Third Sunday after Easter

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THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

Readings:
Lesson: Acts 10:34-48
Psalm: 33:1-12
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-17
Gospel: John 16:16-22

ADORATION
Almighty God, I understand from Your Word, as Peter did, that You do not show partiality. Instead, from every nation, race, and culture, You accept and welcome with open arms all who do right, and all who seek You with a sincere and honest heart. I praise You because You exclude no one. I worship You because You use our own limitations and divisions, transcending them to work Your sole purpose of goodness for everyone. You have opened wide the gates of everlasting life for any and all who wish to enter, and I believe You will leave them wide open until we all choose to come in.

CONFESSION
Father, Peter recognized that favoritism has no place in You. I confess to You that I am guilty of perpetuating systems of partiality that favor one group of people above others. Some of these systems I know; others I admit I live in comfortable ignorance and even willful blindness of. And so today I declare my intention for division not to have any place in my life, for You are not divided, but are perfect community within Yourself. I affirm my desire to be at peace with myself and my neighbor, even as I know in my heart the good news of peace and reconciliation, which You have sent us in Jesus Christ, Your Son. 

THANKSGIVING
Lord, I thank You because by Your Word were the heavens made, and by the Breath of Your mouth all the heavenly hosts. I bless You because You spoke, and creation came to pass; because Your will stands fast forever, and the designs of Your heart from age to age. I celebrate the diversity with which you continue to create, and which You continue to make known in Your love, for the sake of love. You have made all things for Yourself as an act of pure love. I am renewed in Your loving-kindness, which fills the whole earth. I rejoice that You have chosen all peoples to be Your own forever.

SUPPLICATION
Lord Jesus Christ, we live in the time when we do not see You anymore, as You forewarned Your disciples. In those moments when we ache for Your presence, send us Your Holy Spirit to transform our sorrow into joy, our grief into gladness, and our wailing into dancing. Put off our sack-cloth of labor-pains, and clothe us with the joy of Your new song in our hearts. Holy Spirit, descend into our hearts, as You did into the hearts of the Gentiles before Peter, that we may be immersed in Your grace, and baptized into fellowship with You and with one another, so that when we see Jesus again, we may share the saints’ song of praise together forever.

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