Today’s gospel reading starts where we left off last Sunday, a continuation of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse to his disciples: Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he would no longer walk the earth with them. We talked last week about how the disciples must have been feeling about Jesus’ leaving them. He was the Messiah, he wasn’t supposed to just up and leave them! This Farewell Discourse is full of words of encouragement, care and love. But they are so bereft that Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled, they won’t be alone because his Father will send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. (14.25-27) And then to further illustrate the point he tells them “I am the vine you are the branches.”; a beautiful visual image of connection. And he invites them to ‘abide’ in him, as the branches abide in the vine. We begin today where we left off last week, ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandment and abide in his love.: (vs 9,10) Two really BIG words in here, love and abide.
We talked a bit about the word ‘abide’ last week, and how it’s a weird word for us to hear these days, yet so very important in John’s gospel because he uses the word over and over again—about 45 times. One dictionary definition was ‘to remain’[1]. The Common English Version of the Bible uses ‘stay joined to me’ instead of abide. So, Jesus calls us to abide, to remain in him, to stay joined to him, as Jesus abides in God. And in so doing, we abide, we stay connected to God’s love, through Jesus. Jesus wants us to fill ourselves with the love of God, the love that flows through him to us, and then hold onto that love, so we remain connected to Jesus, and we live in that love. Why? Jesus explains: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” So, take time each day to sit and let the life force, the love of Christ into your soul, because in Christ’s love is complete joy! Abide in Christ’s love.
We could say love might be John’s second favourite word—he use is 39 times in his gospel. In English we have only one word for love, and we know that it has multiple meanings and connotations. Greek has different words for the different kinds of love, and the one used in this passage is agapē. Here’s a definition for agapē ‘love’:
Love in this sense...(is) an excellence of character that God has by nature, and in which we participate by grace. Such love is primarily interest in the good of the other person rather than one’s own. ... (O)ne can have a few good friends and fewer lovers, but one can have agapē for all.[2]
Love is for sharing, as God in Christ gives us love, we too are to share that love with others. How? Well, Jesus makes it easy for his followers: “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (15.7)
Jesus is acknowledging their relationship had changed. It was no longer a relationship based on Christ’s Lordship, and their servitude to him, but one of genuine love. Jesus wanted more from the relationship between himself and the disciples, the relationship had grown. They no longer were just his servants, his students, but his friends, and friendships come from care and love. And when we love another, we give and take and do for each other to be there for each other, to do for someone else, because we love them.
God loves us, Christ loves us, and what does God, the ultimate giver of love need from us? That simple commandment, love one another. This is how we show God how we love God -- by showing God’s love with others. When we abide in the love of God in Christ, we have the strength to share that love with others. We are the branches that bear that fruit for God! We share the love, and God’s love is for everyone.
Throughout this season of Easter, which goes to Pentecost Sunday, we’ve also been reading from the Book of Acts. It is the story of the development of the earliest days of Christian Church by the followers of Jesus after his Ascension. What strikes me when I read Acts are stories like we had last week and again today, stories of how God’s love is for everyone, it’s indiscriminate. The Holy Spirit, the loving Spirit of God falls upon all kinds of people; and this affected the development of this newly budding religious movement. It wasn’t always sweetness and light. Acts documents disagreements between the leadership and within church members about how to put into practise the teachings of Jesus and the influences of the Holy Spirit since Jesus’ Ascension. There were ways things had always been done, how people had been taught to believe, and now much of that was changing! This inclusive kind of love was a radically new concept!
Last week we heard the story of the disciple Philip being directed by an angel of God to go to an Ethiopian eunuch and explain the scriptures to him. The eunuch was riding along in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah, yet not understanding what he was reading. Philip is directed by the Spirit to go to the chariot and help. Philip explains the scripture to him and in the context of the good news about Jesus the Christ. The eunuch now understands and has an epiphany moment, you could say. He asks what is to prevent him from being baptized? Nothing, it seems, not his “foreign” Gentile ethnicity, not his physical debility as a eunuch—neither stands in the way of full fellowship with God’s people. So Philip baptizes the eunuch, despite Jewish laws to the contrary, on both counts, his being a Gentile and a eunuch! Even Philip reaching out just to teach the man was a breach of protocol.
Today’s reading from Acts is the concluding verses of a much larger and interesting story. You may recall the accounting of Peter’s dream when a sheet comes down from heaven full of all kinds of animals that were considered to be unclean for Jews to eat. And the voice of Jesus tells him in the dream to kill and eat, which initially shocks Peter, who says he’s never eaten anything unclean. He has this same dream three times and he hears: “‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’” (Acts 10.15) While Peter is pondering the implications of this, the Lord’s voice comes to him to tell him some men will come to his door inviting him to visit the home of one Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, an officer in the Roman army, who by the way, was well thought of by the Jews for his beliefs and lifestyle. So Peter and a group of his fellow believers from Joppa go with the men to Cornelius’ home.
“28 Peter told Cornelius, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. 29 So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me.”30 Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. 31 He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! 32 Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ 33 So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.” (Acts 10. 28 -33NLT)
And so, Peter began to teach them. This is the group of folk we read about in our reading from Acts today. And as Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit falls upon all of them, Jews and Gentiles alike. And the Jews, the ‘circumcised believers’ who came with Peter are astounded. God’s Holy Spirit falls upon non-Jews? This is totally unexpected, this is shocking! What does this mean? That God accepts Gentiles too? Well, Peter most certainly seemed to think so, because he says to the crowd: “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he orders them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, no doubt scandalous for some who were there. The Gentiles are fully welcomed and included in this new religious community that worships Jesus the Christ. This was radical for it’s time!
This openness and acceptance of non-Jews was challenging for this newly forming Christian movement. Remember Jesus’ first followers were Jewish, they believed and followed the Jewish way of life—all the social, behavioural and dietary laws, including strict laws about circumcision for males and relationships between Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and a host of other things. Jesus broke down some of those barriers in his ministry, but these two stories of Phillip and Peter’s experiences take acceptance and inclusion yet another step. As you read further into the book of Acts you can read about the challenges these changes and others brought to the members of this developing group of Jesus’ followers, soon to come to be known as Christians. It was a rocky road, at times. Some decisions were contentious; there was not always unanimity about the decisions that were made.
Within the Anglican Church we too have points of contention and disagreement, both in the Canadian Church and the wider Anglican Communion. If you’re of an age you will recall the disagreement over the new prayer book, as it was then known, using the Book of Alternative Services instead of the purple Book of Common Prayer. People left the church over that one. The ordination of women—accepted in Canada in 1976 caused people to leave the church and still remains a sore spot in more conservative places. England only relatively recently ordained its first female bishop. And an ongoing point of contention in our country and in wider Church is the acceptance of the LGBT community. In this Diocese, we ordain gay clergy, and our Bishop has approved of gay marriage in consenting communities.
Your church council made a motion at its last meeting to fly the pride flag this year for pride month. We discussed it last year, and there were some voiced concerns and it was decided not do so. Some were relieved with that decision, some were hurt, some didn’t really care either way. The council requested that I put together some opportunities for education and discussion about acceptance and inclusion of LGBT people in our churches. It’s not something I am well versed in, so I am currently working with Rev. Alex Jebson from Blyth & Brussels United Churches to do this, as he’s done something similar in his churches. We are hosting 2 sessions at St. Paul’s-Trinity on 2 successive Wednesdays, the 22nd and 29th. And we will also open this up to the community at large to join us. I am sure that there are people in this community who are looking for a church home that will accept and acknowledge them for who they are, as a loved and beloved child of God. And you are such a loving and caring Christian community!
And that is what church is for, what church is all about. Going out into the world to love and serve God, bearing fruit for God; and welcoming everyone into God’s love in Christ. Jesus commanded his followers to love others. And we keep that commandment --not just because we’re God’s servants, which of course we are, and not because we have to, but because we choose to, out of our love for God. And by sharing God’s amazing and incredible generosity and yes, radical love for all people. Amen
[1] Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary (Lippincott & Crowell Publishers, 1988)
[2] David S. Cunningham. In Theological Perspective for John 15: 9-17 in Feasting on the Word, Year B Vol. 2 p. 499