Easter 6 B – 5/13/12
Have you everbeen so enraged by someone or a group of people, it changed your perspective, changedyour mood, made you behave differently with people you love? Made you think differently about people youdon’t even know?
What aboutbeing angry at a system, or a class of people or a politically chargedword? Sometimes we don’t even know who“they” are, we just know “they” are wrong and “they” make us angry. OccupyEugene. US Politics. CorporateGreed. Marriage equality. Immigration. If I haven’t mentioned something that makes you angry, changed yourmood, made you behave differently with the people you love, or made you thinkdifferently about people you don’t even know, fill in the blank with your ownperson or system that does make you angry.
For some of you,anger is more out of reach, it’s not one of your regular responses. For you, substitute apathy. It’s no lessdraining, and far more insidious in our society. The author Leo Buscaglia wrote, “The oppositeof love is not hate… it’s apathy” Notfeeling anything. We find ourselvesapathetic to the needs and cries around us.
A personalgrudge, anger at a system or apathy – this is the context within which we live,what is around us, how we’re treated, or how we treat others.
And maybe thispervasive non-love is exactly where Peter found himself in the story fromActs. He’s in a setting ofbelievers. Sure they believed in God’slove and forgiveness. Peter understandsand has seen first hand self-sacrificing love, and he’s talking with“believers”, presumably people who believe in the same encompassing love.
But I have tobelieve those feelings we have, feelings of anger and apathy towards the“other”, were also prevalent in Peter’s time. We’re all human. How could theynot have the same reactions, perceptions, and fears that we do. While their society may not have beenconcerned about middle-eastern terrorist as ours is, they could have hadsimilar concerns and fears about Roman terrorists.
Like us, theywere taught that Jesus loves everyone, and that’s a wonderful, love-filledthing. They were believers in the middleof anger at people and anger at systems, and in the midst of apathy. Just like we are.
Yet, we aretold that they were surprised that God’s Holy Spirit was shared with even theGentiles. I can imagine them saying,Yes, God loves everyone. But them??
And here wesit, thousands of years later, in many ways, exactly the same place. Cognitively we know that God loves everyone,that Jesus loves all the little children of the world. We’ve heard it. And we believe it. Atleast we mostly believe it. If we werehonest with ourselves we could each probably name our own group or person, likePeter’s friends, who could not comprehend how God’s love would extend to thegentiles. Who are the gentiles in yourlife? Who is it that is beyond the reachof God’s love? The answer may be thesame as the answer to who makes you really angry, systems that make youangry. Or maybe it’s the people youdon’t see, don’t think about, and don’t cry for.
But like theGentiles, God’s love does extend to exactly those people. Jesus doesn’t love all the little childrenexcept the undocumented ones. He didn’tsay everyone can abide in his love, except the Occupy Eugene people. Or that God’s love is conditional, anddependent upon our behavior, or our misbehavior. He doesn’t love the person involved in streetcrimes to support a drug habit, the man involved in white collar financialcrimes, or me, any more or any less.
To be clear, Jesusdoes not ask you to love their cause, or their actions. And I’m certainly not advocating for oragainst any of these issues. Rather,Jesus asks that you love the person. Notwhat they do, how they dress, or what you believe they stand for. We are asked to see beyond their clothes,their money, their issues, their politics - to the person, the child of God who’s in themidst of that. Love everyone.
The hymn wejust sung says this beautifully.
Still east and west his love extends and always, near or far,
he calls and claims us as his friends and loves us as we are.
Where generation, class or race divide us to our shame,
he sees not labels but a face, a person and a name.
The Gospeltakes this further to involve us in this messy love game. We are asked, no, commanded to love eachother. Not some. Not the nice ones. Everyone.
This is hard,and few of us, if left to our own, would choose such a job. Therefore, we don’t have to choose. Jesus says, “You did not choose me, I chose you” .
We don’t havethe choice about whether we’re chosen by God. Done deal. “I chose you”. Butwait, you mean I’m not free to choose? But I like my options. I don’tlike anyone being the boss of me. WeAmericans, particularly us ruggedly independent Oregonians, don’t like beingordered, commanded, or volunteered for a job. We want to keep our options open,and definitely don’t like being told what todo. We want our freedom.
Luckily for us,the Gospel clears that issue up for us. It explains that freedom - perfect freedom – can be ours. We’ve got the key to perfect freedom. Yes, we do. And the key? Follow Christ’s commandments.
If we don’tlike rules, orders, or commandments, how is following a commandment possibly“perfect freedom”??
I think thefreedom stems from God’s perfect love for each of us. The Gospel says the greatest love is when someone lays down theirlife for their friends. God loves us somuch, not by our choice or actions, but by his. Jesus died as the ultimate “perfect love”. He laid down his life for his friends. If only we could see that love all around us,how much God loves you and you and you. Perfectly. If we knew that, we’dbe bubbling over, smiling at people, able to forgive, and share that love. It would be near impossible not to.
You can seeit. You can see love in the actions andattitudes of others. More tangible, youcan touch and taste it right here, in the Eucharist, where we encounter thereal presence of Christ, who in love, “laid down his life for hisfriends”. And that love fills everynook and cranny of our lives, of our breath, of our space, and if we could knowthat, if we had magic glasses so we could actually see it, it would overflow. Overflow through, to those around us.
Again, the hymnwe just sung.
Thus freely loved, through fully known, may I in Christ be free
to welcome and accept his own asChrist accepted me.
Know that youare chosen. And you are loved in such animmense incomprehensible way. In thishustle, bustle, dog-eat-dog world, it’s sometimes hard to see that, to rememberthat. But when you do, share it. Love your neighbor. God loves you, your neighbor, the Gentiles,and those on both sides of every headline-grabbing, gut wrenching issue.
Loving the person is not thesame as condoning or supporting the cause. But when we can know God’s love, and let it bubble through us to thosearound us, we can begin to shed some of the anger, the pain, the isolation, eventhe apathy. It is in this act of loving others, even thegentiles of our lives that we can be free. As the collect for this morning said, “Pour into hearts such love that we may obtainyour promises which exceed all we can desire.”
Have you ever been so loved bysomeone, it changed your perspective, changed your mood, made you behavedifferently with people you love? Madeyou think differently about the people you don’t even know?
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