THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN EASTERTIDE
What wonderful readings we have today – the vision
of a New Jerusalem – a new way of living - where Jesus’ words, “I give you a new commandment, that you
love one another” are fully lived out.
And the reading from Acts which shows us what a challenge loving one another
was for the early church, just as it continues to be a challenge for us today.
When Gentiles began to be welcomed into the new community of
Jesus it created problems – the religious Jews had always kept themselves
carefully separate from non-Jews, but now some of them were crossing the
boundary. They were breaking the traditional purity laws.
We still have purity codes today, but ours are much less
conscious, in fact we usually think of them as just common sense, or the way
things are. In times of social upheaval purity codes get challenged, usually
accompanied by controversial debates and political battles. Interracial
marriage is an example in recent memory. For a white person and a black person
to marry was to offend against the purity code of the time. Similarly, gay
relationships offend against the purity codes of many people today. In the last
thirty years we have seen this gradually changing until today a majority of
Americans support marriage for gay couples.
It has always been part of the role of religion in society to
protect purity codes and to uphold social arrangements around marriage and
family organizations, so it’s not surprising that the Church has struggled with
these questions, just as the early church struggled with the full inclusion of
Gentiles. In the reading from Acts we heard that Peter was criticized for his
acceptance of Gentiles, and so he had to explain to them step by step that first
God had told him to defy the purity laws, and then secondly he found that God
was already blessing these people.
Our experience as Episcopalians has been similar. We have
found that God has been blessing us through the ministry of gay, lesbian and
transgender people – and we have gradually realized that God blesses all of us
- people of different ethnicities, people of different abilities, people of
different skin tones, people of different sexual orientation, of different gender
identity – even, dare I say it – people of different religions.
Which leaves us in a very difficult position.
Who is there left to hate?
If there is no-one left to hate, what will politicians and
media pundits do? Love and good news never sold papers. If there is no one for
us to hate, no one we are willing to blame and scapegoat, then politicians will
have to find an entirely new strategy for getting us to support their agendas.
No longer will we be willing to demonize foreign leaders, no longer will we be
willing to mobilize to try to prevent one party or another from gaining power.
No longer will we be willing to put up with partisan gridlock or with policies
which give more power to the already powerful and more money to the already rich.
Our whole financial and political system would have to change.
Can we imagine a world without hate? It might begin to look
just a little like the New Jerusalem, the city where God makes all things new…
But let us not get too carried
away. Hatred is very subtle. It isn’t always in your face. In fact, very often,
especially for those of us who have grown up knowing that Jesus told us to love
one another, it can be very hard to get a handle on. It comes out in little
ways, in jokes made at someone else’s expense; in holding grudges and nursing
grievances. It turns anger at injustice into a desire for revenge on the
perpetrators. It turns grief into a demand for retribution. It infiltrates our
minds in such a way that it seems quite reasonable. Hatred, fueled by fear,
leads quite nice people to sanction violence and even torture – provided it
happens at a distance.
Hatred allows us to justify striking back when we are hurt.
Which is exactly what Jesus did NOT do. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden
of Gethsemane he didn’t strike back. When he was in front of Pilate he didn’t
cooperate but he didn’t resist violently. In fact, Jesus was the model of
non-violent resistance. And he went one step further… he didn’t just avoid
violence, Jesus forgave those who
betrayed him, those who persecuted him, those who killed him.
Jesus and hate simply do not belong in the same sentence.
As disciples of Jesus, we get to obey his commandment to love,
and that means we have to forgive and to do that we have to give up our habit
of hatred.
It’s not going to be easy, because our society is riddled
through and through with hatred, anger and violence. It’s in our newscasts, our
TV programs, our facebook posts…It’s inside our minds.
But taking up love and giving up hatred is what it really
means to be an inclusive church.
Inclusive sounds warm and wonderful but that’s only part of
the picture. If we are to be truly inclusive, if we are to build the reign of
God on earth, if we are to follow Jesus then we have to find a way to change,
and to change radically. Which means hard, careful work. It means examining the
way we do things to make sure that we are not leaving groups of people out in
the cold, that we are not disempowering someone else in order to empower
ourselves. It means welcoming people who really are different from us.
It’s not going to be comfortable. If you think being an
inclusive church is going to be church just like it’s always been but with more
people, then you need to think again. Because those people whom God blesses
just like she blesses you, may want to sit in your seat; they may want to
change the hymns; they may even, heaven forbid, decide to change the prayer
book.
The early church wasn’t at all sure that they wanted to
include Gentiles and the debate went on for quite a while - just like the Episcopal church today still
isn’t quite sure that it wants to
include women, latinos, gays, lesbians, African-Americans, Cubans, bisexual people, transpeople,
deaf people… I could go on and on.
But if we take Jesus’ words seriously, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.” If we get serious about being Jesus’ disciples; if we get serious
about replacing hate with loving and forgiving, then we will be doing more than
creating an inclusive church, we will be building the new Jerusalem.
