05182022 – John 13. 31-35
I have not seen a movie in a theatre in – I do not know how long.
I would be lying, if I said I did.
But I do read, every day and with some additional luck, every night, as well.
I do check out movie trailers online.
I am aware of the 2021 movie BELFAST that was set in Northern Ireland in the turbulent year 1969.
The movie is seen through the eyes of a little boy and his family.
The film won the PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD last year. If you watch the trailer online, you will see “why it was so popular.”
Buddy, a nine-year-old-little Protestant boy, has a crush on a Roman Catholic classmate.
He asks his father if he could have “a future with her,” and his father replies, “That wee girl can be a practicing Hindu, or Southern Baptist, or vegetarian Antichrist.
But if she’s kind, and fair, and you two respect each other, she and her people are WELCOME IN OUR HOUSE.”
My mind of course, went immediately to THE CHURCH and “how WELCOMING are WE…or are we NOT.” “How OPEN to “others” are we, how accepting of “OTHERS” are we…” all important questions to ask in THIS AGE or in ANY AGE.
As a matter of fact, this is EXACTLY the question the early church struggled with in the Book of the ACTS of the APOSTLES.
And something tells me, it is the self-same question – the church has struggled with – IN EVERY SINGLE GENERATION, since “the vision of Peter.” It was a WATERSHED kind of experience. It CHANGED everything.
There was definitely a BEFORE and AFTER vision thing that went on…
Prior to the “Peter’s Vision” the church was JEWISH. What we sometimes refer to IT as being Jewish/Christian.
PETER’S VISION was a monumental moment in the life of the church.
It changed everything.
One dream.
One vision. Albeit, seemingly cryptic.
A sheet coming down from heaven.
“Get up, Peter, kill and eat.”
Umm, excuse me Lord, BUT we have DIETARY STANDARDS to uphold HERE.
Leviticus 11, lays it all out. What is KOSHER. What is NOT kosher. What you CAN eat. What you CANNOT eat.WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE AND WHAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
You wanna join our ranks, then you better keep a KOSHER household.
That is, UNTIL Peter has his vision.
The next thing you know, he is EATING and DRINKING with Gentiles.
God forbid!
Everything changes.
The DOORS of the church, while not flung open wide…
There WAS a least a TEENY-WEENY-SMALL-LITTLE FISSURE, A CRACK…where light could come through…
Something new was on the horizon.
LIGHT WAS COMING THROUGH THE DOOR! There was an opening, it was a beginning.
Things WERE about to change. Little bit, by little bit…
So when Peter returns to Jerusalem, they are “LAYING IN WAIT.” They couldn’t wait to POUNCE ON HIM… They have “heard things”… The stories had been circulating before his sandal even touches the city limits.
WHY DID YOU GO TO UNCIRCUMCISED MEN AND EAT WITH THEM? We want to know. Explain yourself. Peter was put on the proverbial HOTSEAT.
And for me, the big line is “WHO WAS I – THAT I COULD HINDER GOD?”
After the vision…the church slowly but surely became Gentile Christian, as well as Jewish Christian…both at the same time. COEXISTING TOGETHER. SIMULTANEOUSLY!
That question “however” is kind of haunting.
“Who am I…” “That I”…should hinder God?”
I think it is “that question” that the church MUST CONTINUALLY ASK ITSELF, every time we try and make people jump through our manmade hoops.
Do they look like us?
Do they sound like us?
Are they from around here?
What do we know about them?
Do they believe like us?
Do they give like us?
All the GAMES we constantly PLAY…and CONTINUE to play.
RATHER THAN welcoming them IN, we want to make sure they are KOSHER, acceptable, GOOD ENOUGH to MEET whatever standards WE set UP for them.
Churches that draw THE WRONG LINES of demarcation need to have HUGE “big erasers” of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Not for others, but for THEMSELVES!
WE would be the ones in ERROR.
WE would be the ones in the WRONG.
We would be the ones acting – UN-CHRISTIAN, UN-CHRIST-LIKE.
Thinking back to that night in the upper room, Jesus knowing that his time was growing shorter and shorter.
Knowing WHAT FATE would await him…
Knowing that the CROSS was beckoning…
WHY did he do it?
WHY did he suffer SO?
So, that WE could make conditions on membership? Or who WE deemed- worthy ENOUGH to break bread with us?
At the heart of Christianity IT is never what WE do; it is what God does.
The community of God’s people doesn’t spring up from OUR activity; it comes from God.
As long as WE err on the side of LOVE AND LOVING and staying open to the Spirit’s guidance, WE follow the commandment Jesus gave the community formed in his name: to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
It was really meant to be THAT SIMPLE…
Just Love. It is enough.
Amen.