Third Sunday of Easter

The Third Sunday of Easter is a point in the Year C lectionary where the movement of Acts turns outward: Acts 9:1–20 presents the call of Saul as a transition from witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria toward the ends of the earth. Read alongside the day’s other scriptures, the passage makes call and mission a shared concern while leaving room to consider how distinct authors understand them.

Place in the lectionary

Acts 9:1–6, with verses 7–20 included in parentheses in the lectionary assignment, is appointed for the Third Sunday of Easter in Year C. The proposed reading is Acts 9:1–20, since the account’s purpose becomes clear in the commission described at Acts 9:15–16: Saul is called to carry the news of the Realm. The passage therefore presents more than a dramatic change in one person’s life; it marks a change in the geographical and communal reach of the witness.

The preceding Second Sunday of Easter reading, Acts 5:27–32, is set in Jerusalem. In the book’s larger sequence, Acts 1–8 follows the mission among Jewish communities, while Acts 9–28 carries the witness toward gentiles. Reading Saul’s call on this Sunday gives the congregation a way to see these movements in relation: the widening mission follows, rather than erases, the witness that began in Jerusalem and extended through Judea and Samaria.

Call and mission across the readings

The Gospel appointed for the day is John 21:1–19, which culminates in Jesus commissioning Peter to feed Jesus’s sheep. The lectionary discussion proposes changing the Revelation reading to Revelation 1:9–20, the call of the prophet John. With these texts alongside Acts 9, the day’s readings would all focus on call and mission, though they approach those themes through different figures and scriptural voices.

The readings can also be supplemented with Paul’s own account of his call in Galatians 1:11–17. Placing that account beside Luke’s telling allows comparison between authors: a preacher can explore both common elements and differences in how they understand call and mission. The arrangement makes the lectionary occasion an opportunity to attend not only to the fact of being called, but also to how a calling is narrated and directed toward a particular work.

Mission beyond the initial boundaries

Saul’s call is placed at the transition from the Jerusalem–Judea–Samaria phase of Acts 1:8 to its movement toward the ends of the earth. That sequence gives the Sunday’s reading a larger narrative function: the mission to gentiles emerges within the developing witness of the community, rather than appearing as an unrelated undertaking. A sermon can use the passage to clarify the relationship between the Jewish mission in Acts 2–8 and the gentile mission in Acts 9–28.

The lectionary’s subsequent Easter readings continue to show effects of the gentile mission. The readings for the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Sundays of Easter in Year C extend the sequence, so the Third Sunday serves as a hinge within a run of readings rather than an isolated episode. Saul’s call thus helps listeners follow the widening scope of Acts across the Easter season.

A sequence for continuous reading

The Sunday can also begin a three-week practice of lectio continua, or continuous reading. The proposed sequence moves from Acts 9:1–21 on the Third Sunday to Acts 9:36–43 on the Fourth, and then to Acts 11:1–18 on the Fifth. The sequence follows the narrative through distinct episodes while keeping the developing mission in view.

To prepare for the final week’s reading, the preacher should add representative selections from Acts 10, which set the stage for Acts 11:1–18. This addition helps make the sequence intelligible as a continuous account, while preserving the lectionary’s progression through the call of Saul, the story of Dorcas, and the community’s response to the widening mission.