Love and the Holy Spirit

The Spirit of Truth

 

 

15If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17This 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.

18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

John 14:15-21

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 

Doris N. Alexander

1899 - 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a LIGHT in this world.

A healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter.

We sometime lose sight of this force when there is suffering,

and too much pain.

Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people

who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.

~ Richard Attenborough

 

 

Living with integrity means 

behaving in ways that are in harmony

with your personal values.

~ Barbara De Angelis

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly Selva and Susan Fitzwilson and I had lunch at Creekside.

 

We even saw a fisherman down at the creek.

 

Carolyn Alexander, Rebecca Martin at Bistro del Lago

 

 

Friday Evening at the Arvada Center

 

Lynn Gilbert and I attended without Jim Gilbert this time.

He was cheering their grandson on at the high school.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance!

 

Niece Robin Sakamoto with Kaito Sakakibara, her 5th grandchild.

 

 

 

 

Blessed is the man who,

having nothing to say,

abstains from giving us wordy

evidence of the fact.

~ George Eliot

 

 

 

 

 

May 14, 2023  Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A

 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

 

22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The 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, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, 
     ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 
29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:22-31

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

Title: Gentleness
[Click for larger image view]

Gentleness

by Margaret Almon

 

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

Acts 17:22–31 

Psalm 66:8–20 

1 Peter 3:13–22 

John 14:15–21

 

 

Summary

In the final Gospel before the Ascension, Jesus explicitly promises the Spirit in John 14. Here he is described as “another Parakletos.” The word’s meaning varies by context: “helper,” “advocate,” or “comforter” are all possible options. The broad semantic range is theologically instructive. The parakletos comes to the aid of another to meet different needs. In verse 26, he is the enlightener who will “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance,” Jesus’ words. In 15:26 he is a witness for Christ on our behalf. Note that the Spirit is the second parakletos mentioned in verse 16. The first is Christ himself. In any circumstance we find ourselves in the Spirit is the agent whereby Jesus works in and through us and remains present to us.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him.  But you will know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.”
John 14: 15-21

THE WORD:

In legal terminology, an advocate defends the accused on trial.  For the writer of the Fourth Gospel, Christ is the first “Advocate,” who comes to liberate humanity from the slavery of sin.  The second “Advocate,” promised by Jesus in today’s Gospel, is the Spirit of truth, the Church’s living, creative memory in which the mystery of God’s love, revealed by and in Christ, lives for all time.

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#may14

 

 

 

 

First Reading Acts 17:22-31

22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The 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, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, 
     ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 
29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Psalm 66:8-20

8   Bless our God, O peoples, 
          let the sound of his praise be heard, 
9   who has kept us among the living, 
          and has not let our feet slip. 
10  For you, O God, have tested us; 
          you have tried us as silver is tried. 
11  You brought us into the net; 
          you laid burdens on our backs; 
12  you let people ride over our heads; 
          we went through fire and through water; 
     yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

13  I will come into your house with burnt offerings; 
          I will pay you my vows, 
14  those that my lips uttered 
          and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. 
15  I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, 
          with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; 
     I will make an offering of bulls and goats.                    Selah

16  Come and hear, all you who fear God, 
          and I will tell what he has done for me. 
17  I cried aloud to him, 
          and he was extolled with my tongue. 
18  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, 
          the Lord would not have listened. 
19  But truly God has listened; 
          he has given heed to the words of my prayer. 

20  Blessed be God, 
          because he has not rejected my prayer 
          or removed his steadfast love from me.

Second Reading 1 Peter 3:13-22

13Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel John 14:15-21

15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17This 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.

18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”