Sixth Sunday of Easter 10 05 26
FIRST READING: Acts 17.22-31
NEW TESTAMENT READING: 1 Peter 3.13-end
GOSPEL: John 14.15-21
In him we live and move and have our being
It is wonderful to see the way Paul preach about Jesus in Athens. Paul has been travelling to places and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. There were some places where there were Jewish people and there were places where there were people of different faiths. Paul was appointed as a missionary to the non-Jewish world. He goes to Athens to preach the gospel and in Athens, Paul spotted something interesting. People were religious and they had a religion. They had set up an altar and there was a description, ‘to an unknown God.’ They were religious but did not have any idea of God.
Paul tells the people in Athens an amazing explanation about God, He says, ‘The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things’. Paul proclaims that God is the author of life, the creator of heaven and earth. God is everywhere and God is in everything and therefore in God we live and move and have our being. God is not unknown or unknowable. The creation and all that exists in creation reveals the glory and power of God.
We live in Gods world and we are living the life that is given by God. Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God and Gods love to the world. In Jesus we understand that God is compassionate, loving, forgiving and merciful. Jesus came into the world to reconcile people with God. Sin estranges people from God and Jesus came to offer the world forgiveness by giving himself up on the cross of calvary and he rose again to be the victorious Lord.
Jesus by his death and resurrection has brought us closer to God and a greater awareness of God. A new relationship that is rotted in prayer and worship. A new reality where we participate in the work of God by experiencing healing, forgiveness and restoration of life.
Jesus promised the world that after his ascension to heaven, he will ask god ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.’
Peter writes: Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.