A New Commandment (Easter 5c, May 15th, 2022)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER   Year C   May 15, 2022

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

 

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.