April 30, 2023
Imagine a Love
- Rev. Beth Wagner
2023.04.30 Scripture and Sermon
Prayer of Illumination:
Guide us, O God, by your Word, and Holy Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover peace, through Christ our Lord, Amen.
SCRIPTURE First Reading: John 10:11-17 (NRSV, adapted)
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down their life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away--and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as God knows me and I know God. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Holy One loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.”
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
SCRIPTURE Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-18, 23-24 (NRSV, adapted)
We know love by this, that Christ laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees another in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. This is God’s commandment, that we should believe in the name Jesus and love one another, just as Christ has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!