6th Sunday of the Resurrection

Isaiah 51:9-11; 52:7-12

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength,

O arm of the Lord;

awake, as in days of old,

the generations of long ago.

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,

who pierced the dragon?

¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep;

who made the depths of the sea a way

for the redeemed to pass over?

¹¹ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good tidings,

who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

⁸ Listen, your watchmen lift up their voice,

together they sing for joy;

for eye to eye they see

the return of the Lord to Zion.

⁹ Break forth together into singing,

you waste places of Jerusalem;

for the Lord has comforted his people,

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm

before the eyes of all the nations;

and all the ends of the earth shall see

the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there,

touch no unclean thing;

go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves,

you who bear the vessels of the Lord.

¹² For you shall not go out in haste,

and you shall not go in flight,

for the Lord will go before you,

and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

 

Acts of the Apostles 10:1-16

Peter and Cornelius

¹ At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, ² a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God. ³ About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” ⁴ And he stared at him in terror, and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵ And now send men to Joppa, and bring one Simon who is called Peter; ⁶ he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” ⁷ When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those that waited on him, ⁸ and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, as they were on their journey and coming near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. ¹⁰ And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance ¹¹ and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³ And there came a voice to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” ¹⁵ And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

 

Ephesians 2:4-22

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—⁹ not because of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

One in Christ

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—¹²remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²² in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

 

John 17:1-26

Jesus Prays for the Church

¹ When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; ⁵ and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.

6 “I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; ⁸ for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours; ¹⁰ all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

20 “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”