Second Sunday of Easter – A

Second Sunday of Easter – A

Years A
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
I Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Joy is not in what is currently going on, but in participation with a vision of a Peaceable Preferred Future always before us. [Look at "Peaceable Kingdom", an early American painting by Edward Hicks, and wonder about what changes are needed to update it.]

This is a loose translation of a phrase from Acts 2:25, "I saw the Lord always before me." It was from this that David affirmed, "therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh shall live in hope."

The word "Lord" is fraught with overtones. It does not mean one thing to all people. So it is important to figure out what one means by the old language of "Lord" when using it and begin to use the meaning (even if it is a more awkward phrase that does not run trippingly off the tongue, thus rejoicing it on one level) rather than the shorthand.

Here it would seem we are speaking of a particular vision. Peter casts it in terms of escaping Hades, but we might well speak of it in a positive way by referring to some aspect of what might loosely be called "Paradise" or a preferred future come on earth.

What vision would you hold before yourself to stimulate joy?

= = = = = = =

in your presence is joy
summarizing
every love song and hymn
uniting
secular and sacred music
challenging
every separation we construct
reducing
our specifics to generalities
expanding
lovers into love
concretizing
love into lovers
binding
joy to presence