FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Year C May 15, 2022
In the weeks
since Easter we’ve been presented with various resurrection messages from our
readings. Firstly, reflecting on an
experience with God we are called to transform.
Then we, the transformed and converted, are challenged to believe fully
and know what we believe. This week we
learn about how God wants us to live.
Our reading
from Acts tells the story of Peter being challenged by the circumcised
believers. Firstly, we need to
understand that these are Jews, and that the first Christians were Jews. Sometimes we forget this and the fact that
there are many Jewish people still, who are Christian.
Now these
Jewish Christians of Peter’s time were people who understood the Old Testament
scriptures and how the prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled in
Jesus. Those who were not circumcised –
the non-Jews- could not possibly
understand the message they way that they did. As well as this, those Jewish Christians felt
that Jesus was their personal Messiah, and the Messiah of their own culture - it
was a promise that God made and revealed to his chosen people – to them. In fact, there are many things that we miss,
or don’t understand in the scriptures because we don’t know the history or the
culture in which the scriptures were written.
In the
tradition of these Jews, there were many rites and rituals, and as a people
who’d just found and accepted the Messiah, their zeal and passion for their
faith was renewed. As you know, some of
these precepts laid down in their law were that you didn’t eat certain foods,
and many things needed to be done certain ways.
Imagine that
someone today, who had never known anything of church, suddenly became a
Christian. They might walk into a church
wearing a shirt with a profane saying on it, or they might call out during the
service, not realizing the way that we do things. It would be rather unsettling. But this pales in contrast to the kind of
thing that the early church was facing, as they had many rules about keeping
their sacred things separate from the Gentiles (i.e. the non-Jews).
Peter had
been shown a vision where God clearly called him to do something that, in his
tradition, was forbidden. The vision had
been shown to Peter three times and this is one of those things that Peter
understood from his culture, that the matter – being shown three times – meant
it was a contract… It was confirmed and made sure.
I imagine
that Peter, at this time, though obedient to God’s call, was still
perplexed. When Peter went and shared
the message of Christ to the non-Jewish people and the Holy Spirit came upon
them, it must have blown Peter’s mind.
At this point he understood that the message of God’s salvation was
offered to all and not just to the Jewish or “chosen” race.
Throughout
the Old Testament there are scriptures that declared that all the nations would
be blessed through Israel, but just how that was interpreted, it seemed, was
different to the reality. (Genesis 22:18
God to Abraham – “And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be
blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”).
My guess is that Israel saw themselves as some how being the leaders of
the world. They were, after all, God’s
chosen people.
Revelations
is a book of prophecy and prophecy is fulfilled in a variety of ways. Our
reading today tells us; “ …the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with
them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and
crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
This is a
declaration for the future, but it is also a declaration for today. God himself, through his Holy Spirit, dwells
with us. Although we do still have pain
and mourn, we also know that Jesus has overcome death and that there is eternal
life in him. There is a more complete
fulfillment of the prophecy to come, but we have a foretaste now in the
presence of Jesus with us, through the Holy Spirit. In this ultimate prophecy there is no
distinction between Jew or Gentile (us – the non-Jew). We all have this promise through the
resurrection of Jesus.
In this
verse we have an understanding about God.
He understands our tears. In
fact, there is a Psalm that tells us that God collects our tears. We are so precious to him and he cares so
much for us that he counts every tear as precious.
Our
Revelations reading ends with; “… "It is done! I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift
from the spring of the water of life.” Note
this collision of identity between Jesus and God, confirming the deity of Jesus. He is the beginning and the end… God. Are we thirsty? Are we thirsty for the life that God gives?
The life God
gives and His message of Salvation is always a bit of a surprise. The people always expect a God of power,
wrath and vengeance. God is a God of
power. God is a God of such passion that
the ancient writers spoke of his wrath… but his wrath is out of love for his
people…. An anger due to our actions causing others or even ourselves harm and pain.
Today, we
read about the story of Peter, a Jew fully accepting the Gentile believers, and
we naturally think of the divisions in our society. We think of divisions that have happened over
the years and beliefs that proliferated racism.
Surely in 2022 we realize that such beliefs are wrong, and if we don’t,
then possibly, we have not understood the message of Jesus at all.
In case it isn’t clear enough from the story of Peter in Acts, we have the same
message coming from our Gospel reading.
The same message, but different. Where our Acts reading makes it clear
that both Jews and Gentiles are loved by God, our Gospel message is simply to
love one another as Christ loves us. In
my mind, if we love one another there is no room for racism or other divisions.
In our
Gospel reading it begins with something curious which seems to be disjointed
from the new commandment to love one another.
And when something appears to not fit, it is always worth looking into
more deeply as then we find that it is actually crucial to the interpretation. The Gospel reading begins by talking about Glory.
The word for
exalt or glorify actually means to lift up on high. All through the Gospel of John the language
Jesus used, often spoke about himself being lifted up. He was talking about being lifted up on a
cross. Literally he was lifted up on the
cross, but the deeper meaning is that he was exalted … .. almost a play on words, but Jesus’
interpretation is deliberate and it comes to its culmination in this passage
where Jesus talks bout being glorified by the father.
How this
being lifted up and being glorified fits with the whole message is that Jesus
is actually redefining Glory. Glory
isn’t about being above others, lording it over them. Glory, in the economy of Jesus, is to lay
down your life out of love for others.
Jesus
continues his message with the giving of a NEW commandment. This is also a little puzzling, as Jesus
always talked about loving others and summed up the commandments into loving
God and loving others. The key to
understanding how this could be a NEW commandment is to realize that it was new
because there was about to be a new understanding of what love actually
was. Jesus was going to the cross out of
love for you and me, and he asks that we love each other in the same way that he
has loved us.
To say the
two greatest commandments, is easy. It
is simplified into loving God and loving others, but to love one another as
Christ has loved us is somewhat frightening because it means laying down our
lives for each other.
Practically,
what does it mean to lay down our lives for each other? It doesn’t mean meekly laying down and
letting people walk on us. We love our
kids and we don’t do this, so please don’t misunderstand. However, we put up with a whole lot of
impositions for our children. We
sacrifice our time, our money and so much energy for our children. We will argue with our children to show them
the way that is best for them because we dearly love them, and when they still
make bad decisions, we are still there to help them out regardless. We make sacrifices for our children, and will
even bare their resentment if we know it is for their good in the end.
It is easy
to understand God’s kind of love when we think in terms of our children. When it comes to each other it is more
difficult because our relationship is as equals and not as a parent to a child,
but the analogy is worth thinking about as it helps us to understand our
responsibility to each other and how we need to love.
Often, we
are happy to disagree with each other, but we don’t do it out of love and it is
obvious. The interactions don’t contain
an attitude of love nor any indication of laying down of lives one for the
other. We are all the children of God
and he has given us his Holy Spirit. God
dwells in each of us. We can not
actually keep the first commandment to love God if we do not also keep the
second commandment and love others, seeing as God is dwelling there.
Peter knew
that his own people would criticize his actions and possibly ostracize him
because of it, but Peter was willing to bare that shame because God had
commanded him.
For Jesus to
be arrested was an embarrassing thing.
To be spat at, whipped and all manner of taunting, was humiliating – and
he was God incarnate. What the world saw
as shame, Jesus called it glory. We too
are called to live gloriously with this redefinition of Glory and the New
understanding of the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us.
No comments:
Post a Comment