Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B 21st April 2024
Lectionary Readings: Acts 4 v5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3 v16-24; John 10 v11-18.
Seizing the opportunity and responding to God’s love for us.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and told the nation’s leaders and elders: “You are questioning us today about a kind deed in which a crippled man was healed. But there is something we must tell you and everyone in else in Israel. This man is standing here completely well because of the power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth. You put him to death on a cross, but God raised him to life. He is the stone that you builders thought was worthless, and now he is the most important stone of all.
(Acts 4 v 8-11).
Peter seized the opportunity to talk truth to power. Peter told the temple leaders that they were responsible for the death of their own long-awaited Messiah. In rejecting Jesus they had cast themselves into the role of ‘mistaken builders’, as the psalmist foretold. (v11 quotes Psalm 118 v22).
Peter states the blunt truth when he says, “You put Jesus to death, but God raised him to life” (v10c).
God over-ruled the judgement of earthly authorities, Jesus lives, and is now revealed as Lord of all. God’s love for us, can no longer be denied to us by the forces of evil. As Paul says, “nothing can separate us from the love of God”. (Romans 8 v38, 39).
John, reflecting on how best to respond to God’s love for us, says;
“We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other. If we have all we need and see one of our own people in need, we must have pity on that person, or else we cannot say we love God. When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God”. (1 John 3 v16,17,19.)
We are presented with fresh opportunities every day, to show God’s love to others.
It is by our acts of kindness, compassion, hospitality and generosity that God’s love is made known.
The psalmist says “You Lord, are my shepherd. Your kindness and love will always be with me each day of my life, and I will live forever in your house, Lord.” (Psalm 23 v 1a, 6).
The themes of learning to be faithful disciples and walking in God’s presence are reflected in this hymn by Martin Leckebusch. (Singing the Faith 713.)
Show me how to stand for justice: how to work for what is right,
how to challenge false assumptions, how to walk within the light.
May I learn to share more freely in a world so full of greed,
showing your immense compassion by the life I choose to lead.
Teach my heart to treasure mercy, whether given or received –
for my need has not diminished since the day I first believed:
let me seek no satisfaction boasting of what I have done,
but rejoice that I am pardoned and accepted as your son.
Gladly I embrace a lifestyle modelled on your living word,
in humility submitting to the truth which I have heard.
Make me conscious of your presence every day in all I do:
by your Spirit’s gracious prompting may I learn to walk with you.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version