Go and Do Likewise
If you worship in a community which uses the Revised Common Lectionary, perhaps you've noticed something unusual about the first reading during the season of Easter. Whatever happened to the Old Testament? It’s been replaced by Acts ever since the Sunday after Easter, so that we can live more fully into the life of the early Christian community immediately following the Resurrection. We will continue to explore that book through Pentecost on June 12, before we go back to the Hebrew Bible for our first reading – all the way back to Genesis I, in fact, on Trinity Sunday (June 19). This arrangement of the lectionary not only allows us to have the great Pentecost reading for the first lesson on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) but also invites us into the spirit of the lives of the earliest Christians through one of my favorite passages in the Bible. We heard this on the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Acts 2:42-47): They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, ...