Love Is

“Love Is”
Acts 11:1-18 John 13:31-35
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 19, 2019
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho

I’ve never had coffee! Not a drop! I’ve never smoked either, not a puff. When I was young I watched people with addictions to caffeine and nicotine and I decided I never wanted to get hooked, so why even start in the first place? To this day, I don’t plan on smoking, and yet if I ever make it to Australia, I will have coffee with my friend, Dave, who is a coffee snob and only drinks the really good stuff. But I’m holding out!

Now, I could let my “purity” create a superiority complex, thinking I am in a separate category than most people, better than the average person who drinks coffee or takes a drag. My teeth aren’t stained, my clothes don’t stink; it’s all good! I could let that “go to my head.” That’s human nature, after all, when our attitudes go unchecked, uninformed, and ignorant of deeper connections. Our egocentric self, our judging mind enjoys tribalism, where we relate to groups that are just like us. This dualistic thinking also condemns everyone else. This is at the core of most politics these days, accepting people that are liked because they reflect acceptable identities, and rejecting people who are different. Even in political irony, like the Louisiana Governor signing the most restrictive anti abortion law in the nation to defend innocent life of unborn children, while on the same day the Governor chose to ignore two pleas for “stays” by two inmates on death row. As the government proclaimed the sanctity of life, these prisoners were executed by lethal injection. The cloak of moral superiority is just another way of ego control, of people thinking they are separate and superior to others, claiming a higher ground of purity in exclusive ways.

The story from the Acts of the Apostles also shows the clash of cultures between Jews and Gentiles. Jews, God’s chosen and blessed people, had behavioral codes which forbade intentional interactions with non-Jews, or Gentiles. To visit the home of a Gentile, let alone eating a meal with Gentiles, would be scandalous. This is why Jesus is accused of eating with outcasts and sinners, and looked down upon by the religiously devout elite.

Peter shows us one way to short circuit the ego. The scripture tells us of a spiritual discipline, that if practiced, is likely about the only thing with any chance of derailing the selfishness we have learned. If this practice is good enough for an Apostle, then we need to pay attention and take this practice seriously. In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter eleven, verse five, Peter explains the source of his actions, the foundation which sets the shape of why he did what he did as a Jewish Christian visiting Gentiles, which was strictly forbidden by devout Jews.

He says this:

“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision.”

Then he goes on to explain the vision.

Peter prays. Perhaps that’s not a surprise. But he prays in such a way that he’s entranced. Most Americans would start to wonder about that, getting entranced. If you’re not uncomfortable yet, you likely will be once it says he has a vision. Prayer, trance, vision from God. This type of prayer is well beyond saying grace at mealtime for dinner on a special occasion. This is intentional prayer, meditation, contemplation, an experiential prayer which sets our agendas aside, and in the Presence of God, we’re gifted with illumination that changes our life.

If you’ve had a vision from God, it changes your life. You can’t go back to the way things were before; God’s vision compels you to respond. This is the type of prayer Peter is talking about; this is the type of prayer we need to seriously consider. Are we really open to visions from God, or do we like the way things are? The actions Peter take in response to this vision are revolutionary.

Peter hints at the intensity and severity of his actions and the challenge God is presenting when he asks, “Who was I that I could hinder God?”
This is not a casual situation in their context. His rhetorical question makes a statement. God is changing the world, and we are invited to participate in transformation.

In a recent daily devotional, Richard Rohr reminds us of the origin of a term. Perhaps you’ve heard the word, “Paradigm.” Or the phrase, “paradigm shift!” Rohr reminds us that this term was popularized by Thomas Kuhn, an American philosopher and physicist who published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962, and introduced the term “paradigm shift.” Although he died in 1996, English language has adopted that term to describe a fundamental change in approach or assumptions. Attitudes and worldviews are held by individuals, societies, and religions. Cultural values find their roots in some sort of paradigm which shapes concepts and practices.

Let’s look into the belly of Christianity as we’ve come to know it in North America, and let’s play with the idea of Paradigm Shift as we prayerfully come alongside Peter in seeking God to give us a new vision. Potentially there’s an intensity to this, just as Peter is shocked by the vision of the sheet with ritually unclean animals that God commands him to eat.

When I was younger, going to church, participating in youth group, attending summer camp, doing adventure bicycle trips, and even later as a pastor and church camp staff, I noticed one of the dominant themes of North American Christianity keeps coming up in the teachings.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement Doctrine. This doctrine is reflected in another teaching called the Four Spiritual Laws, which say we are born guilty of sin, there is a separation between us and God and we’re judged and condemned because of our sin, yet Jesus is the bridge who makes us presentable to God, and only through Jesus are we saved to go to heaven because when God looks at us, God sees Jesus instead. We are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, who takes our punishment for us to appease God’s wrath. This is penal substitutionary atonement doctrine, based on an image of God that has shaped Christianity for centuries.

This teaching of the dominant church in North America proclaims that Jesus saves us from sin. Fair enough, sounds good; a solid Christian message. Jesus dies on the cross to rescue us from our sin. Through his death and resurrection, we are forgiven and saved.

Friends, this is the operative paradigm in Western Christianity that we’ve inherited through church tradition. Protestants and Catholics form teachings and assumptions based on the paradigm called Original Sin. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo, a theologian living in the Roman district in part of Africa, gave shape to the church. Augustine took an older, heathen concept and adapted it for the Roman Catholic Church. His views have shaped church doctrine and dogma, and in the fifth century, the teaching of original sin was given institutional recognition. Until then, that was not official church teaching or the experience of the early church.

This doctrine began to proclaim that because Adam and Eve fell into sin, everyone is corrupt from birth. Because of their misuse of the freewill God gives, we are utterly depraved. That’s the paradigm. You can thank Augustine for helping our world create the headlines we hear in the news, because the dogma of original sin is the operative paradigm that shapes the myths we live by. An image of God as judgmental, separate, and in need of appeasement has led the world to this point, featuring perpetual war, violence, famine, broken politics, divided courts, walls, discounted relationships, meritocracy emphasized; in other words the empire rages on; and these are just the headlines of an average news cycle, showing the ego of unchecked human pride that tries to validate its existence.

Let’s look again at Rohr as we play with the idea of a paradigm shift, and as we wonder what a different religious foundation would lead to? Rohr says,

“…we are at the beginnings of a Trinitarian Revolution. History has so long operated with a static and imperial image of God […] living in splendid isolation from what he (and God is exclusively envisioned as male in this model) created. His love is perceived as unstable, whimsical, and preferential. […] Humans become like the God we worship. So it’s important that our God is good and life-giving. That’s why we desperately need a worldwide paradigm shift in Christian consciousness regarding how we perceive and relate to God. […] Paradigm shifts become necessary when the plausibility structure of the previous paradigm becomes so full of holes […] that a complete overhaul, which once looked utterly threatening, now appears as a lifeline. […]”

With the intensity of Peter telling the Jerusalem Christians about God claiming these Gentiles, Rohr is telling the larger Church through the theme of paradigm shift, that,

“We’re at precisely such a moment when it comes to our image of God. Instead of the idea of the Trinity being a theological conundrum, it could well end up being the answer to Western religion’s basic problem. God has forever redefined power in the Trinity! God’s power comes through powerlessness and humility. The Christian God is much more properly called all-vulnerable than almighty […like] the shocking metaphor ‘Lamb of God’ found in the New Testament. Unfortunately, for the vast majority, God is still ‘the man upstairs,’ a substantive noun more than an active verb. […] Rational and sincere people wonder, ‘If God is almighty and all-loving, then why is there so much suffering in the world?’ But once you experience God as all-vulnerable, then perhaps God stands in solidarity with all pain and suffering in the universe, allowing us to be participants in our own healing. This does not make sense to the logical mind, but to the awakened soul it somehow does. Let the Trinitarian Revolution take root!” (https://cac.org/trinitarian-revolution-2019-05-17/, Richard Rohr, online Daily Devotional, Center for Action and Contemplation, May 17, 2019).

As our book study Sunday school class looks at Diana Butler Bass’ book called, Grounded, Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution, we see the recognition that Western Christianity is experiencing a great awakening as she talks about our common humanity. She says,

“This is salvation, this is seeing God in all other faces, the very meaning and purpose of Jesus.” (Grounded, Harper One Publishers, 2015, pg. 266).

In that shocking vision God gave Peter, one that shifted a long-established paradigm, God invites Peter to something new. But Peter argues from the perspective of religious purity laws, saying, “By no means, Lord…” It took a second time for the voice to speak, saying, “’What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times…” Remember, when something happens three times, in terms of biblical writing, narrative structure, that’s a call to pay attention. How long will the Doctrines we’ve chosen operate in ways that take what God has created blessed, good, and beautiful, intimately related to all things, and instead, call them unclean, broken, or condemned?
In faith, Peter finally says to the others,

“‘If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’”

In the Twenty-first century, we echo this biblical story in our own context. If God was active and alive through believers in the early church, through prayer, trances, and visions, turning their world upside down as love brought connection, unity, and light, who are we to think God is not active today, calling the church to a more faithful witness in the Living Christ? Who are we that we think we can hinder God? God’s creative power is leading the world into deeper experiences of “life abundant” that God intends. God’s creative power is calling humanity to evolve, but first we need to wake up. The fresh winds of the Spirit bring renewal. God is inviting us to see in larger ways the foundational blessings, the streams of living water that permeate all people, all situations, and all things.

The way Jesus introduces this revolutionary life is by saying,

“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.”

May we take seriously the depths and power of prayer, the calling and leading of the Holy Spirit, inviting us to dance with the Trinity as we celebrate relationship, love, and humble service to others. May we question the assumptions which lay beneath and behind the situations we face, both locally as individuals, and as societies and cultures. May our leaders seek the common good which benefits everyone, shaped by the Prince of Peace and the Wisdom of the Spirit. May the Trinitarian Revolution take root, starting with our own hearts and minds. Love one another, and allow this love, this image of God, to create you, and form all things.

As paradigms shift through unity and grace, may God all-vulnerable be humble, NOW, even as forever.  Amen.