May 17 – Sixth Sunday of Easter

 

Worship materials for May 17 to 31 were contributed by Paul Peters Derry, Acting Coordinator of Spiritual Care, Fred Douglas Lodge, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

Lectionary

Lectionary readings from Vanderbilt Divinity Library online

(http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary/BEaster/bEaster6.htm)

 

Acts 10:44–48

The gift of the Holy Spirit comes as Peter preaches.

Psalm 98 (VU pg. 818)

Sing to God a new song.

1 John 5:1–6

To love God is to obey God’s commandments.

John 15:9–17

Love one another as I have loved you.

 

Spark

Challenge people in your congregation to come up with a new song to sing to God based on a familiar tune such as “Frère Jacques,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” or “Jesus Loves Me.” Then sing them as a group!

 

With Children

Invite children (and adults) to share stories about someone who has shown love to them in such a way that they felt God’s love, too. Have a story of your own to help them begin.

 

Sermon Starter

The story from Acts presents the most intriguing challenges—in spite of the limitations set by the short pericope appointed by the lectionary! These five verses don’t tell much of a story. Instead, the verses are part of a multi-scene drama involving Peter and Cornelius, a Gentile Roman army officer. The central question with Luke’s telling of this story, as William Willimon explains in his commentary on Acts (Interpretation series, John Knox Press, 1988), is “How did the church arrive at a turning point where insiders were willing to include outsiders?” What this story leads us to is a definition of faith as “Our often breathless attempt to keep up with the redemptive activity of God, to keep asking ourselves, ‘What is God doing, where on earth is God going now?’”²

 

Hymns

Acts

VU 313            “God, whose almighty word”

 

Psalm

VU 59              “Joy to the world”

VU 222            “Come, let us sing”

VU pg. 820      “Make a joyful noise”

VU pg. 822      “All people that on earth do dwell”

 

Epistle

VU 120            “O Jesus, I have promised”

VU 565            “Love, who made me in your likeness”

 

Gospel

VU 333            “Love divine, all loves excelling”

VU 574            “Come, let us sing of a wonderful love”

VU 591            “Jesus, united by your grace”

VU 602            “Blest be the tie that binds”

VU 603            “In loving partnership we come”

VU 606            “In Christ there is no east or west”

VU 628            “Come, my way, my truth”