Come, Lord Jesus: A 21st Century Africana Resource for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Leader: Come, Lord Jesus, speak to us in parables and rhyme.

People: For you are an intergenerational Savior.

Leader: Come, Lord Jesus, let us again hear some old-time religion.

People: For you are the Savior of all the ages.

Leader: Come, Lord Jesus, speak quietly to us.

People: For your Spirit speaks through the wind.

Leader: Come, Lord Jesus, speak loudly to us.

People: For your Spirit speaks through the thunder.

All: Savior of all age groups, languages, and cultures, we await your voice.

Morning Prayer
God, who causes the robins to sing, thank you for giving us our songs and listening to them. We sing because we're happy. We sing because you have found us and we have found you. Teach us to hum the melodies that draw all people to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Teach us the words to the song that will heal a broken world. Amen.

Sermon Thoughts
"And Damaris Believed" (Acts 17:22-31)

• Sermon notes focus on evangelism: Paul talks about not worshiping gods made by human hands. What gods do those people to whom we want to witness about the love of God through Jesus Christ worship? Is it "bling-bling"? Is it success? Is it comfort? Is it security?
• In the text, Paul spoke a language the Athenians understand. How can we make the gospel plain? How can we share the gospel in ways that older, younger, suffering, striving people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? A good read is Adam Hamilton's Leading Beyond the Walls.
• An Athenian woman named Damaris believed in Jesus Christ after Paul finished preaching. Women are rarely named in the Bible. What about this woman caused her to be singled out? Beginning research can start with All the Women of the Bible, or The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, or The New Interpreter's Study Bible, but you will need to go much further. There is so little known about her. Why not, for this sermon, provide a "hypothetical" background for Damaris? She is, after all, representative of human needs and responses.
• Paul made the gospel so plain that Damaris recognized that she, too, lived, moved and had her being in God. What can we say about the God in whom we live and move and have our being that will get people's attention?

— or —

"Whose Advocate? Whose Truth?" (John 14:15-21)

• What about earthly orphans? This could be a social justice sermon, focused on caring for the parentless by individual adoption or foster care, becoming a mentor to those lacking close relationships with adults, or by doing whatever we can because of the Advocate working within us. Research parentless children in your own community.
• Use illustrations of how the Holy Spirit has used people in our times and caused them to become individual or corporate parents (such as Hale House).
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to show us, and the church, ways to be fathers to the fatherless and mothers to the motherless. (Also a possible sermon for Mother's Day.)

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Sherrie Boyens-Dobbs is a Conference Approved Evangelist, the Assistant Dean of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a clergy member of the Greater New Jersey annual conference.

"21st Century Africana Liturgy Resources: Worship Resources for the Sixth Sunday of Easter" Copyright © 2005 Sherrie Boyens-Dobbs. Used with permission.