Our gospel text today is one part of the text we hear on Maundy Thursday, during Holy Week, when we receive the “new commandment” that Jesus gave his disciples after he washed their feet and fed them. Later that same night, Judas Iscariot betrays him and most of the other disciples abandon him, but here, Jesus is focused on what unites them - love.
Likewise, in the reading from Acts, Peter is focused on love when he finds himself in a similar predicament as Jesus when the Lord was questioned by religious leaders for eating with sinners (Matthew 9:11, Mark 2:16, Luke 5:30) Now circumcised believers are questioning Peter about his dinner companions, and he responds with a story. He tells them about his experience in Joppa where he saw a vision of a feast with all kinds of wild animals, beasts of prey, reptiles and birds. As the vision appeared, Peter heard the Lord speak, commanding him to eat, and when he objected because some of the animals were considered unclean., he heard the Lord tell him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
Earlier this week, I participated in a lectio group. For the last five years, a group of us have met on Zoom every month, or more often, to listen to a sacred text and pray together. This week the leader chose the text from Exodus when Moses witnesses the burning bush. At first it seems like the fire distracts Moses but then it is while Moses is looking at the fire that he hears God speak, and God says that Moses is standing on holy ground.
Each scene represents a different experience with the holy:
Jesus and his
disciples eating together;
Peter
proclaiming God’s salvation for a household of Gentiles;
And Moses encountering
God.
Each scene represents a different configuration of people:
Jesus and
his followers;
A missionary
or apostle and the people to whom he was sent;
A shepherd who
had fled for his safety.
But in each instance, something, or someone, gets in the way of what God wants to accomplish:
Judas was
obviously greedy, but even the other disciples succumbed to their fear of persecution
by the Romans and the Jewish authorities;
Peter narrowly
followed the rules that dictated what was allowed and what was not, and rigidly
adhered to his understanding of faithful obedience;
And Moses
was reluctant to lead and uncomfortable speaking on God’s behalf.
Reflecting on this week’s texts, Methodist pastor Robb McCoy said, “Whatever gets in the way of love, whatever makes us miss the mark of love, love is the target, and when we miss that mark, that is sin.” (“Pulpit Fiction Podcast”, Easter 5C, recorded May 19, 2019)
Whether it is our self-interest, our fear, our misunderstanding, or our reticence – whenever we let our “stuff” get in the way of what God is doing, we have a problem.
As Jesus tells the disciples, “…everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:35)
It's as simple, and as challenging, as that.
As the psalmist says, the Lord created us all alongside every living thing on earth and in heaven, and we are commanded to love them all.
Even the stinging
ones, the foul-smelling ones, and the ones, like mosquitoes, that are hard to
see as valuable.
Even the
curmudgeons and the sour-faced ones who don’t reciprocate our love.
And perhaps
especially the ones who we want to exclude, demonize or hate, trusting that God’s
love is as much for them as it is for me.
This is the realization Peter has, isn’t it? That “God has given the same gift to all of creation that God gave us when we believed?” (v. 17)
Debates about who ‘deserves’ God’s love are distractions.
After all, in Lutheranism, we declare that we all are sinners and saints. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s Law, and it is only by God’s grace that we are forgiven and restored to life. God takes that action for us. It is never the result of our own merit or effort.
Today as we celebrate the baptism of one of our newest siblings in Christ, we remember that God gives us that grace freely and abundantly, and we find our identity in God and show who we are – Jesus’ followers – by loving others.
Let us pray...
Good and
gracious God,
Thank you
for your Son Jesus and for your abundant love and mercy for all of us who
follow Him.
Help us love
others as you love us,
and recognize
our sinfulness and ask for forgiveness
when we refuse.
We pray in
Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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