Fifth Sunday of ; Fr. Rick, homilist

Three weeks from today, we will celebrate the Feast of , also known within the as Whitsunday. In the one holy catholic and apostolic church, this last Sunday of the Easter season is often called the church’s birthday, celebrating the outpouring of the Spirit over the disciples as they began the first major evangelism initiative! That is all I am going to say for now. You have to wait to hear more from our Pentecost homilist!

As for the church’s birthday, there still needed to be a wider outpouring of the Spirit before the church truly became universal, or as we say in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, catholic. The story we hear from the Acts of the Apostles provides an example of this extension.

Remembering Jesus’ earliest followers were Jewish, the inclusion of non-Jewish followers came with questions. Should they be circumcised, and required to follow Judaic religious practices, like dietary laws? The early Christian leadership in Jerusalem seemed to have this stance.

Peter shares a vision of unclean animals with them. He is told to kill and eat, and responds with words to the effect of, “Not me! I have never defiled myself with unclean meat.” Sounds like Peter! Remember him, Jesus, and the other disciples on the Mount of Olives after Jesus’ final Passover meal? Jesus foresaw they all would desert him, Peter replied, “I will never desert you.” And Jesus said that before dawn, Peter would deny him three times. Peter is impulsive. The vision awakens him to the revelation that the Gentiles are to be received into the church.

Then we find Peter’s witnessing the Spirit’s outpour, as he speaks to a Gentile household. Peter recalls Jesus’ words, “…you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit.” So he tells the Jerusalem Christian leadership, “If then God gave the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” The leadership hearing him responded with praises to God.

Not everyone got the memo, however. This conversation will resurface later, when Paul lobbies the inclusion of Gentiles within the Jesus movement, without their having to practice Judaism.

As the Jesus movement spread, assemblies of Christ followers began to form in major cities. The prophet John who authored the visionary New Testament writing Revelation, addresses seven churches, likely, second- and third-generation Christ communities. These are churches that have begun to assimilate elements of the culture around them including values incompatible with those of the reign of God.

John offers the Smyrna church a compassion from Christ toward their suffering and poverty yet praising their spiritual wealth. To the Philadelphia church, John expresses Christ’s valuing its faithfulness in keeping the teaching in word and deed, though they have little strength. Three churches have nothing good said about them. The remaining two get mixed reviews.

The vision of this Revelation of Jesus Christ is to remind the Jesus followers not to allow themselves to be accommodated to the earthly empire’s ways which counter the values of the reign of God, no matter what they experience. The remaining visions reveal the ongoing struggle between the empire and the reign of God. In the end, the reign of God triumphs.

“Give unto Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” “No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Words spoken to individuals are also words necessary for churches to hear.

The evangelist John’s story of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples has Jesus commanding them to love one another. On , we celebrate this mandate. Now we hear it again. For three years, Jesus has formed them as representatives of his message of God’s healing, reconciliation with God and God’s love. He provided experiences assisting in their metanoia, change of heart, an ongoing transformation. He invited them to be a beloved community, to be the bearers of his message and mission. They will be the body of Christ after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Each Christian community is to be a beloved community, loving one another within the community, and empowered to love others outside the community. Each Christian community, part of the body of Christ, is to live the message and mission of Jesus the Christ – no easy thing. There are temptations that can weaken the beloved community.

One temptation is to not be open to the movement of the Spirit as the Spirit moves the Body of Christ to new ways of understanding and being. This is the temptation of the Church in Jerusalem, as they question Peter regarding Gentiles’ inclusion in the Jesus movement without their following the practices of Judaism. Peter answers their questions with his own, “Who am I to hinder God?”

Years ago when I belonged to a Benedictine community, I asked the superior of the community if he believed that the Episcopal Church would step back from the Church’s decision to ordain women as deacons, priests and bishops. His response: “Once the Spirit of God has moved forward, there is no turning back.”

A second temptation of a beloved Christian community, part of the Body of Christ, is the one we hear in John’s response to the seven churches: do not lose your identity in accommodation to the culture around you. The simple message of Jesus to his disciples, to love one another, was to be the community’s strength and witness to the larger community. Each of us is born within a culture, whose values are those in which we are primarily formed. But what happens when that culture’s values are incompatible within the values of the reign of God, in which we are being formed as followers of Christ?

What happens when the beloved Christian community represents those values in sync with the culture, which are incompatible with the values of the reign of God? An example? If a culture places a greater emphasis on possessions than on people, what is the beloved community’s responsibility – acquiescence or challenge? If ‘challenge’, how is this done, respecting the dignity of every human being?

Each Christian faith community, as a beloved community, has the power to bring to the broader community a message and example of Jesus’s love. But it is only real if they do love one another, recognizing each of us has imperfections, yet we each have great value. To the world, imperfect but of great value, the beloved community can be of huge service especially when times are difficult. So let us live the values of the reign of God – compassion, peace, justice, and love. Let us love one another, as we live and move and have our being in the world in which we live. For us at St. Matthew’s, this means to truly welcome all, grow in God, and serve our neighbor. Besides, we don’t want a chastising letter from John the prophet like five of the seven churches received some 1900 years ago! Amen.