Acts 11:1-18
Peter was a good Jew. Peter lived the life of a person of faith. He attended the synagogue and went to the temple on occasion. He cared for his family and community. In fact he was such a faithful person that when the long awaited Messiah came, he recognized him. He was even the first of the disciples to confess openly that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God!
As a faithful believer in God, Peter also knew God's laws. From an early age he had learned that the Children of Israel were called to be holy and set apart. They were God's chosen people. Being God's holy people meant keeping God's laws. That meant, among other thing, not worshipping other gods, not bowing down to idols, keeping the Sabbath� It meant caring for the needy; the widows and orphans.
But it also meant staying clean. Certain things were unclean according to God's laws. Certain foods were declared unclean by God. The Gentiles knew nothing of this cleanness or holiness and did not seem to understand it. They neither practiced nor respected the cleanliness laws and so their houses were unclean. Lord only knows what uncleanness one might encounter in a Gentile's house. So many faithful Jews would not go into a Gentiles house much less eat at one.
Peter was still a faithful child of Israel, and one day as he was faithfully praying his noon prayers, perhaps facing Jerusalem as was the practice of many Jews, he had a vision. God communicated with this faithful follower of His Son in a vision. And what was in this vision? Unclean animals! And lots of them. They were lowered down from heaven on a cloth and then taken back up.
What's more the voice of God ordered Peter to rise and kill and eat these unclean animals. He had never eaten anything unclean! This happened three times. A sign that this was from God. And at the end a voice said, "What God has cleansed you must not call unclean."(Acts 11:9)
At that moment men arrived from Cesarea to get Peter. It reminds me of the story of the Centurion who send friends to get Jesus to heal his servant. In that case the Centurion's actions were an example of faith to the disciples. A common, profane Gentile had demonstrated more faith in Jesus than Peter and the other disciples.
Still reeling from the vision Peter went with the men to Ceserea. And Peter the good child of Israel who had never sullied himself with contact with Gentiles entered the house of a Gentile. He brought with him six men and what they witnessed was amazing. The Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles. God had called them clean by the blood of Christ. They had placed their faith in God and they had been saved. If God's Holy Spirit chose to dwell in them then who could call them unclean?
That should have been the end of the story, but it wasn't. Some of the folks back in Jerusalem heard about this little episode. How dare Peter enter the house of a Gentile? He was supposed to be their spiritual leader. What kind of leadership was this? And even though the Holy Spirit thought the Gentile's hearts clean enough to dwell in, some though their house too profane to enter.
In the end God had His way and Gentiles were welcomed as full members of "the Way" or Christians as they would later be called. But that wasn't the end. People of faith continued to call profane that which God had called Holy. For centuries the language of the known world was Latin and so the Christian church used that language. But by the end of the Middle Ages most Christians didn't speak Latin and the church judged the common language to be too common for worshipping God. A whole reformation and 500 years had to pass for the common language, which God used every day, to be deemed holy by the general church.
The early Methodists were judged too common. They did profane things like preach in the fields. Many good Christians thought the fields were too unclean for preaching. And Methodists sang hymns to common folk tunes and the tunes of songs the people sang in bars. And yet God called them clean and used them to spread fires of revival around the world.
Some people think some forms of music are not holy enough for the church. I remember when I was growing up, before the term "Contemporary Christian" was coined they called it Gospel Rock. I remember hearing some radio and TV preachers saying that all rock music was of the Devil. It didn't matter that the lyrics proclaimed the Gospel and praised God. But what they called profane God called clean and masses of young people heard the Gospel in a life changing way.
Talking about common and holy, I was talking to Paul Wood, the first pastor of Grace, and he was telling me stories about the early days of Grace. He mentioned that when this room was built the builder put little crosses in the brick work. Paul said he was afraid that all those crosses would make this space too sacred to be used for anything other than worship. I almost said, "Well, nothing's sacred at Grace." I said I almost said that. I have done the chicken dance in this room! Some may think that having yard sales and cake walks in a sanctuary makes it profane. But the Spirit moves here, so it is sacred enough for the Holy Spirit! So don't call unclean what God has called clean!
But maybe we should look at this whole story from a different angle. When we read the Bible we tend to identify ourselves with Peter and the other apostles. And we think, "We should be careful not to call unclean people and things that God has declared clean." But remember Peter was a good Jew. We are, for the most part, Gentiles by birth. We should try to see this story from the point of view of the Gentiles.
We were once deemed unclean. But we have heard the Gospel, sometimes by unorthodox means, and we believed. We were once outside of the people of God. But through Jesus Christ we have been made clean. Through the grace of Jesus Christ we have been made worthy of the gift of God's Holy Spirit!
You know in the communion service there is a point at which the pastor invited the people to come to the table. Most of the time I say something like, "All is prepared let us keep the feast." There is an ancient form where the priest or preacher says "Holy gifts for Holy people." These are holy gifts. The bread and wine or grape juice symbolize and embody the presence of God dwelling in us. They represent the great gift God gave by giving His only begotten son. And we are holy people. Not because we have made ourselves or kept ourselves clean. But because God made a sacrifice for us. He gave a perfect lamb without blemish to cover our sins. He washed away our uncleanness. These are Holy Gifts for Holy People. What God has cleansed you must not call common!
John 13:31-35
Jesus was about to die. He knew that. He knew Judas would betray him and the he would be crucified the next day. He had one last opportunity to teach them. What would he say? Would he tell them once again of his resurrection to come? Would he tell them a parable that reinforced their faith in God�s ultimate sovereignty? Would he reveal some hidden secrets of God�s plan for the end of time?
Of all the things he could have said he said, "Love one another." Of all the hidden knowledge he could have revealed to them, of all the spiritual depths he could have sounded, he chose to remind them to love one another, as he had loved them.
That�s pretty basic! And maybe we need to get back to basics. To strip away all the complexities and additions to life and remind ourselves what is most important. And what is more basic to the Christian�s faith and life than love? That is what it all boiled down to: "Love one another."
Sometimes the church needs to get back to the basics. We have so many ministries and programs. Everywhere you turn there's a committee or commission doing this or that. And as the church grows it becomes more complex. Even our prayer and worship can become complex.
Perhaps we need to stop and remind ourselves what it all boils down to. It is all about loving God and our neighbor. When all the committees and commissions and programs and rituals are stripped away. What underlies them all is love.
Then we can return to our committees and ministries and rituals remembering what is most basic. After all these ministries and committees and rituals all play important roles in helping us live out that love. But they all can become meaningless if we forget the basics: Love one another.
This is the kind of thing that happened to Mother�s Day. The history of Mother's day is a lesson in getting back to the basics. The story of the modern celebration of Mother�s day goes back to Ann Marie Jarvis. Ann Marie Jarvis was a woman who not only gave birth to 12 children, eight of whom died in childhood, but she founded a group called "Mother�s Day Work Clubs" that offered humanitarian aid to soldiers on both sides during the Civil War as well as attempts to improve sanitary conditions. After the Civil War she organized a "Mother's Friendship Day" to bring people from both sides of the war together and heal the wounds of the war. In other words she took the ideal of a mother�s love and applied it to loving her neighbor - even when that neighbor was an enemy.
Ann Marie Jarvis died in 1905. After her death one of her daughters, Anna Jarvis, organized a memorial service for all mothers at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church. She also supplied carnations to be given to each participant in the service in honor or memory their mothers. The idea caught on and by 1914 "Mother�s Day" was a national holiday.
Mother's day was truly popular. It was so popular that some decided to cash in on its popularity. By 1923 Anna Jarvis found herself suing to stop a Mother�s Day festival. Later she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a Mother�s Day convention. She was angry that the white carnations, which she had designated as the official Mother�s Day flower, were being sold. She said, "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit."
Mother�s Day began to honor women who lived the ideal of a mother�s love. But it became a means of commercial profit. Somewhere along the line the real meaning of the holiday was lost in the trappings. And so its founder Anna Jarvis had to fight to get people back to the basics of Mother�s Day.
Getting back to basics is important for mothers. Caring for children is getting more and more complicated. There are so many things that can injure our children. So many dangers to protect them from: buckle them up, beware the airbags, screen the daycare workers, and monitor their TV watching and Internet use. Being a parent is complex and difficult.
With all the details a parent has to look after, it's easy to lose sight of the real meaning. Mothers, and fathers as well, need to get back to the basics. And the basics of parenthood is love. If we can remember that then all the other things will fall into place and in their proper perspective.
In churches all over, preachers are giving advice to Mother�s this morning. I will not apologize for not getting into more detail than this: "Love your children." I know that�s what comes naturally but too often that basic is lost in the complexity of being a parent. If you can keep in mind that love is the most basic thing our children need from us, then all the other things will fall into place.
We all need to learn this lesson. We all need to get back to the basics. When I was a youth we used to sing a song that went like this: "We are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored and they'll know we are Christians by our love by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love."
Of all the details of the Christians faith, love is the most important and basic. Love should be our defining quality. People should know we are Christians by our love. So let�s get back to the basics and love one another!
Revelation 21:1-6 (John 11:32-44)
We are different! Christians are not the same as the people of this world. Surely we all start out the same. We are all born as helpless infants. In need of constant care and protection. Unable to do anything for ourselves. We are all born into a hopeless condition. We are born into a world that is in slavery to sin and death. We all experience the agony of separation from God. We all experience the pain of separation from loved ones. Like all humans we experience death. Both the little ones and the big one. The death of loved ones and eventually our own death. Being helpless and hopeless are the universals of the human condition that all people face at one time or another.
So what makes us so different, could it be that we are saints? According to the Christian tradition and language we are the saints. We are the citizens of God's kingdom. We are the ones who have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. In that sense we are saints, but in a very real we are no saints. We sin, we hurt others needlessly, we cause ourselves pain, we forsake and abandon our God. True we are forgiven, and I hope that by the power of the Spirit we Christians are a little more loving and faithful than the people of the world. Despite that forgiveness, we are by no means what most people mean by a saint. We are not perfect. Not yet anyway.
So how are Christians different? I believe it is a matter of perspective. Perspective is important. The point of view from which we see life shapes how we live life. Christians are different because we have a unique perspective on the common situations that all humans face. When we come to know Christ our perspective on everything is changed.
Knowing Jesus changed Mary and Martha's perspective. When their brother, Lazarus, died their world was turned up side down. As women without husbands their brother had been a source of security for them. He was their source of legal recourse. He was their voice in the face of injustice. He was probably their source of financial stability. But more importantly they loved him. He was their flesh and blood. They had lived with him all their lives. They had served them, and he had protected and provided for them. All of a sudden he was gone, they were devastated. Where was God's glory then?
Four days after Lazarus' death Jesus came to see them. Martha the practical one came out to meet Jesus while the emotional Mary went to the tomb to weep. When Mary saw Jesus she ran to him and knelt at his feet. And she said, "Lord where were you. Lazarus died four days ago. Like some incompetent Physician you were out on the golf course while Lazarus was on his death bed. And now you have the gaul to come visiting after the funeral. If you had been here you could have saved him! I believed in you Jesus." Jesus said "Where is he buried." When they showed him he cried, and he said, "roll the stone away." But Martha tired to stop him, "Jesus he has been dead four days his body has begun to decay. Mary has been through enough don't put her through this too." Jesus replied, "I told you before if you believe you would see God's glory. So believe and see."
Then Jesus Prayed to God and raised his voice and he said, "Lazarus, Come forth." I had a Sunday School teacher who used to say that Jesus said Lazarus name first for a reason. She said that If Jesus had said "Come forth Lazarus," then all who had died would have risen in the pause between pronouncing the word "forth" and the name "Lazarus." Jesus had to specify who was to rise or else all of creation would have thought he was commanding the resurrection of all who had died. I don't know if that is true but it raises an important point. When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he was demonstrating on a small scale what God will do in the end. Just as Jesus had called Lazarus back to life he will one day call all back to life. So Lazarus came forth and Mary and Martha saw the glory of God revealed. They had been mourning over their dead brother but with three words Jesus changed their perspective on everything.
I like Mary and Martha. They remind me of myself. Between the two of them they manage to express human emotions in a fullness. How many times have we been as they were. Mourning a death; Not necessarily a human death but a loss of some kind. Part of us puts on a face to meet the visitors. And part of us goes to the tomb and weeps. Most people meet Martha in the road and go on. But every now and then Christ comes down the road and gets beyond Martha and goes to the tombs to weep with Mary.
Then it all comes pouring out: "Jesus why weren't you here, why didn't you do something." The relationship is dead. Words were said that cannot be taken back. The youth and vigor is gone and I am old. Whatever it was that I cherished it is lost. Why weren't you here to save it before it died?
And Jesus says, "Where is it buried?" When we point to the tomb all can see the depth of the loss. It is not just the thing that was lost, the friendship, the youth, or whatever. Part of us has died too. We are buried in that tomb with Lazarus. Jesus weeps with us a moments and says, "Roll that stone away." Then Martha catches up to protect us and she says, "Don't roll the stone away. It is holding back the pain and the grief and the smell of death." Jesus, with a tear still in his eye turns to us and says, "Believe in me and you will see God's glory. Then Jesus raises his almighty voice and shouts, "Come Forth." And in the blink of an eye all that was dead in us is brought back to life. Just a moment ago all we saw was death and now out of the mouth of a tomb we see new life.
Christ will come again. Whenever Christ comes into our lives, his glory is revealed. When he comes that final time with all the saints he will make all things new. Jesus will come again and bring a new heaven and a new earth. The old one will pass away and a new one will come into being. This universe with all its evil and sickness all its death will cease to exist. God will make a new creation to replace it. In the new world the full glory of God will dwell among us. There will be no more sorrow. Chains of injustice, chains of poverty, chains of hatred would all fall away. And those who weep will have their tears gently wiped away by the hand of God.
We Christians see life from the viewpoint of the God that is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. When we face injustice, we can see God's justice coming. When we weep, we can see God's hand preparing to dry our face. And when we view death, we know that the resurrection is ahead. We can look into the mouth of a tomb where other can only see death, and to Christian eyes the glory of life is revealed.
We believe these things, and like the saints we shall see the glory of God.
John 13:1-20, 31-35
Love: what is it? The world says: "Love is a many splendored thing." "What the world needs now is love sweet love it the only thing that there's just too little of." "Love is a warm puppy." "Love means never having to say you are sorry."
Once upon a time a preacher heard about another preacher who made it into the Guenis world book of records by preaching the longest sermon. He felt that he could not manage that without boring someone to death so he decided to preach the world's shortest sermon. He thought and pondered and prayed to make it a genuine sermon. When the time came for him to preach he got up and said one word, "Love"
The Bible says: "God is love." "And this is love that a man lay down his live for his friends." "Love is patient love is kind it is not boastful or self seeking." "These three abide: Faith Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love."
There are many different understandings of love and we had better decide which one is ours. Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you." He called this his new commandments and he gave it to his disciples. If we are going to fulfill that commandment we had better decided what love really is. Is it the worlds understanding of a many splendored thing that is like a warm puppy and never needing to apologize? Or is it the Bible's all mighty gift that is patient and kind? And with way what does it look like in real life? What will it look like in my life?
But I think Jesus knew we would be faced with this question. In a sense he answered it in the commandment itself. Jesus said we ,are to love one another, but How. He went on, "As I have loved you."
How had Jesus loved his disciples. By serving them! He stooped to his knees and washed their feet. He became their servant.
What is love? I belong to the generation of Fathers who were proud to change their children's diapers. Now don't misunderstand me I never sought out the opportunity to change their diapers. But when it had to be done I did it. Before I had my own children I had never changed a diaper. But because I loved my children I was willing to take on that disgusting task. In Short love made the difference: because I loved them I would take on a task I would not have otherwise.
That is what Jesus did for us - he changed our diapers theologically speaking. He takes it upon himself to do the dirty work. Not because there is something in it for him. He does it simply because he loves us.
We messed ourselves up with sin. And out of love Jesus is willing to clean us up. To wash our dirty feet. To die to buy our forgiveness.
That is love and that is how it looks in out loves. Jesus said, "Love one another." We can do that! All of you here tonight are perfectly lovable people. That is easy.
Jesus said, "Love your neighbor" OK, I live ion a nice neighborhood. Not everyone is easy to get a long with. But I can look past that and love them. It's a little harder but I can love my neighbor.
Jesus said, "Love your enemy." Umm, now we have a problem. You see it is hard to love someone who has hurt you. But it can be done. It is difficult, but with God's help, I can handle that.
Jesus said, "As I have loved you." Uh-Oh! Jesus love his disciples by washing their feet and dying because of their sins. Am I willing to wash my enemies' feet, to stoop and be vulnerable to them?
This "Love" commandment of Jesus', to love one another as I have loved you, is not the sugar coated saying we often think it is. It is a hard saying. It is a difficult commandment to fulfill. But it is why we are here tonight.
We are here because Jesus loved us enough to shed his blood and hand his body over to be broken. And that is how we are top love one another. To follow his lead in love.
So we will practice love here tonight. We will have the opportunity to express love by washing each other's feet just as our lord did. We are all friends here so it will not be hard. But perhaps this practice will prepare us for later when we are called upon to wash our enemies feet.