The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John has structured his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.

INTRODUCTION  TO THE SCRIPTURE 	
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year B


ACTS 4:32-35                           Readings from The Acts of The 
Apostles take the place of Old Testament passages during the seven week 
Easter Season.  Written perhaps as long as fifty years after the 
resurrection, Acts contains the church's recollection of events rather 
than contemporary, eye-witness reports.  In this brief passage we catch a 
glimpse of the life of the early Christian community.  Motivated by the 
Holy Spirit, they generously shared what property they possessed.  One of 
the most important early converts and benefactors was Joseph Barnabas.  He 
was a Levite, a member of the official priesthood who served at regular 
intervals in the temple rituals.  


PSALM 133                              This brief psalm was sung by 
worshippers approaching the temple to celebrate the blessings of belonging 
to the Jewish community.  For Christians, its significance lies in the 
closing words: the blessing of faith is eternal life.
 

1 JOHN 1:1 - 2:2                       The three letters of John were 
written early in the second century to counter a serious heresy which 
denied that Jesus, the divine Son of God, had actually been crucified and 
raised from the grave.  The witness of the apostles, John claims, is that 
these things actually happened.  The forgiveness of sin and our life in 
fellowship with God entirely depend on this faith.


JOHN 20:19-31                          The story of Thomas, the disciple 
who at first doubted the resurrection, was told to encourage those who had 
not witnessed that all-important event, yet still believed.  The Gospel 
was written some sixty years after the event.  Few witnesses remained.  
The author himself may not have been among those few, but sought to 
preserve the testimony of the apostles.                                    


A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

ACTS 4:32-35   Readings from The Acts of The Apostles take the place of 
Old Testament passages during the seven-week Easter Season.  Written 
perhaps as long as fifty years after the resurrection, Acts contains the 
church's recollection of events rather than contemporary, eye-witness 
reports.  The central message of Acts is the *kerygma,* or teaching, of 
the Apostolic Church and its spread from Jerusalem to Rome under the 
leadership of both Peter and Paul.  Prominent in the presentation of the 
apostolic *kerygma* are the several versions of the "sermon" preached by 
one or other of the apostles and Stephen.  These are not verbatim reports, 
but the standardized teaching of the church of the second generation, 
circa 85 or perhaps even later.

Some competition between the two apostles, Peter and Paul, may be 
discovered between the lines of Acts.  They may have had their differences 
and their supporting enthusiasts, but the true hero of the story is the 
Holy Spirit.  Peter and Paul are always successful in their various 
missions because they are under the protection of the Holy Spirit.  
Therefore, nothing can go wrong, not even death.

The essential message of Acts deals with the issue of why the Jewish 
religion in its Christian reinterpretation makes sense to Gentiles.  The 
*eschaton*, Second Coming or end-times, is no longer at hand.  This is not 
a problem because the present is the time of the Spirit.  The church is 
preparing to live in the world under the authority and guidance of the 
Holy Spirit.  This may lead to martyrdom like that of Stephen (Acts 7) and 
James (Acts 12), but the blood of the martyrs only increased the fervour 
of their fellow Christians as they marched inexorably from Jerusalem to 
Rome.

In this brief passage we catch a glimpse of the life of the early 
Christian community.  Motivated by the Holy Spirit, they generously shared 
what property they possessed.  One of the most important early converts 
and benefactors was Joseph Barnabas.  He was a Levite, a member of the 
minor priesthood who served at regular intervals in the temple rituals.  
They performed the more menial tasks in the temple cultus, preparing the 
sacrifices, singing in the choir and guarding the temple precincts, a 
secondary role distinctly inferior to that of the priests who officiated 
at worship.  

Barnabas was a Cypriot and quite wealthy, if we are to take this reading 
at face value.  He played an important part in bringing Paul to prominence 
as the apostle to the Gentiles.  Acts 13:1-3 and 14:1, 14 portray Barnabas 
as Paul's senior partner in evangelizing Cyprus.  In 15:36-41 he split 
with Paul over the reluctance of John Mark, Barnabas' cousin, to accompany 
them into more dangerous territory in Asia Minor.  Barnabas appears to 
have had close association with the Jerusalem church where he was known as 
"the son of encouragement" (4:36).  His name does not appear to have the 
meaning attributed to it.  Could this name possibly have been given this 
interpretation to distinguish him from Barabbas? 

 In Galatians 3:28, Paul reported that Barnabas was "led astray" with 
Peter when representatives from Jerusalem protested the mixed Gentile-
Jewish table fellowship in Antioch.  The Letter the Hebrews and the 2nd 
century pseudographical Letter of Barnabas were mistakenly attributed to 
him, although the latter was included in one of the most important early 
manuscripts of the New Testament, the Codex Sinaticus.  There are Anglican 
churches named for him as "St. Barnabas, Apostle and Martyr."
Tradition surrounding his martyrdom may be more hagiography than history; 
but his NT appearances would make a good sermon base for Low Sunday, the 
Sunday after Easter.  


PSALM 133   This brief psalm, one of a collection fifteen known as Songs 
of Ascents (Pss. 120-134), believed to have been sung by pilgrims 
approaching the temple to celebrate the blessings of belonging to the 
Jewish community.  Accidentally or intentionally during Holy Week, 
Christians often forget that the first Christians were Jews who felt 
deeply about the temple as the central sanctuary and gathering place for 
Jews from all over the Roman world.  At the time of Christ, there may have 
been more Jews in the Diaspora than in Palestine.  Naturally, they spoke 
many languages.  From the 2nd century BCE, they had their scriptures in 
both Greek and Hebrew.  This reality gives additional meaning to the words 
of the opening verse of this psalm.

But to what word in vs. 1 does the pronoun "it" at the beginning of vs. 2 
refer? Surely "unity" is the referent.  The similes that follow in vss. 2-
3 depict two very different images.  Some scholars tend to regard the text 
as corrupt, but nevertheless, it makes sense when fully explained.  

The first of these similes may not say much to modern readers.  It refers 
to the sacred oil used in the anointing of the high priest.  Aaron, 
brother of Moses, was regarded as founder of the hereditary priesthood.  
In this illustration, the oil of anointing dribbled down from his head to 
his beard and onto the rich collar of his robe.  Exodus 30:22-30 contains 
a description of how this oil was made and reserved for this special 
purpose.  In the temple worship, the high priest played a particularly 
significant role that would have been obvious to every worshipper.  Could 
John have had this image in mind when he told the story of Mary of Bethany 
anointing Jesus' feet? 

As for the second simile, dew is one of the more important meteorological 
phenomena of Palestine.  In the dry climate of the mountainous region 
between the coastal plain and the Jordan River, dew provides moisture 
crucial to the production of food.  Jerusalem stands on five hills, or low 
mountains, one of which is Mount Zion.  Snow-capped much of the year, 
Mount Hermon lies far to the north.  Its cooling breezes and plentiful 
water supply moderates the climate of Galilee, but do not reach as far 
south as Jerusalem.  A town in the foothills of Mount Hermon is called 
Ijon (1 Kings 15:20; 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Chron.: 16:4), which caused some 
scholars to state that the reference to Zion is a gloss in the text.  This 
may not be so, since the dews of Hermon and of Zion could both parallel 
the perfumed oil lavishly poured on the head of the high priest.

For Christians, the significance of the psalm lies in the closing words: 
the blessing of faith is eternal life.  Thus the Easter message comes 
through vividly in yet another reinterpretation of the well-loved 
scriptures of the Hebrew tradition.


1 JOHN 1:1 - 2:2   Although scholarly consensus may yet conclude 
otherwise, the three letters of John appear to have been written very late 
in the 1st century CE or early in the 2nd century to counter a serious 
heresy, probably an early form of Gnosticism or Docetism.  This heresy 
denied that Jesus, the fully divine Son of God, had actually lived a fully 
human life, had been crucified and raised from the dead.  Such a system 
had no place for the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection.  
It also held to a rather superior view of sinlessness as characteristic of 
those who had adopted this misinterpretation of the gospel.

Most likely these sectarians came from a Greek philosophical background 
with its separation of body and spirit.  Rooted in the Jewish tradition of 
a unity of body and spirit, the apostolic community had rejected such 
polarization.  Open friction had developed within an unnamed Christian 
congregation.  The issue had quickly become an argument as to whether or 
not Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.

John expressed the specific juxtaposition of the two arguments in 4:2.  
Behavioral issues described in 2:7-8 and 3:10-11 had also come with this 
excessively sophisticated view of the Christian message.  The two factions 
had forgotten how to love each other despite their differences.  

In this introductory passage, John claims that the witness of the apostles 
revealed what actually happened.  Only the distinction between darkness 
and light could adequately described the difference between the apostolic 
tradition and the new heresy.  The forgiveness of sin and eternal life in 
fellowship with God entirely depend on faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God.  

John also sets forth an interesting correlation between believing the 
truth and confessing our sins.  If one doesn't believe, sin doesn't 
matter.  But the apostolic gospel held firmly to the belief that Christ 
died for our sins.  The teaching of the apostolic church had been uniform 
in keeping with the prophetic tradition of Isaiah 53.  Jesus had become 
the vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  Reconciliation 
of humanity to God, the redemption of the world or the saving of 
individuals all came from one source: the life, death and resurrection of 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The most grievous sin of all was to reject 
this truth.  John summed up this conviction in a few words in 2:1-2.  What 
is more, he unequivocally declared Jesus' role as mediator with God for 
those who confessed their sin as well as the atoning sacrifice for the 
whole world.

In effect, John was saying that the atonement - at-one-ment - is both the 
heart of the apostolic gospel and the means by which we are made aware of 
our sinful nature and of the truth that redeems us from sin.  Thus far, he 
had kept the discussion on a fairly intellectual level.  He had said 
nothing about the love of God that makes all of this possible.  That was 
yet to come in the next few sentences and paragraphs.


JOHN 20:19-31   The story of Thomas, the disciple who at first doubted the 
resurrection, was told to encourage those who had not witnessed that all-
important event, yet still believed.  He should be the patron saint of our 
post-Christendom times.  Doubt about the resurrection has captured the 
minds of many church folk, yet we still struggle to make sense of it, 
believing that this gospel truth does have something to say to us.  One 
only has to read the writings of John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby
Spong, Karen Armstrong or Michael Baigent to get a sense of how deeply the 
malaise of doubt dominates our times.  Compassion-less conflicts with the 
literalist and fundamentalist dogmas spewed forth to combat this doubt 
only exacerbates our problems.  

John's Gospel was written some sixty years after the resurrection event.  
Few witnesses of the actual event remained, but countless lurid stories 
abounded about this greatest of miracles.  The author himself may not or 
may not have been among those few, but sought to preserve the testimony of 
the apostles.  True to the Jewish tradition, he did so with a dramatic 
story.  

The details of his narrative contain many difficulties for the modern mind 
steeped in Enlightenment Age views of the nature of reality.  Does one 
doubt the truth of the story because of factual details? For instance, 
people do not go through locked doors (vss. 19, 26).  Does breathing on a 
group of people inspire them with the Holy Spirit (vs. 22)?  Is this the 
way to transfer the divine gift of forgiving sins (vs. 23)? Does seeing 
the stigmata in the hands of Christ, but not touching them, produce faith 
(vs. 27-28)?  By the way, where was Thomas during the week's interlude 
between these two appearances in the upper room (vss. 19, 26)?

Whatever the apostles, Thomas included, may have experienced in the upper 
room during those events, the point of the story comes in the final words 
of Jesus to Thomas (vs. 29).  No other gospel tells of this post-
resurrection appearance.  John had his own audience in mind as he told 
this story, wherever he may have acquired it.  The romantic quality of the 
narrative speaks to a greater truth than the apparent details he put into 
it.  

Who Jesus is for every generation comes from faith, not from literal 
records of mysterious events.  Computer generation of images can replicate 
a story for easy visual entertainment, but we recognize such technical 
tricks as virtual realities.  The medium carries a message, but we must 
not mistake the medium for the message.  In a sense, this is the essential 
methodology of all the resurrection narratives.  They are like virtual 
reality narratives of fundamental truth.  Their meaning lies beyond the 
details in the same way that symbols point to reality beyond themselves.  
As John Shelby Spong pointed out, the stories of Jesus' resurrection 
appearances changed people's lives.  "It was as if the being of Jesus was 
limitless. The more he gave his being away, the more he had being to give.  
So the endless depths of being, the being of God, if you will, appeared to 
be present in him." (*Why Christianity Must Change Or Die?* 
HarperSanFrancisco, 1998; 223)

Thus, the details of this story - this virtual reality - tells us that 
after his resurrection, Jesus became a spiritual reality to those who had 
known him best.  By their contact with him during his ministry, through 
the horrors of his crucifixion and the joys of experiencing his presence 
again, they came to believe that he was indeed the Messiah/Christ, the Son 
of God, and more than that "Lord and God," present to all people in every 
generation who shared this faith.  He had forgiven their sins and would 
forgive the sins of everyone else who came to believe in him through their 
witness. The spiritual power he gave them was the power to believe and to 
share their faith with all who would listen to them or read what they 
wrote.  But faith was only a means to an even greater end: life eternal, 
the limitless being that has no beginning and no end (vs. 31). 


copyright  - Comments by Rev. John Shearman and page by Richard J. Fairchild, 2006
            please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.