5th Sunday of Easter
April 24, 2016
Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
Have you ever been at an event where you really want to
pay attention and fully experience it, and there’s something, or someone,
preventing you from doing so? Maybe you’re at a concert or a movie or a
baseball game or even an activity here at church, and there’s something going
on on the side, or in the back, that’s distracting you and keeping you, despite
your best efforts, from being able to fully pay attention? Has that ever happened to you? And then you
become so focused on whatever that nuisance is that you miss what’s going on in
what you came to see and hear and do? Does this scenario ring a bell? And what
do you do about it? I know you try not to lose your temper, or say or do things
you’ll regret later. Sometimes the disturbance goes away by itself and then you
can settle back down and reshift your attention back to the main event. And
what about when it doesn’t? What if it doesn’t end, and there’s no end in sight
and it’s so completely distracting you and annoying you, what do you do then?
Usually, you find yourself having to say something or do something, whether to
speak up, or to move your place. You never want to be rude, yet you’ve got to
do something about this rude distraction. Paul writes in Romans, “Do not repay
anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”[1]
So, how do you peaceable, nobly address this disturbance? I think it’s a
situation we’ve all been in.
Jesus, as always, has a good answer. In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “I give you a
new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must
love each other.”[2]
Having just gone through Holy Week last month, we know what Jesus’ love for us
looks like: sacrificial, extreme, unconditional, life-giving. Just two more
chapters later in John, Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay
down one’s life for one’s friends.”[3]
For whom would you be willing to lay down your life? Your family? Your closest
friends? The person sitting next to you (or near you) in the pew? Anyone else
in this congregation? Anyone else in this town? Jesus laid down his life for
the whole world, for everyone. While
we may not quite be at the point of being willing to die for everyone, nor are
most of us called to physically die in order to save others, there are some
other concrete ways that we can love each other.
The first way that comes to mind is to respect each other. Recognize that each
of us is a beloved child of God; each of us is made in his image. And when that
is the starting point for our relationship, then it changes things. In the
African-American church as well as in any Spanish-speaking church I’ve ever
been to, they refer to each other as brother and sister, like Brother George
and Sister Colleen. Those titles show respect to each other and acknowledge the
fact that we are all part of the same family, God’s family. When there is
respect, then even when there are disagreements, we can still listen to each
other and find a way forward.
That
respect is how Peter was able to explain why he went into a Gentile home and
ate with them, a huge taboo in his day. Our Acts reading starts off saying “…
the believers in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of
God,”[4]
so, that part’s good. Then it says, “when
Peter went to Jerusalem, those who were in favor of circumcising Gentiles
criticized him…”[5]
This was the whole debate, over whether Gentile believers should be
circumcised. Yay, great, God’s opened up salvation even to us non-Jews, us
Gentiles, which I know includes me, and includes you, too, unless you have some
Jewish heritage. So, the believers are
on board so far. Yay, salvation for the
whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.
However, just as new believers were baptized, some believers thought
they also should be circumcised. Circumcision was a mark of belonging to God,
from the Old Testament. And part of the way Jews kept themselves holy was by
not mingling with non-Jews. The dietary
food laws included where you ate, and eating at the home of a Gentile was a
huge no-no. Now, part of where this law came from is that back in the Old
Testament, whenever God’s people hung out with others, they forgot about God
and followed other gods and worshiped other gods. So, keep in mind the purpose
of this law was to keep God’s people from forgetting about God. And yet, here’s
Peter, the key disciple, going in a Gentile home and eating with them! Yet they
respected Peter, so some of them criticized him, and then they all listened to
him as he gave his explanation. Acts recounts three times a version of this
story, first when it happened, then again as Peter explains it all to the
Gentiles he was with, and then again as Peter explains it to the believers of
Jewish descent. There are a couple key
phrases from all three versions of this story. The one that always sticks in my
mind most is Peter saying, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show
partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in every nation,
whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”[6]
That’s Peter’s way of saying that salvation is even for the Gentiles, too. Then there’s the line that God speaks to
Peter in the vision, “Never consider unclean what God has declared clean.”[7]
That addressed the food restrictions. And because the other believers respected
Peter, they listened to him, and believed him.
Along
with love as respecting and listening to each other is also an instruction to not be that distraction or disturbance
yourself. In Romans, Paul writes, “So
then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to put
a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister.”[8]
The example Paul gives here is about food, again: “I know and I’m convinced in
the Lord Jesus that nothing is wrong to eat in itself. But if someone thinks
something is wrong to eat, it becomes wrong for that person. If your brother or
sister is upset by your food, you are no longer acting from love. Do not let
the food that you eat ruin the person for whom Christ died! Do not let what you
regard as good get a bad name. For God's Kingdom is not a matter of eating and
drinking, but of the righteousness, peace, and joy which the Holy Spirit gives.
And when you serve Christ in this way, you please God and are approved by
others.”[9]
This gets back at what is noble and what is peaceable and what is not a
stumbling block for others. We’ve all had stumbling blocks put in our way. Sometimes
we put them there ourselves; sometimes it’s just life. And sometimes, someone
else has put that obstacle, that disturbance in our path. And it’s not loving,
it’s not respectful, it’s not life-giving. So, be aware when what you’re
considering doing or saying might be that unhealthy distraction to others. It
shouldn’t happen here in church any more than it should happen anywhere else.
Loving each other as Christ loves us means building each other up, not
negatively interfering in their relationship with God.
We’re
here to help each other along the way, and that brings us to one more way to
love each other, by serving each other.
I got tired of listening to the soundtrack to “Frozen” in the car, so I got the
kids another CD, Veggie Tales Sunday School Songs. The song called “Love Your Neighbor” has a
line that says, “Loving means lending a hand.”[10]
That is how we often define love for little kids. The concrete thing you do as
a little kid if you love someone is to help them out when you can. That’s how
we explain it to kids. Loving means
lending a hand, it means helping, it means caring for each other; in Christian
terms, it means serving. This serving takes on a variety of expressions,
depending on the need. This short passage we read from John where Jesus tells
us to love each other just as he has loved us, comes at the end of the
discussion which began when he washed the disciples’ feet at the last supper
with all 12 disciples present. Jesus gets out a bowl of water and ties a towel
around his waist, and just like a servant of the times, washes the feet of his
disciples. Feet in those times were not like our feet. They’d be much more
weathered, more callused, tanned by the sun, and oh so dirty by walking in
sandals. I remember when I came back from Nicaragua for my sister’s wedding,
and the comment here was “Heather, your feet are so brown!” because I’d worn
sandals so much. When I returned to
Nicaragua, the comment was “Heather, your feet are so clean!” because I hadn’t
been walking in sandals in dirt but on pavement and concrete. So, in 1st
century Palestine, when you arrived at your destination, instead of your host
taking your coat, servants were there to wash your feet and get off the dust
and dirt of the road. That’s what Jesus does for his disciples, even Judas, who
immediately leaves to betray Jesus to the authorities, and even Peter, who goes
on to deny him three times before the cock crows. Jesus loves them so much,
even knowing all that.
And
we are to love each other in the same way. Even knowing our flaws, even aware
that none of us is perfect, even knowing that at some point we’ll all mess up. We
love each other, anyway, through respect, through listening, by caring for each
other, serving each other, and by doing our best to not be that stumbling block
that prevents another from loving and serving. Disturbances happen. It may
start raining when you’re at an outdoor concert. Just don’t let yourself be an
obstacle in someone else’s relationship with God. God says he is making all
things new,[11]
and that includes us and our relationships and our church as well. If we continued on with that Romans passage I
was quoting earlier, it says, “so then, we must always aim at those things that
bring peace and that help strengthen one another.”[12]
That’s our goal on this Christian journey as we help and love each other along
the way. What’s peaceable, what’s holy, what’s life-giving, that’s what love is
and what we want our love to look like.
