The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
There are times when it seems to me that the simpler something seems to be, the more complicated it really is. Do you ever have that feeling? (pause for people to respond)
I remember back when you cleaned house with a broom and dustpan, a dust
mop and a wet mop. If you had a rug, you'd take it outside and beat out the dust. If it was too big for that, you might have a carpet sweeper, or you might use the broom on the rug. Simple. But now, if you buy all the stuff you see advertised, you will have a broom, dry mop, wet mop, some gadget that cleans floors with a disposable pad, another gadget that mops floors with a disposable pad, a gadget to pick up stuff off the carpet with a disposable pad, a vacuum cleaner with umpteen attachments, a floor scrubber, a floor waxer.....well, you get the idea. And all of this is supposed to be "labor saving." I sometimes think that the modern housewife spends more time changing dirt bags and disposable pads than she would with a broom and a couple of mops, to clean the entire house. Maybe labor-saving housework is not so simple, after all?
And then there are computers. We were told that computers would stow all the data in their memory, and we would have an almost paper-free office...fewer file cabinets, fewer papers to file. Simple, right? All I can say is that I have about ten times the amount of paper stacked around my office as I did before we got a computer.... Maybe not so simple, after all!
Well, let's get down to our Bible readings. The first one, from the book of Acts, tells us what happened when Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel message in the city of Antioch. For centuries the Jews had waited and longed for the coming of the Messiah. And now, Paul told them, the Messiah had come, and he went on to explain how they knew Jesus to be the Messiah. Simple, huh? You'd think they were going to be happy to hear the great news! God had followed through and kept his promise, and shouldn't everybody rejoice? But, no. There were both Jews and non-Jews, called Gentiles, in the crowd that listened to Paul preach. Paul, you remember, was a trained rabbi. He felt he had to explain why he was preaching about the Messiah of the Jews to the Gentiles. And, oh boy, did the Jews get mad! They stirred up a lot of bad feeling in the city, and got Paul and Barnabas thrown out of town. Even rejoicing in the coming of the Messiah turns out not to be so simple, you see.
Let's look now at the Gospel. It is a short selection from Jesus' long High Priestly speech, the speech he gave at the Last Supper, to review for the disciples what he had taught them. He knew that in a few hours he would be arrested and crucified. Apparently the disciples hadn't believed Jesus, the times he had warned them about what was going to happen....but, anyway, he wanted to go over the main teachings with them one more time. The main point of this part of his talk is very clear and simple: And now, I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you are to love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know you are my disciples. Yes, very simple. Very clear. No possibility for misunderstanding, you think?
Well, wait a minute. If you happen to read this verse to a Sunday School class, it is almost sure that somebody is going to ask, How can I love people if I don't like them? Some people are just plain stinkers! Of course the answer to that is that the Bible word for LOVE has nothing to do with our feelings. We don't have to LIKE people in order to love them. The Bible word for love means something close to "act with justice, be fair." In other words, we act with justice to everyone, whether or not we like that person. We try to make sure that everyone has a safe place to live, out of the weather; enough good food to keep them healthy; clothing proper for the climate; access to medical care; and that they are free from bullies, corrupt law enforcement, and so on. We try to make sure they have a right to vote and can get to the voting place, make sure they get a chance to go to school and learn what they need to make a good life for themselves. That, you see, is the Bible idea of love. It has nothing to do with your personality or their personality. It doesn't matter if they are dirty and smelly and wear ragged clothing...although you really should take them over to the Salvation Army or the thrift store to get some better things to wear. It doesn't matter if you agree with their politics or religion or sexual orientation. You are expected to love them anyway, no matter what.
And that brings us to the next question: How does God love us? And how do we love each other like that? The answer is not really hard. It is just hard for us to accept. If you read your Bible at all, or pay attention to sermons, you know that God's love is infinite. No limits. No end. And we do not have to earn it at all! God loves us, period. Even when we sin, although he's not happy about what we did, he still loves us. Even when we pull off a really big sin, he forgives us...over and over again. That doesn't mean that he likes what we did, but it means he LOVES us. And that is how we are supposed to love one another. Without limit. No matter what they do. Even when they make trouble for us over and over again, we are supposed to go on loving them...remember, love means to do justice. Love never has to be earned, it is our right as children of God. And it is our right to receive love from others, and give love to others, even the people we've hurt or the people who have hurt us in the past. We cannot give up and stop loving just because this person does something hurtful to us. We are supposed to go on loving, no matter what. And that, I tell you, is very hard work , because we people seem to want to hold grudges. We want to get even. We want to make others earn our love and respect, when in fact what Jesus is saying is that we're supposed to give that love and respect to everybody, just because...like us...they are God's children, too. It is HARD to do something good for a person who has robbed you or called you bad names or gone to bed with your spouse. But there it is. Jesus didn't put any "excepts" in that sentence. He just said, DO IT.
And here's the really tough part: If you love one another, that's how people will know you are my disciples. OUCH! Here we thought we were Christians, but ... not unless we really work at loving one another! Another not-so-simple thing. Working at this business of loving one another is what St. Paul later called "putting on Christ." Loving one another the way God loves us gives glory to God and makes it abundantly clear that we are truly disciples of Christ: Christians. It's real simple. But, oh, my, it's so hard to do! Amen.
