Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 6:1–6; 1 Peter 2:4–9; John 14:1–12
The first Christians did not look impressive.
They were few. They had no armies, no wealth, no public power, no great place in the world.
Many of them were people the empire barely noticed— slaves, workers, widows, the poor, the ordinary, the ones history usually leaves out.
And yet Peter says to them:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.
Those words must have sounded almost impossible.
Because these people did not look royal. They did not feel holy. They were not secure, strong, or socially admired.
They were a small and fragile people.
And still Peter takes the words once spoken by God to Israel in the desert and places them now upon this little flock of Christians.
In other words:
what God once said over His people long ago, He now says over you.
This is not flattery.
It is vocation.
Peter is not trying to make them feel important.
He is telling them who they now are because Christ has made them His own.
And yet Acts shows us how real and human this chosen people still was.
The widows of one group were being neglected. Complaints began. Tension rose. Language and culture were already creating division.
So this holy nation did not descend from heaven fully formed and shining.
It had wounds. It had weakness. It had unfinished people inside it.
That is important.
Because sometimes we imagine that to be God’s people means to become instantly pure, peaceful, and problem-free.
But the first Church was not like that.
It was holy, but still struggling. Chosen, but still learning. Called by God, but still very human.
And yet it did not fall apart.
It listened. It responded. It found a way to serve better. And the mission continued.
That too is part of holiness.
Then comes the Gospel.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Jesus says this before the cross, before the scattering, before the fear.
And He also says:
I am the way.
That is the deepest reason why such a people can exist at all.
The Church does not become God’s people because it is naturally noble.
It becomes God’s people because Christ opens the way to the Father and gathers the lost into Himself.
He is the stone rejected by men and chosen by God.
And those who come to Him, Peter says, become living stones.
That is the mystery.
People who looked small became part of something immense.
People who seemed to be nobody were being built into the dwelling place of God.
That is still true now.
The Church may feel small. Weak. Troubled. Unimpressive.
So did they.
But Peter would still say:
Do not begin with what the world calls you.
Begin with what God calls you.
Chosen. Royal. Holy. His own.
And then live as people who have been called out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Content License
© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).