The Rev. Noah Van Niel
The Chapel of the Cross
April 18th, 2021
Easter 3 (B): Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
Our readings are out of sequence this morning, so bear with me while we take a minute to sort them out. In Eastertide, our first lesson always comes from the Acts of the Apostles instead of from the Old Testament, as it usually does. These are important stories for the season as they recount how the Apostles took charge of the movement Jesus started. But when we read Acts before we read the Gospel, it can be confusing because the Gospel stories are describing events that come before the Acts reading. In other words, the reading you heard last should come first and the reading you heard first should come last. It’s important to get this sequence straight in our heads because otherwise it obscures a question that is highly relevant to our lives these days which is: How did the disciples get from Luke to Acts? How did they get from fear to freedom?
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