Lectionary Links: Sunday, May 25, 2014
6th Sunday of Easter
Year A: May 25, 2014
First Reading: Acts 17:22-31
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
(Written for ages 3-8)
Comment: Are You My Mother? is a story of a little bird who hatches in an empty next, but he knows that he has a mother and he begins his search for her. The little bird finds his mom at the place his search began. In Paul’s speech to the Athenians, he talks about humans groping for God. Paul tells us that “we live and move and have our being” (v 28) in God. We know deep down in our hearts that God exists, but we have to seek out God. John Calvin calls this the seed of religion. This seed of religion calls us to seek out God, and in so doing we learn God was never very far from us. Everywhere we turn and look we will see aspects of God in the world around us.
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:13-22
The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson
(Written for ages 5-8)
Comment: Gordon McClellan writes, “The word ‘obey’ in Hebrew means to listen closely, to listen acutely. So, for example, when God tells Adam and Eve to obey, God is not saying ‘Do what I tell you, or else.’ No, God is saying ‘Listen closely to me.’” (Feasting on the World. A. Vol 2 pg 488). The early Christians who heard this letter in Greek would have recognized this understanding of the word obey. In order to listen closely to God, we have to pause in our busy lives for even one minute to hear God. In the postscript to The Man with the Violin Joshua Bell writes, “In January of 2007, over a thousand people heard me play my violin in the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington, D.C. But very few people actually listened.” This story points out the differences between listening and hearing. When we pause long enough to listen, our whole being is effected. First Peter reminds us of two people who paused to listen acutely to God. Jesus and Noah listened to God and allowed their whole selves to be changed as they obeyed.
Gospel Reading: John 14:15-21
Love Waves by Rosemary Wells
(Written for ages 3-7)
Comment: The passage from John picks up where we left off last week. The disciples are left scared and begging for some sign to comfort them in the upcoming transition. This week’s reading gives the disciples the promise of the sign. Jesus tells the disciples that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will be coming to them and will abide in them. In Love Waves, Rosemary Wells writes about the love we send and feel when we are separated from the ones we love. When we think about the ones we love, we send love waves through the air. They are not something we can physically see or physically feel, but we know they are there. The Holy Spirit works this way. The Holy Spirit will come. Despite knowing it is present, we will not be able to see or feel it. The Holy Spirit is like a love wave traveling through around the world until it finds the place seeking the Holy Spirit.
We want to thank alumna Elizabeth Boulware Landes for writing the Lectionary Links the past thirteen weeks. We are grateful for her contributions and we look forward to having her as a writer here again later in the year.
Lectionary Links: Sunday, May 25, 2014 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
