come…to do your will.” He rejects the first in order to establish the second, with the intent that we be sanctified by the offering of the body of Anointed Jesus once for all time.

The Gospel
Luke 1:26-38
Gabriel’s Announcement to Mary

Gabriel’s visit to Mary focuses attention on Jesus’ identity as God’s son and David’s heir from his birth. Gabriel announces that because holy Spirit will be involved in the conception of the child, the resultant birth is holy. In this section of Luke’s Gospel, as in Jewish tradition, holy Spirit refers to God’s self-disclosure to favored individuals. It is not the same as the later conception of the third component of the Trinity. Similarly, Luke here presents Jesus as son of God in the holiness of his birth, not as divine in trinitarian terms.
—

In the sixth month [of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist], the messenger Gabriel was sent from God to a Galilean town named Nazareth, to go to a maiden contracted in marriage to a man whose name was Joseph, from David’s line, and the name of the maiden was Mary. Gabriel went to her and said, “Greetings, God-favored: The Lord is with you!” But she was shaken through at the word, puzzled at what sort of address this could be. The messenger said to her, “Do not fear, Mary, because you have found grace with God. Look: You will conceive in the womb and give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Most High’s son, and the Lord God will give him his father David’s throne, to reign over Jacob’s house forever; of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the messenger, “How will this be, since I am not intimate with a husband?” The messenger replied and said to her, “Over you holy Spirit will come, and Most High’s power will overshadow you: that which is produced as holy will be called God’s son. And look: Elizabeth is your relative—she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who is called barren! Not a single thing God says will be impossible.” Mary said, “Here is the Lord’s servant; may it happen to me according to what you say!” And the messenger went away from her.

See Holy Week Years A, B, & C for Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday

Many followers of Jesus read the promise of Jeremiah 31:31—which speaks of a “new covenant” with the people, Israel—as involving fresh opportunities for forgiveness (Psalm 51) and connection to God (Psalm 119), a priesthood based on the example of Jesus (the Epistle to the Hebrews), and the extension of God’s grace to all the peoples of the earth (the Gospel according to John). The Lectionary explores these themes on the Fifth Sunday in Lent.

The First Reading
Jeremiah 31:31-34
A New Covenant

The prophet Jeremiah announces God’s persistent commitment to the people, Israel with a promise to move beyond prior betrayals and establish covenantal intimacy once again with those whom God had brought out of Egypt.
—

Look! A time is coming, says the Lord, when I will carve out with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the covenant I carved out with their ancestors—that day when I took them by the hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they demolished, though I had made myself their master, says the Lord. Rather, this is the covenant that I will carve out with the House of Israel after that time, says the Lord: I will set my instruction within them and I will write it on their heart; I will be their God and they will be my people. A person will no longer continue teaching a neighbor or a relative: “Know the Lord!” Rather, they will all know me, from the smallest of them to the greatest, says the Lord. Indeed, I will pardon their guilt and to their sin I will no longer give a thought.

The Psalm
Psalm 51:1-12
A Prayer for Forgiveness

Thematically appropriate to the Lenten season of penitence, Psalm 51 is also the psalm reading for Ash Wednesday. It presents King David’s plea for divine forgiveness. Central here is not just David’s desire to be cleansed of past wrong-doings, but also his hope for God’s help so that he might stop sinning and only teach and follow God’s ways. As presented here in The Revised Common Lectionary, the psalm ends with a request for God’s protection. In the psalm’s full form, its final verses—which are excluded here—pray that God rebuild the city of Jerusalem, allowing expiatory sacrifices again to be offered on the Temple’s altar.
—

To the conductor, a song of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had relations with Bathsheba.

1. Have mercy on me, God, as suits your steadfast love;
   according to the greatness of your mercy, wipe away my sins!
2. Cleanse me thoroughly of my guilt;
   purify me of my sin!—
3. for I admit my transgressions;
   my sin is ever before me.
4. Against you, only you, I have sinned;
   I did what is evil in your eyes,
   so that your sentence is justified,
   and your judgment warranted.
5. Indeed, I was birthed guilty;
   my mother conceived me sinful.
6. Yet you desire the truth about that which is concealed.
   Regarding that which is hidden, give me insight!
7. Sprinkle me with a hyssop stem to purify me;
   cleanse me whiter than snow!
8. Make me hear sounds of joy and gladness;
   let the bones you crushed rejoice!
9. Hide your face from my sins;
   wipe away all of my guilt!
10. Fashion for me a pure heart, God;
    renew in me a steadfast spirit.
11. Do not banish me from your presence;
    do not take from me the spirit of your holiness.
12. Let me again enjoy your protection,
    and may a willing spirit sustain me.

Psalm 119:9-16
The Joy of Observing the Law

Psalm 119 is an alphabetical acrostic comprising 176 verses. Beginning with the Hebrew letter aleph and continuing through the Hebrew alphabet, the psalmist presents consecutive sets of eight verses that begin with the same Hebrew letter. Verses 9-16, found here, all begin with the letter beth, which in all instances except verse 12 is the Hebrew preposition meaning “with,” “in,” or “by.” Even within the semantic limitations imposed by the acrostic form, the psalmist presents a cogent message. Observance of God’s law is the foundation of a life of righteousness and joy.
—

9. By what means does a youth follow a righteous path?
   By observing your words.
10. With all my heart I seek you—
    do not allow me to stray from your commandments.
11. In my heart I store up your words,
    so that I never sin against you.
12. Blessed are you, Lord—
    teach me your statutes!
13. With my lips, I recount all the ordinances that come from your mouth.
14. By following your precepts, I became joyful, as over any treasure.
15. I meditate on your decrees and observe your paths.
16. In your statutes I take delight;
    I will not forget your words.

The Second Reading
Hebrews 5:5-10
The Priesthood of Jesus

The Epistle to the Hebrews presents Jesus as fulfilling the role the Scriptures of Israel assign to the High Priest. In this passage, he is compared to Melchizedek, the priest who blessed Abraham in Genesis 14:18-20. The offering Jesus makes in his death, which involves suffering, however, contrasts with Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine.
—

In being made High Priest, the Anointed did not glorify himself; God did that for him when he said: “You are my Son; today I have become your parent.” God also said elsewhere, “You are a priest forever, following the example of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh he offered both prayers and entreaties, with a loud shout and tears, to the one who was able to rescue him from death, and he was heard as a result of this devotion. Although a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and being perfected he became for all who are obedient to him the basis of eternal rescue, designated by God a High Priest following the example of Melchizedek.

The Gospel
John 12:20-33
Jesus and the Greeks

Early Christianity, although it originated within Judaism, emerged as a religion within the Greco-Roman world that was for the most part non-Jewish and Greek-speaking. In this passage from John’s Gospel, people from the Greek majority-to-be appear, approaching two of Jesus’ disciples who spoke Greek, but they do not contact Jesus himself. When the disciples speak to Jesus about whether or not he is willing to meet with these non-Jews, Jesus explains that, for events to unfold in a way that includes them, his Passion must first reach its end.
—

Among those who went up [to Jerusalem] to worship during the feast there were Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and made a request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and spoke to Andrew; Andrew and Philip together went and spoke to Jesus. But Jesus replied, “The hour has come for this human being to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains an isolated kernel. But if it does die, it produces much wheat. Whoever loves life, loses it, and whoever hates life in this world will protect it forever. Anyone who serves me shall follow me, and where I am, there also my servant shall be. The Father will honor whoever serves me. Now I am shaken to the core, and what should I say—‘Father, rescue me from this hour’? After all, I came to this hour for this. Father, glorify your name!” Then a sound came from heaven: “I have glorified, and again shall glorify!” Some of the crowd there heard and said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus replied and said, “This sound has not come for me, but for you! The judgment of this world is now: now the ruler of this world will be overthrown! When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw everyone in to myself.” He said this, signalling by what death he was going to die.

The season of Lent considers not only the reasons for human sinfulness but also how God deals with this perennial problem. One of the most perplexing features of sin is how persistently people fall into the same patterns of destructive behavior—even with a knowledge of sin’s immediate consequences. In all the readings appointed for Fourth Sunday, God nonetheless extends grace in response to the diverse manifestations of sin they describe.

The First Reading
Numbers 21:4-9
The Bronze Serpent in the Wilderness

When the Israelites complained about their long journey through the wilderness toward the promised land, God grew angry. In response to the people’s repentance and Moses’ prayer, God provided relief, renewing the sustenance and protection that the people needed. The bronze snake that God told Moses to lift up above Israel as a remedy for its burning rebellion would, in the eyes of John the gospeler, anticipate the way that Christ would be lifted up as a remedy for the burning rebellion of all people.
—

From Mount Hor the Israelites traveled the Reed Sea route to skirt the land of Edom, but the people’s temper grew short along the way. The people spoke out against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this wilderness? There really is no food and no water, and we are sick of this miserable bread.” So God sent venomous snakes among the people and they bit the people, so that a great number of Israelites died.

Then the people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke out against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord to remove these snakes from us.” So Moses prayed on behalf of the people. God said to Moses, “Make a figure of the venomous snake and put it on a pole. Whoever has been bitten and looks at it will live.” Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole. Afterward, whenever a snake bit a person and the person turned toward the bronze snake, that person would live.

The Psalm
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Give Thanks for God’s Steadfast Love!

God’s greatness is manifest in the experience of those in need. The reversal of their fortune bespeaks God’s steadfast love. God redeems from distress those who have been subject to devastating external forces (verses 1-3) and even those whose own foolish and rebellious behavior led them to death’s door (verses 17-19). For this constant love, God merits our thanks.
—

1. Thank the Lord, who is good;
   God’s steadfast love never ends.
2. Let those the Lord redeemed speak!—
   those God redeemed from distress.
3. God gathered them from foreign lands—
   from the east, the west, the north, and from the sea.

17. By their rebellious way and their sins, fools afflicted themselves.
18. They loathed all food;
    they reached the gates of death.
19. They screamed to the Lord out of their distress;
    from their anguish, God redeemed them.
20. God issued the word and healed them;
    God rescued them from death’s pit.
21. Let them thank the Lord for steadfast love,
    for God’s extraordinary acts for all humanity.
22. Let them sacrifice offerings of thanks,
    and, in joy, recount God’s deeds.

The Second Reading
Ephesians 2:1-10
The Place Established in Heaven

Paul, in Galatians 4:1-9, followed the apostolic preaching of his time in declaring baptism as the moment when a person left behind the compulsion to follow elemental desires and turned to a life guided by Spirit. This passage from the Epistle to the Ephesians extends that thought to portray the life of faith as a whole as a transition away from the selfish world of flesh and towards a secure fellowship with Christ in heaven.
—

You were dead: in your transgressions and sins, you followed the standards of this world, the rule of mundane power—the spirit now working among the children of disobedience. We all once trafficked in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of demons. With the rest of humanity we were by nature offspring of wrath.

Nonetheless, God—rich in compassion—loved us with overflowing love. We were dead in our transgressions; God made us alive in the Anointed One. By grace you have been rescued, and God raised you with Jesus, the Anointed, and established your place in heaven in order to show for ages to come the abundant richness of divine grace generously poured out to us in Jesus, the Anointed. Again: by grace you have been rescued through faith. This does not come from us, but is God’s gift; this does not come from what we do, so no one can boast. We are God’s work, created in Jesus, the Anointed, for doing good in ways that God has prepared so that we will follow them.

The Gospel
John 3:14-21
God’s Love in Sending the Son

This reading, which is unique to John’s Gospel, moves from a very specific comparison, between the Hebrew Bible and the pattern of Jesus’ death and redemption, into a comprehensive and universal declaration. Delivered as a quotation from Jesus’ teaching, the passage first compares the Crucifixion to Moses—directed by God—lifting up a snake made of bronze for the Israelites to see. Everyone who looked at the bronze snake was saved from the snake bites that they had suffered (Numbers 21:6-9). This is God’s method, who loves the entire world by giving his Son to die. All who have faith in that death, and in the deeds of light that Jesus did, have passed from darkness and judgment to vindication in the light of God.
—

“In exactly the way Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must this human being be lifted up, so everyone who has faith in him has eternal life. In this way God loved the world, so much that he gave his unique Son: everyone who has faith in him is not lost, but has eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but to rescue the world through him. Whoever has faith in him is not judged; whoever does not have faith has already been judged, since that one does not have faith in the name of the unique Son of God. This is the verdict: light came into the world, and people loved the dark rather than the light because their deeds were malicious. Everyone acting maliciously hates the light and does not come toward the light lest their deeds be exposed. But everyone really ‘doing’ the truth comes toward the light for their deeds to be revealed—because they are accomplished by God.”

The lifestyle that God shows his people promotes their thriving in liberation from slavery, as the opening of the Ten Commandments in today’s first reading emphasizes. Psalm 19 celebrates the truth of God’s instruction as embodied even in nature, while Paul insists in the reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians that even sophisticated human knowledge is sometimes very different from the wisdom that God conveys in Christ. The Gospel reading of the day portrays Jesus defending the Temple in opposition to those who would exploit it for their own advantage.

The First Reading
Exodus 20:1-17
The Commandments

After the Exodus, God led the Israelites through the wilderness to Mount Sinai. The Book of Exodus presents God’s revelation there as “the Book of the Covenant.” It opens with God’s reminder of the mighty act of the Exodus and a description of how Israel shall begin to live as God’s own people.
—

God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the state of slavery. You shall not have any other gods in place of me. You shall not make yourself a statue or any form of what is in heaven above or on the earth below, nor of what is in the water under the earth. You shall neither bow to them nor worship them, for I am the Lord, your God—a God demanding loyalty: bringing the guilt of ancestors to bear on the second, third, and fourth generations of those who hate me, while renewing loyalty to thousands, to those who love me and hold to my commandments. You shall not take up the name of the Lord your God for no good reason.

Remember the Day of Rest, to dedicate it to God. Six days you shall work and do all your business. The seventh day is a rest for the Lord your God: you shall not do any business—you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your livestock or the temporary residents in your city. Since in six days God fashioned the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and settled back on the seventh day, God blessed the Day of Rest and set it apart.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will stretch out on the land the Lord your God gives you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not betray your marriage.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony about your neighbor.

You shall not yearn for your neighbor’s house.

You shall not yearn for your neighbor’s wife or male or female servant or ox or donkey or anything that is your neighbor’s.

The Psalm
Psalm 19
God’s Instruction Is Truth

Psalm 19’s three sections are tightly connected. The natural world proclaims God’s greatness (verses 1-6). This greatness is represented in God’s precepts, which define how people must live so as to bring joy and wholeness to their lives (verses 7-11). With this truth in mind, the psalmist prays for God’s compassion, hoping that God will discount inadvertent sin and keep the petitioner from all transgression.
—

1. The skies tell God’s glory;
   the firmament declares God’s handiwork.
2. Day to day pours forth speech;
   night to night declares knowledge.
3. There is no perceptible speech and no distinguishable words;
   their voice is not audibly heard.
4. But their measure goes out across the entire world,
   and their words to the ends of the earth.
   In them God set up a tent for the sun—
5.      like a bridegroom who leaves his dressing chamber,
   joyous as a champion running a course.
6. Its starting point is the edge of the skies,
   and its rounds take it to the other side.
   Nothing is veiled from its heat.
7. The instruction of the Lord is flawless,
   restoring the soul.
   The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy,
   giving wisdom to the simple.
8. The precepts of the Lord are upright,
   gladdening the heart.
   The commandment of the Lord is perfect,
   giving light to the eyes.
9. Reverence for the Lord is pure,
   established evermore.
   The judgments of the Lord are truth,
   entirely just—
10. more desirable than gold,
    than much fine gold;
    and sweeter than honey,
    than what flows from the honeycomb.
11. Certainly, whoever worships you is guided by them;
    observing them brings much return.
12. But inadvertent errors—can we discern them?
    Of such hidden errors, hold me guiltless!
13. Please, from willful error, shield the one who worships you.
    May such errors not dominate me!
    Thus I will be blameless
    and innocent of great transgression.
14. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be desirable to you, Lord, my
    rock and my redeemer.

The Second Reading
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Christ as the Wisdom of God

Attacks by local philosophers in Corinth who mocked the new faith proved especially disturbing to the Apostle Paul. Paul responded to them with a blistering comparison between their pretentious claims and God’s wisdom. He understood Christ’s cross as the true reflection of God’s wisdom, although his opponents dismissed this preaching as foolishness. The opponents included both “Greeks,” or non-Jews, and Jews—here referring to the people of Israel and not only Judeans.
—

For those whose lives are being lost, the idea of the cross is foolishness; but for those who are being rescued, it is God’s power. After all, it is written: “I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and invalidate the intellectuals’ understanding.” Where is today’s sage, where is today’s judge, where is today’s advocate? God has made the wisdom of this world foolish! Since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God by means of its own wisdom, God decided, by means of the foolishness of what we preach, to rescue those who have faith. While Jews want signs and Greeks seek wisdom, we preach the crucified Anointed One—a snare for Jews and foolishness for gentiles; but for those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the Anointed is God’s power and God’s wisdom.

The Gospel
John 2:13-22
Jesus Clears the Temple

John’s Gospel, unlike the first three Gospels, relates Jesus’ action in the Temple near the beginning of its narrative. By telling the story early on and not in connection with the Crucifixion, John uses it to characterize Jesus and his teachings as a replacement for the Temple and an alternative to all forms of worship practice that the gospel writer viewed as commercially exploitative.
—

The Passover of the Judeans was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple precinct he found sellers of cattle, sheep, and pigeons, as well as comfortably seated convertors of coins. From cords he made a whip and drove them all out of the Temple precinct, together with the sheep and cattle, and swept away the coins of the money-changers, overturning the tables. He said to the pigeon-sellers, “Take all this away: do not make my Father’s house a marketplace.” His students recalled that it is written: “Indignation for your house will consume me.” The Judeans objected and said to him, “What sign are you showing us by doing this?” Jesus replied and said, “Take this Temple down, and in three days I will raise it.” Then the Judeans said, “This Temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you can raise it in three days?” Yet he spoke of the temple of his body. When he was raised from the dead, his students remembered that he said this and had faith in the Scripture and in the word that Jesus spoke.

Everything about the Lenten journey to the cross focuses on God’s power and promise, which the Resurrection will show to be greater than any human design; they are the only things worthy of our faith. The author of Genesis and the Apostle Paul both saw the faith embodied in Abraham and Sarah. The psalmist in Psalm 22 knew that generations of the needy would testify to God’s blessing, and Jesus in Mark’s Gospel challenges his disciples to trust that blessing. In the alternate Gospel reading for today from the Gospel according to Mark, we witness God’s validation of Jesus as heir to Israel’s faith, servant of those in need, and teacher of those who would follow him.

The First Reading
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
God’s Covenant Promising an Abundant Future

God appears to Abram with the name El Shaddai, echoing the sense of God as the power of storm and nature. Abram learns of the covenant by which he and his wife, Sarai, will be blessed with a son. The covenant will continue between God and many generations of Abram and Sarai’s descendants, making them the ancestors of many nations and peoples. The covenant’s fulfillment, embodied in multitudes of people and in royal figures, finds expression in their new names.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai conduct your life in my presence and with integrity. I am setting out my covenant between myself and you; I will make very much of you.” Then Abram collapsed face down, and God spoke with him: “Listen! Here is my covenant with you: you will be a father of many nations. You will not be called Abram anymore; your name will be Abraham, since I am making you a father of many nations. I will assure your power to multiply abundantly, so that you become nations, and kings will come from you. I establish my covenant as an ever-present covenant between myself and you, along with your descendants after you throughout their generations—to be God for you and for your descendants after you.”

Then God said to Abraham, “Sarai, your wife, will not be called Sarai, but her name will be Sarah. I will bless her, even giving you a son by her. I will bless her so that she becomes nations, and kings of peoples will come from her.”

The Psalm
Psalm 22:23-31
Praise God’s Power and Loving Compassion

God’s righteous rule merits our praise. Today’s psalm moves from God’s care for individuals, whose affliction God does not ignore (verse 24), to the congregation of Israel, in which God’s praise is heard (verse 25), to the farthest reaches of the earth (verse 27), and to all nations (verses 28-31). Recognizing God as eternal Lord of all nations, Psalm 22 expands upon the theme of the eternal covenant made with Abraham, described in today’s first reading (Genesis 17).
—

23. Praise God, those who revere the Lord!
    Glorify God, all descendants of Jacob!
    Stand in awe of God, all seed of Israel!
24. For God did not despise, God did not detest the affliction of the lowly.
    Nor did God turn away from them.
    God listened when the afflicted cried out.
25. On your behalf is my praise in the great congregation.
    My vows I will fulfill in the presence of those who revere the Lord.
26. The needy shall eat and be satisfied.
    Those who seek the Lord will praise God.
    May your hearts live forever!
27. Let all the farthest reaches of the earth recognize and turn to the Lord.
    Let all the families of the nations bow down before God.
28. For sovereignty belongs to the Lord,
    who rules the nations.
29. All the strong of the earth ate and bowed down.
    Before God shall kneel all who go down to dust,
    who are mortal.
30. Their descendants shall worship God.
    The Lord shall be proclaimed to future generations.
31. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born,
    for God has acted.

The Second Reading
Romans 4:13-25
Abraham, Our Father

In the writings of the Apostle Paul, Abraham appears as the father of all peoples, as well as of Israel. Abraham “had faith in the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) centuries before Moses received the law at Mount Sinai. For that reason, Paul argues in this passage from the Epistle to the Romans, as he does elsewhere, that Abraham stands for the principle of faith for the world’s “many nations,” not only among those who keep the law.
—

The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they will inherit the world, was not on the basis of law, but on the basis of righteousness that comes from faith, since if heirs are marked out by law, faith is voided and the promise is overturned. Law utilizes wrath, and where there is no law, neither is there transgression. For this reason, heirs are marked out by faith, so that grace confirms the promise to all descendants—not only to those who are marked out by law, but also to those who are marked out by Abraham’s faith. He, after all, is the father of us all, as it is written: “I have appointed you father of many nations,” in that he “had faith in God,” who brings alive the dead and calls what is from what is not. He had faith, piling hope upon hope, that he could become father of many nations, according to the assertion: “So will be your descendants.” One hundred years old, he did not consider his dying body, nor Sarah’s deadened womb, with any weakness of faith. He did not dismiss the promise of God with faithlessness, but was empowered in faith as he gave glory to God, convinced God would act as promised. Therefore, “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The phrase “it was credited to him” was written not only about him, but also about us, to whom righteousness is about to be credited, because we have faith in God, who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, who was delivered over for our trespasses and was raised to set us right.

The Gospel
Mark 8:31-38
Losing One’s Life to Gain One’s Life

In this reading, the suffering that awaits Jesus is also a model for the experience of his followers. Jesus requires self-denial of himself and of his followers as well. For that reason, he uses the Aramaic phrase “son of man” (bar nasha), which means “a human being,” designating both the speaker and all people who are or can be in the speaker’s position. The usage plays a role in the Gospels’ theme of the connection between the pattern of Jesus’ life and that of his followers.
—

Jesus began to teach his students: “This human being must suffer much, be condemned by the elders and high priests and scribes, be killed—and finally after three days arise.” He spoke this word frankly; Rock—Peter—took him aside and began to scold him, but he turned away, saw his students, and scolded Rock. He said, “Get behind me, Satan, because you do not think God’s way, but people’s.”

He summoned the crowd with his students and said to them: “If anyone wants to come after me, deny yourself and take your cross and follow me! Because whoever wishes to save life itself, will lose it; but whoever will lose life for me and for the message, will save it. For what is the profit for a person to gain the whole world but forfeit life? What will a person give in exchange for life? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, this human being will be ashamed of also, when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.”

or Mark 9:2-9
The Transfiguration

In this scene, three of Jesus’ students are given a glimpse of Jesus’ true identity. His physical appearance changes to represent his special association with God. The presence of Moses and Elijah puts him in the company of those who, according to the Judaic teaching of the time, lived on with God in heaven. Although he is compared to them, a voice from heaven insists that Jesus alone is God’s Son and that he should be heard.
—

After six days Jesus took along Rock—Peter—and James and John and brought them up to a high mountain privately, alone. He was transmuted before them, and his clothing became gleaming, very white, as a launderer on the earth is not able to whiten. Elijah with Moses appeared to them, speaking together with Jesus. Rock reacted and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is fine for us to be here, and we should build three lodges: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Rock did not know how he should react, because they were terrified. And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and a sound from the cloud: “This is my Son, the beloved—hear him.” Suddenly, looking around, the three no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus, alone. They descended from the mountain, and he ordered them strictly not to relate to anyone what they had seen, except when this human being had arisen from the dead.

Because Lent in ancient Christianity was a season of the year set aside for preparing candidates for baptism, the baptism of Jesus, as presented in Mark’s Gospel, suitably anchors the theme of the First Sunday. As the reading from the First Epistle of Peter shows, early Christians saw the story of Noah and the Flood as a symbol of baptism, and Psalm 25 expresses the total commitment to God, and openness to God, that should motivate a person to be baptized.

The First Reading
Genesis 9:8-17
The Covenant with Noah

The first biblical mention of a divine covenant embraces all living beings for all time. It locates the sign of God’s faithfulness in a permanent, natural, and universal symbol, characterizing the covenant as similarly broad and dependable.
—
God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “As for me, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living being that is with you, with bird and with beast and with every animal on earth with you—from all that are emerging with you from the ark to every animal on earth. So I establish my covenant with you, that all flesh will not again be obliterated by the flood-waters, nor will there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said: “This is the sign of the covenant that I am setting forth between me and you, and every living being that is with you, for endless generations—my bow I have set in the cloud, which will serve as a covenantal sign between me and the earth. So when the clouds amass over the earth and the bow appears in the cloud, I will remember my covenant between me and you, and every living being in any form, and there will not again be water for a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud I will pay attention to it, remembering the ever-present covenant between God and every living being of any form that is on the earth.”

God said to Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant that I establish between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

The Psalm
Psalm 25:1-10
A Prayer for God’s Protection and Compassion

Psalm 25 alternates between petitions for God’s compassionate forgiveness of sin and pleas for the divine wisdom to ensure the psalmist will avoid future transgression. In the setting of Lent, this psalm expresses a total commitment and openness to God that should motivate a person to be baptized.
—

1. For you, Lord, I yearn with all that I am!
2. My God, in you I place my trust.
   May I not suffer humiliation;
   let not my enemies exult over me!
3. May those who eagerly await you not suffer humiliation;
   let those who act treacherously be humiliated!
4. Declare your paths to me, Lord;
   teach me your ways!
5. Lead me along your paths of truth;
   teach me, for you are the God of my deliverance;
   I have always eagerly awaited you.
6. Remember your compassion, Lord, and your steadfast love,
   for they are eternal.
7. The transgressions of my youth and my sins remember not;
   in keeping with your steadfast love, remember me,
   on account of your goodness, Lord.
8. Good and upright is the Lord;
   therefore God instructs sinners in the correct way.
9. God leads the disadvantaged with justice,
   teaching God’s path to the impoverished.
10. All the ways of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness
    for those who keep God’s covenant and decrees.

The Second Reading
1 Peter 3:18-22
Victory through Suffering

The First Epistle of Peter encourages believers by reminding them that their pledge in baptism unites them with Jesus’ victory through suffering and over death. The encouragement comes as an invitation to see the experience of Noah as symbolic of believers’ redemption.
—

For the Anointed also suffered once for sins—the righteous for the unrighteous—in order to lead you to God. Though put to bodily death, he was made alive in spirit. In spirit he also went and pronounced judgment to the spirits in prison, who earlier disobeyed during the days of Noah, when God waited patiently. Noah built the ark, in which only a few—eight people, in fact—were rescued through water. Immersion, the real water, now rescues you—not as a removal of filth from the body but as a pledge to God with full commitment—through the resurrection of Jesus the Anointed, who is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven, with angels, authorities, and powers put into submission to him.

The Gospel
Mark 1:9-15
The Baptism of Jesus

This reading calls attention to the link between the Spirit joining Jesus during his baptism by John and the beginning of Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom of God. In Mark’s presentation, the reference to an encounter with Satan after the baptism is severely abbreviated, in order to present Jesus as a man like Adam except in one respect. Like Adam, Jesus is in nature, he is cared for by God, and he confronts a test. Unlike Adam, however, Jesus is empowered by the Spirit. The reference to John’s arrest in this reading alludes to when Herod Antipas ordered John’s capture (and eventual execution) because John criticized Antipas’ marriage to his brother’s former wife (Mark 6:14-29).
—

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was immersed in the Jordan by John. He emerged from the water and at once saw heaven split, and the Spirit settling like a dove upon him. A voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son. I take pleasure in you.” At once the Spirit threw him out into the wilderness. Forty days he was in the wilderness, tested by Satan; he was among animals, and angels provided for him.

After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the message of God by saying, “The time has come and the kingdom of God has approached: repent and believe in the message.”

This day begins the traditional forty-day fast of Lent, a period designed in the ancient church for the preparation of candidates for baptism. At the celebration of Easter, those who were baptized imitated the example of Jesus in receiving the Spirit of God. The theme of the day’s readings as a whole focuses on the kind of devotion that God intends to be associated with that Spirit.

The First Reading
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
A Day of Destiny

The book of Joel is one of the latest writings in all of biblical Israel’s Scripture. The book crystallizes the image of the “Day of the Lord” that had become familiar in earlier times, casting it as a time of anticipation for the people of God in any age and any circumstance of dire upheaval. Here the theme is joined with one of Israel’s most reassuring images of God, as “gracious and merciful, long on patience and generous with constant love.” Together these images sound a call to repentance in the face of adversity, with confidence that the Lord will remain faithful to promises made over many ages.
—

1. Sound the shofar in Zion; shout the alarm on my holy mountain!
   Let all the earth’s inhabitants quake,
   for the Day of the Lord comes—it is near!—
2. a day of darkness and doom, a day of cloud and gloom.
   Like dawn crawling across the mountains, swarms a large and powerful people:
   never in our experience has there been any like this,
   nor ever will there be again, throughout all the ages.

12. Yet, even now—the word of the Lord:
    Turn back to me with all your hearts,
    with a fast and weeping and wailing.
13. Tear open your hearts, not just your clothes.
    Turn back to the Lord your God,
    who is gracious and merciful,
    long on patience and generous with constant love;
    who relents from harsh punishment.
14. Who knows? The Lord may turn back and relent,
    leaving us a blessing—God’s own offerings of grain and drink.
15. Sound the shofar in Zion!
    Set a holy fast! Call a sacred assembly!
16. Gather the people, prepare a holy conclave;
    bring together elders, gather children and nursing infants.
    Let the bridegroom abandon his chambers,
    and the bride, her dressing room.
17. Between the entryway and the altar,
    let the priests weep—those who serve the Lord;
    let them say, “Take compassion, O Lord, on your people.
    Do not subject your heritage to shame, so that foreigners rule over them.
    Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Isaiah 58:1-12
Devotion to God Requires Devotion to Others

As Israel sought to establish its national life anew following the two generations of exile in Babylon, this prophecy reminded the nation that a robust life as God’s people calls for more than proper piety. Restoration and renewal will be built on a new commitment to compassion, virtue, and self-giving service. God will accompany those who embrace these values, giving them an enduring legacy.
—

1. Bellow out a cry; do not hold back. Raise your voice like a ram’s horn to proclaim to      my people their offense and to the House of Jacob their sins;
2. then they will seek me day by day and desire knowledge of my ways.
   Like a nation that does right, not abandoning the justice of their God,
   let them ask of me right judgments;
   let them delight in their nearness to God.
3. “Why do we fast,” [they say,] “and you do not see us,
   deprive ourselves and you take no notice?”
   Look, on your fast day you see to your own interests,
   relentlessly driving all your workers.
4. Indeed your fasting ends in quarreling and struggle and striking with a wicked fist.      Do not fast like that today, if you would make your voice heard on high.
5. Is the fast that I choose like this: a day focused on one’s own deprivation?
   Is it for folding oneself over like a reed, draping sackcloth and ashes?
   Do you call that a fast and a day that the Lord wants?
6. Is not this the fast that I choose:
   release unjust shackles, unstrap the yoke’s harness,
   set free the oppressed—you shall demolish every yoke!
7. Is it not giving up your food to the hungry,
   and that you take in the wandering poor?
   Seeing someone naked, you cover them,
   rather than look away from your flesh and blood!
8. Then your light will break out like the dawn
   and your well-being will emerge quickly;
   your righteousness will precede you;
   the Lord’s glorious presence will surround you.
9. Then you will call and the Lord will respond;
   you will cry out for help and the Lord will say, “I am here”:
   when you remove from among you the yoke,
   finger-pointing, and slander;
10.      when you give of yourself to the hungry
    and make reparation for the humiliated;
    when your light shines out in the darkness
    so that your gloom is like midday.
11. The Lord will always guide you and satisfy you in bare wastelands;
    he will strengthen your spine and you will be an irrigated garden,
    like a spring whose waters never disappoint.
12. Your people will rebuild ageless ruins,
    you will re-establish the foundations of generations,
    and you will be called “repairer of the breach,”
    restoring pathways for habitation.

The Psalm
Psalm 51:1-17
A Prayer for Forgiveness

Thematically appropriate to the beginning of the Lenten season of penitence, Psalm 51 presents King David’s plea for divine forgiveness. Central here is not just David’s desire to be cleansed of past wrong-doings, but also his hope for God’s help so that he might stop sinning and only teach and follow God’s ways. As presented in The Revised Common Lectionary, the psalm ends with a call for contrition rather than animal sacrifice. In the psalm’s full form, however, its final verses—which are excluded here—pray that God rebuild the city of Jerusalem, allowing expiatory sacrifices again to be offered on the Temple’s altar.
—
To the conductor, a song of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had relations with Bathsheba.

1. Have mercy on me, God, as suits your steadfast love;
   according to the greatness of your mercy, wipe away my sins!
2. Cleanse me thoroughly of my guilt;
   purify me of my sin!—
3. for I admit my transgressions;
   my sin is ever before me.
4. Against you, only you, I have sinned;
   I did what is evil in your eyes,
   so that your sentence is justified,
   and your judgment warranted.
5. Indeed, I was birthed guilty;
   my mother conceived me sinful.
6. Yet you desire the truth about that which is concealed.
   Regarding that which is hidden, give me insight!
7. Sprinkle me with a hyssop stem to purify me;
   cleanse me whiter than snow!
8. Make me hear sounds of joy and gladness;
   let the bones you crushed rejoice!
9. Hide your face from my sins;
   wipe away all of my guilt!
10. Fashion for me a pure heart, God;
    renew in me a steadfast spirit.
11. Do not banish me from your presence;
    do not take from me the spirit of your holiness.
12. Let me again enjoy your protection,
    and may a willing spirit sustain me.
13. I shall teach sinners your ways,
    so that transgressors will return to you.
14. Save me from bloodshed,
    God—God of my deliverance!
    My tongue will sing out your righteousness!
15. Lord, open my lips,
    and let my mouth declare your praise!
16. For you do not desire sacrifices
    as I offer them;
    burnt-offerings do not please you.
17. God’s desired sacrifice is a contrite spirit.
    God—a contrite and crushed heart
    you will not despise.

The Second Reading
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Commendation as a Servant of God

In this reading the Apostle Paul establishes himself as a servant of God and representative of the Messiah. He encourages believers in Corinth to receive God’s grace with fruitfulness. In times of difficulty and unfair treatment, they are to maintain the same manner of godly attributes that Paul himself has upheld throughout his ministry.
—
On behalf of the Messiah, we make the appeal: “Be reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be a sacrifice on our behalf, so that we can embody God’s righteousness in that one.

Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For God says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” Look! Now is a favorable time; now is a day of salvation. We do not put a single obstacle in anyone’s way, so that the ministry may not be discredited, but in every detail we establish ourselves as servants of God by great endurance in afflictions: by hardships, distressing situations, beatings, and imprisonments; by riots, labors, sleepless nights, and times of hunger; by purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; by holy Spirit, genuine love, word of truth, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right and left hands. Throughout we are honored and dishonored, slandered and praised; regarded as imposters and yet are honest, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and yet—look!—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful but always rejoicing, as poor but making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

The Gospel
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
True Devotion

Matthew’s Gospel presents teaching in regard to religious practice within its Sermon on the Mount, a discourse that brings together Jesus’ teachings on various occasions. The portion of text the Lectionary presents on this day bookends the Lord’s Prayer, which appears in Matthew 6:9-13 (omitted here). Jesus, in Matthew’s presentation, describes the inner attitude of devotion that is consistent with prayer. Written in a setting of fierce competition both within the church and with other religious institutions, this reading from Matthew’s Gospel contrasts the church’s approach to devotion with others’.
—

“Careful: do not display righteousness in front of people, to be seen! If you do, you have no compensation from your Father who is in heaven. When you give charity, do not trumpet your generosity, as the pretentious do in the congregations and in the streets, to be glorified by people. Trust me, I tell you: they already have their compensation! You, though, when you give charity, your left hand should not even know what your right hand does, so the charity you do is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will make it up to you. And whenever you pray, you shall not be as the pretentious, because they delight to stand up in prayer in congregations and on street corners, to flaunt themselves. Trust me, I tell you: they already have their compensation! But when you pray, enter into your most private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will treasure you.

“When you fast, do not be morose like the pretentious, who put on an expression to parade their fasting. Trust me, I tell you: they already have their compensation! But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting is not apparent to people, but only to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will treasure you. Do not store up valuables on earth, where moth and decay ruin them and where thieves break in and steal. Instead, store up valuables in heaven, where neither moth nor decay ruin and where thieves do not break in and steal. Where your treasure is, there will be your heart.”

Pentecost, meaning fifty days, is the name in Greek for the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) in the Hebrew Bible. It occurs seven weeks after the beginning of Passover, on the fiftieth day. With consistently covenantal associations, Pentecost came to be seen among Jesus’ followers as the seal of his continuing, risen presence with them in the form of the divine Spirit that he sent to them. The reading from Genesis (11:1-9) refers to God’s division of human speech into different languages, while the passage from Acts stresses the Spirit’s renewal of mutual understanding among all peoples. The passage in Acts (2:1-21) is the most famous of the readings appointed for the day, but the Gospel reading (John 14:8-17 [25-27]) stresses the continuing empowerment of the Spirit in the actions and teaching of Jesus’ followers. Paul views the coming of the Spirit as realized in baptism (Romans 8:14-17), while Psalm 104 articulates the theology that God’s Spirit animates the whole of creation. 

The First Reading
Acts 2:1–21
The Coming of the Spirit on Pentecost

The Apostle Rock—Peter—reminds gentile believers of their inclusion into the family of God by way of adoption through the receiving of the Spirit. With this reminder, Rock seeks to encourage believers to see their current suffering in light of the glory to come.
—

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly from heaven came a sound like a forceful, rushing wind that filled the entire house where everyone was gathered. And dividing tongues like fire appeared to them, and they rested upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance to them. Now there were residing in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, the crowd gathered and was confused, because each one was hearing the others speaking in his own language. They were both bewildered and astonished asking, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? How are we hearing—each one of us—our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and those living in Mesopotamia, Judea, and also Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visiting Romans, both Judeans and also proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We all hear them speaking in our own languages about the mighty works of God!” All were astonished and bewildered, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Others mocked, “They are full of sweet wine.” Rock—Peter—standing with the Eleven raised his voice and addressed them: “People of Judea and all those living in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk as you are assuming, for it is only the third hour in the day, but this is what had been foretold through the prophet Joel. It will be in the last days, God declares—‘I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young will see visions and your old will dream dreams. Even upon my male servants and female servants in the last days I will pour out from my Spirit, and they will prophesy. And I will give wonders in the heavens above and signs upon the earth below—blood and fire, and column of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and magnificent day of the Lord comes. And it will be that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

or Genesis 11:1-9
The Tower of Babel

In the Tower of Babel story, human hubris is expressed in peoples’ attempts to make a name for themselves. The Israelite model is that God chooses people whose name God will make great (Abraham and his descendants; Genesis 12:1-3), and who in turn will honor and witness to God’s name. In response, God diminishes the perfection of creation by dividing humans into mutually unintelligible languages. Read in conjunction with the Tower of Babel narrative, Acts 2:1-21’s portrayal of people understanding each other across languages suggests that the availability to them of divine Spirit signals the world’s return to the perfect state God intended it to have at the time of creation. The Hebrew Bible’s story depicts the shattering of human cohesion in society. The book of Act’s story suggests that, through Jesus, the shattered social world is fully repaired.
—

The entire earth spoke one language and the same words. When they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Now, they said to each other, “Let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they had bricks for stone and tar for mortar. They said, “Let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the sky, to make a name for ourselves, so that we do not become scattered across the face of the earth.” The Lord came down to see this city and the tower people had built. The Lord said, “If, as one people with one language, they have begun to do this, nothing they want to accomplish will be beyond their ability. Let us therefore go down and confuse their language so that no person will understand the other’s language.” So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the earth, and they ceased building this city. For this reason, it is called Babel, since there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of all the earth.

The Psalm
Psalm 104:23-34, 35b
God, Who Created All Living Things

God’s Spirit animates the whole of creation, reflected in all aspects of nature.
_____

23. A person goes out to labor,
         to work until evening.
24. How many are your works, Lord!
         All of them you carried out with wisdom.
         The earth is full of your creations.
25. There is the sea, vast and wide,
         swarming with unnumbered creatures,
         living things big and small.
26. Ships traverse it,
         and Leviathan, which you created to play there.
27. All of them turn to you for sustenance,
         to give them their food at the right time.
28. You give it to them; they take it up;
         you open your hand; they are well satisfied.
29. When you hide your face, they are terrified;
         when you make an end to their breath, they perish;
         to dust they return.
30. When you extend your breath, they are created,
         and you renew the face of the earth.
31. The Lord’s glory is forever;
         may the Lord rejoice in God’s creations,
32. the one who stares at the earth and it trembles,
         who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33. I shall sing to the Lord during my life,
         praise my God while I live.
34. My contemplations will please God;
         I will rejoice in the Lord.
35. 35b. Praise the Lord, my inner being!
36.      Hallelujah!

The Second Reading
Romans 8:14–17
Heirs Along with the Anointed by Way of the Spirit

The Apostle Paul reminds gentile believers of their inclusion into the family of God by way of adoption through the receiving of the Spirit. With this reminder, Paul seeks to encourage believers to see their current suffering in light of the glory to come.
—

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these very ones are the children of God. For you did not receive a spirit for slavery again resulting in fear, but you received the Spirit to become God’s sons and daughters, by virtue of which we cry out, “Abba, Father!” That Spirit is bearing witness together with our spirit that we are children of God. So, if children, then heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs along with the Anointed—if indeed we are suffering with him, it is so that we can also be glorified with him.

or Acts 2:1–21
The Coming of the Spirit on Pentecost

The Apostle Rock—Peter—reminds gentile believers of their inclusion into the family of God by way of adoption through the receiving of the Spirit. With this reminder, Rock seeks to encourage believers to see their current suffering in light of the glory to come.
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When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly from heaven came a sound like a forceful, rushing wind that filled the entire house where everyone was gathered. And dividing tongues like fire appeared to them, and they rested upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance to them. Now there were residing in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, the crowd gathered and was confused, because each one was hearing the others speaking in his own language. They were both bewildered and astonished asking, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? How are we hearing—each one of us—our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and those living in Mesopotamia, Judea, and also Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visiting Romans, both Judeans and also proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We all hear them speaking in our own languages about the mighty works of God!” All were astonished and bewildered, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Others mocked, “They are full of sweet wine.” Rock—Peter—standing with the Eleven raised his voice and addressed them: “People of Judea and all those living in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk as you are assuming, for it is only the third hour in the day, but this is what had been foretold through the prophet Joel. It will be in the last days, God declares—‘I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young will see visions and your old will dream dreams. Even upon my male servants and female servants in the last days I will pour out from my Spirit, and they will prophesy. And I will give wonders in the heavens above and signs upon the earth below—blood and fire, and column of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and magnificent day of the Lord comes. And it will be that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

The Gospel
John 14:8-17, [25-27]
Jesus’ Promise that God will send his Spirit as an Advocate

John conceives of the presence of God’s Spirit with Jesus’ followers as the living proof that Jesus and the Father are one. On that basis, Jesus could show who God truly is and could speak and act on the Father’s behalf. That power continues in the lives of Jesus’ students, because the Spirit sent by the Father enables them to act in even greater ways than Jesus did, and to teach the wisdom that he conveyed.
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Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “How long have I been with you all and you do not know me, Philip? Who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The sayings that I say to you I do not speak from myself, but the Father who is in me does his deeds. Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if not, believe because of these very deeds. Amen, amen, I say to you, the one who believes in me—that one will do the deeds that I do, and will do greater than these, because I proceed to the Father. And if anyone should ask something in my name, this I will do, so that the Father might be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commands, and I will appeal to the Father and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth—whom the world does not receive, because it does not perceive or know. You know, because Spirit remains with you and will be in you.”

[“I have spoken these things to you while with you, but the advocate, the holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I said to you. Peace I leave you, my peace I give you: not as the world gives do I give you. Your heart shall not be troubled nor afraid.”]

As the season of Easter comes to a close, the themes of love and glory that John’s Gospel has stressed are brought together in the prayer which Jesus as High Priest offers as intercession on behalf of all believers. Jesus portrays love as the means by which he and the Father share their glory with the committed students. That relationship, defined by mutual glorification, also appears with a sense of finality in Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21. In the Lectionary, Psalm 97 echoes the regal language used in the visionary passage from the Revelation. Acts 16:16-34 portrays the power that characterizes the apostolic church on the basis of Jesus’ authorization.

The First Reading
Acts 16:16–34
Paul and Silas’ Witness in Philippi

The power of God over unclean spirits is displayed in Philippi through Paul’s continued witness to the Anointed Jesus, through the deliverance of a spirit-possessed slave girl, and through the miraculous deliverance of Paul and Silas from prison.
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As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, who brought much profit to her masters by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, “These men are servants of the highest God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation!” She did this for many days. But Paul, being deeply troubled, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus the Anointed, come out from her!” And it left her that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit had left, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the town square before the city authorities. They stood them up before the magistrates and said, “These men are causing trouble in our city. They are Judeans, and they are advocating customs that are not lawful for us to accept or practice as Romans!” The crowd then gathered in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and were giving orders to beat them with rods. After hitting them, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to keep them secure. The one who received the order took them into the inner prison and secured their feet in shackles. At about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God, and the prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake that caused the foundations of the prison to shake, and instantly all the doors opened and all the chains were thrown off. After the jailer woke up and saw the open doors of the prison, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, concluding that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, “Do not harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer  called for lights and rushed in, and trembling he fell down before Paul and Silas. He then brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his household. And so he took them that very moment though it was night and washed their wounds, and immediately he and those with him were immersed for cleansing from sin. Then he brought them into his house and served food, and he rejoiced together with the entire household, having come to believe in God.

The Psalm
Psalm 97
God’s Justice Is Evidenced on Earth

God’s justice and power are reflected in a perfected world in which idolatry comes to an end, as all nations recognize the Lord’s singular might and glory.
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1. The Lord is king;
        let the earth rejoice!
        Let the many coastlands be glad!
2. Clouds and storm clouds surround God;
        righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s Throne.
3. Fire goes before God,
        scorching God’s adversaries all around.
4. God’s lightening illumined the world;
        the earth saw and quaked.
5. Before the Lord, mountains melted like wax,
        before the Master of all the earth.
6. The heavens proclaimed God’s righteousness,
        and all the nations witnessed God’s glory.
7. All who worship idols will be humiliated,
        those who boast of the gods.
        Bow down to him, all you gods!
8. Zion heard and was glad;
        the daughters of Judah rejoiced,
        because of your just acts, Lord!
9. For you, Lord, are Most High over all the earth,
        highly exalted over all the gods.
10. Hate evil, all who love the Lord!
         He protects the lives of his pious ones.
         God rescues them from evil-doers.
11. Light is sown for the righteous,
         and joy for the upright in heart.
12. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous,
         giving thanks to God’s holy name.

The Second Reading
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
The Promise of Jesus’ Arrival

At its close, the book of Revelation states its purpose to be prophecy (compare Revelation 1:3). The author, John, appears personally, reinforcing the difference between angelic agents, who are not to be accorded worship (Revelation 22:8-9; see Revelation 19:10), and God, who is worthy of all worship. Unlike the scroll that was eaten (Revelation 10:4-11), this one is to remain unsealed and ready to be read, because its fulfillment is near. Jesus repeats his promise of the water of life (see Revelation 21:6), with the condition of necessary righteous action and also the warning that neither adding to nor subtracting from the words of the Revelation will be tolerated. These words of grace are humanity’s lifeline. They cannot be altered.
—

“Look—I, Jesus, am quickly arriving, and my reward is with me to give to each according to their deed! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the final purpose.” 

Those—martyrs—who wash their robes are favored, because they shall have the right to the tree of life and to enter by the gates into the city. 

“I, Jesus, have sent my messenger to witness these things to you concerning the congregations.
I am the root and race of David, the shining morning star.” 

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And whoever hears should say, “Come!” And whoever thirsts, who wishes to receive the water of life freely, should come.
The one who witnesses these things says, “Yes, I am quickly arriving.”
Amen—Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.

The Gospel
John 17:20-26
“So that They Might Be One Just as We Are One”

The theme that Jesus and the Father are one—and that their intent is that Jesus’ followers might also be one with one another and with God—is a particular emphasis of John’s Gospel. By having Jesus speak this prayer prior to the Crucifixion, John portrays Jesus’ actions prior to his death as entirely consistent with the reality of his presence after the Resurrection.
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“I do not appeal for the committed students only, but also for those who believe because of the students’ word about me, so that all might be one: just as you are in me, Father, and I in you, that they also might be in us, so the world will believe that you commissioned me. The majestic glory that you have given me, I have also given to them, so that they might be one just as we are one: I in them and you in me, so that they might be as one, a completed whole. Thus the world will know that you commissioned me and that you also love them just as you love me.” 

The texts for this festival present several images that express the church’s understanding that God establishes cosmic rule through the risen Anointed One. The Ascension is portrayed in two accounts, both presented by Luke: the Gospel (Luke 24:44-53) and the first reading (Acts 1:1-11). The Gospel depicts Jesus’ departure from his followers after he interprets Scripture, highlighting his identity as the Anointed. He also commands the students to remain in Jerusalem until divine power comes upon them for a global mission. The more familiar scene in Acts stresses that Jesus was physically taken up into heaven in a cloud, giving proof that he will return to earth in the same way. Ephesians 1:15-23, in another image, articulates a view of the church as the Anointed’s body, while he is its heavenly head. The majesty of divine rule is celebrated in Psalm 47, while Psalm 93 stresses the justice of God’s reign, reflected in the statement at the end of the psalm that “God’s testimony is certain.”

The First Reading
Acts 1:1–11
Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven

As Jesus departs by physically ascending into heaven, the Apostles are promised that he will return and that the holy Spirit will empower them to be witnesses in the world. Luke addresses his description to a kind of ideal reader, whom he names “Theophilus,” or “lover of God.”
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Dear Theophilus: The first volume I wrote concerned what Jesus began to do and also to teach, until the day he was taken up after he gave instructions by the holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he chose. To them he also presented himself alive after his suffering by way of many convincing proofs, appearing to them for forty days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the Father’s promise, about which he said, “You heard from me, John was immersed with water but you will be immersed with the holy Spirit not many days from now.” So, those gathered together then asked him, “Master, are you now at this time restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and as far as the ends of the earth.

After he said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud carried him away out of their sight. And while they were staring toward heaven as he went—behold, two men in white clothing had been standing with them, and they said, “Galileans, why have you been standing staring toward heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”

The Psalm
Psalm 47
God Rules over All the Nations

In the context of its lectionary use, the psalm’s images of the majesty of God’s rule over all nations depict the power and rule of the Anointed Jesus, referred to in Acts as extending “as far as the ends of the earth.”
—

1. All nations—clap your hands!
        Raise a shout to God with a ringing cry!
2. For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,
        a great king over all the earth.
3. God subdues nations under us,
        and peoples under our feet.
4. God chose our inheritance for us,
        the pride of Jacob, God’s beloved.
        Selah!
5. God has gone up on a shout of joy;
        the Lord, at the sound of a trumpet.
6. Sing praises to God, sing praises.
        Sing praises to our God, sing praises.
7. For God is king of all the earth.
        Sing praises to God with a psalm.
8. God is king over the nations.
        God sits on God’s holy Throne.
9. The princes of the nations gather,
        the people of the God of Abraham.
   For the shields of the earth are God’s,
        God is highly exalted.

or Psalm 93
God Is King over All Creation

This enthronement psalm evokes the permanence of God’s power and reign over all creation, depicted in God’s defeat of the powers of chaos, which are reflected in the image of the pounding waters of the sea.
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1. God reigns,
        robed in majesty.
   The Lord is robed,
        girded with might.
   God established creation;
        it will not be shaken.
2. Your Throne is established from the beginning;
        you are eternal.
3. The flood waters have lifted up, Lord;
        the flood waters have lifted their voices.
        The flood waters lift their pounding waves.
4. Greater than the thunder of mighty water,
        more majestic than the waves of the sea,
        the Lord is majestic on high.
5. Your testimony is most certain;
        holiness befits your house,
        Lord, for the length of days.

The Second Reading
Ephesians 1:15-23
A Prayer for the Church as Jesus’ Presence in the World

This reading encourages the church with a portrayal of Jesus’ exaltation to the heavens, which is the “reason” for the author’s thanksgiving at the outset of the prayer. The church is then reminded of its divine calling to be the full, continued presence of the Anointed in the world.
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For this reason, and also because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers: May the God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, enlightening the eyes of your heart so that you may know the hope of God’s call, the glorious abundance of God’s inheritance among the saints, and the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might. God worked in the Anointed, raising him from the dead and seating him at the heavenly place of honor far above all rule, authority, power, lordship, and every name invoked as an authority, not only in this age but also in the one to come. God placed everything in submission under him and gave him to be leader over all things for the church, which is his body, the full presence of the one who fills and completes all things.

The Gospel
Luke 24:44-53
Jesus’ Departure according to Luke’s Gospel

The final scene of Luke’s Gospel continues the theme developed in the Gospel’s narrative of Jesus’ encounter with two students who were traveling to Emmaus: the Scriptures of Israel attest the way of Jesus. Being in the presence of the Scriptures permits Jesus’ followers to be in his presence. He is so vividly with them that he can promise that God will clothe them with the power to witness the truth of Jesus, provided they wait in Jerusalem for the authorization to act as witnesses.
—

Jesus said to his followers, “These were my words that I spoke to you when I was still with you: that it was necessary for all the writings in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me to be fulfilled.” Then he opened up their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “So it was written, that the Anointed will suffer and arise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for release of sins will be proclaimed to all the nations on the basis of his name—beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look—I am conferring the promise of my Father upon you, but you: Remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” He led them out to Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. And it happened while he blessed them, he separated from them and was carried up into heaven. They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were constantly in the Temple blessing God.