Easter 5 , April 28, 2013 (full size gallery)
Today was a two service Sunday at the end of the month on Easter Five – Holy Eucharist, Rite 1 at 9am with 10 and and Morning Prayer at 11am with 35.
We also had an adult ed on climate change emphasizing what we can do to be better stewards of the environment. The relatonship of earth and God was mentioned at several points in the lectionary. Psalm 148, a praise psalm had "Let them praise the Name of the LORD, for his Name only is exalted, his splendor is over earth and heaven." The passage from Revelation 21:1 starts this way "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
The weather began sunny but became overcast and by 1pm was raining. This is the first week of the Iris blooming in numbers with more coming next week.
The children joined Catherine at 11am on a hymn ("In My Life Lord Be Glorified) from LEVAS that showed the themes of the lectionary and sermon. We also continued to sing the Psalm.
The life of the church was explored in the announcements. We announced we had collected $1,320 for the Haiti toilet project. The recent Region One meeting was described with $2,000 – provided $1,000 for Church repair at St. John’s in King George and $1,000 for two missioners. We have a shredding project coming up on May 10 which Andrea advertized. Apparently you have to remove staples and other things from the papers to be accepted!
The sermon was on the concept of glorious love based on the Gospel reading ."This glorious love isn’t just the garden variety love that we create on our own. This glorious love that Jesus talks about is reflective of the glorious love that God has for us, and we glorify God in our lives when we love one another as God has loved us. "
-This glorious love is free.
-This glorious love is sacrificial
-This glorious love is abundant.
-This glorious love is healing.
-This glorious love is full of praise.
-This glorious love is new.
-This glorious love is full of God’s freedom and justice.
-This glorious love is visible to the world.
This week the Gospel is about extending love in the world. There are plenty of reasons in the world not to love but equally there are just as many to extending love.
This is the beginning of what scholars call the “Farewell Discourse”, or more properly, “Farewell Discourses” in John. The “Farewell Discourses” take up several chapters in John’s gospel, in which Jesus directs his teachings no longer at the crowds in general, but at his disciples in particular. Jesus’ goal is to prepare the disciples to continue on without him after he dies, is raised, and finally ascends into heaven – in the case of this first discourse, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his crucifixion.
David Lose provides the following thoughts on the Gospel reading of John:
"In terms of the larger structure of the Gospel, we are early into the “second book” of John (the first being the “book of signs," chapters 2-12) that relates the story of Jesus’ “glorification” in the cross, resurrection, and ascension.
"This section begins with the account of the Last Supper and the moving words that summarize the whole: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” As this particular passage commences, Jesus has already washed the feet of his disciples, Judas has just departed to betray him, and the rest of the disciples are in a state of confusion. At just this moment of drama and tension, Jesus’ offers these words, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
"Think about it: when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, Judas was there. Further, he will now demonstrate just how much God loves the world by dying for those who manifestly do not love him. Love is hard because it is self-sacrificing. It means putting the good of the other first, even when it hurts.
"I find it striking that these are the words Jesus’ leaves with his disciples. I mean, he could have said, “Go out and die with me.” Or, “keep the faith.” Or, “when I am gone go out and teach and preach to all the world.” Or, well, any number of things. But instead he offered this simple and challenging word, “love another.” Why? Because this kind of love is the hallmark not just of God and Jesus but also of the Christian church. As in the old camp song, Jesus agrees that the whole world will know we are Christians not by our sermons or our sacraments or our festivals or our buildings or our crucifixes or our family values … but by our love. It’s just that important.
"Second, having set the scene so that we can hear again and anew the import of these words, remind us that we actually can and often do love one another. Sometimes the love command seems so challenging we assume it’s an ideal, a lofty goal that none of us will ever reach. But while we may not love perfectly, we do love, and sometimes one of the most powerful things you can hear in relation to a command is the affirmation of your ability to keep it.
"Perhaps it was looking out for the interests of a colleague, or overlooking the slight of a friend, or putting aside one’s own goals to help someone else achieve theirs. Maybe it was a large act of love, or maybe it was much smaller. But each of us, I’d wager, did in fact “love one another” this past week and it would be good to call that to mind. "
Suzanne Guthrie, priest and writer, provides an elaboration of what this love is. "Love in all forms (meditation one) to live and die for love (meditation two) embodying the qualities of gentleness and generosity (meditation three). As we mature in love, our love and our actions have no boundaries (the Last Word.)"
We can also look at this passage in a more narrow way based on what was happening to the church during John’s time. Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to love their neighbors, Gentiles or Samaritans, victims or Others. Jesus tells his disciples to love one another – those who are already in the community of Christ (John 13:35). In the context of John’s church, which was beset with tension both from without and within, this was important and necessary advice. In order to bring the good news of Christ to the nations, it was necessary that the followers of Christ take care of one another, that in the midst of disagreements about doctrine and struggles in establishing the church, the disciples of Jesus needed to love one another. The politics of a world beset against Christianity required it.
Indeed, in a world in which Christianity too often finds itself beset against itself in wars over scriptural authority, denominationalism, separation of church and state, and the like, the advice of the Johannine Jesus continues to be excellent advice – setting aside all our differences, as disciples of Jesus, we are called to love one another.
In the Acts reading, Jesus sends Peter to the home of Gentiles, commanding him to “make no distinction” between himself and them (Acts 11:12). Indeed, as a result of this encounter with those whom he would have otherwise avoided as Others, not only are Peter and the whole Jerusalem church opened to a larger view of ministry, but everyone in that household – including, one would assume, slaves, women, and children (more Others in the first century world!) are baptized and experience Christ’s salvation. Through Peter’s love of the Other, they are thereby brought into the community of Christ.