All your doctrines lined up and in place.... 5th Sunday of Easter

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER    Year C   April 24, 2016

 Acts 11:1-18   Psalm 148  Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35

Recently I’ve been seeing a number of posts on facebook and hearing many people talk about being separate from those who are different.  Many of these are Christians who believe that they need to separate themselves from those who, according to them, do not interpret the word of God correctly and are therefore “unclean”.

After sadly stumbling upon a very derogatory video I felt compelled to post a status about how sad I felt.  The video talked about the problem of the world today being that “men love hores”.  Disgusting even to repeat, but this phrase was repeated over and over and described modern woman as being such.   The presenter of the video was a self-proclaimed man of God…. I would beg to differ! 

How interesting that our readings for this weekend present an opportunity for talking about this attitude that breeds judgement –this attitude which has an appearance of piety but is in fact a long way from the heart of God and is just down right wrong!

The first reading comes from Acts 11 and in verses 1-3 we read;  “Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?"

To explain; Gentile (uncircumcised) were considered “Unclean”.  Now, these who questioned are the very apostles who followed Jesus around during his ministry on earth.  Do you remember anything about that ministry?  Well let me remind you what these loyal Born Again and Spirit-filled followers had forgotten; Jesus was one who was often in trouble with the church officials because he hung out with the sinners.  He touched sick people (ie UNCLEAN) and he spoke with gentiles…. Even healing some of their sick.

OH… if you could hear me telling you this… you would see me most passionate!!!!   

 How can Born Again, Evangelical and Spirit-filled Christians have even asked Peter about eating with Gentiles, let alone criticized him???   And guess what…..???  Born Again, Evangelical and Spirit-filled Christians are still doing it!

There are those who will say that we must be separate from those bad old Catholics because they don’t have the right doctrine and therefore they are “Unclean”.  There are others that will say the same about the Pentecostals….  There are supposed Christians that will say you can only be a Christian if you keep the commandments – that means worshiping on the Sabbath…. Therefore all others are “UNCLEAN”.  And the list goes on…..

In the believers defence, they had been conditioned by their culture and by God’s own law, that there were certain traditions and very good laws that they must keep.  In fact God had to give Peter a very sure vision (3 times) about eating UNCLEAN food so that he would understand that God was telling him to BREAK that God-given law.

Now, why would God give a law and then tell Peter to break it?

Thinking….   Thinking…. Thinking…..

This is where common sense and the whole word of God must come together.  Those who get caught up in these things need to realize the instances in the Bible, the sacred word of God, when God’s law was broken and God was happy about it.  Studying these may serve better lessons than blindly and religiously keeping the Law - Which by the way, no one can perfectly do… only one did – but according the Pharisees and the Jewish religious officials, he, the Son of God, actually broke them….and so they crucified him.

In a time before refrigeration it only stands to reason that there needed to be some rules about food and UNCLEAN food was the more inclined to be quite practically troublesome.  There were also practical reasons that God demanded a religious separation….. God desired  the good of His chosen people whom he entrusted with His message and.... for starters, the cultures all around them believed in child and human sacrifices, and the Bible gives instances of God talking about this being an abomination.  So, yes… good reasons for this requirement, and yet there were still many times when blessings came through mixed unions… in fact these can be found in the human ancestry of Christ.

Even way back in that Old Testament, God had proclaimed that his people were to be a blessing to the world.  Jesus came and died for all, but how could his message reach the non-Jew if the Jews were not permitted to mix with others?  There were always converts to Judaism but that was not God’s plan…..  and still is not, He did not come to make us all Jews - though many confused Christians might encourage the adherence to those ancient Judaic laws and confuse you.

Peter was forgiven for his lapse in Jewish etiquette, when his critics saw that the Holy Spirit had been given to the gentiles, as this proved Gods approval.  How can you argue with that?  You can’t!  But in this day and age you will find that Christians can’t so easily recognise the Holy Spirit and where it is falling….  We forget to look for it.  I challenge us all to pray for our spiritual eyes to be opened…. In fact maybe the lack of the Holy Spirit is in our part and not in the “UNCLEAN”.

Let me tell you just a little about the other readings.  They talk about God dwelling with His people and making all things new…. Including Jerusalem.  This is not talking about a literal Jerusalem, but a spiritual one, indicating the precious home of God’s people and this includes us Gentiles – we are no longer UNCLEAN, we have been made clean by the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came on the feast of Pentecost – Pentecost is the feast of the law…. A New Law was given on the very day of the feast of the Old law.

If I have not yet convinced you, let me point you toward our Gospel reading.  We read from the Gospel of John chapter 13:34-35 “ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

It is obvious to all those outsiders who look in at us that we are badly in need of a Holy Spirit revival, because they can see that there is no love.  The Holy Spirit comes to us, and is God dwelling in us…. God who saves and not condemns…. God who rescues and heals…. God who is love!  I’m so tired of the judging and rejecting.  Please let’s love instead.