Easter 5 – May 6, 2007
Acts 11:1-18, John 13:31-35
Maybe you’ve heard the following quote before: “If love is the answer,
could you please rephrase the question?” I’ve seen it printed on
greeting cards, but have never been able to figure out to whom I would
send this quote. Maybe a friend mourning her unrequited love. Maybe
someone dealing with a breakup. The truth is, I don’t think I’ve ever
really understood this quote.
I never really understood it until this past week as I studied the Gospel reading as well as the reading from Acts.
In the reading from John for today, we revisit Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and get to hear again some of his last words to them before he was led to the cross. It is no surprise that the word love comes up. That is what Jesus’ ministry was all about, after all. This was nothing new to their ears. In fact, the command to love was part of their Torah, the law from God that they had grown up with and followed all of their lives.
They would have heard countless times the great commandment from Deuteronomy to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” They would have remembered the command from Leviticus to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So, Jesus’ command to them to love during that last supper didn’t really phase them at all. It didn’t phase them until the act of loving took them out of their comfort zone as it did in the reading from Acts for today. Jesus’ command to love didn’t phase them until it got difficult.
The reading from the book of Acts for this day is an awesome story of mission. It’s a story about how God’s church on earth was widened as the Gentiles came to accept the word of God. It’s a story about how God equalized the Jews and Gentiles as the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish people did on the day of Pentecost. It’s a story about how God broke down human created, sending his Spirit to both circumcised and uncircumcised people. The amount and kind of people that Jesus commanded his disciples to love at the last supper seriously increased and changed in this story. The command to love is stretching them here and we see the Jewish believers get uncomfortable. We watch them get critical of Peter. We hear them ask, in not so many words, “If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”
Peter’s answer, by the way, is, “No.” His answer is “No” because God’s answer is “No.” Love is the answer, even when it’s difficult. Maybe even especially when it’s difficult.
Anyone who has ever been in love with another person knows that it is more often a choice than a feeling. Love isn’t just about butterflies in the stomach all the time or gushings of sweet nothings or bat upon bat of the eyelashes.
It is often more about choosing to love your partner. Even after he tells you 15 minutes before you’re leaving the house that the party you’re going to is a potluck. Even after she washes your clothes and turns all your favorite white t-shirts pink. It’s about choosing to love your child even after he makes a terrible decision to sneak out of the house or she tracks in mud on your clean floor.
The idea of love that Jesus called his disciples to in the Gospel was nothing new, but the sense of it was. He knew in their journey to come that they would have to gain a new understanding of love – one that would make it a way of life. He was calling them to an ever expanding understanding of love. He was calling them to a kind of love that joins the believer and everyone the believer meets to God. God’s vision to Peter in the reading from Acts forced the expansion of his love out to the Gentiles. We know about expanding love in our own lives, too.
The first example that comes to my mind has to do with my niece, Logan. When my sister told me she was pregnant almost three years ago now, I knew I would love that baby. After all, I had experienced love in my life already – within my family and among my friends. When Logan was born, though, everything was blown out of the water. In the course of her two years in our family, she has become the center of our lives – her parents’, her grandparents’, and mine.
I have often thought, if I love my niece this much, what must it be like to have a daughter? What must it be like to have a son? Those of you who have had that opportunity already know about the ever expanding understanding of love.
This is easy love, though – loving those in your family. Loving those who are easy to love. And it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement, used to say, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least." This is where this commandment gets challenging. You see, we’re not only called to love the people who are easy to love. We’re also called to love the people that are difficult to love – those who are different than us in appearance, background, belief, and tradition. So, in the book of Acts, the Jews are called to love the Gentiles. The circumcised are called to love the uncircumcised. In our town, the English speakers are called to love the Spanish speakers. The rich are called to love the poor. In our congregation, the people who have been here forever are called to love the people who will come that are new. The people who love outdoor worship are called to love those who don’t love outdoor worship all that much.
If love is the answer, sometimes we’d be much more comfortable with Jesus rephrasing the question. In some cases, we’d be much more comfortable with Jesus giving us a different command. There is nothing easy about keeping Jesus’ commandment to love. But that is our only option. He commands us to love one another.
This doesn’t mean always agreeing with one another, becoming the same as one another or assimilating our beliefs with one another. Just like in the book of Acts, it is our differences that actually serve to widen the Church and attract more and more people. Love does mean listening to each other and hearing each other. It does mean allowing our powerful and “bigger than any issue” God to hold us all together despite our differences. It does mean treating each other in a way that brings us all closer to God.
Love is the answer, my friends. Period.
And not just love in the same old, same old sense, but love that is ever expanding and widening. This command is meant to stretch you. It’s meant to lead you into uncomfortable places. It’s meant to maybe even be a little bit scary. Your one consolation is this: Whenever you love, wherever you go in the name of love, you meet God because God is love. God is in those uncomfortable and scary places of loving - holding it all together, calling us to keep on stretching. For this God who is love and who calls us to an ever expanding understanding of love, we say thanks be to God.
Amen.
Kid’s sermon.
Have a bunch of different things for the food drive. Have each of the kids choose which one would be their favorite food. The assumption is that each one will have a different favorite. Even though we don’t all agree on the same thing, it doesn’t mean we can’t all be part of the same church. My guess is that we would all agree that it is important to help give food to people who don’t have food.
I never really understood it until this past week as I studied the Gospel reading as well as the reading from Acts.
In the reading from John for today, we revisit Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and get to hear again some of his last words to them before he was led to the cross. It is no surprise that the word love comes up. That is what Jesus’ ministry was all about, after all. This was nothing new to their ears. In fact, the command to love was part of their Torah, the law from God that they had grown up with and followed all of their lives.
They would have heard countless times the great commandment from Deuteronomy to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” They would have remembered the command from Leviticus to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So, Jesus’ command to them to love during that last supper didn’t really phase them at all. It didn’t phase them until the act of loving took them out of their comfort zone as it did in the reading from Acts for today. Jesus’ command to love didn’t phase them until it got difficult.
The reading from the book of Acts for this day is an awesome story of mission. It’s a story about how God’s church on earth was widened as the Gentiles came to accept the word of God. It’s a story about how God equalized the Jews and Gentiles as the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish people did on the day of Pentecost. It’s a story about how God broke down human created, sending his Spirit to both circumcised and uncircumcised people. The amount and kind of people that Jesus commanded his disciples to love at the last supper seriously increased and changed in this story. The command to love is stretching them here and we see the Jewish believers get uncomfortable. We watch them get critical of Peter. We hear them ask, in not so many words, “If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”
Peter’s answer, by the way, is, “No.” His answer is “No” because God’s answer is “No.” Love is the answer, even when it’s difficult. Maybe even especially when it’s difficult.
Anyone who has ever been in love with another person knows that it is more often a choice than a feeling. Love isn’t just about butterflies in the stomach all the time or gushings of sweet nothings or bat upon bat of the eyelashes.
It is often more about choosing to love your partner. Even after he tells you 15 minutes before you’re leaving the house that the party you’re going to is a potluck. Even after she washes your clothes and turns all your favorite white t-shirts pink. It’s about choosing to love your child even after he makes a terrible decision to sneak out of the house or she tracks in mud on your clean floor.
The idea of love that Jesus called his disciples to in the Gospel was nothing new, but the sense of it was. He knew in their journey to come that they would have to gain a new understanding of love – one that would make it a way of life. He was calling them to an ever expanding understanding of love. He was calling them to a kind of love that joins the believer and everyone the believer meets to God. God’s vision to Peter in the reading from Acts forced the expansion of his love out to the Gentiles. We know about expanding love in our own lives, too.
The first example that comes to my mind has to do with my niece, Logan. When my sister told me she was pregnant almost three years ago now, I knew I would love that baby. After all, I had experienced love in my life already – within my family and among my friends. When Logan was born, though, everything was blown out of the water. In the course of her two years in our family, she has become the center of our lives – her parents’, her grandparents’, and mine.
I have often thought, if I love my niece this much, what must it be like to have a daughter? What must it be like to have a son? Those of you who have had that opportunity already know about the ever expanding understanding of love.
This is easy love, though – loving those in your family. Loving those who are easy to love. And it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement, used to say, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least." This is where this commandment gets challenging. You see, we’re not only called to love the people who are easy to love. We’re also called to love the people that are difficult to love – those who are different than us in appearance, background, belief, and tradition. So, in the book of Acts, the Jews are called to love the Gentiles. The circumcised are called to love the uncircumcised. In our town, the English speakers are called to love the Spanish speakers. The rich are called to love the poor. In our congregation, the people who have been here forever are called to love the people who will come that are new. The people who love outdoor worship are called to love those who don’t love outdoor worship all that much.
If love is the answer, sometimes we’d be much more comfortable with Jesus rephrasing the question. In some cases, we’d be much more comfortable with Jesus giving us a different command. There is nothing easy about keeping Jesus’ commandment to love. But that is our only option. He commands us to love one another.
This doesn’t mean always agreeing with one another, becoming the same as one another or assimilating our beliefs with one another. Just like in the book of Acts, it is our differences that actually serve to widen the Church and attract more and more people. Love does mean listening to each other and hearing each other. It does mean allowing our powerful and “bigger than any issue” God to hold us all together despite our differences. It does mean treating each other in a way that brings us all closer to God.
Love is the answer, my friends. Period.
And not just love in the same old, same old sense, but love that is ever expanding and widening. This command is meant to stretch you. It’s meant to lead you into uncomfortable places. It’s meant to maybe even be a little bit scary. Your one consolation is this: Whenever you love, wherever you go in the name of love, you meet God because God is love. God is in those uncomfortable and scary places of loving - holding it all together, calling us to keep on stretching. For this God who is love and who calls us to an ever expanding understanding of love, we say thanks be to God.
Amen.
Kid’s sermon.
Have a bunch of different things for the food drive. Have each of the kids choose which one would be their favorite food. The assumption is that each one will have a different favorite. Even though we don’t all agree on the same thing, it doesn’t mean we can’t all be part of the same church. My guess is that we would all agree that it is important to help give food to people who don’t have food.