Easter 6 in the BCP 2019 carries the specific title “Rogation Sunday.” The term “Rogation” generally refers to a solemn Sunday. In the context of our liturgical celebration, it is connected with devotions associated with our Lord’s final days on earth (before his ascension). Because of its proximity to Pentecost, originally a harvest festival, Rogation…
Today in the Spirit: Easter 5C
At Easter 5, the church begins to highlight some of the teachings of Jesus in the upper room discourse in John. The assigned Gospel reading out of John 13:31-35 in Year C begins that discourse after Judas departs the scene. Directing his attention to the eleven, our Lord says, “Now is the Son of Man…
Today in the Spirit: Easter 4C (Good Shepherd)
Though the Fourth Sunday of Easter contains the same readings in most contemporary three-year lectionaries, only in the BCP 2019 do we find the title “Good Shepherd” for the week. The Gospel readings across the three-year schedule cover all of John 10 where we find the explicit references to Jesus as the “good shepherd”. In…
Today in the Spirit: Easter 3C
In the lessons for Easter 3C, the church leads us in worship to the third resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples, as recorded in the Gospel of John. In the assigned text, in John 21:1-14, our Lord reveals himself to a group of seven disciples while they are fishing on “the Sea of Tiberias”…
Today in the Spirit: Easter 2C
The church utilizes the two Sundays following Easter Day to center its worship around the resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in Luke and John. (The one account of an appearance to his disciples in Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission, is appointed on Trinity Sunday A, and the one in Mark 16:9-20 is an alternative Gospel…
Today in the Spirit: Easter Sunday C
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” At no time is the thrill of making this acclamation greater than on Easter Day. Enter then, all of you, into the joy of your Master. First and last, receive alike your reward. Rich and poor, dance together. You who have fasted and you who…
Today in the Spirit: Palm Sunday C
In Lent Year C, we come now to Holy Week and the crisis ending in our Lord’s death in Jerusalem. As always on Palm Sunday, the combination of the triumphal entry and the passion narratives will send us as worshipers reeling in the Spirit between the joy of crying “Hosanna” at one moment and the…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 5C (Passion Sunday)
Passion Sunday at Lent 5 marks the beginning of the traditional Passiontide period, which extends through the Saturday before Palm Sunday. This deep in Lent, we walk with Jesus in our worship into the last week of his life, either just before or after his triumphal entry. In Year C, the assigned Gospel reading is…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 4C (Laetare Sunday)
Generally, at Lent 4 every year, we can discern a transition in the Church’s selected readings from the straightforward message of the horrific consequences of failing to repent from sin (recall the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” from last week’s Gospel reading) to the promises of blessing for those who do. This is evident nowhere more than in…
Today in the Spirit: Lent 3C
The experience of worship in the third week of Lent is part and parcel of the experience of the whole season of Lent. Once again, we hear stories, prophecies, or songs of Israelites receiving God’s commands in the wilderness of Sinai or Palestinians listening to the words of the Son of God incarnate in Palestine,…
