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April 27, 2008 - 6th Sunday of Easter
Jesus said to his disciples: 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 forever. 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.
-- John 14:15-21
Paul said to the people of Athens: From one ancestor he (God) 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, so 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. For 'In him we live and
move and have our being'.
-- Acts 17:26-28a
Often we think of God as existing "out there", and our prayers and attention bring
God closer to us. According to Jesus and Paul (two pretty reliable sources), God exists
in us, God is with us, and in God we "live and move and have our being".
Does this change the way you think about God? What does it mean for you knowing that
God your Creator is already in the fiber of your being? How do you see your neighbor,
living in the knowledge that Jesus abides in him/her? What does it mean for our community
of faith, knowing that the Spirit of truth is in our midst?
We pray: Almighty and ever-living God, you hold together all things in heaven
and on earth. In your great mercy receive the prayers of all your children, and give to
all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and
Lord, Amen
Lessons for the 6th Sunday of Easter:
- Psalm 66:8-20
- Acts 17:22-31
- 1 Peter 3:13-22
- John 14:15-21
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible,
copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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