Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B
Six weeks after Easter Day Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, the year of Mark White and gold
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The Gospel: John 17:6–19
Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples, asking that they be kept safe in the world, made one, and made holy in the truth.
What is going on
Forty days after Easter, the church remembers that Jesus ascended to his Father. This Sunday’s Gospel goes back to the night before he died, when he prayed for his disciples.
He asks the Father to protect them, because they will stay in the world after he leaves it. He prays that they will be one, as he and the Father are one.
He does not ask the Father to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one, and to make them holy in the truth.
John 17:6-19
Most churches stand for the Gospel, and sing or say a short response before and after it.
The passage
6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, 8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would 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 your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
Jesus Prays for His Followers, scene by scene on Free Scripture
The other readings
In the order they are read on Sunday, before the Gospel.
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Peter tells the believers someone must replace Judas, and after prayer they draw lots and Matthias joins the eleven apostles.
Read it here
15 In these days, Peter stood up in the middle of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty), and said, 16 “Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus. 17 For he was counted with us, and received his portion in this ministry.
21 “Of the men therefore who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John, to the day that he was received up from us, of these one must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” 23 They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 They prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.” 26 They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
Psalm 1
A picture of two ways of life: the person rooted in God’s teaching like a fruitful tree, and the wicked blown away like chaff.
Read it here
1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
1 John 5:9-13
The first letter of John says God’s own witness is that eternal life is found in his Son, and whoever has the Son has life.
Read it here
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. 11 The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
A question to carry into the week
Jesus prayed for his friends before he left them. Who would you pray for like that?
For your newsletter or sermon notes
These readings are told as stories on our sister site, Free Scripture, one scene at a time in plain words. The lines below are ready to paste. The next eight Sundays, and every story.
Seventh Sunday of Easter · Revised Common Lectionary, Year B · the same Sunday at the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. Scripture text: World English Bible, public domain.
Revised Common Lectionary copyright © 1992 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org Used by permission.