The Revised Common Lectionary for the Principal Service on Easter offers a choice of two of the following readings.
Acts 10:34-43
Reading
34 Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; 38 how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading is a synopsis of the entire Gospel According to Luke and was delivered by Peter when he was asked to baptize the Roman centurion, Cornelius. In the verses that follow today’s reading, Peter noted that Cornelius had received the Holy Spirit. He therefore baptized him, even though he was a Gentile.
At the Council of Jerusalem, the Baptism of Cornelius was referred to by Peter as a reason for permitting Gentiles to become Jesus Followers (15:7-8).
Jeremiah 31:1-6
Reading
1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again, you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.”
Commentary
After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e. speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.
Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Ancient Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.
Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)
Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, but today’s reading is in poetry style and is part of a two-chapter “Book of Consolation.” The thoughts in these chapters are similar to Second Isaiah (Isaiah of the Exile) in stating that Jerusalem would be restored.
In today’s reading, the prophet speaks for YHWH to say that all the families of Israel (the 12 Tribes) will be restored, just as the Israelites were restored in the Exodus. They will again take their tambourines (v.4), just as Miriam (Moses’ sister) and the women used tambourines to celebrate passing through the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 15:20).
Colossians 3:1-4
Reading
1 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Commentary
Colossae was a town in what is now western Turkey. A Jesus Follower community was founded there by Paul’s associate, Epaphras (1:7). The letter is short (four chapters) and expressed concern about apocalyptic and mystical practices that were inconsistent with Paul’s disciples’ understanding of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.
Scholars debate whether this letter was written by Paul or by his disciples in the decades after Paul’s death in 63 CE. It lacks many terms used in Paul’s authentic letters and its style is more liturgical than Paul’s other letters.
In today’s reading, the author gave a series of ethical exhortations to the Colossians. Immediately following today’s reading is an expression one of Paul’s most important theological insights – that the Christ (the Messiah) is the ultimate unifying principle and force for all reality. “The Christ is all and is in all” (v.11) so that there is no longer a dichotomy between the “sacred” and the “profane” just as there is no essential difference between a Gentile (a “Greek”) and Jew, slave and free and the like (v.11).