Reflection on the Word in our Worship
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
-1 John 1:5 (ESV)
‘If God made man in his own image,’ it is said, ‘then man has returned the compliment.’ That is the root of most of our problems. All sin is in essence an attack upon the character of God. We are not willing to believe that the living God really is as the Scriptures reveal him to us. We have a vested interest in resisting the claims of the ‘transcendental interferer’, as C. S. Lewis once called God. So we reject God’s revelation and construct a substitute more in accordance with our likes and needs. This is the heart of human rebellion; we will not let God be God in our own lives. We would rather have our idols.
-David Jackman, The Message of John's Letters
The Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter
Almighty God, you gave your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly living: Give us grace thankfully to receive his inestimable benefits, and daily to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Word:
(Click on the links below to read Sunday's passages)
Old Testament Lesson: Micah 4:1-5
Psalm 98 (after the playlist below)
New Testament Lesson: 1 John 1:1–2:2
Gospel Lesson: Luke 24:36-49
A downloadable Home Liturgy with Spiritual Communion follows the Psalm
(click below to listen to Incarnation's Playlist)
Psalm 98
1 O sing unto the Lord a new song, *
for he has done marvelous things.
2 With his own right hand and with his holy arm, *
he has won for himself the victory.
3 The Lord declared his salvation; *
his righteousness has he openly shown in the sight of the nations.
4 He has remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel, *
and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God.
5 Show yourselves joyful in the Lord, all you lands; *
sing, rejoice, and give thanks.
6 Praise the Lord with the harp; *
sing with the harp a psalm of thanksgiving.
7 With trumpets also and horns, *
O show yourselves joyful before the Lord, the King.
8 Let the sea make a noise, and all that is in it, *
the round world, and those who dwell therein.
9 Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, *
for he has come to judge the earth.
10 With righteousness shall he judge the world, *
and the peoples with equity.
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