The Progression of Eastertide, Year C - Planning for Worship and Preaching

As Lent is and historically has been about preparing converts to take up the covenant and receive the sacrament of baptism, Eastertide has an inner missional logic for disciple-making as well. Eastertide is about finding and claiming our identity in the Risen Lord and preparing for our ministries in the body of Christ. While in Lent the congregations larger role is as midwife at new birth, during Eastertide the congregations role might be described as life coach. Born anew in baptism on Easter Sunday, we discover our gifts, connect with our God-given passion, hone our skills into excellence, and are commissioned into ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost.

Worship guided by The Revised Common Lectionary (1992) and its Calendar (both in The United Methodist Book of Worship, 224 and 227-37) can support your congregations efforts to live into and fulfill your Eastertide mission.

Second Sunday of Easter: Your OWN Identity in Christ

First Reading: Acts 5:27-32 Gods authority, and no human authority, directs your mission in Christ.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4-8 Our collective identity as church is to be a kingdom of priests serving God.

Gospel: John 20:19-31 Jesus calls us and comes to us in our authenticity so that we can claim our own identity in him, naming him my Lord and my God.

Third Sunday of Easter: Claiming Christs Call to YOU

First Reading: Acts 9:1-6 (7-20) Jesus calls Saul to recognition and healing.

Second Reading: Revelation 5:11-14 Praise and worship are callings for all followers of Christ.

Gospel: John 21:1-19 Jesus calls Peter to love him as he can and feed his sheep but offers a different calling to John.

Fourth Sunday of Easter: How Your Works Testify to Jesus

First Reading: Acts 9:36-43 Tabitha showed the power of the risen Christ through good works, acts of charity, and the clothing that she made, and was raised from death herself.

Second Reading: Revelation 7:9-17 The works of disciples of Jesus are characterized by entering into Christs suffering and the suffering of the world.

Gospel: John 10:22-30 Jesus own works in the name of the Father, and the works of his disciples in the name of Jesus, testify that Jesus is the anointed One, the Savior.

Fifth Sunday of Easter: Living, Serving, Loving as Jesus Loved

First Reading: Acts 11:1-18 Peter testifies to the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of non-circumcised believers.

Second Reading: Revelation 21:1-6 In the end, God, the Eternal, makes home among mortals, responding to need more than perfection.

Gospel: John 13:31-35 As Jesus heads toward the events leading to his execution, he calls his disciples to love one another as he has loved them.

Sixth Sunday of Easter: Guided by the Holy Spirit

First Reading: Acts 16:9-15 Paul responds to a vision to go to Philippi, then finds the opportunities for effective witness once there.

Second Reading: Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 In the Spirit, John sees the New Jerusalema new vision of how the world works in Gods kingdom.

Gospel: John 4:23-29 The Holy Spirit guides disciples to understand, remember and live out the teaching of Jesus.

Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Priority of Community

First Reading: Acts 16:16-34 As a witness to the saving power of God available even to captors, prisoners freed by an earthquake remain inside, and the guards household comes to faith.

Second Reading: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Blessed are those who wash their robes, who enter into deep community with those who suffer around them.

Gospel: John 17:20-26 The unity of disciples of Jesus in the face of their diversity and any adversity that may surround them is the longing of Jesus prayer that all may know Gods love.

Final Sunday in Eastertide--The Day of Pentecost: Continuing the Works of Christ in the Power of the Spirit

First Reading: Acts 2:1-21 The Holy Spirit empowers a bold witness for Jesus in which people of every nation where Judaism had spread hear the proclamation of the meaning of the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in their own language.

Second Reading: Romans 8:14-17 The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are free, adopted as Gods own children, and heirs of Gods promises as we suffer with Christ as his body on earth.

Gospel: John 14:8-17 (25-27) In the coming Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, disciples of Jesus will continue the works of Jesus, and even greater works than these.