The Adventurous Lectionary \u2013 The Third Sunday of Easter \u2013 May 4,2025
\nActs 9:1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19<\/p>\n
Some Sundays give the preacher too many possibilities, and The Third Sunday of Easter is no exception. The Third Sunday of Easter is a mother lode of riches for the adventurous preacher, chock full of homiletical possibilities. The readings all have a mystical air, but they express the life-changing mystic vision in a variety of ways. We can encounter the Living God through revelation and transformation, angelic praise, and ethics and spirituality. Mystical experiences can be dramatic or gradual; they can come with or without preparation. We are all mystics, if we open to the Holy, and claim our unique avenue to the Divine. (For more on mysticism, see Epperly, \u201cThe Mystic in You: Finding a God-filled World.\u201d \u201cMystics in Action: Twelve Saints for Today,\u201d \u201cHomegrown Mystics: Healing the Soul of the Nation through the Wisdom of America\u2019s Mystics,\u201d\u201dProcess Theology and Mysticism,\u201d \u201cJesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet.\u201d and \u201cBecome Fire: Guideposts for Interspiritual Pilgrims.\u201d)<\/p>\n
If you are able, read the totality of the lectionary recommendation for Acts of the Apostles, all twenty verses, as a testimony to personal transformation and relational mysticism. Yes, Paul\u2019s encounter with the bright light of Christ is important and changed the course of history, giving birth to a global faith. But Paul\u2019s encounter is transformational as well as mystical. It is relational as well as individual.<\/p>\n
Paul encounters the Risen Jesus and becomes a new creation. He gets his spiritual-ethical-theological marching orders even though after the experience, he can\u2019t yet see one step ahead of him. The one who sought to persecute the Christian movement now becomes the most ardent proclaimer to God\u2019s people of all races and ethnicities. He receives both a revelation and a vocation, evangelist to the Gentiles. Mystical experiences, in the Christian tradition, are seldom about the individual self\u2019s isolated spiritual journey, but invite us from personal growth to global transformation. Authentic Christian spirituality is about us and not me, about world-loyalty and the production of beauty and justice (Whitehead) and not personal gain. Like Isaiah in the Temple, mysticism awakens us to the question, \u201cWhom will I send?\u201d And, the mystic responds, \u201cSend me.\u201d This was true of the apostle Paul and is true of us.<\/p>\n
In the spirit of William Blake, Saul\u2019s\/Paul\u2019s \u201cdoors of perception\u201d cleansed and open wide and his spirit becomes Christ-like in stature. Paul\u2019s experience is also post-modern in spirit and may address the journeys of today\u2019s millennial and baby boomer seekers. Paul\u2019s faith is initially and ultimately experiential and not doctrinal. It\u2019s about encountering the Living Christ, not a set of doctrines. It is grace in action, not a doctrine of providence or predestination. Despite the attempt to make Paul the pillar of orthodox theology, his theology is always based on his experience of the Living Jesus and the faith of the Gentiles. Making Paul the bastion of orthodoxy does an injustice to Paul\u2019s mystical experience and to our own, and freezes experience into a dead doctrine. If the Spirit descends, then you are a follower of Jesus, first class, even if you are an outsider or have no words to describe your experience.\u00a0 The Spirit is never confined by creed, doctrine, or institution, but blows where it well in its immediacy, universality, and intimacy.<\/p>\n
Like the experience of the magi, described in Matthew\u2019s gospel, mystical experiences can be communal. Non-local in nature, they can join minds and spirits. There is another transformational encounter in this passage, that of Ananias, who also has a vision that is also is mystical and vocational in character. Synchronously, Ananias also experiences God and is called to welcome Paul and help him make the transition from darkness to light, physically and spiritually, despite Paul\u2019s previous history as a persecutor of the faith. God can inspire many people at the same time. Is it possible that a congregation might hear the inspiration of God, addressed to several members each in her or his mode of experience and understanding. God is generous with inspiration, shining God\u2019s light on all humankind. (For more on Acts of the Apostles, see Epperly, \u201cTransforming Acts: Acts of the Apostles in the 21st Century\u201d)<\/p>\n
The author of Revelation is also transformed by a mystical encounter with the divine. He is ushered into God\u2019s presence, experiencing, first, angelic praises and, then, hearing the cries of creation. In the spirit of Psalm 150:6, all creation praises God. Every creature is transparent to the divine. No one is left out in God\u2019s quest for universal healing. The adventurous preacher might address the issue of angels. While pastors may not recognize it, their congregants find mystical experiences, near death experiences, healing encounters, and angels of more than passing interest. While doctrine is an essential aspect of faith, experience gives birth to Christian experience.<\/p>\n
Pastors need to address their congregants A well-attended study on the afterlife and near death experiences at my congregation on Cape Cod eventuated in the publication of a short book on death, grief, near death experiences, and the afterlife. (Epperly, \u201cFrom Here to Eternity: Preparing for the Next Adventure\u201d). Another study at my church led to a text on angels and the spirit world. (Epperly, \u201cAngels, Mysteries, and Miracles: A Progressive Vision.\u201d) Pastors should never underestimate the power of adult faith formation to transform a congregation. Even progressive congregations harbor congregants who have traveled \u201cinto the mystic,\u201d as singer-songwriter Van Morrison avers.<\/p>\n
Who would have thought that Jesus was a gourmet brunch chef? The Gospel passage, the Risen Christ appears to the disciples, makes them breakfast, and then dialogues with Peter on the nature of discipleship. A meal together with Jesus leads to feeding others. Loving Jesus leads to feeding God\u2019s sheep, and here we are talking about both physical and spiritual hungers. Those who encounter Christ are called to reach out to the world sharing good news for body, mind, and spirit. Followers of Jesus are intended to be both heavenly minded and earthly good.\u00a0 And the fulfillment of spiritual experience is found in the love of Jesus and God\u2019s children, whether citizen or non-citizen, Christian or non-Christian.<\/p>\n
Christ is alive, not to be held onto, as Jesus says to his dear friend Mary of Magdala, but to be experienced everywhere. There is no limited election in these passages, no righteous saved or reprobate lost, as strict Calvinists assert, but a universal call to healing and wholeness, embracing all of humanity but going beyond that to address all creation. Let us cultivate the earthly-minded mystic in ourselves and among our congregants.<\/p>\n
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https:\/\/www.westmorelanducc.org\/<\/a>) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: \u201cHomegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America\u2019s Mystics\u201d (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America\u2019s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books<\/a>) \u201cJesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet \u201c(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books<\/a>), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet\u201d( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books<\/a>), and his most recent book, \u201cGod of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.\u201d (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books<\/a> The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Adventurous Lectionary \u2013 The Third Sunday of Easter \u2013 May 4,2025 Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 An\u00a0 Abundance of Possiblities Some Sundays give the preacher too many possibilities, and The Third Sunday of Easter is no exception. The Third Sunday of Easter is a mother lode of riches for the adventurous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1747,1753,314,1750],"class_list":["post-6748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-damascus-road","tag-easter-accounts","tag-mysticism","tag-pauline"],"yoast_head":"\n