To Embrace the New
“To Embrace the New”
Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, John 13:31-25
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 15, 2022
Pastor Andy Kennaly, First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
In one of the Batman movies The Joker has hijacked two ferry boats. One of the boats is filled with prisoners, thieves and robbers, murderers. The other boat is filled with the general public, men, women, children, the elderly, those deemed innocent in society’s eyes. Each boat is rigged with a massive bomb, and the detonators are on the other boat. The Joker and Batman are in a fight, and Joker has captured the Batman and awaits the deadline to see which boat will blow the other up first out of self-interest. Batman has a quiet confidence throughout the struggle. Even at the climax he seems to have a deep trust toward humanity, both in those who are “successful” and those who are “condemned.” When Joker expects an explosion, Batman says, “There won’t be an explosion.” The jokes on Joker, because there wasn’t an explosion. Grace ruled the waters that night as each group resisted their own self-interest to survive, each group gave the other the benefit of the doubt even from a distance without discussing this or knowing if the other group would reciprocate. In short, a deep love prevailed, one that freed them all from superficial assumptions, labels, fear, and misleading myths. Shared humanity was evident in the quiet as everyone took deep breaths of relief, then burst out laughing in ecstatic joy.
Sometimes we get worked up. The talking heads on the media fan those flames of anger and fear in hopes to boost their ratings, and it works. The general public gets swayed through siloed thinking and the anxiety of society fragmenting seems more entrenched. But when will love prevail rather than a climate of fear and separation? When will love remove boundaries rather than borders getting reinforced by ego consciousness that perceives not only the “other” as an “other” but as an enemy to be feared, defended against, or destroyed.
This is the kind of backdrop that informs a reading of John’s gospel. The Christ Consciousness in the fullness of humanity and divinity, united in Jesus and culminated through embodied Love that calls us deeper into love. Judas has just left the room. Jesus gave him a piece of bread and told him to do what he was to do. In the words that follow we hear of the Son of Man glorified, and God glorified in the Son of Man. The fullness of humanity is not a one-sided experience. God also glorifies the Son of Man in God, and there is a Oneness, an at once involved.
The more Jesus’ command transforms ones’ life, the broader and deeper Love becomes. Ibn Arabi, a twelfth century mystic, in their writing, “Whatever Way Love’s Camel Takes,” says this:
My heart has become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles
And a monastery for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols,
And the pilgrim’s Ka’ba
And the tablets of the Torah,
And the Book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love:
Whatever way love’s camel takes,
That is my religion, my faith.
(Suzanne Guthrie, Edge of Enclosure online resource, Ibn Arabi 1165-1240, http://edgeofenclosure.org/easter5c.html).
The Psalmist shows a vision through an open heart as well. We see all of creation gets in on the blessings of Love’s Incarnation. In a litany of everything that exists, all creation from the sun, moon, and stars to ocean deeps and mountain peaks, fruit trees and cedars, wild and domestic, regular folks and those in positions of power; everyone and everything is called to praise the name of the LORD.
Years ago I shared about a vision I had one afternoon on Schweitzer Mountain. At the end of the day I got up there in time to take a couple runs before the lifts closed. The sun was setting over the ridge and in that last direct daylight I stopped and looked around and felt a sense of oneness with the valley view, the trees nearby, the entire Earth beyond my seeing. I stood there for a minute and then asked what it might look like through my heart’s vision and not just scenery to my eyes. Suddenly everything took on a new hue, and the trees and all nature were praising God together and I joined in by singing through my heart. That moment wasn’t very long, but it touched eternity, outside of time, qualitative, and I felt I had come alongside Psalmists like this one whose poetry democratizes God’s power and glory for the people.
In the reading from Acts we see Peter have a vision and this challenges his assumptions and religious beliefs. He needs to learn to embrace the new as God confronts the limitations of Peter’s understanding. As he does embrace the new in prophetic ways, we see love in action. Like Peter, we may have questions, and Suzanne Guthrie homes in on a couple as she says, “As I have loved you. How DID Jesus love us? By befriending and eating with outcasts and sinners, collaborators and prostitutes, the unclean, the impure, the unloved. By stretching the boundaries of his own love. By self-sacrificial life and death. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have this kind of love for one another.”
“Love’s challenge – the call to ever widening, ever expansive circles of love: love in all forms, to live and die for love, and embodying the qualities of gentleness and generosity. As we mature in love, our love and our actions have no boundaries.” (http://edgeofenclosure.org/easter5c.html).
As we live into these Sundays of Easter, Resurrection faith has a way of messing with time, and John’s Gospel shows Jesus among us, then leaving, then back again. Love remains, and as Jesus commands, love one another is not only a “what” but a “who.” Love is something that we embody, a gift from God. But LOVE is also God, and Love is who we are. This is the Oneness; this is the glory. This is for human people and people of other expressions as we are all called deeper into Love. May this love cast out fear as we embrace the new of every moment. Thanks be to God, both now, and forever. Amen.