The Wayside Chapel is open 24 hours, 7 days a week for prayer and meditation.

Prime Timers Pilgrimage

Prime Timers are attending Rev. Levenson's (and others) class "Basic Bible Study." This week's text is Galatians 5:26--6:5:

²⁶Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
¹My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. ³For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. ⁴All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbour’s work, will become a cause for pride. ⁵For all must carry their own loads.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, May 13 are from Lectionary Year Two, Easter 6-B, Acts 11:19-30; Psalm 33; 1 John 4:7-21 and John 15:9-17. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Acts 11:19-30

¹⁹ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. ²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. ²²News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; ²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. ²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they associated with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’.

²⁷ At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. ²⁹The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; ³⁰this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Psalm 33

¹ Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.
Praise befits the upright.
² Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
³ Sing to him a new song;
play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

⁴ For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

⁶ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
⁷ He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.

⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
⁹ For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

¹⁰ The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹ The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
¹² Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

¹³ The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all humankind.
¹⁴ From where he sits enthroned he watches
all the inhabitants of the earth—
¹⁵ he who fashions the hearts of them all,
and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶ A king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷ The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
and by its great might it cannot save.

¹⁸ Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹ to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
²¹ Our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
²² Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

1 John 4:7-21

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John 15:9-17

⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

NRSV