Sunday May
26th 2019 6th Sunday of Easter (Cycle C)
Reaching Out
The tie in
between today’s readings: Keeping unity
It all
started out so great with a guy and a gal in a garden. Then, everything went to
hell in a hand basket. Starting with eating the forbidden fruit and paradise
lost, which lead to murder and evil, then more and more evil, until finally,
the whole earth had to be wiped clean with a flood in a divine restart. The
Tower of Babel rebellion pushed God to fragment the human race by language and
send them to the four winds. What’s a heavenly Father supposed to do with a
bunch of kids that won’t listen? You pick a favorite. It could have been
anybody, but God chose to work through Abram (Abraham) to begin His process to
bless His human family and bring it back to Him (Gen 12:3,18:18, 22:18). By the
time of the Psalms and King David, the plan was well under way. Psalm 67 looks
forward to God completing His salvage operation where the nations come back
together to praise the Almighty and live under His guidance. The trick is once
you gather them, how are you going to overcome sin’s separating influence and
keep everyone together?
Jesus
is the lynchpin of the whole strategy. During the Last Supper portion of our
gospel reading in John 14, He lays out a blueprint for the church to stay
unified as they bring the world back to the Father through the gospel. It’s a
unity that springs from a personal relationship with the Trinity.
First,
Jesus says, love Me and keep My commandments (John 14: 23). This is not a
legalistic list of rules of do’s and don’ts to follow. That would be coercion,
not love. Love makes its own rules.
Reread it as: Fall in love with Me, as I am already in love with you,
then you will want to be like Me...Please Me...Follow Me. Jesus is aiming at
freedom here. It’s the cause and effect relationship captured by Augustine,
“Love God and do whatever you want.” If each person in the Church determines to
love the Lord with all their heart, then they will be choosing to live for God.
When people live for a common purpose bigger than themselves; unity follows.
Second,
God will live in you with an infinite abiding presence (John 14:23). Your body
becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). Through prayer and
scripture He will help you learn all that you’ll need to know and recall it at
the right time. All believers receive a common celestial GPS that will give
guidance into the Father’s will. God’s mind will develop in you. Philippians
2:5-8 says that this will lead to humility and the unity of the church will be
its fruit.
Third,
you will have peace (John 14:27). You will have a special peace with God
through Jesus. You will know peace and forgiveness within yourself. It is the
peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding and guards your heart and
mind (Philippians 4:7). It’s a courageous peace that allows the vulnerability
you’ll need to forgive others as well as giving the strength to face the
uncertainty of that necessary reconciliation. In the peace of Christ, we can
all hold hands.
Tying love to obedience, abiding with guidance,
and peace with courage, the Apostles will be ready to spread the gospel and
fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all men, as will all of us.
God’s family, the Church, will reach the ends of the earth. His children have
everything they need to hold the family together if they let themselves be led
by their Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
It was
never going to be an easy endeavor. There were a lot of foundational questions
to be sorted out as Jews and Gentiles with their clashing cultural and
religious backgrounds try to meld together into this new belief called “The
Way” (Christianity). An early point of contention pops up in Acts 15:1-2 with
the Judaizers. They held that since salvation was from a Jewish Messiah, the
Gentiles needed to convert to Judaism by circumcision first before becoming
Christian. Paul and Barnabas passionately disagreed. Because this issue was so
vital, the Church met at Jerusalem for a council. They concluded that the
Gentiles believed and received the Holy Spirit just as they did. Circumcision
was not needed. The Old Testament was still God’s eternal word, however, and so
the Gentiles were to abstain from pagan practices such as: things sacrificed to
idols, drinking blood, eating things strangled, and fornication (Leviticus 17
& 18). Here’s our John 14:23-29 reading in action, where obedience to
Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit led to a peaceful outcome...for a time.
From
Pentecost to now and until the Second Coming, it has and will always be a
challenge for our family to “be of one mind” as people join her from varied
backgrounds, points of view, and visions for the Church. We know that sparks
will fly! Let’s keep John 14 at the forefront of our thinking and hold it
together when things get hot because we, the Church are loved by God. Not only
loved, but Revelation 21 illustrates her glory built upon these principles. If
you are out of fellowship with God or other believers, know this: the Father
wants you back. He wants to have a gloriously intimate relationship with you.
He wants you for everyone's sake to seek forgiveness and for you to also
forgive others seven times seventy. Togetherness and harmony are near and dear
to the heart of Jesus. His Spirit calls to you. Come back. Be part of the
Father’s plan.
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