My friends, today marks the last Sunday of Easter as next week, we will be remembering the Ascension of our brother Jesus into his new life of heaven.  Now, none of us knows what that will be like who are on this side of the grave, except for Isaiah’s words quoted by Paul in the 1^st letter to the Corinthians, “that we can’t imagine what God has prepared for us…”  So, with that knowledge, we walk in faith and hope for what comes next! 

   In the meantime, our lives continue as we attempt to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, conscious of being faithful and consistent in that walk. With that in mind, the 1^st reading today from Acts seems to be a treatise on “growing with, and into change.  The apostles in Jerusalem and others seem to be “making trouble” and not “good trouble,” with Paul’s Gentile converts in basically telling them that to be a good follower of Jesus, they must first take on all the rules and regulations of the Jewish faith and we know they are considerable – over 600!  Thus, Paul and Barnabas must go to Jerusalem to sort this all out. 

   The upshot of this visit with the apostles is a letter that Paul and Barnabas must take to their Gentile converts with just a few, rather than, a lot of Jewish practice requirements.  One wonders why the apostles didn’t just lift up Jesus’ most wonderful message that they, “love others as he has loved them!” – and more succinctly, as God has loved them.

   This event, of getting “the message straight” is so indicative of how hard change is for us humans.  Jesus came among us stating very clearly that, “he was doing something new,” and if we can get “our hearts” around that full message – that if we say we, “love God,” then we must strive to find God in our neighbors too!  All else beyond this is superfluous!

   So, as a Gentile convert, I would have found the letter that Paul and Barnabas carried back, a bit “wanting.”  I am thinking Paul might have too and said as much to his new converts. 

   Having just completed the holy season of Lent with Jesus showing us again and again how important it is when confronted with situations where we must choose between “law and love,” we see that the best thing was and is, always to choose, love.  Jesus often spoke of his frustration with those who followed the “letter of the law” to the detriment of the “heart of the law.” 

   Additionally, looking at Jesus’ lived life and his words, we consistently see him taking the story – the parable, to a deeper level.  His parables weren’t just “nice” stories about someone we should look up to, but a trait we should incorporate into our personal lives, guidelines for living out our lives in any time, any place. 

   The 2^nd reading today from Revelation would seem to agree with the notion of taking the surface story deeper.  John tells his listeners that he doesn’t see “a temple in the city,” because “God…and the Lamb themselves are the temple [!]” In other words, we will find God, here, now, in all people, if we have “eyes to see [!]” To me, this would underscore Jesus’ “new commandment” that we “love our neighbors as ourselves,” a commandment, granted, not always easy to do, but there, just the same!

   I just finished a wonderful book of a couple of years back, Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality 1920 – 2020, by Elisabeth Griffith.  I would highly recommend this work if you are interested in taking a deep dive into all the myriad ways that our patriarchal society has put women into small boxes over this past century, denying them the chances for equal positions where work, pay, status and power are concerned, merely because of how they happened to have been born!  And I would encourage the reading of this book for men as well as women as it underscores how certain cultural mores become imbedded within societies so that we no longer even see how they limit people’s choices, especially if we happen to be the ones in power over others.  Didn’t we always do it this way? (:

   I personally thought I had heard most of the stories of discrimination regarding women, race and so on, but discovered many more of women, specifically, who had done great things that very few ever heard of because, as we know, those with the power, write the stories – the history books.  And women with dark skin have had an even tougher time, “living the dream,” as scientists, mathematicians and so on, in our country. 

   So, my friends, I believe our Scriptures today show us clearly how hard it is at times to make effective change, not only in State, but for our purposes here, in Church too.  The human tendency is so often that of the status quo – we are afraid to stand alone and speak truth to power – someone may not like us if we challenge the “easier path,” which is to follow the crowd, “live and let live” as someone recently said to me. 

   And it seems, if we learn that something we are doing, a particular way we are acting or speaking is hurtful to others – a racial slur, an article of clothing, such as a roman clerical collar, why would we not want to stop that action – stand with the people who can’t stand alone? 

   To me, there is no excuse for not stopping an action that we have been clearly told is hurtful to others – it is all about values in my mind – what we believe in, especially as organizations, what we want to present to the world in the name of Jesus, the Christ. 

   Jesus calms our fears today when he says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid…” [my Spirit will be with you, always.]   Amen? Amen! Alleluia!

   My friends, today I would like to begin with a line from the gospel selection that I just read for us: “I give you a new commandment – love one another as I have loved you.”  I have read this line from Scripture many times before, as you probably have too; but this time it struck me differently than it ever did before.  I want to therefore, lift up for us the word, “new” to reflect on today. 

   If this commandment is “new,” that says to me that it is not one that the people listening to our brother Jesus would have been “practicing” already!  This reminds me of a scene from my favorite story of the “life and times” of Jesus of Nazareth, done so well, I feel, by Franco Zeffirelli. 

   In this scene Jesus is sitting with a group of Jewish priests and “higher-ups,” and Jesus asks Joseph of Arimathea, “what is the heart of the law?” Joseph, in Jesus’ estimation, “answers well!”  “The heart of the law is this, love God with all your heart, soul and mind – this is the greatest commandment,” continues Joseph.  Jesus then replies, “there is another commandment, no less great, love your neighbor as yourself!” 

   At this point in the film, another man from the Sanhedrin proclaims, “but who is my neighbor?”  Enter a woman known as, “a local prostitute,” and our brother Jesus ministers to her showing his brothers present and us today, what, “love of neighbor” looks like.  Basically, that love must extend not just to those who, “love us back” – that’s easy, right?  No, this love is something we must at least attempt to, “extend to all, especially the least among us!” 

   So, my friends, our brother Jesus is giving us a new commandment.  He continues to his faithful twelve – “You will know that you are my disciples if you truly love one another.” 

   I think for many in this world, if not all of us, it is much easier to “love God,” who in God’s completeness, none of us have ever seen, than it is to love “neighbors” who come in every visage, shape and form.  That is why, I believe, God, in God’s goodness sent Jesus to first name that, yes, “we should love God,” but that we can’t truly love God, without at least, “attempting” to love those we encounter each day.  As a reality check, you will notice that I used, “attempt to” love, to make it clear that this truly can be difficult to do at times. 

   In such situations, “attempting to love,” when we find that hard to do, I do two things.  First, I try to love that which God has seen from the beginning in each of us, all the good that we are capable of…  This doesn’t mean that we should, “love or affirm,” the personal actions of others that are clearly against love.  And, in fact, when we do see actions that are against love,  we should speak out – saying nothing because we don’t “want to get involved, or we want to keep the peace, or unity” among our chosen group, simply, as we might say in present day parlance, “doesn’t cut it,” especially if on the other hand, we want to claim, “that we love God.”  It is at times like this, others might say of us, “we are better than this.” 

   Secondly, when all else seems to fail, with my best efforts, I ask Jesus to love them through my less than perfect actions. 

   Looking then to the other readings for today, from Acts first, we see Paul and Barnabas not only initially setting up churches in Turkey and throughout the Greek world, but that they extended pastoral care by visiting again and again to check on how they were doing.  Additionally, we know that when visits weren’t possible, Paul wrote letters so that his “young” flock, would not feel, “alone.”  Paul seems to use every “tool in his box” to share the Good News – extending his work, and inviting Gentiles, those not of the Jewish faith, when the Jews proved to be, not interested. 

   I am touched by our God’s loving care for the people depicted in each of the readings today.  In the 2^nd reading from Revelation, we hear that, “God will wipe away every last tear, and that death and mourning, crying and pain will be no more.”  And our God also says, “see, I make all things new.” 

   So, from our Creator God, to Jesus, our Revealer, we hear the message, that now we are being asked to do something, “new.”  Love God, yes, but love the people of this world too!  Of our brother Paul, we could say, “he showed persistence,” traveling and writing, trying to be present to those who named themselves in the early days, “The Way,” following as faithfully as they could, the message and style of Jesus. 

   We could, in my mind, use more spiritual leaders – bishops and priests, in today’s world, willing to persist as Paul did, doing something “new” as Jesus did, in order that, as Sister Joan Chittister is fond of saying, “the full message” of love could be preached.  I am so saddened when I see those “with the power,” both in Church and State, simply saying and doing nothing, because if not from them, then who will go for us, speak for us?

   My friends, the Easter Season is winding down in a few more weeks, and we are each invited and encouraged during this time to give back a portion of all that we have been given – we know that Paul was persistent in traveling overland an estimated 700 miles, and by sea, another 500 miles to do his “portion” – we know he experienced shipwrecks and more, yet he continued…  Our journey in our Christian lives, “walking the talk,” doesn’t have to be identical to Paul’s, but we do have to do that which is ours, loving our world and its people, in the ways we ourselves would like to be loved and cared for, and again, not always easy to do!  And, in all this “loving” my friends, remember to include yourselves in the care given – it’s a balance. 

Amen? Amen! Alleluia!