Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 18 May 2025.
John of Patmos watches the descent of New Jerusalem from God in a 14th-century tapestry (Source)
• First Reading: Acts 11: 1-18 (Peter’s account of the baptism of Cornelius)
• Second Reading: Revelation 21: 1-6 (A new heaven and a new earth)
• Gospel: John 13: 31-35 (A new commandment: Love one another)
It is strange how many expressions of love are self-centred. In much of our drama – especially the crime drama, the principle characters seem to be self-obsessed. They may claim to love another person but inner motivations keep coming back to their own self-interest, no matter how much they claim to love another person or value.
This is worth keeping in mind when looking at today’s lessons.
In Acts, Peter really is zealous for the gospel and yet he is steeped in the law and traditions of Israel. Associating with those outside the law of Moses is never even considered, and yet the principles are there from the outset.
Abraham had been promised a heritage which would extend to all nations on earth, which would be blessed in him. Jesus had withdrawn on occasion to the area of Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia, and had fed the 4,000 on the east side of the Sea of Galilee: in the Golan heights.
And so Peter had to be reminded of what was already there in the law and history of Moses. Hence the sheet of strange animals. Yet he was not being asked to step outside the law, and the gospel message was not changed in order to accommodate the sensibilities of Cornelius and his household.
It is not as if the law of Moses was being set aside: rather the principles of grace – God’s unearned and unearnable favour, which Abraham had received, was to be extended to the outsider as well.
And of course, if Peter could preach to the household of Cornelius, then Paul would carry the gospel message deep into the lands of non-Jews, and into the other provinces of Rome.
And so Peter had to be reminded that the gospel message was for the whole of humanity, and not just the House of Israel.
But then look at the lesson from Revelation.
This shows the extravagance of God’s provision for His people as He prepared the New Jerusalem.
No effort spared: more a loving delight in preparing something wonderful for those who love Him anyway.
This is a work of joy: the central feature of the new heaven and the new earth. It is never the apocalyptic pit of ashes, the nuclear wasteland, devoid of life and empty of all potential. That may be a theme for certain end-of-the world enthusiasts but it was never the intention of God.
And the lesson from Revelation goes much further.
This is not just a glorified but functional housing estate or new town. It is also the dwelling place of God in which He would delight to live with His people. An abiding presence in which to bless, cherish, heal, nurture and renew His people.
Those who had already trusted Him during years of life in a godless and self-destructive world community, culture and politics would now find themselves more fully than ever before.
And yes, in finding themselves they would find one another and more than ever before, they would find God and be found of Him and in Him.
But this work starts in Jesus’ New Commandment to His disciples.
Love one another.
It is as brief as that. And yet, this again is that total and self-giving love that they had already seen in Jesus.
Here there would be no self-interest. No self-promotion. And they would not even have to like one another.
This would be the community where each in mindful of the needs of the other. Each appreciates the insights, the gifts and potential of the other.
It is quite difficult from the competitiveness of secular bodies.
It is never about self-promotion or self-aggrandisement. It is never about the competition for position and titles.
Again they had already been given a picture of what Jesus meant as, just before His passion, He had set Himself to wash their feet.
A simple and practical demonstration of a need recognised and then met. And that was before His Passion. In the light of His resurrection, His words would carry even more weight.
And yet in John’s gospel, knowing perhaps how the disciples would be horrified and utterly demoralized by what they were going to see, Jesus was telling them to honour one another, serve one another, support and tend and heal one another with the same love and commitment that they had seen in Jesus.
The lessons for us are definitely there.
Maybe what we need to see again is our sense of love as the act of will and obedience to the Lord as we treat one another. It is not about inclination or feeling or sentiment.
It is certainly not a form of self-realization: more an area of self-denial.
But the less we project ourselves onto one another, then the more we are able to see one another as the Lord sees us.
And He sees us in terms of wiping every tear from the eyes of His people. Death, mourning, crying and pain have no meaning or significance. The Lord is seeing to that one, personally.
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