Pass it on
Resources to share for DIY discipleship
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To the leader: this page offers extracts from the ROOTS weekly resources to share with others in your church community to help them explore the Bible and grow as disciples.
Highlight and copy the text to print, email, or put it on your church website – pass it on! Please include the copyright acknowledgement to ROOTS that appears with the extracts.
When and where? ROOTS resources can be used all week. We’ve included some notes below to suggest when and where you might share them. Don’t forget house groups, youth groups, the housebound, care homes, toddler groups and school assemblies. See also: A guide to using Pass it on.
24 April 2016
Easter glory: John 13.31-35
Lectionary Bible readings RCL Easter 5 Year C
Acts 11.1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21.1-6
John 13.31-35
We explore:
seeing glory in unexpected places; loving as Jesus loves –
serving others and loving those we don’t choose to love.
Resources to share
To the leader: these brief notes help to set the scene for the readings.
When & where? Read out the notes before hearing the readings in worship; share on a weekly bulletin, church website, etc. with Bible references so that people can get more out of reading the passages for themselves.
The reader might use these words to provide context.
Before Judas’ return with the soldiers, Jesus says he is leaving his ‘little children’. When their love for one another is shaped by his love for them, then they too will go out into the world’s darkness to love, as we see in Acts, even those whom they thought ‘unclean’.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
Bible notes
To the leader: we offer two sets of Bible notes each week. The short version comes from the Children & Young People resources and the long version is from the Adult & All Age resources. You could share a version to help people learn more about the reading.
When & where? Before or after we hear the reading in worship; in a Bible study group; distributed to people who can’t get to the service; in a youth group.
John 13.31-35
- ‘Glory’ is a huge theme in John’s Gospel, but it can be difficult to understand, as we rarely think about it except in a sporting or military context. Here it has a very different meaning, because it is something that comes from God, not from human admiration, and it comes through suffering. Judas has just left to betray Jesus (v.30) and it is at this moment – the climax of his ministry when Jesus is faced with his death – that the ‘Son of Man’ is glorified (v.31).
- Jesus calls his disciples ‘little children’ (v.33), suggesting that their discipleship is immature, but destined to grow in the future, as God’s glory is revealed through their suffering and sacrifice.
- Jesus gives his followers a ‘new commandment’ to love one another, as he has loved them. This mutual love is hardly a new idea, as love of neighbour rings through the ten commandments. However, it is the way that Jesus loves that is new: through service, symbolised in the washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13.4-5), and loving people whom we might not choose to love, such as the woman caught in adultery (John 8.1-11).
- Jesus’ commandment becomes reality in the powerful reading from Acts when Peter explains his love, even for Gentiles, based on his vision and encounter with Cornelius. He and his family accept the word of God and are baptised by the Holy Spirit. Whom might we be called to love?
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
New Testament Acts 11.1-18
This passage is an explanation, by Peter, of his encounter with Cornelius and the baptism of the Gentiles who had received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). Peter is speaking, explaining ‘step by step’, but in Acts, it is ‘the word of God’ that moves the story forward as we hear that ‘it continued to spread’ (6.7) and ‘gain adherents’ (12.24), spreading ‘throughout the region’ (13.49) so that it ‘grew mightily and prevailed’ (19.20). The critical breakthrough from Jewish separateness from the rest of the world is summarised here as ‘the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God’. We hear that ‘the Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us’. And Peter describes his speech to Cornelius as ‘the message by which you and your entire household will be saved’. The Jewish Pentecost was interpreted as the fulfilment of God’s word through the prophet Joel (Acts 2.14-21), and, as Peter remembers Jesus, this ‘Gentile Pentecost’ is interpreted as the fulfilment of ‘the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit”’ (see Luke 3.16 and Acts 1.5).
Gospel John 13.31-35
Jesus has told Judas to ‘do quickly what you are going to do’ (13.27), and he has gone out into the darkness. Now Jesus begins his ‘farewell discourses’ (13.31–17.26) to the remaining disciples, who will, by their own testimony later on, enable others also to believe in him (17.20-24). Judas will act quickly, and ‘the hour’ of Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution is now striking, so that those whom Jesus loved must now understand that with his imminent departure (i.e. death), ‘the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’ (12.23).
In Daniel the vision of ‘a Son of Man’ who is ‘given dominion and glory and kingship’ represents the future of ‘the holy ones’ who are presently suffering for their faithfulness to God (Daniel 7.13- 14,27). In John both the suffering and the glory of ‘the Son of Man’ are brought together into the one ‘hour’ of Jesus’ being ‘lifted up from the earth’ (12.32) in crucifixion and resurrection. This ‘hour’ in which Judas will act ‘quickly’ and Jesus will be glorified ‘at once’ is the climax of the ministry of Jesus, who has already both been glorified and has glorified God. He has demonstrated the difference between self-serving ‘human glory’ (12.43, see 5.44; 7.18; 8.50,54) and the divine glory of God’s presence (Exodus 24.15-18; 1 Kings 8.10-11; Psalm 26.8; Ezekiel 44.4) in the self-giving act of love that was the washing of the disciples’ feet.
In Jesus’ departure and death ‘God will glorify him in himself’, because Jesus is totally faithful to the life-giving God whose loving purposes are not to be defeated by the many death-dealing ways of the search for ‘human glory’. In Jesus’ faithfulness to death, the Father’s love of humanity and the Son’s love of God will shine brightly together, making visible ‘the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth’ (1.14). And the disciples are given the ‘new commandment’ to love one another. This mutual love is ‘new’ because it is rooted in and shaped by Jesus’ own love ‘to the end’ (13.1). By understanding that Jesus’ departure was his glorification, his followers can continue his work of making God’s love visible in and for the world.
It took time for the Church fully to accept that ‘God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life’. This is illustrated by Peter’s not imposing his view on others but rather explaining his experience ‘step by step’. In this he follows Jesus, whose ‘farewell discourses’ recognise that it will take those he loves as ‘little children’ time to understand, from their own experience, that his departure from them is his glorification, the fulfilment of his Father’s promise that ‘I will be with you’, as topsyturvy as that seems.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
PostScript: Glory and Love
To the leader: this reflection and comment on current news and events is written afresh each week and appears on the ROOTS website by Thursday morning.
When & where? Useful for sermon preparation; includes a prayer that can be used in worship and questions for young people. You could share it after the Sunday service or use in house/youth groups sessions.
To the leader: these prayers support individual and family prayer life during the week.
When & where? Print/email them in a bulletin, post on your website.
A personal prayer
Lord, help me to know when I am not being easy to love,
and help me to do something about it.
Amen.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
A way into prayer
- Spend some time bringing to mind someone you find it difficult to love.
- Resolve to show kindness to them in a specific small way this week, and pray for mighty oaks to grow from small acorns.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
A prayer for all ages together
Lord, sometimes we find it hard to love other people.
Fill us with your love(mime drinking down a full glass).
We pray that you will help us to understand them.
Fill us with your love.
And see you in them.
Fill us with your love.
And carry you with us, wherever we go.
Fill us with your love.
Amen.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
A children’s prayer
Lord Jesus,
help us to see your glory
and share your love with each other.
Amen.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
To the leader: these are suggestions, linked to this week’s Bible reading, for putting faith into action.
When & where? Print/email them in a bulletin, post on your website.
For children
Encourage the children to use their challenge booklets, or suggest they do an act of service for someone every day this week.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
For young people
Keep a record of all the things you experience this week that remind you of God’s glory or Jesus’ love.
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
For adults
Invite people to pick up a glitter stone (see A simple worship activity for all ages) as they leave, and, by holding it for a few moments, to let it remind them of their closeness to the risen Christ, and to say to someone, each day, ‘He is risen!’
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd 2002-2015. Reproduced with permission. www.rootsontheweb.com
To the leader: a question to ponder, a picture to colour, activities, a prayer, and a related book/film to share, aimed at 5–9 year olds.
When & where? Print it out for families to take away, email it to families each week.
This week's Children's sheets
To the leader: a picture from this week’s resources with questions for reflection and discussion.
When & where? Use in a house group, project as people prepare to worship, share after the Sunday service.
This week's Picture pointers