Brothers and sisters, Greetings, and peace to you in the name of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. I encourage you to join us Sunday morning and receive gifts from our living Lord and Savior, Jesus.
I will begin by reminding you of the Ascension Day celebration being planned for Thursday May 29 at 6:30.
May 18th is the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Our focus on Sunday mornings remains on Jesus’ victory over death, but the Scripture readings for the next few weeks will also have increasing numbers of references to the Holy Spirit, preparing us for the approaching festival of Pentecost. We will follow the liturgy of Divine Service One beginning on page 151 of the LSB hymnal. Hymns chosen for the day are#490 Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won; #496 Holy Spirit, Light Divine; #461 I Know That My Redeemer Lives; and #475 Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing.
Scriptures assigned to the day are Psalm 148:1-14; Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-7; and John 16:12-22.
Psalm 148 is the third of the Hallelujah psalms at the close of the Book of Psalms. An ancient Greek translation associates the psalm with the prophets Haggai and Zechariah after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon. The psalmist urges all of creation to praise God for His strength and majesty. He has “raised up a horn for His people”, which refers to a king of power, and foretells Jesus who reigns over all things.
In Acts Chapter 11, it is reported that Gentiles were receiving the gospel and believing in Jesus as their savior from sin. At the same time there were some Jewish Christians who insisted the Gentiles should be required to undergo circumcision before being allowed to join the congregation. These “Judaizers” criticized St. Peter for eating with the unclean, uncircumcised Gentile Christians. Peter responds by telling them of a vision he had been given three times by God. In the vision Peter saw a number of common creatures that God had classified as unclean under the Law. Surprisingly, an unidentified voice instructed Peter to eat the unclean animals. Though Peter piously refused, the voice was persistent, telling him to eat with the assurance that ‘what God has made clean, do not call common’ or unclean. As the vision ended, three Gentile men had come to take Peter to visit a certain Gentile man and speak the gospel to him. The man had had also received a vison from God so was waiting for Peter. As Peter spoke the gospel of Jesus to the man, the Holy Spirit fell on all of them, just as the Spirit had done on Pentecost. Peter concluded that the Gentiles were not unclean, but should receive the same gifts of forgiveness Jesus had offered to the apostles and Jews. After Peter had explained why he was interacting with the Gentiles, the crowd of Christians praised God for adding to the number of believers. Peter’s experience is a reminder that God desires all people to turn from their sin, to trust in Jesus, and to receive His gift of forgiveness that leads to eternal life.. The gospel is good news that should be shared with everyone.
In the reading from Revelation Chapter 21, John sees a vision of a new heavenly Jerusalem where believers in Jesus will live with Him forever. In this new heaven and earth, death and grief will no longer exist because God will have removed the sin that causes such pain. Jesus came to fulfill that vision for us, dying on the cross to pay for our debt of sin.
During the season of Easter, the gospel lessons has been reporting on the appearances of Jesus following His resurrection. For this Sunday we need to go back in time a bit, to the evening before Jesus was arrested and crucified. He had eaten the Passover meal with His disciples. John Chapter 16 reports that after the meal, Jesus began to tell them about His approaching death, and explained how He would soon send them the Holy Spirit. (this passage is one of the reasons we confess in the Creed that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son). This news was a bit confusing. But Jesus assures them that the Holy Spirit will help them understand what He is saying, and to overcome the grief they will feel when He leaves them on at His death and at His ascension out of sight.
COLLECT: Almighty merciful God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what you have commanded, and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world we might always hold to the joyous victory of our Savior; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Please let me know if you have any prayer requests or questions about schedules or Sunday’s Scripture lessons. God bless you. Pastor Boster
