Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 15 May 2022.
John of Patmos watches the descent of New Jerusalem from God in a 14th-century tapestry (Source)
• First Reading: Acts 11: 1-18 (Peters explanation of having baptized Cornelius)
• Psalm 148
• Second Reading: Revelation 21: 1-6 (A new heaven and a new earth, the Holy City already prepared)
• Gospel: John 13: 31-35 (A new commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. By this they will know that you are My disciples)
I think that we all have our favoured memories of special holidays and we would love to go back to that special place. We will have our memories and these would shape our expectations.
The favourite views, the places to eat, drink, relax. The places to inspire and to inform us: it is all there and yes, we would love to return.
But in all this, we are nurturing our own memories and expectations. What we expect comes from what we remember and there is that sense of the familiar, the comfortable, the unchallenging.
But our lessons are about something that comes from a new direction and beyond what we would – or could – have expected or even imagined.
In this they take us right of our comfort zones into something quite new, where we would have to regain our bearings.
The first of these is the vision of the new heaven and the new earth. There is a new Jerusalem and the promise that God would be abiding intimately with His people. There would be no more separation or distance – the fellowship would be as of the Garden of Eden, but with a new kind of dynamic.
It would be a new kind of peace and plenty; a new kind of fellowship and worship. A new direction of the endeavours of all of humanity, this time wholly at one with God who would be engaged with His people as a proud and happy parent would be with their children.
This is not the stuff of deities that have to be appeased with sacrifices, or fertility cults that thrive on the disregard of normal social and sexual practices in the community. It is not the stuff of control freakery and top-down command and control. More, it is the variety and enthusiasm of the people, all animated and guided by the presence of God.
Then there is Peter’s story of how he had come to baptize the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion living in Caesarea, up the road from Joppa.
He had been given a vision of a new kind of fellowship with those outside the normal household of faith, but still did not understand it. Then came the summons to see Cornelius and as he was speaking to them God had demonstrated His purposes by blessing them with the same Holy Spirit of Pentecost that had endowed the original disciples.
This was neither a fantasy of a fertile mind nor a form of hallucination. There was no way in which it could be dismissed as a form of conspiracy or fake news or wishful thinking.
This was a thing of God and Peter’s only role was to obey and acknowledge it. But it was also the place where God had shown the direction that the church would be taking from then on. It would not be confined to the House of Israel or to the Holy Land.
The spread and scope would indeed be worldwide, and as Jesus Himself had instructed, it would be for every language and people and race and nation.
If anything this was a confirmation of what had already been instructed – only far sooner than anyone had imagined.
The gospel message would be utterly and totally inclusive – but it would still stem from the thing that God had done for His people in Jesus Christ and never apart from Him.
Then there is the Gospel lesson. Again it is about breaking out from a traditional mind-set. Paul would later develop this message as he reflected on the life of the church as that of a body: given to life and not functioning; faithfulness rather than production targets.
Up to that point practically all relationships were hierarchical. Top-down: I instruct, you comply. I lead, you follow. And yes, I make the mistakes and you get the blame and suffer the consequences.
For Jesus the love He was commanding His disciples was also something quite new and radical. It was to love – not to like or to tolerate. Not to humour or make into a drama.
It was the love that Jesus, in total obedience to His Father, had shown to the disciples. It was orderly but not authoritarian, and in all things it was under the direction of God.
For us this is also a challenge. The church may have its structures which may be necessary to give it some kind of form and coherence. But they are never a substitute for life itself. They cannot provide fellowship or stimulate worship or bring wisdom.
The kind of love that Jesus commands us is also that which is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It rejoices in His presence and is empowered by His movement.
What does not come naturally, He will endow. It is a matter of obedience rather than sentiment or feelings. Yet it is still ordered by Jesus and it still seeks His worship and fellowship.
This may be quite beyond the demands of today’s culture. It is centred on Jesus Christ and will follow none other. It will love the neighbour and care for the planet because these are the right things to do – rather than for any kind of social approval.
This kind of love is patient and kind, it listens, respects and cares. It will anticipate the needs of the other without undermining the needs of the community as a whole.
And where we lack the wisdom on how to act: we can always ask.
