THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER B

[cappie]

 The season of Easter was always used in the early church as the time to instruct newly baptized people in the sacraments which they were now able to receive. This practice is still carried on frequently in the contemporary church. It is helpful, because all of us need to be reminded of the meaning of our sacramental relationship with God in the Eucharist.

in all three readings, the Scriptures are interpreted to serve and advance the Church’s mission—to reveal the truth about Jesus, to bring people to repentance, the wiping away of sins, and the perfection of their love for God.

This is how we, too, should hear the Scriptures. Not to know more “about” Jesus, but to truly know Him personally, and to know His plan for our lives.

In the Scriptures, the light of His face shines upon us, as we say in today’s Psalm. We know the wonders He has done throughout history. And we have the confidence to call to Him, and to know that He hears and answers.

In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus tells his disciples after his resurrection, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” There is good news in the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness. If sin is communal and derives from letting a mob mentality hijack our morality, redemption happens when we live out of our identity as God’s kin. When we rest in the knowledge that God loves us, our perception of the world can begin to change. And it is not just our perception of the world that changes, but our relationships within it start to shift as well. Instead of seeing the Other that needs to be punished or brought into line, we see as God sees. We seek as God seeks, looking for ways to show love and mercy, not death and destruction.

The proclamation of the gospel across the world is not that others need to become like us. The good news is not that everyone is already the same. There are real differences that divide and separate us. The good news is that the brokenness around us does not have the final say. The good news is that, as we bask in God’s love, we can identify when and where we are letting the mob rule in our thoughts, hearts, and actions. There is another way.

Through God’s love, we learn together how to be God’s family. As the church, as individuals, and as groups, we’ve made mistakes.  We’ve let differences become an excuse for structural, symbolic, and material violence. But those mistakes do not have the final word on who we are. God’s love has the first and last say on our identity, and that identity is love. This divine way of being is not about romantic, or abstract love, but a love that leads to a real change within us.

The readings for today, and the Scriptures, attest that God came in love to give life. When we find ourselves longing for better days, when we find ourselves in the bleak despair that the world is marred beyond all repair, there is yet hope. There are real, material harms perpetrated in the world. We name that as sin. And we proclaim that sin is not the end of the story. We proclaim who we are: a people whose identity is grounded in a divine love that pulls us out of our darkest days and from our darkest impulses. As 1 John says, “We should be called children of God. And that is what we are.”