May 10
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary
Lectionary readings from Vanderbilt Divinity Library online
(http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary/BEaster/bEaster5.htm)
Acts 8:2640
Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
Psalm 22:2531 (VU
pg. 746 parts 3 and 4)
Praise God who has heard our call.
1 John 4:721
Everyone who loves is born of God.
John 15:18
Jesus is the true vine.
Spark
Church buildings seem to accumulate all sorts of stuff in corners and cupboards, left just in case we need it, or just because no one knew what to do with it. Have a garage sale and clean out those cupboards and corners with the money going to the M&S Fund.
With Children
Bring an example of a house plant that has not been well cared
for, one that is straggly and not likely to flower. Compare it to a plant you
pick up fresh from the nursery, one that is full of blooms. Link the image of
the contrasting plants with
John 15:18; Jesus is the vinegrower!
Sermon Starter
A few years ago, I helped my mother move from her three-bedroom house into a seniors apartment. While shes never been a packrat, shed accumulated lots of stuff in the 18 years shed lived in that house and couldnt keep it all. So, deciding what she would and would not keep was hard but necessary work.
Difficult as the process of pruning can be, sometimes it is essential. Indeed, todays reading from Johns gospel reminds us that even God is in the pruning business and that God cuts away whats lifeless in us to allow new life to bloom. God wills that you bear much fruit and become my disciples, Jesus says. But for that to happen, God removes every branch that bears no fruit and every branch that bears fruit [God] prunes to make it bear more fruit.
These words proclaim that God loves us to such an extent that God isnt content to leave us as we are. Instead, God wants us to grow and develop into the persons God wants us to be. How? As the writer of 1 John later explains, we do this by focusing on loving God and our neighbours, and on allowing God to prune whats dead and unnecessary in our lives so that new life can emerge.
Hymns
Acts
VU 509 I, the Lord of sea and sky
VU 644 I was there to hear your borning cry
Psalm
VU 400 Lord, listen to your children praying
Epistle
VU 594 O Christian, love
VU 599 Living Christ, bring us love
MV 79 Spirit, open my heart
MV 89 Love is the touch
Gospel
VU 205 Like the murmur of the doves song (invocation or introit)
VU 588 Many are the lightbeams
VU 632 O blessed spring (possible anthem)