Acts 10: 44-48 Psalm 98
1 John 5: 1-6 John 15: 9-17
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We’re going to play a little word association game this morning. When I say a word, you, all of you, right where you are seated…just say whatever word comes to mind. It’s not hard. Here, let’s practice:
Ice cream and _________ Peaches and__________ (note how I came up with food references).
Now let’s try it with Beatle’s tunes…
All you need is _________ (love.)
And now, an entire phrase for you to complete….Think of your fellow man, lend them a helping hand…..(put a little love in your heart)
So let’s try it with Mother’s Day phrases, ready?
A Mother’s__________ love.
What about this one? God is___________ love.
Today we heard from both the Gospel reading from John’s Gospel and from the first letter of John about love. Both readings remind us that the central tenant of the Christian faith is, in fact, love. So, while it may seem obvious to us that what we have been called to be about in the world as followers and disciples of Christ is love, I fear that this message has somehow gotten lost.
Since it’s Mother’s Day, maybe your thoughts were drawn today to some of the ways your mother expressed (or expresses)her love to you. In addition to tell you she loved you….did she wash your clothes? Teach you to tie your shoes? Did she worry about you? Did she make you do your chores? One of the ways my mother showed her love to me was by sending me newspaper clippings. Especially when I was in college, my mom would send me articles she’d clipped from the newspaper on personal safety…don’t go places by yourself at night….or about safe driving…. young women who almost fell asleep at the wheel. Of course I don’t do this for Taylor…I just forward her articles on the internet. It’s the 21st century version of mailing newspaper clippings. But my mom was showing her love for me. Be safe. Drive carefully. I love you.
This is my commandment, wrote John, that you love one another as I have loved you.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey God’s commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey God’s commandments.
It’s a classic circular argument. We know that we love God’s children, one another, when we obey God’s command to us that we love one another.
It should be that easy. God is love. God commands us to love. And we have some idea of what love is and what love is not.
But somehow, somewhere along the way, the church has become less and less about love and more and more about fear. We are afraid that if we love everyone, we lose something. We lose power. We lose authority. We lose control. But friends, those were not ours to start with. Power, authority, control…those belong to God.
All that God asks of us…the only thing God expects from us is love.
Recent research by the Barna Group has noted that when non-Christian Americans between the age of 16-40 hear the word “Christian”, the first word that 91percent of them think of is “Anti-homosexual”. 91 percent. Somehow we have failed to share the message that God is love and we’ve replaced it with a message of intolerance and judgment. I use the “we” term broadly. I know that it is not this church’s message, or the message of our national church body. We are a church who believes in the value of all people, without exception, fully and wholly. We believe that this is God’s model and God’s command.
But somehow, we have not done a very good job of spreading that word. Of sharing our beliefs. There are others, who also call themselves Christians, who claim to believe in the same Jesus we do, who share words of judgment and hatred…of bigotry and prejudice, of intolerance toward anyone who is different in any way. And that is not love. That is fear.
Among the earliest followers of Jesus, Peter was one of the most zealous. Peter, up until this point in the reading from Acts today, argued vehemently that in order to be included in this new Jesus-movement, in order to be a part of the church, you had to be circumcised and you had to follow all of the dietary laws and restrictions of the Jewish faith. Peter was drawing the line….here are the insiders and there are the outsiders. Us. Them. Because what would happen if we let in people who would eat just anything? What would happen if we let in people who are not anatomically marked with the sign of God’s covenant? Oh, it would lead to all sorts of madness! It was fear speaking. Fear, because apparently even Peter had forgotten all about Jesus’ words about love…and he had heard Jesus speak them.
How is it that 91 percent of young, non-Christian Americans hear the church speak a word of fear before they hear it speak a word of love?
Turn to the headlines.
A church based little league baseball team forfeited the title game rather than play against a team that had a girl on the roster.
This is my commandment, that you love one another.
The House of Bishops is scrutinizing its support of the Girl Scouts because they believe that the views of this organization are too liberal. Among other things a Girl Scout troop in Colorado accepted warmly into it’s midst a seven year old child who was transgendered.
By this we know that we love the children of God…
Nuns in the United States, among the most tireless champions of the poor and outcast, are being investigated for not speaking out against women’s rights. The investigation is being led by the archbishop of Seattle.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
The Westboro Baptist Church pickets the funerals of military personnel saying that their death is God’s wrath upon America because our President is black, and some of our sisters and brothers are gay. Hard to believe, but there it is on their website: www.godhatesfags.com. Or visit their sister site www.beastobama.com.
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Sisters and brothers….the world is not hearing the church, no, the world is not hearing Christians speaking words of love. The world is hearing Christians speaking words of hatred, bigotry, and fear. And the reason that 91% hear fear instead of love is that the voices of love are not speaking loudly enough. Somehow we can cheer for our sports teams and put the details of our daily lives on Facebook, but we can’t share God’s love with a world that is hurting. We cannot, or we have not, spoken the words of God’s love in the face of injustice and fear.
In Peter’s case, it took a dream and a foreigner and the Holy Spirit moving mightily for Peter to come to understand that his task as a follower of Jesus Christ was not to judge. It was not to label “insiders” and “outsiders” but it was to share God’s love. And so as he baptized those Gentiles that day, even Peter was changed. (Read all of Acts 10).
We have been chosen by God for this work. It’s right there in our Gospel reading. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last…
The fruits of the Spirit are not hatred, bigotry, intolerance, injustice and fear. They are joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness….and yes….love.
Christ died that we would share love, not fear, with one another. We’ve been chosen and appointed….now, what are we going to do?
0 Comments