Monday, April 22nd
- Acts 8: 26-40Remarkably, the Holy Spirit commanded Philip to go to him, to this particular Other, to engage in the good news of Jesus…
In a way, this story is less a story about how Philip converted the Ethiopian eunuch and more about how the eunuch converted Philip. It is a glimpse of how certain power structures go sideways, crumble and fall when we encounter and listen to those who stand at the intersection of marginalized realities. The liberative moment was mutual…They both experienced a transformation, participating in a shift initiated by the Holy Spirit.Mihee Kim-Kort
Tuesday, April 23rd:
- Psalm 22:25-31Psalm 22 is perhaps the most famous of the psalms of lament. A longer portion of this psalm, including the portion for today, was proclaimed on Good Friday. We also find that the passage that the Ethiopian is studying…is part of the Good Friday first reading, from Isaiah 53. Thus, on this Fifth Sunday of Easter we hear the echo of Good Friday readings recapitulated in a more hopeful key…Philip proclaims “the good news about Jesus” in light of the text of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah.
Rhodora E. Beaton
Wednesday, April 24th:
- 1 John 4: 7-21No one has ever seen God, and proof of a loving God cannot be directly validated. However, human love can be observed, and when it occurs, it implies an origin. One loves the unseen God, whose love is manifested in acts of love for others (which can be seen). The presence of God’s love is proved through the presence of love within God’s community.
Steven J. Kraftchick
Thursday, April 25th:
- John 15: 1-8Metaphors of vines in Israel’s Scriptures convey God’s love and deep care for Israel to ensure fruitfulness, connectivity, unity, but also pruning and judgment…Understanding of the images of Jesus as the true vine and disciples as branches, together with the repetition of “remain” or “abide” is intuitive and mystical. A vine, for example, is not separate but rather indistinguishable from its branches, and as the branches in turn may be cut off, their whole identity is nevertheless in the vine. Branches are never independent but always rooted and growing in Jesus.
Deirdre Good
Friday, April 26th:
In our African weltanschauung, our worldview, we have something called ubuntu. In Xhosa, we say, “Umntu ngumtu ngabantu.” This expression is very difficult to render in English, but we could translate it by saying, “A person is a person through other persons.” We need other human beings for us to learn how to be human, for none of us comes fully formed into the world. We would not know how to talk, to walk, to think, to eat as human beings unless we learned how to do these things from other human beings. For us, a solitary human being is a contradiction in terms.
Ubuntu is the essence of being human. It speaks of how my humanity is caught up and bound up inextricably with yours.
Desmond Tutu
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