
Addoliad ar Chweched Sul y Pasg
Yn ystod y tarddiant coronafirws, mae'r Esgob yn darparu deunydd i gefnogi addoliad ar yr aelwyd ar brif wyliau. Mae hyn yn cynnwys trefn o wasanaeth ar gyfer Litwrgi'r Gair, a myfyrdod wedi'i recordio. Mae testun y myfyrdod hefyd ar gael yma.
Darlleniadau
Act 17:22-31
Safodd Paul yng nghanol yr Areopagus, ac meddai: “Bobl Athen, yr wyf yn gweld ar bob llaw eich bod yn dra chrefyddgar. Oherwydd wrth fynd o gwmpas ac edrych ar eich pethau cysegredig, cefais yn eu plith allor ac arni'n ysgrifenedig, ‘I Dduw nid adwaenir’. Yr hyn, ynteu, yr ydych chwi'n ei addoli heb ei adnabod, dyna'r hyn yr wyf fi'n ei gyhoeddi i chwi. Y Duw a wnaeth y byd a phopeth sydd ynddo, nid yw ef, ac yntau'n Arglwydd nef a daear, yn preswylio mewn temlau o waith llaw. Ni wasanaethir ef chwaith â dwylo dynol, fel pe bai arno angen rhywbeth, gan mai ef ei hun sy'n rhoi i bawb fywyd ac anadl a'r cwbl oll. Gwnaeth ef hefyd o un dyn yr holl genhedloedd, i breswylio ar holl wyneb y ddaear, gan osod cyfnodau penodedig a therfynau eu preswylfod. Yr oeddent i geisio Duw, yn y gobaith y gallent rywfodd ymbalfalu amdano a'i ddarganfod; ac eto nid yw ef nepell oddi wrth yr un ohonom.
‘Oherwydd ynddo ef yr ydym yn byw ac yn symud ac yn bod, fel, yn wir, y dywedodd rhai o'ch beirdd chwi: Canys ei hiliogaeth ef hefyd ydym ni. Os ydym ni, felly, yn hiliogaeth Duw, ni ddylem dybio fod y Duwdod yn debyg i aur neu arian neu faen, gwaith nadd celfyddyd a dychymyg dyn. Yn wir, edrychodd Duw heibio i amserau anwybodaeth; ond yn awr y mae'n gorchymyn i bawb ym mhob man edifarhau, oblegid gosododd ddiwrnod pryd y bydd yn barnu'r byd mewn cyfiawnder, trwy ŵr a benododd, ac fe roes sicrwydd o hyn i bawb trwy ei atgyfodi ef oddi wrth y meirw.”
Ioan 14:15-21
“Os ydych yn fy ngharu i, fe gadwch fy ngorchmynion i. Ac fe ofynnaf finnau i'm Tad, ac fe rydd ef i chwi Eiriolwr arall i fod gyda chwi am byth, Ysbryd y Gwirionedd. Ni all y byd ei dderbyn ef, am nad yw'r byd yn ei weld nac yn ei adnabod ef; yr ydych chwi yn ei adnabod, oherwydd gyda chwi y mae'n aros ac ynoch chwi y bydd.
Ni adawaf chwi'n amddifad; fe ddof yn ôl atoch chwi. Ymhen ychydig amser, ni bydd y byd yn fy ngweld i ddim mwy, ond byddwch chwi'n fy ngweld, fy mod yn fyw; a byw fyddwch chwithau hefyd. Yn y dydd hwnnw byddwch chwi'n gwybod fy mod i yn fy Nhad, a'ch bod chwi ynof fi, a minnau ynoch chwithau. Pwy bynnag y mae fy ngorchmynion i ganddo, ac sy'n eu cadw hwy, yw'r un sy'n fy ngharu i. A'r un sy'n fy ngharu i, fe'i cerir gan fy Nhad, a byddaf finnau yn ei garu, ac yn f'amlygu fy hun iddo.”
Dyfyniadau o’r Beibl Cymraeg Newydd a’r Beibl Cymraeg Newydd Diwygiedig 2004 hawlfraint Cymdeithas (Brydeinig a Thramor) y Beibl. Cedwir pob hawl.
Testun myfyrdod yr Esgob
Duw'n hau ei gariad | Actau 17:22-31
Pan oeddwn yn blentyn byddwn yn cerdded y lôn gefn o’r pentref bach ble oeddwn i'n byw i bentref arall yng ngogledd Ceredigion tua 5 milltir i ffwrdd. Roedd yn dipyn o daith i fyny’r bryniau ac yna i lawr allt serth i’r dyffryn ymhellach i ffwrdd. O’r copa, roeddwn i’n gallu gweld afon Ystwyth yn troelli’i ffordd tua’r môr, gan droi ymhellach i lawr y dyffryn at Tanybwlch. Ar noson gynnes o haf, wrth i’r haul fachlud, roedd fel paradwys.
Wrth gwrs, nid oedd y darlun hudolus yn golygu llawer mwy na hynny i mi. Doeddwn i ddim yn meddwl am Dduw, a greodd y byd, nac a oedd yna bwrpas neu ystyr i fywyd. Doedd y cwestiynau hynny ddim yn codi o gwbl yn fy meddwl.
Dyma Sul olaf tymor y Pasg – nid o’r Pasg, rydyn ni’n cario gwirionedd y Crist byw gyda ni i dymor nesaf y Dyrchafael, nid yn cadw’r rhyfeddod hwnnw o’r neilltu fel rhywbeth nad yw o unrhyw ddefnydd bellach. Ac mae ein darlleniad o Actau’r Apostolion heddiw yn cofnodi rhan o bregeth y ‘Pasg’ gan Sant Paul.
Mae’n sôn wrthym ni sut y dechreuodd gyda darlun ‘mawr’: i wrandawyr a oedd yn gwybod fod rhaid bod yna Dduw a greodd popeth, hyd yn oed os nad oedd i’w weld.Roedd ganddyn nhw hyd yn oed allor i’r Duw nas adwaenir. A dyma Paul yn dweud ei fod yn mynd i ddangos iddyn nhw yr hyn roedden nhw’n ei amgyffred gyda’u meddyliau ac yr oedden nhw’n ymestyn allan ato wrth chwilio am y gwirionedd.
Ond nid yw Duw fel talp o garreg, meddai, nid yw’n rhywbeth a wnaed gan ddwylo dynion. Duw yw ffynhonnell pob peth sydd i’w adnabod, a’i garu a’i ddilyn, bywyd ei hunan. Felly, does gennym ni ddim esgus oherwydd mae yna digon ‘allan yna’ i wneud i ni chwilio, darganfod ac adnabod yr un Duw.
Ac yna daw’r ergyd y mae Paul wedi bod yn arwain ati: mae yna Dduw, mae yna bwrpas i fywyd ac mae'n cael ei ddangos yn atgyfodiad Iesu.
Ei bwynt yw bod y darlun ‘mawr’, byd wedi’i greu gan Dduw, lle rydyn ni’n darganfod ein hunain a’n gwerth mewn gwirionedd, yn cael ei ddangos yn glir gan yr atgyfodiad. Dyma pryd y mae’r llithlyfr yn stopio. Ond ni ddylai chwaith, oherwydd mae dau beth yn dilyn ar unwaith: rhai’n gwawdio ac yn gwrthod y syniad fel un hollol hurt. Eraill yn credu ac yn cael eu henwi fel disgyblion newydd Iesu.
Mae pregeth Paul yn un ddwys. Mae atgyfodiad Iesu’n datgan fod Duw yn wir yn Arglwydd popeth sydd wedi cael ei greu. Dyma’r allwedd, fel petae, a’r adeg pan ddaw’r darlun 'mawr' yn gliriach i ni. Os yw’r Iesu’n fyw, mae’n amlwg fod Duw yn gallu hau ei gariad drwy’r byd: gan roi gobaith ac ystyr i ni.
Mae’n rhy hawdd dychmygu ar hyn o bryd mai hap a damwain yw bywyd. Rydyn ni’n teimlo ein bod ar drugaredd rhywbeth nad yw’n gwahaniaethu a’n bod mewn byd nad yw’n gallu dygymod â hynny. Nid yw Paul yn cynnig unrhyw eglurhad pam fod byd yn gweithio fel ag y mae.Ond mae’n dangos sut i ymateb: gyda ffydd ac i Dduw a ddaeth yn weladwy yn yr Iesu atgyfodedig. Pan fyddwn ni’n gwneud hynny, rydyn ni’n cael cynnig y ffordd ymlaen. Hyd yn oed os yw rhannau o fywyd yn ymddangos yn llanast llwyr, mae ein pwrpas a’n gwerth ynddo, wedi’u sefydlu.
Heddiw, wrth i ni deithio i dymor nesaf ein bywyd, daw’r gwahoddiad atom ni o’r newydd: i weld bywyd cyfan trwy atgyfodiad Iesu Grist. Dyna sut rydyn ni’n darganfod pa mor ddwfn rydyn ni’n cael ein caru a pha mor ddiogel rydyn ni’n yn cael ein cadw: gwybod nad yw bywyd yn ddiystyr ond, gyda Duw, yn llawn o bosibiliadau dibendraw.
Pan oeddwn yn blentyn byddwn yn cerdded y lôn gefn o’r pentref bach ble oeddwn i'n byw i bentref arall yng ngogledd Ceredigion tua 5 milltir i ffwrdd. Roedd yn dipyn o daith i fyny’r bryniau ac yna i lawr allt serth i’r dyffryn ymhellach i ffwrdd. O’r copa, roeddwn i’n gallu gweld afon Ystwyth yn troelli’i ffordd tua’r môr, gan droi ymhellach i lawr y dyffryn at Tanybwlch. Ar noson gynnes o haf, wrth i’r haul fachlud, roedd fel paradwys.
Wrth gwrs, nid oedd y darlun hudolus yn golygu llawer mwy na hynny i mi. Doeddwn i ddim yn meddwl am Dduw, a greodd y byd, nac a oedd yna bwrpas neu ystyr i fywyd. Doedd y cwestiynau hynny ddim yn codi o gwbl yn fy meddwl.
I mi, mae gan y byd hwnnw, bywyd ei hunan, erbyn hyn, ddiben. Mae Iesu wedi atgyfodi. Mae wedi atgyfodi, yn wir. Aleliwia!
Worship on the Sixth Sunday of Easter
During the coronavirus outbreak, the Bishop is providing material to support worship at home on the major festivals. This includes an order of service for a Liturgy of the Word, and a recorded meditation. The text of the meditation is also available here.
Readings
Acts 17:22-31
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.
For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.” Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
John 14:15-21
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
From The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
The text of the Bishop's meditation
God's loving purposes | Acts 17:22-31
When I was a child I would walk the back lane from the small hamlet in which I lived to another village in north Ceredigion some 5 miles away. It was quite an arduous journey up hills and then a steep descent into the valley further down the road. From the top I could see the river Ystwyth snaking its way to the sea, winding further down the valley towards Tanybwlch. On a warm summer evening as the sun set it was like paradise.
Of course this idyllic picture was not much more to me than that. I had no thoughts of God, who made the world, did life have any purpose or meaning? Those were questions wholly absent from my mind.
This is the last Sunday of the Easter season – not of Easter, we carry the truth of Christ alive and with us into the next season of the Ascension and don’t pack away this wonder as though we have finished with it. And our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today records part of an ‘Easter’ sermon preached by St Paul.
It tells how he began with a ‘big’ picture: to listeners who knew there must be a God who made everything even if seemingly hidden. They even had an altar to an unknown God. And Paul tells them he is going to make known to them what they grasp at with their minds and to whom they reach out searching for the truth.
But God is not like a lump of stone he says, not something made by human hands. God is the source of all things whom to know, love and follow is life itself. We therefore have no excuse because there is enough ‘out there’ to make us search, discover and know this same God.
And then Paul delivers the punchline to which he has been working: there is a God and life does have purpose and this is shown in the resurrection of Jesus.
His point is that the ‘big’ picture, of a world created by God, in which we discover ourselves and our true value, is made clear by the resurrection. The lectionary, at this point, stops. But it shouldn’t because two things immediately follow: some sneer and reject this idea as altogether ridiculous. Others believe and are named as new disciples of Jesus.
Paul’s sermon is profound. The resurrection of Jesus declares that God is truly Lord of all that has been made. This is the key, if you like, and the point at which the ‘big’ picture comes into new, sharper focus for us. If Jesus is alive, God is seen to be capable of exercising his loving purposes within the world: to us, giving us hope and meaning.
It is too easy to imagine at the moment that life is quite random. We feel as though we are at the mercy of something that is indiscriminate and in a world incapable of coping with it. Paul does not offer any explanation of why the world works as it does. But he points to a way of responding: with faith and to a God made visible in the risen Jesus. When we do this, we are offered a way through it. Even if parts of life seem chaotic, our purpose and value within it, are established.
Today, as we travel into the next season of our life, the invitation comes to us afresh: to see all of life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is how we discover how deeply we are loved and how securely kept; to know life is not meaningless but with God, full of endless possibility.
When I was a child I would walk the back lane from the small hamlet in which I lived to another village in north Ceredigion some 5 miles away. It was quite an arduous journey up hills and then a steep descent into the valley further down the road. From the top I could see the river Ystwyth snaking its way to the sea, winding further down the valley towards Tanybwlch. On a warm summer evening as the sun set it was like paradise.
Of course this idyllic picture was not much more to me than that. I had no thoughts of God, who made the world, did life have any purpose or meaning? Those were questions wholly absent from my mind.
For me that world, life itself, now has purpose. Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.