Sixth Sunday of Easter

Welcome Statement

Good Morning Everyone. We are now in the 6th week of easter, next week will be Ascension Sunday, where Christ will ascend, and take his rightful place on the Throne, marking the end of the Easter season as the 7th Sunday of Easter. As we prepare for our goodbyes to the son, the lectionary puts us in some tough passages about the consistent command of sharing the love of Christ now imprinted on our hearts, to all people, in all contexts.

1st NT Reading - John 15:9-17

John 15:9–17 LEB

“Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you in order that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made complete. This is my commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I have heard from my Father I have revealed to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. These things I command you: that you love one another.

Remain in Love By Keeping the Commandments

What are the Commandments Christ is asking us to keep to stay within his love? Let us back track to Matthew:

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Grace we are bestowed upon from God is built upon in faith, faith in itself is a trust and love into God. By trusting God, we are in turn, turning around and telling God we will allow him to reflect his image through us. This is where things get tricky however. Is Christ saying that he will stop loving us if we don’t let his love flow through us perfectly? If we aren’t loving at all times of the day, will he stop loving us? No, it is not about us losing his love, it is about us finding ourselves distanced from it. I have to be careful with how I explain this, because I don’t want to suggest a sort of works righteousness, or get into the extremes of social holiness, but as one becomes more sanctified in God, and follows more closely with God, they can find themselves experiencing a deeper sense of awe from Christ’s love in their lives, when they choose to fall away from it, by not expressing it as fully, they can in turn feel farther from God. These are those times of spiritual dryness. But we can also feel spiritual dryness despite following the “rulebook”, so these are not hard and fast rules, Christ is just telling us, if we want to stay close to him, we must exhibit his character, to spiritually prepare our hearts for the spirit.

A Narrow Road

So, we realize that God isn’t just giving us a free pass through his love, he’s telling us to share it. Just as Christ calls his apostles his friends, and is telling them they are not his slaves, he is turning around and giving them a command to follow, a discipline. This is the nuance, the awkwardness of the Narrow Path of Christ. The law never gets abolished, Christ fulfills it, but he fulfills it with a new command that is filled with love, not bullet points and legalism. This sovereignty of the Grace of God and of the Holy Spirit reveals itself throughout history many times, but it reveals itself really early in the church in the acts of the Apostles, in what was historically considered at the time, really unexpected ways. I’ll show you what I mean in Acts 10:44-48.

2nd NT Reading - Acts 10:44-48

Acts 10:44–48 RSV

While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Some Context

Some Context to this Story, this is near the end of act where Peter was inspired through a dream to meet Cornelius, a centurian, by first meeting some of his men at Simon’s house in Joppa. This part is the tail end of him meeting Cornelius and some other unbelievers at Caesarea after traveling there. There are a group of believers here following Peter all the way from Joppa.

The Spirit of Pentecost Spreads to Gentiles

So, those listening in Caesarea are suddenly exposed to the Holy Spirit. Peter is bewildered by this, as well as the believers that followed him. It was unheard of that anyone who wasn’t a circumcised believer, meaning someone following the law, even if adopted into it, would be exposed to the Grace of God. God revealed a new thing here, that even though Christ was fulfilling the law and not Abolishing it, and even though God is immutable and does not change his mind on Covenants, he was opening a new path for believers.

Who AM I to Withhold The Gift?

Peter realizes what God has done, they are already baptized with the spirit, they have experienced pentecost, and decides, that who are they to decide to withhold the baptism of water to invite them into the actual body, from them? They can’t, God declared it so. This is why we as Wesleyans/Methodists believe we are simply waiters of the Altar, not the Gatekeepers. We can only guide people on the path. It is on the person and God to reconcile, we can only help support and guide, even through Accountability in the Church, but Reconciliation is only between a person and God. This is what opened the path up for all of us, for everyone on planet earth, to accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. That we might be saved thanks to the gift of Christ’s sacrifice. The question then becomes. How do these scriptures apply to us today? Surely the church isn’t gate-keeping the gift of the Holy Spirit from people? I won’t make any claims one way or another. But I do know there are times I see someone failing in a flawed way as a human, and I remember, Christ absolved me of my own failures, yes, I follow a discipline, I actively repent, I don’t just sit around in my sin and say “maybe I’ll do something with it next week God”, but not everyone is at that step in their story with God, that is what the Church is for, support and correction, helping people move forward. This is why I asked that question, not to start a debate, not to fingerwag, but who is it in our lives is the new generation of gentiles that we are excluding the gift of the Holy Spirit to because we can’t possibly see how God could reach them? As Peter said, “Surely no one can withhold the water for these people to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as we also did!”.

But, Peter wasn’t always a perfect stalwart of God’s vision of a unified Body.

in Galatians we read the following: Galatians 2:11-14

Galatians 2:11–14 LEB

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was condemned. For before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of those who were of the circumcision, and the rest of the Jews also joined in this hypocrisy with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with them in their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not being straightforward with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

How many times have we offered this Great and Beautiful news to people, but kept them at arms length once they joined? Or silently judged or questioned something about them because they didn’t fit the usual sin profile of what is acceptable and not a mortal sin? Have we forgotten the only unforgivable sin is the complete rejection of the Holy Spirit, the Blaspheming against it? Yes, we have to repent, but you and I know we don’t bean count our own sins, we consistently fail to keep up with repenting the failures in God’s Grace, this does not mean we give up trying, no, but we continually sanctify to do better, this is not a linear curve though, believe me, there will be backsliding for many people. We are uncomfortable with this reality, we see the Apostles as these great mythological figures, but they were regular people, the least of the least, called to a sacred mission, the MOST sacred and indescribable mission that could ever be defined in the existence of the Universe. Some talk about the Wrath of God, and pray that the Wrath of God comes one day, forgetting that Wrath may come for us if it is judged the same way it would come to other unrepentant sinners, sometimes we forget we may too be the unrepentant sinner on some circumstance. The number of things Paul describes that makes one not inherit the Kingdom of God is insurmountable and scary if you take it word for word.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 KJV 1900

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

This is why as Methodists we realize, God’s Grace and Mercy saves us, and we don’t have to bean count, but Paul also tells us, to not abuse it, to respect our temples, to realize this gift of a second life, is to not be abused, it is sacred. I just really think sometimes though, If our standard of Justice, was God’s standard, would we actually be alive in this Church, any of us, standing today? Not If I used my standard, I would be 10 feet under. I beat myself up everyday over every little thing. I don’t tolerate injustices against people who have their jobs taken away, their lives destroyed, I don’t tolerate kids having their lives destroyed, I don’t tolerate families being torn apart. When I witness the news.

I’d love nothing more than to be the Judge, jury, and executioner. But thank GOD I am not. Thank God no one is except our Righteous God, who chose to die for us instead of executing us. He didn’t even think for a second of killing anyone. We are too sacred to him for that. We are his creation. We are not to take this to get too full of ourselves, but its to say that life really is this important, sacred thing, and that God is with us, here, in our hearts, not just some Pie in the sky idea.

The thing is, People have to hear the word, they have to see the presence of the church, the love of God, we can’t just give up simply because of our own preconceived notions about people. Otherwise the Church will dry up. We can’t keep people at arms length just because they make us uncomfortable. The Church Body is unified despite our differences. Peter and Paul make this abundantly clear in their experiences, despite Peters own worldy failures with his desire to keep his social status with his buddies.

Reaching the New Generation

Now, this reaching to a new Generation. This is something I have been painfully thinking about for a long time. The next generation of Gentiles, so to speak, I’m becoming convinced, is my generation, in some sense, the misunderstandings between my generation, and even younger generations, with the older ones, is getting worse and worse. Of course it’s always the new Generation, but I believe the church is starting to shoot itself in the foot with some of its behaviors and creating an image of a Church that people my age would not be interested in partaking in, nor people younger than me. People are refusing to discuss things reasonably, everyone is on the vicious attack, its either/or, and no one can get along. I’m not saying compromise on truth, but this world, just seems insistent on getting to a dark place of othering people, regardless of which view you take on things. I am convinced, we need to repent of this behavior, reclaim the narrow path God has called us to of leading a church of peace and community, and stop acting like the Gates of Hell are barging down our doors, because they aren’t, Christ is sovereign, he has made it clear, he has already won, in everything. If we don’t believe that he has won, we are not living in his love, and it’s no wonder we are living in fear, and not exhibiting Christ’s image in our actions and behaviors, we are allowing worldy things to destroy us. We can’t allow this to happen anymore. It’s time for a positive move forward. As Christ prepares to Ascend, it’s time for us to prepare for a new mindset, focused on building a healthy church, we can lament what we’ve lost, but there is a proper way to do it, that keeps God’s mission in the forefront of everything we do.

Remember, We are ultimately called, to Love Thy Neighbor, even if they are the enemy, the most vilest, despicable thing you can imagine. There are times my face gets so red from someone I can’t take the idea of having to follow that commandment. I fail following that commandment at work so many times and in trivial situations, and in important ones too, and I wish I wouldn’t, because I have to be the example here, if I want to see that love exhibited in the church too. So let us, recommit, to that Wesleyan method of love, today, even if we aren’t perfect, but at least, we can say, we put our two cents into this world despite what the adversary says. Let us Pray.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, We thank you for your ever present love in our lives, that you reign ever victorious in all situations, no matter what it is. Today, I repent for not exhibiting your love as much as I wish I would, I repent that I am unable to exhibit this message as well as I wish I could have during a troubling moment. I wish I had the magical words to just make the world decide to freeze and undo all of the harm it has caused upon itself, and your body. Lord, Please help us all to love more fruitfully as a church, and to put worldly things to the side, and focus on your Great Commission, to make sure people know that Good News, that you are Victorious over Death, that You are the King of Life itself, that we have the utmost confidence of you in everything that happens in our lives, that we have nothing to fear. Lord, please let our souls weep for anything we hurt over, but let us move forward, and focus on the new. Let us be a Capital C church, for your Glory and your Glory alone.

Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

As you go out this week, reflect on how Christ’s love has freed you. Reflect how that love might be shared this week, how it might calm the noise in your life, how you can incorporate it in unlikely circumstances to help change your point of view on a troubling situation or issue, and help you turn to God. Let that love transform your heart and spirit, let it save you from moments of despair and weeping, so you don’t have to feel frightened by this world. Let us remember, we are United Together, as a Church. Let us exhibit the divine love of God in our lives this week.

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!