Preparing for Worship - May 14, 2023

We will begin with our Gospel lesson for this week, John 14:15-21, as a theme for this week’s readings could be Jesus’ promise, “I will not leave you as orphans.” We are never totally alone, though it may seem like it, at times. Jesus is with us, though the world cannot see or recognize Him. Because He lives, we also will live, and He has given us “another helper,” the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever, too. We then show our love for our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by seeking to follow His will, by listening to the Spirit of truth, through His Word of truth, the Bible.

Peter reminds us, in our Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 3:13-22, that Christ Jesus “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.” We receive personally the blessing of Christ’s forgiveness for us through “baptism, which now saves us.” We also have a great “hope that is in us,” not from ourselves, but from our “holy Christ the Lord.” Even if we have sufferings for seeking to do good and God’s will, “we will be blessed,” by our Lord.

In our first lesson, Acts 17:16-31, from the history of the early Christian church, we see Paul facing much opposition and skepticism in the famous city of Athens, in Greece. He has just been chased out of another city, Berea (Acts 17:13-15), but he trusts that the Lord is still with him. The city of Athens is  “very religious” but “full of idols” and false ideas. People always want to hear something new and even have an altar “to the unknown god.” Paul proclaims to them the one true God, “the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth.” God cares about all people, even in their “ignorance” and confusion. Paul then calls them to repent and trust in His “appointed” Savior, Jesus, who died for them and has been raised from the dead. Some “mocked Paul” and some were willing to listen more, and the Lord brought some to believe in Christ.

The psalm is Psalm 66:8-20. The psalmist expresses his praise of God, even though God has allowed him and others to go through times of severe trial and testing, through fire and water and crushing burdens. God ultimately protected them and their souls and brought them out to a place of abundance. The psalmist has offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to God in return, in typical Old Testament terms. He has not “cherished iniquity in his heart.” Though he was imperfect, he has trusted that God would “not remove His steadfast love from him” or abandon him, but would answer his prayers in the best way.