Acts 11:1-18<\/p>\n
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2<\/sup>So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3<\/sup>saying, \u201cWhy did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?\u201d 4<\/sup>Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5<\/sup>\u201cI was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6<\/sup>As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7<\/sup>I also heard a voice saying to me, \u2018Get up, Peter; kill and eat.\u2019 8<\/sup>But I replied, \u2018By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.\u2019 9<\/sup>But a second time the voice answered from heaven, \u2018What God has made clean, you must not call profane.\u2019 10<\/sup>This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11<\/sup>At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12<\/sup>The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man\u2019s house. 13<\/sup>He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, \u2018Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14<\/sup>he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.\u2019 15<\/sup>And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16<\/sup>And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, \u2018John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.\u2019 17<\/sup>If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?\u201d 18<\/sup>When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, \u201cThen God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Psalm 148<\/p>\n 1<\/sup><\/em>Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! 2<\/sup>Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host! 3<\/sup>Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! 4<\/sup>Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5<\/sup>Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. 6<\/sup>He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. 7<\/sup>Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, 8<\/sup>fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!\u00a0 9<\/sup>Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10<\/sup>Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! 11<\/sup>Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! 12<\/sup>Young men and women alike, old and young together! 13<\/sup>Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven.\u00a0 14<\/sup>He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!<\/em><\/p>\n Revelation 21:1-6<\/p>\n Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. <\/em>2<\/sup><\/em>And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. <\/em>3<\/sup><\/em>And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, \u201cSee, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; <\/em>4<\/sup><\/em>he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.\u201d <\/em>5<\/sup><\/em>And the one who was seated on the throne said, \u201cSee, I am making all things new.\u201d Also he said, \u201cWrite this, for these words are trustworthy and true.\u201d <\/em>6<\/sup><\/em>Then he said to me, \u201cIt is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.<\/em><\/p>\n John 13:31-35<\/p>\n When he had gone out, Jesus said, \u201cNow the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32<\/sup>If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33<\/sup>Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, \u2018Where I am going, you cannot come.\u2019 34<\/sup>I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35<\/sup>By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n Homily<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An important reminder for the Church and a point for proclamation in today’s second appointed reading draws attention one of the Easter scripture passages we heard 4 weeks ago. From St. John\u2019s gospel, chapter 20, we have the famous story of Mary Magdalene going to the garden where Jesus was buried, seeing that the tomb was empty, and then, Jesus shows up to greet her, but she didn\u2019t recognize him; she mistook him to be \u2013 who? Do you remember? She mistook him to be the gardener<\/u>! And, while crying, she said to him, \u201cSir, if you have taken [my Lord] away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wonder why Mary Magdalene didn\u2019t recognize that it was Jesus standing there talking to her?\u201d We may offer speculations! Here are a few… 1:<\/strong> Well, after all, she was<\/em> in a GARDEN! It makes sense that there would be a gardener there! A second possible explanation: She was crying; her eyes were full of tears, so she couldn\u2019t see clearly. Ok, that may be; but rarely, if ever, have I seen someone with eyes that full of tears. But this third explanation could be more likely: Mary was there expecting to see Jesus dead<\/u><\/em>. In her heart and mind, she was not prepared to see him alive; she could not recognize him.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here is why I think the third explanation more likely: Even now, these many generations and hundreds of years later, after centuries of the Church\u2019s proclamation of the resurrection, unfortunately, many Christians, and even many congregations, go about their lives and their daily, weekly affairs, their worship and their ministries, like Mary in the garden, not really realizing \u201che is alive!,\u201d not really expecting to see the Lord „show up,“ \u00a0and thus are unable <\/em>to see the Risen Lord Jesus and his works around them.<\/p>\n Indeed, it is not easy<\/em> to live our busy lives, to carry-on our daily routines, to engage in all our activities and affairs, remembering, believing, proceeding with our lives, thinking, \u201cHe lives! The Risen, death-conquering Lord, is here<\/em> among us! Huh-oh! Wonder what he\u2019s going to do next?\u201d But indeed, he is alive, and moving among us; and we, like Mary, sometimes do not recognize him \u2013 or, as he emphasizes in St. John\u2019s gospel, do not recognize his works<\/em>: we sometimes don\u2019t recognize what are his<\/u> <\/em>works \u2013 among us!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But the message of his presence is before us in some way every Sunday. For example, again, from the apostle John \u2013 who wrote of Mary Magdalene in the garden \u2013 we have today from our second reading from the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 3: \u201cBehold!, the home of God is among mortals<\/em>! He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of you have heard the story of the man in the town where the flood waters were moving into town and all the villagers were told to evacuate. The man decided to stay put in his house, not leaving, saying he would trust God to take care of him. When the flood waters came, a rescue boat came by and asked the man to get in. \u201cOh no!,\u201d said the man, \u201cI\u2019m staying here; God promised to take care of me.\u201d The flood waters rose and another boat came by, extending the same invitation, and again, the man refused to leave, saying, \u201cOh no! God promised to take care of me!\u201d The waters continued to rise and the man was sitting on his roof<\/em>!, and a helicopter came by. \u201cGet in, Mister, you\u2019re gonna drown!,\u201d and the man refused; \u201cOh no! God\u2019s gonna take care of me!\u201d So, the man drowned! And he went to heaven, and stood before the Lord, and he questioned<\/em> the Lord: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you, as the flood waters got so bad, take care of me?\u201d To which the Lord replied: \u201cI sent you two boats and a helicopter; what more did you want me to do!?!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have you ever been sick \u2026 and got well? Has your car ever been broken down \u2026 and somebody came to help you? Students: Have you ever dropped your all your books and papers, and somebody came along and helped you pick them up? Have you ever been sad, and crying, and a friendly hand touched you kindly on the shoulder, and offered a kind word to help? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a tragedy (or maybe, tragedy after tragedy!), and people came to your aid, encouraged and supported you, and maybe even offered you food and sustenance? \u201cBehold: God lives<\/em> among mortals; he makes his home among human beings; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have you ever heard about people living far-far away, in a distant land, who you likely will never meet, and dozens of them \u2013 maybe even hundreds \u2013 are sick, because they don\u2019t have clean water to drink; and then a group of strangers brings to them, and provides for them the continuation of, clean water, better health for them and their children? \u201cBehold! God lives among human beings\u2026God himself will be with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right now, there are churches in dire need of pastors, and there is the need for their education and training; seminary students need places to learn, experienced pastors to guide them, and material support while they learn and work. Thanks be to God for the congregations who say, \u201cYes, Lord, here I am, here we are; we\u2019ll do it; we\u2019ll invest; we\u2019ll provide the support. We\u2019re willing to have our hearts broken, growing to love a student working among us for a year or more, and then bid them ‚Farewell‘ as they move on to serve others after their period of education and training with us. \u00a0\u201cBehold: God lives among human beings,“ touching their hearts to give of themselves to each other and to others.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus, who was crucified, who died, was raised from the tomb; he now lives. He is alive among us, today and all our days, touching and changing hearts, and anything that is good, it is He<\/em> doing it among us. He shows up, sometimes unexpectedly, not clearly seen or known. And those who have come before us have claimed that he even shows up disguised as bread and wine. Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n From: Pastor Andrew F. Weisner Easter 5, 2022 | May 15, AD 2022 | Acts 11:1-18 | Pastor Andrew F. Weisner | Acts 11:1-18 Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, \u201cWhy did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40,890,18,62,2,845,157,108,110,891,284,274,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-7986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-apostelgeschichte","category-890","category-psalmen","category-offenbarung","category-at","category-andrew-f-weisner","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-11-chapter-11-apostelgeschichte","category-kapitel-13-chapter-13-johannes","category-kapitel-21-chapter-21-matthaeus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7987,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions\/7987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=7986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNorth American Lutheran Church
\nAntioch Lutheran Church, Dallas, North Carolina, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"