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Seventh Sunday of Easter

Divine activity shakes the foundations from mountains to prisons in this week’s lessons. Both the second lesson (Revelation 22) and the gospel move more toward visions and visionary prayer. With the eyes of Easter, we can bear witness on this Sunday to the activity of God within community and world.

PSALM 97-OUR GOD REIGNS

This psalm-a royal anthem-derives much of its content from psalms (18:7-15; 50:1-6, 77:16-20) which appear earlier in the psalter as well as from Isaiah 40-55. The psalm sings of God’s reign over all the earth evidenced by such natural recurring phenomena as fire, lightning, and earthquakes whose tectonic shifts cause the mountains to "melt like wax before the lord (vv. 1-5). The supremacy of God over all other deities forms the middle strophe (vv. 6-9) while God’s blessing over the righteous brings the psalm to its conclusion.

ACTS 16:16-34-UNSHAKABLE JOY

What a great story from Acts! At prayer Paul and Silas meet with a fortune-teller who correctly identifies them. But day after day she annoys them, functioning as a sort an archetype of John the Baptist-proclaiming aloud that these men "are servants of the Most High . . . and they have come to tell you how to be saved" (v. 17). When Paul makes short shrift of the demons the money-making scheme falls through, and our heroes end up in jail, beaten and bruised. Yet even in prison, they begin to sing like canaries in their cage, and soon a jarring experience occurs that opens prison doors. Paul stops the guard from taking his life out fear of the violence that will be done him for letting the prisoners get away. In the end salvation comes to the jailhouse and the church of Philippi is born.

REVELATION 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21--COME

We close the book of Revelation with memorable and poignant words from Jesus. The pervading sense of this passage is one of welcome and invitation-"they can enter and eat" (v. 14) . . . "The Spirit and the bride say, "Come" (v. 17) . . ."Let each one who hears . . . say, ‘Come’" (v. 17) . . . "Let them come" (v. 17) . . . The images of thirst and cool, thirst-quenching water has endeared this passage to many readers. The final "come" comes not from Jesus but from the writer on behalf the Church: "Come, Lord Jesus!" (v. 20).

JOHN 17:20-26-JESUS’ PETITIONARY PRAYER

What a visionary prayer! In this part of the prayer, Jesus’ moves well beyond the immediate disciples to the impact that they will, futuristically speaking, have on others just because these original disciples have borne witness to Jesus. The prayer stresses the ideal of unity and love within community that in itself becomes the supreme witness to Jesus as the One sent from the Father. The prayer closes appropriately with a past tense-"I have revealed you to them" (v. 26), Jesus says, "and will keep on revealing you." So the torch is now passed from Father to Son through the Spirit to the disciples and on into the next generations.