Tuesday in Easter Week
O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus
Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to
light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may
abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the
Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.
Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to
light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may
abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the
Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.
Lectionary Lessons for today (BCP 894).
Psalm 33:18-22, Psalm 118:19-24, Acts 2:36-41, John 20:11-18
Acts 2. 36 (Peter preaching to those gathered) “Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ 38Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’ 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:36-42, NRSV)
Many people are in Jerusalem for Shavuot (“Weeks”), the Jewish festival of weeks, with great anticipation counting down seven weeks from Passover to celebrate God giving the Law to Moses and also to celebrate the grain harvest. Jews from many nations would gather in Jerusalem for the celebration -- which Greek-speaking Jews called “Pentecost” (fifty days) -- and so those gathering round to hear Peter’s speech would have included not only native Judean residents of Jerusalem, but Jews from many places. Luke, the anonymous author who wrote both the Gospel according to Luke and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, relates that Peter’s preaching brought some three thousand people to Christ that day, and that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.
Oddly, the Lectionary selection stops at Acts 2:41, doesn’t include verse 42, which says “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” It seems strange that the Lectionary would omit such a powerful statement; why might that be? Two reasons perhaps. One might be that the Lectionary selection intends to focus on the baptism conversion, Easter being a baptism season.
Second perhaps, scholars generally date Luke’s writing to about 80-130 A.D., when the Christian Church was coming into its own; when the reference to apparently firmly established Baptism, Prayers and the Lord’s Supper could reflect later liturgical development toward the end of the first century as the church grew, contemporary with Luke but not contemporary with Peter’s time.
Whatever, my preference is to include verse 42; and my nature is to ponder why it was omitted.
TW+