April 24, 2016
Easter 5
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35
(prayer)
I was honored to share this
week's regular Wednesday worship time with the residents of Salem manor -
including a number of people who are part the St. David's church family.
How can I not be inspired
by 102 year old Junie Dowling singing Amazing
Grace from the depths of her heart (and beautifully in tune too).
//
Spending that time with
some our community’s wise elders got me thinking about the amount of change we
all experience over the course of our lifetimes.
//
We have plastic, money
now. Which made the effect of spilling a
drink near my wallet the other day not as impactful as it would have been a
couple of years ago.
//
You can imagine that, only
a handful of lifetimes ago, the ground beneath our feet this morning was a vast
boreal forest floor with a life-sustaining creek just over there (point right - north).
The trees that stood here
would have never echoed the tones of most of the languages most of us commonly
speak today.
//
Many of you remember times
within your lifetime when Leduc and Beaumont and the surrpunding areas were
very different places: smaller, slower
paced, more isolated. Edmonton used to
be a lot further away.
In fact, no matter where
you have lived throughout your life, this has probably been true. By the very nature of time, no place and no
person gets truly stuck in time.
//
Even in the decade and a
half that I have lived here, the city has grown new neighbourhoods; roads have
been widened; a transit system now exists; the Blackgold Centre has morphed
into the LRC - the character of the community has evolved with the addition of
thousands of new people calling this
home.
//
St. David's, too, has
changed a lot over the years - not just physically, but in how we are the body of christ in the world - the focus of our mission has
naturally been drawn to adjust (and hopefully lead the way sometimes) as the
society of which we are part
continues to evolve.
I am the minister for a
remarkably different congregation than the one that Called me here in the year
2000. I am constantly being re-newed in
my relationship with you because, as a church, you have not remained static in
the ways you continue to Welcome In and
Reach Out.
And I mean that in the most
positive way possible.
I continue to be grateful
that God has matched us up and keeps our life together fresh and exciting -
even if we have challenges to face every once and a while - which serves to
keep us humble and to always have us ready to ask "what's next, God?"
//
Things are changing all of
the time.
//
Largely, this is because we
make choices (individually and collectively) aimed at improving our level of
comfort and convenience. We are always
on the lookout for ways to do more, be more, learn more, understand more... and
be happier and more content.
Of course, because none of
use exists in a vacuum, the pace of the wider changes is not always the most
helpful for all of us, all the time.
The truth is that we -
sometimes - feel caught up in a current of change that can leave us... anxious
and uncertain: afraid and out-of-control.
//
//
A little later in the
service, we can recite together the United Church Creed. We can proclaim that part of what it means to
be the church is to live with respect in creation.
This blue sphere we call
home is ever seeking to balance itself - to incorporate the evolutions of time
and the impact of activities of current life in this world.
God's creation is
remarkably resilient and adaptive. To
paraphrase the Police song of 1983 the world watches and reacts to every breath we take.
//
There is an interdependence
within all creation that is part of the never-ending cycles of change we experience
as we spiral our way through the universe.
//
//
When spirit-hungry
individuals decided to journey with Jesus and become part of his band of
disciples, the trajectory of their lives went off in a new direction. That choice to follow brought each of them to
new opportunities and challenges. It
changed who they were destined to become.
Even when they grew
comfortable with the impact of this part of their life's journeys, change would
continue to happen.
//
I
am with you only a little longer. Where I
am going, you cannot come.
//
The gospel of John may read
like carefully recorded history of the interactions between Jesus and his
disciples, but it wasn't actually written down until more than half a century
after the events it describes.
Imagine trying to write out
today a conversation you heard in the
19 60s. Whether intentional or not, all
of your experiences and thoughts and feelings and interpretations over the
decades would influence how you penned that old story.
So, when we read about
Jesus saying that he will not always be
with his friends, it is being expressed and read by people who already know
what that feels like. It is not just a
potential future that Jesus will not be with them, it is a present reality.
What is central to that
passage we heard from John 13 is not that Jesus seems to be predicting his
unexpected death, but what is it
(from their time with Jesus) did the disciples hold onto after he was no longer with them as rabbi and mentor.
What is it that the
followers of Jesus remembered as important from his teachings and example?
As
you have been loved by me,
love
one another.
In
fact,
(Jesus said)
A
love for others is what will define your discipleship to the world.
A half a century after Jesus went to that place where his disciples could not
follow, the early church first reading the gospel of John described this as
a "commandment".
//
I
command you to love as I loved
is how they passed on the
conversation.
//
//
Is that even possible?
I have long held to the
belief that you cannot be forced into an emotion. No one can demand (or command) you to feel a certain way.
Your emotions are born
inside you. No one should believe that
they can dictate how and what you feel.
My experience is that even
"I" don't always have control over my emotional state. How can anyone else presume to tell me how to
feel when I don't know how to do it?
//
//
Jesus was an astute
guy. He would have known that feelings
can just happen - that they often
can't be forced: by others nor by ourselves.
So, when he says 'I have a new
commandment for you: that you love one another', it has to be
heard as something other than an order
from a superior.
If it is not an enforceable
order, should we view it as more of a suggestion?
After all, even in a
society of laws, we all have the freedom to disobey the law, if we choose. That choice might have some shadows - some
predictable consequences; the response to our less-than-lawful choice might yeild
some pronouncement of judgment and maybe some measure of punishment.
But even in the face of
open-ended punative actions against us, we still have control over whether we
will ultimately comply with the commands
leveled against us.
In the end, it is what we
find motivating (for our own well-being) that will dictate what we think and
do, not anything written in a law book.
Jesus can say - I command you to love. It is still up to the disciples to decide
what to do. It still comes down the
basics of free will.
"We" are the
sources of what beliefs we will hold dear.
We will embrace the call to love or not.
And even if we appreciate the call to love at an intellectual level,
will we truly feel it deep within us?
We all know that the head
and the heart can often be in conflict with each other.
Most of us have a favorite
that we use as our primary vehicle for decision-making. Some of us are head people; others are heart
people. The Myers-Briggs Personality
Type Indicator describes us as either have a preference as a (T)hinker or a (F)eeler. We all do both to some degree, but we do have
a fallback preference we use most easily.
The concept of Free Will
means that we will make the choices of what
we will do based on how we feel and what we think and believe about those
feelings. We will also consider how
important the potential known consequences (of our contemplated actions) are to
us.
//
//
The question before each of
us today is... what do I think about Jesus command to love as Jesus loves?
Jesus' love was shown in
his unwavering desire to help make people whole:
²
to
the sick, he brought health;
²
to
the dying, he brought life;
²
to
the lonely, he brought companionship;
²
to
the outcast, welcome;
²
to
the self-righteous, humility;
²
to
the sinner, forgiveness;
²
action
came to the ignored;
²
the
hungry were fed and the thirsty, quenched.
//
Jesus' love was a tangible
embodiment of the radical compassion of God.
If loving like Jesus loves is important to us - if we are open to
adhering to Jesus' new commandment - we will gauge our attitudes and actions on
how well they advance the ability for ourselves and others to be our fullest
self.
We will not feel justified
in putting boundaries on who we might deem worthy of our compassion.
"Loving like Jesus
loves" is... boundless!
The radical compassion that
Jesus desires crosses the boundaries of the changes we go through in this life.
//
//
John of Patmos, a
revelatory early Christian prophet experienced a vision of the re-creative work
of God.
Some biblical scholars
suggest that the author of the book of Revelation was living in exile on the
greek island of Patmos during the time of Emperor Dominion based on the phrase
in Rev 1:19 saying that the author in on
Patmos [on account of] the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The late first century was
a time of oppression and tribulation for the early Christian churches within
the Roman Empire. Beginning under
Emperor Nero in the mid 60s, the seeming secrecy of Christian rituals and
claims of cannibalism (rumored to eat
and drink body and blood) and insert
(referring to their companions as brothers and sister), drew many local
governors into adjudication public concerns of the Christians committing crimes
against civil order.
John of Patmos' visions and
his written interpretations of what we saw have to be understood in the context
of those difficult times.
Imagine how our passage
from chapter 21 would have been heard by its first audience.
Imagine what feelings might
be engendered by a vision of the current state of the world being re-posted
into a place where there is no more death, no more tears, no more pain - where
the boundary between heaven and earth is irrelevant because God's home is among
mortals.
God's people are the same -
but now their context is changed. There
is a newness to the world. The people
have come through the tribulations.
The culmination of creation
- in John of Patmos' eyes - is known as people are made fully whole.
John envisions just endings
and new beginnings brought about by the one who is eternity - who is known at both the beginning and the end, the A
and Z, the alpha and omega.
In his vision, John hears
Jesus (the one sitting on the throne)
echoing language we can also read in the gospels - "The thirsty will drink
from the spring of the water of life".
For a thirsty person to
move toward a greater wholeness, the thirst needs to be quenched.
To remove the boundaries to
the fountain is an act of love.
//
//
Even though Jesus used the
language of commandment to invite his followers to live out his example of
love, the manifestation of this commanded compassion will depend on their
willingness to carry on Jesus' legacy in his absence.
//
The same call is laid
before us.
How do we feel about that?
//
I want to echo what I was
saying last week - that our imperfections are not strong enough to impede the
perfect Love of God.
If we are tempted to focus
on the loving opportunities we miss, I encourage us to find our attention to
the ways and times that we have aided in bringing a bit more wholeness in the
world.
We live out our best
discipleship when we allow others to know what it feels like to have the gates
of compassion opened up for them.
// end //
I know that each of us will
fall short of this call sometimes, but we will also be able to do it incredibly
well at other times.
And when we do, the heart
of Jesus will beat within us.
And... a new world will be
created for those around us - a world where they (and we) belong.
//
The world will know that we are Jesus'
disciples when we love each other.
//
Let us pray:
God of Grace;
Help us have the humble confidence
that we can be your lights in the world.
Amen.
***offering***
