Prayers of the People: Fired Up & Divided ~ 3rd Sunday of Easter WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, May 4, 2025; Readings: Acts 8:1-12, Psalm 74:1-12, Ephesians 6:10-18, Luke 12:49-53

   

   Now Saul approved of [the mob of men] killing Stephen…Saul was razing the church from house to house, going in and dragging off women and men; he handed them over to prison…So Philip went down to the city of Samaria proclaiming the Messiah to them…and when they believed Philip proclaiming the good news about the reign of God and the name of Jesus, they were baptized, both women and men. [Acts 8:1,3,5,12]

   Lift up your steps to the perpetual ruins; every kind of evil has the enemy done in the sanctuary. Your foes have roard within your meeting-place…It was perceived like when they go up upon a tangle of trees with axes…with hatchets and hammers…They said within their hearts, “We will crush them…” How long God is the enemy to taunt…Yet my God my Sovereign is from before time, working salvation in the midst of the earth. [Psalm 74:3-4,5, 6b,8,10a,12]]

   …be strengthened in the Messiah and in the power of Christ’s strength. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the scheming of the devil. For our struggle is…against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…In everything, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, at all times, pray in the Spirit which is the word of God. [Ephesians 6:10-12, 16-17]

   “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and I would that it were already blazing…Do you all think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, (it is) the contrary, division!  [Luke 8:4-9]

   If you have read or watched or gleaned snippets of the news in whichever day you are reading this in the Year of our Lord 2025, you may wonder if these readings were chosen for this particular Sunday! Dr. Gafney’s A Women’s Commentary for the Whole Church, Yr C was published in 2024, well before our US national election. If you’ve ever written a letter, an email, a text, let alone a book about a complex subject, you understand that this book was definitely not written on Friday and published on Monday! In any event, I’ve been doing this work for a fairly good while, every week for nearly 12 years, and I know these readings individually from other contexts, yet without a doubt, for me as a set of lessons, this is the most difficult I’ve encountered, particularly in this Easter season of rejoicing! Yet here we are. 

   But why these, for this moment? Dr. Gafney says in her explanation, that as we celebrate the triumphs of life over death in this Easter season, and these readings may seem to be out of place, the reality is, in the immediate aftermath of the Resurrection in that time and today, as we are still shouting Hallelujah and “He is Risen, indeed,” the world remained and remains crucified and crucifying even as it is redeemed and being redeemed.

    I was particularly chilled reading the line in Acts 8:3 where Saul, owing to his religious authority, along with his helpers, were razing the church from house to house…dragging off women and men; he handed them over to prison. Thank goodness for Philip… and at least now we know that Saul became Paul. Yet we also know of the brutality of persecution that never ends in this world, for multiple groups for multiple reasons.

   The excerpt from Psalm 74 isn’t especially comforting either at least until verse 12. It’s one of what theologian Walter Bruggemann calls the psalms of disorientation in his book, Spirituality of the Psalms. They are psalms 13, 35, 74, 86, 95, and 137. Through these we hear the honest reactions of the people faithful to God when they knew the world was in pieces. This and the others are laments reflecting the anger and fear and pain upward to God in the circumstances of a hay-wire and dangerous world. There are also psalms of orientation and new or reorientation…of the what-goes-around-comes-around human experience, in which I can find some respite and renewal of hope.

   This piece from Ephesians also points out some frightening aspects of fending off the forces of evil but with, at the very least, the heartening spiritual remedies of the power of Christ’s strength and the whole armor of God as we prepare to proclaim the Gospel of peace. While the helmet of salvation and at all times praying in the Spirit, may not stanch the fear or even the anger, these can give us something to grasp with our hearts and breathe through.

   And then, this piece from the Gospel of Luke... Whew... This breath-taking declaration by Jesus occurs while he is slowly journeying to Jerusalem, before so many of his most famous parables, and before he meets Zaccheus in Jericho later in Chapter 19.  It is later still in Chapter 19 when Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

   This fire and division message is somewhat frightening against what we know of the usual message of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, for one example, his healings, and his parables. This is the Jesus turning tables in the outer court of the synagogue. A wake-up call in case we fall into a dozy comfort zone with a cuddly Savior. The realities of life are, of course, that the world is constantly in division in uncountable ways ~ national, local, international, familial, religious, political, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual... Perhaps this message is “Yeah, we’re on fire with division” so what are you going to do about it? Interpreting this and every word in the Bible itself brings division within oneself and with others.

   Erik J. Thompson, a Lutheran pastor from North Dakota writes that One possibility may be to see that God is at work in all realities, and that division is not the problem. Perhaps God is working on both sides of various issues. Further, he says, Perhaps this is Jesus’ point: that human togetherness is not what the gospel is about. Rather, the gospel preached into the life of an individual will do its work, and we are left to trust that it is God at work, and resist our attempts to control the outcome. Ok fellow humans, are you with me in resisting attempts to control outcomes? Yeah, no, me either.  BUT, let us keep that helmet of salvation in place and with every prayer and supplication…pray in the Spirit ~ one breath at a time.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
 
Leader:  ~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, fill us with the fire of faith, and keep the truth of your Word in our hearts, minds, and bodies.  Grant us the resilience in difficult times of division and strife, to keep moving forward with the strength of your presence, always within us.
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                RESPONSE:            Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength
 
~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, may those who command and control earthly governments while blinded by the pursuit of unhampered power and personal glory, suddenly discover an inner vision of justice, peace, and especially mercy for all Your people and our Earthly home. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                                                       Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength
 
~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, grant hope and healing for all in physical or emotional pain, and lift the energy of all who give them care. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need…add your own petitions
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                                                       Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength
 
~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, release the grief of those who weep in the night to let the morning reveal the joy of our beloved, who now live again in the glory of Your eternal kingdom. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                                                       Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength
 
~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently…add your own petitions
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                                                       Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength
             
~ Risen Christ, Lord of our Souls, nourish the spirits of all who are chosen to guide us on our journey to You. As they feed our souls through Your Word and Sacraments, so may they be fed in kind. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
 
                                                       O  Jesus, Messiah
                                                       Our Fire, our Truth, and our Strength        

The Celebrant adds: Christ Jesus, the Salvation of us All, fill us with the courage to share your wisdom and Word with all we meet, even in discord, with a constant prayer for peace on our lips and in our hearts. Guide our words, our actions, inactions, and our hope to remain centered in You. We ask through the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Almighty, who together with You reign as One God, now and forever.  Amen.

*Readings for our Parish in this Year C are from The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney, Womanist biblical scholar, and the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Yr C, and others in her series, and translator of its biblical selections. I definitely commend her book for the complete readings, to Clergy and Laity, for her Text Notes, and “Preaching Prompts” whether or not you will use them in your Liturgies/Services/Preaching. There is much to learn from her work to inform every facet of our lives in Christ.  To learn more about her and her work, see her website: https://www.wilgafney.com/

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