Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Acts 8: 1-8

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

The Word of the Lord.

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The Acts of the Apostles, which we’re reading from throughout the Easter Season, describes the life and liturgy of the early Church, answering questions like: 

“What did the first Christians do after the resurrection? How did they worship Christ? What were their lives like?”

Often, it wasn’t pleasant. 

As we just heard, “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria…Devout men buried Stephen [the first martyr] and made a loud lament over him.”

Life for these first Christians was hard and often dangerous.

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But we also see the responsiveness of the Holy Spirit.

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Because the first Christians were persecuted for their faith, they were forced to flee Jerusalem, leaving their comfort zones. As a result, the Gospel message spreads to new lands.

And soon enough, God will transform the hardened heart of Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul. After having his own experience of the resurrected Christ, Saul becomes the most traveled missionary of his era.

Towards the end of his life, Paul writes about his belief in a profound and mysterious truth: “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”

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While God allows evil to unfold in our world – take these first Christian persecutions as an example, which Saul also participated in – somehow God brought good out of it.

“All things work together for the good of those who love God,” because nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Image credits: (1) Fine Art America (2) The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Rembrandt (3) Bibles for America Blog

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1 Corinthians 15: 1-8

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.

The Word of the Lord.

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It’s a strange, but wonderful, truth that one of the first people whom Jesus appears to after his resurrection is Peter (as our first reading reminds us).

Peter fell asleep while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He denied knowing Jesus three times while the Lord was being led off to be crucified. He even abandoned Jesus while he hung upon the cross!

Anyone would’ve had reason to be mad with Peter; to hold a grudge; to give him the silent treatment. But Jesus does the opposite; he seeks Peter out immediately after his resurrection.

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Such is the nature of our Lord.

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God is never out to punish us.

He only wants to be reconciled, to draw us into deeper intimacy with him, even when that means washing away our sins.

Because, it seems, there’s nothing more attractive to Jesus than what Peter possessed: a penitential heart. 

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Image credits: (1) Sewickely Presbyterian Church (2) Gustave Brion, Jesus and Peter on the Water (3) Adoring God

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Gospel: John 6:22 – 29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Over the last 18-months, I’ve put my heart and soul into the first pillar of our three-fold mission, which is Building Community. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that! Now we have ministries in place to continue that momentum.

But as your shepherd, it is my responsibility to make sure that we not only experience a sense of community humanly speaking, but also that our minds and hearts are transformed, deepening our faith in God.

It’s the reason why we journeyed together on our first parish pilgrimage to the Holy Land last week.

Now we will begin making an intentional, strategic turn towards the second and third pillars of our mission: Worshiping God and Making Disciples.

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A disciple is someone who knows Jesus, who loves Jesus, and who places God at the very center of his or her life.

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This is the same invitation that the Lord is extending to the crowds in today’s Gospel. They need to be concerned about more than having their stomachs filled.

“Amen, amen, I say to you,” he says, “this is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

Belief demands effort. 

But it always comes easier when tried in a community, which is why we’re so blessed to have this parish.

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Together, we will accomplish what Jesus calls, “the work of God.” Day by day, through still and stormy waters, we’ll come to, “believe in the one who was sent.”

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Image credits: (1) Created to Worship the Lord, Tell the Lord Thank You (2) Adam Willaerts, Christ Preaching from a Ship (3) Christianity Matters