May 2, 2010
The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year C)
Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6;
John 13:31-35
Peter had a vision. He was not the first in the bible to have such an experience, a vision, a dream. That was often God’s way of speaking to his people, and still is. And Peter’s vision was such that his world was once again turned upside down. Again not an unusual occurrence when God speaks to us. But poor Peter, not just once but three times he was subjected to this vision. Three times! Remember how he denied Jesus three times? Then three times he was asked by Jesus “do you love me?” and told to feed my lambs, my sheep three times. And now we come to this vision of all the so-called unclean animals being lowered from heaven in “something like a sheet.” Three times it happens – I think there is no doubt that Peter’s calling and authority is affirmed!
And then at the very moment that this weird sheet full of animals is pulled up again into heaven, three men (note, again, three!) from Caesarea appear and Peter feels the Spirit tell him to accompany them back to the house of Cornelius. Cornelius, a Gentile, has sent for Peter to bring the message of Jesus, salvation, to him and to his household. And as Peter was speaking to them the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon Peter and the disciples. It is then that Peter puts it all together and realizes the incredible fullness of God’s grace, that the message of God’s love and forgiveness and salvation was, is, for all people, not just a chosen few, that was in his world for the Gentiles, not just the Jews. What a revelation! So what is the next step?
Jesus had said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Oh, yes, the disciples had heard that, over and over again. We have heard it over and over again. But it is not a matter of hearing and knowing but of doing – doing love!
Now how does one “do love?” That’s a very good question. And one that I have pondered as I wrote this sermon. Every sermon, for me, begins with this question, “God, I’ve got these readings, what do you want me to say?” Usually that is followed by “God, what am I asking?” But I trust and I continue to pray and I hope that what I say is what God wants me to say.
So, with that in mind, how do we, this congregation, this church, “do love?” Now and in the future! There is so much hurt and anger and probably distrust as well as unbelief and amazement and frustration among us. There are people in this congregation who believe they have been justified in what they have done; there are people who ask, “Why is this happening?” “What happened?” “Why is Gale leaving?” There are those who think all will be well after Gale has gone. There are those who consider we are being punished by the diocese by the financial decisions being made. And I know there are many more emotional responses being said and left unsaid.
My grandmother, a very wise woman, used to say, “You made your bed, now you lie in it!” Yes, we have made our bed, all of us, by commission, by omission, by burying our heads in the sand, by not asking questions, by not calling people to account, by not being accountable ourselves. Yes, we have all, and I mean, all, sinned. And I know that’s a word we don’t like to hear, “sin.” That’s what other people do, bad people, not us! But the truth is we have sinned. We have sinned against each other, we have sinned against Gale, there are those who will say Gale has sinned against us, and I know she has admitted to making mistakes, sinning, but above all we have sinned against God because we have not “done love.”
Peter, without the vision he had, would probably have gone on happily maintaining a Jewish Christian community. He may never have got out of the box. But God was not to be denied – an unintentional double entendre, on my part. God and the message of salvation is for all people. It has been delivered to us by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For others, Buddhists, Moslems, Hindi, native Americans, and many others, I believe, it can be and is delivered in other ways. But I do believe there is but one God, Supreme Being, Power, Allah, the name is immaterial, whom all people eventually acknowledge. [Now I realize I am expressing an opinion on what has been a hot topic recently on NPR and in the Boston Globe. Maybe we should consider having an Adult Ed. program on it sometime soon.]
But at that moment in time Peter’s eyes were opened by his strange vision to the simple fact that God, his God, loves all people, forgives all people, bestows his grace on all people. That God does not discriminate. The visit to Cornelius affirmed this fact for Peter as he saw the Holy Spirit fall upon that household just as it had fallen upon the disciples and himself, as he says, “at the beginning,” the beginning of their corporate ministry after the resurrection.
It is in relating this story to his critics in Jerusalem that Peter made a most profound statement, maybe the most profound of his whole life. He said, “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”
“Who was I that I could hinder God?” If Peter could ask that question of himself, so can we ask it of ourselves. “Who are we that we can hinder God?” Once we acknowledge our sinfulness in hindering God, then we can move on to asking forgiveness, to making amends, offering repentance, to changing our lives to be in sync with God.
It is at that point that I believe that we will be able to “do love,” to acknowledge from the heart, not just the mind, that God is in control, that it is God’s will that we need to seek and discern, that we need to pray from the depths of our being, not just saying words, but living them.
Every week we affirm our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed. Every few weeks, such as last week, we not only affirm our faith but we also pledge ourselves to certain actions in the words of the Baptismal Covenant. There is printed on the inside front cover of our bulletins our own Good Shepherd Covenant, based on the Baptismal Covenant.
We end that with the prayer: “God, help me to be Jesus’ love in what I say and do.” It does not say “help me to love like Jesus.” No, it says help me to BE the love of Jesus! Walk in his sandals. See the world through his eyes. I think when we do that, when we put aside our own agenda, we will be on the way to “doing” love, to being the people God wants us to be, people who will take risks, people who will be responsible, people who will be willing to call the community to account when it goes astray, people who will look at themselves and ask, "Is what I am about hindering God?” That is God’s love that Jesus commanded us to do.
On a very personal note I have been angry and maybe I still am, but I am trying very hard to listen to God. As the night prayer from the NZ Prayer Book says, “What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.” (p. 184) So, let us each and every one of us learn from the past, the good as well as the bad. It is time for us to look for visions, visions of forgiveness, of grace, and above all of LOVE, Jesus’ love, and to go out and DO IT.
I invite you to pray with me, to ask God to help us not only to BE Jesus’ love but to DO Jesus’ love.
Amen.
Sonia F. G. Stevenson, M. Div.
Church of the Good Shepherd