ANNOUNCEMENTS

WORSHIP TOGETHER | Sunday 5-29-2022

May 23, 2022 | General Presbyter & Stated Clerk, Resources, Worship Together, Worship Together Front Page

Sunday, May 29, 2022
7th Sunday of Easter

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Acts 16:16-34

– Psalm 97:1-12
– Second Reading: Rev. 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
– Gospel Reading: John 17:20-26

Or, alternatively, the texts Ascension:
– First Reading: Acts 11:1-11
– Psalm 47:1-9 or Psalm 93:1-5
– Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23
– Luke 24:44-53

The liturgical color for the day is: White

It is appropriate to preach from the given texts for the 7th Sunday of Easter or use the texts from the Ascension of the Lord.  By tradition the Day of Ascension has been celebrated on the 40th day of Easter—this year that falls on Thursday, May 26, 2022.  (Recall that the season of Easter lasts 50 days.)

This far into the season of Easter, and the Sunday before the Day of Pentecost, the dynamic movements in the story of the ascension are worth noting and could form the outline of a sermon.  Notice what happens: 1. Jesus is blessing the disciples out on the high mountain where he has taken them.  2. The disciples’ response was worship.  3. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

From blessing to worship to great joy—those movements are gifts to us.  Just at that moment when we don’t feel any joy…when we can be about to pull our hair out in frustration…or when the blahs come along…stop.  Here is what we are to do—stop right in our tracks.  Lift up your head.  Lift it up.  Look up.  See that Jesus is blessing you.

See that Jesus is blessing you and allow that joy to inhabit you.  Just look up and worship for a moment and allow that blessing of God to fill you.  It is there…

In the Gospel Reading for the 7th Sunday of Easter we hear Jesus, in the High Priestly Prayer say: “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.” Perhaps this is the message of the ascension—that we ought to take confidence in the oneness we know with Christ whether our proximity is near or far. 

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk

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