Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 7, 2016 - 2nd Week of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 5:27-33 and John 3:31-36]"We gave you strict orders did we now, to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon." But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, "We must obey God rather than man." [Acts]
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016 ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE
[Acts 5:27-33 and John 3:31-36]
"We gave you strict orders did we now, to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon." But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, "We must obey God rather than man." [Acts]
The temporal sequence of the scriptures in this post-Easter, pre-Pentecost, period is a little confusing. The scriptures from Acts are post-Pentecostal and the scriptures from the Gospel of John are pre-Easter. Peter and the Apostles are confronted by the local Jewish authorities because of their preaching in Jerusalem about Jesus. But this preaching did not take place until after Pentecost - the coming of the Holy Spirit - to which they refer at the end of today's passage: "We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." The passage from the Gospel of John comes from Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus in the third chapter. Here again, there is a reference to the "Spirit:" "For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit."
The lectionary arrangement presumes that we have the much bigger picture in mind - that we know the whole story even if the pieces are out of sequence. The challenge of preaching the message of Jesus will bring one into conflict with those to whom this message is threatening. All of us who are baptized have received the same Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed upon the apostles in the Gospel of John (20:22) or at the upper room in Acts (2:1-13). Obedience to that Holy Spirit requires courage and faith and love. Jesus is risen. He is the one whom God has sent. It is the message of Acts and of the Gospel of John. It is our message, too! AMEN
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