That We All May Be One

I think in many ways Jesus gives us one of his scariest commandments on the Fifth Sunday of Easter! He says, “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.” (John 13:34-35).

Well, you say, why should that be so scary? Sounds like a simple command to me – love one another.  Of course we should do that!  Yet, it may not be as simple as it sounds when first we hear it.  For one thing, Jesus does not simply say: “Love one another,” does he? He says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

And just how did Jesus love his disciples? Well, he left his home and family in order to prepare himself to give his entire energy and attention to teaching and forming those disciples into the kind of community which could carry on God’s mission when Jesus’ earthly work was done.

He spent three tough years traveling about Galilee and Judea, living on the generosity of strangers, putting himself in jeopardy time and time again by hanging around with people who were unacceptable to “polite society,” teaching a dangerous message about the kingdom of God and, in the process, alienating both the religious establishment and the political “powers that be” because they were so threatened by that message.

Jesus concluded that public ministry by marching into the teeth of the opposition in the holy city of Jerusalem, fully aware that there was a plot against his life and that such public preaching would likely lead to his arrest, “trial”, and execution. And that those twelve disciples he had so carefully and lovingly nurtured would probably cave in and desert him when the going got rough, leaving him a spectacle of failure in the eyes of most people.

That’s how much Jesus loved his disciples! Enough to give himself totally to them, make their education and formation his highest priority, model the kind of life he expected them to live no matter how dangerous that was, and ultimately forgive them for betraying him and running away after all he had done for them!  And that is the kind of love Jesus commands us to have for one another! That’s the kind of love we are to have for one another right here at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church!

But it gets worse than that! For Jesus goes on to say: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another!” In other words, it was not because of their brilliant teaching or miraculous healings that people would know that they were Jesus’ disciples. It was not because of their piety or even their holiness that people would know that they were Jesus’ disciples. It was to be because of how they loved each other that people would know.

I think that must have been in Peter’s mind in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles as he wrestles with whether God could possibly accept these filthy, unclean Gentles also as disciples of Jesus Christ!  All Peter’s life he had been taught that these people were sinners, that they were so unclean that he would be putting himself in jeopardy just by eating with them…or even by eating the same kind of food that they ate! Now, he has become convinced that God is saying ‘not to make a distinction between them and us…and that “what God has made clean” he was not to call profane! (Acts 11: 12, 9)

In other words, he was being asked to love people he never thought he could love because it was only by doing so that they, and people around them, would know that he was a disciple of Jesus! He was beginning to learn that, while John the Baptist, had baptized with water, he and these Gentiles were baptized with the Holy Spirit – with God’s Spirit…with the Spirit of love!

Well, this morning we will be confirming and receiving into The Episcopal Church! And that means that we are going to be praying for the strengthening in their lives of that same Holy Spirit…with God’s Spirit…with the Spirit of love.

And you, members of their families and members of this parish, are going to promise that you will “do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ.” You’re going to promise to pray and to be the kind of witnesses which will help these people grow into the full stature of Christ…and that you are going to support them in their Christian life.

Do you know that that’s going to require of you?  It’s going to require that you make the kind of sacrifices for them and for St. Mark’s, Glen Ellyn that Jesus made for his disciples! You’re going to have to be willing to work and pray and give so that St. Mark’s Church will be around for years and decades to come to nurture these folks in their Christian faith and life.

You’re going to have to build up this community by meeting in small groups and loving one another – through thick and thin, whether you agree with one another or not (frankly, whether you even like one another or not!) – with the kind of love Jesus had for his disciples. Because it is only when people see that kind of love that they will know that you are Jesus’ disciples, and will be drawn to join you here!

Because ultimately, it will not be because of our beautiful liturgy (as much as we love it) that people will know we are Jesus’ disciples. It will not be because of our fine music program (as beautiful as it is!) that people will know we are Jesus’ disciples. It will not be because of eloquent words from this pulpit that people will know we are Jesus’ disciples.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, “Jesus said, “If…you have love for one another!”

What kind of love? Sacrificial, risking, patient, forgiving love – for one another. “Just as I have loved you, “Jesus said, “You also should love one another.”

Remember that, beloved, if you want this church to grow…and to be around…and to make a difference! Love one another. As he loves you!

As this Tuesday of the New York presidential primary dawns, I continue to be conflicted in my support of the Democratic candidates. The fact that “my heart’s with Bernie, but my head’s with Hillary” is demonstrated by the fact that I continue to support him with a monthly donation (more than his average $27 supporters, but fully aligning with them) while not giving her a cent (because she doesn’t need it) even though I was a delegate for her at our Democratic District Convention here in eastern Iowa.

As a catholic Christian (though not a Roman Catholic one) how could I not love a politician who, according to the National Catholic Reporter, has “embraced decades of Catholic social teaching in a brief visit to the Vatican Friday, lambasting some particularly American aspects of the global market system in a bid to match his voice to Pope Francis’ cry against the ‘new idols’ of money and wealth.”

How could one who has preached and taught and tried to live such social teachings for over four decades not agree with Bernie Sanders when he said, “I am told time and time again by the rich and powerful, and the mainstream media that represent them, that we should be ‘practical’, that we should accept the status quo; that a truly moral economy is beyond our reach”

“Yet Pope Francis himself is surely the world’s greatest demonstration against such a surrender to despair and cynicism,” Sanders continued, “He has opened the eyes of the world once again to the claims of mercy, justice and the possibilities of a better world. He is inspiring the world to find a new global consensus for our common home.”

Wow, preach it, Bernie!

While I continue to believe that Hillary Clinton, should she be elected, is more likely to be able to lead in taking incremental steps toward some of these same goals, I am mightily impressed by Senator Sanders’ integrity and decades-long consistency in his advocacy of economic justice and equality for all. I have said before that I will support him enthusiastically should he win the nomination.

But, as the Supreme Court seems poised to overturn Barack Obama’s signature accomplishment on immigration and as the Congress continues to block any and all progressive moves by the Administration, my fear is that four years of Bernie Sanders will, once again, lead to more gridlock and disillusionment as a Republican legislature will unite in trying to sabotage anything such a liberal President will try to accomplish.

Then again, those same “Hillary haters” may well frustrate her attempts to work across the aisle just as they have President Obama’s. The only real hope is for the Democratic nominee to bring along, on his or her coat-tails, more “down the line” candidates for the Senate and House, actually pulling off the “political revolution” Sanders is calling for. I wish Bernie was working as hard at this as Hillary is (the real purpose of those embarrassing George Clooney fund raisers!)

It’s a quandary.

But I am proud to support a political party which has put forth two candidates — a democratic socialist and a woman with a long history of working for women’s rights and children’s issues along with vast experience in international relations. It goes without saying that either one of these dedicated public servants will serve us better than any of the clowns on the GOP side.

It’s hard to overstate the symbolic significance of events surrounding Pope Francis’ recent trip to a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week. First of all, the media-savvy pontiff was well aware that his very visit would shed the light of the world’s press on the faces of these victims of the greatest human tragedy in our current time.

Secondly, of course, he not only  visited the refugee community he “walked his talk” by flying twelve Syrian refugees back to Rome. Even he admitted that this was but “a drop of water in the sea” of Europe’s migration crisis, but if every Christian community in the world would follow his model, there would be no refugee crisis anywhere in the world.

Related items got little attention: He made this visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, representing the Orthodox churches. This great man, often known as the “Green Patriarch” because of his strong environmental stands, was sadly neglected by most press reports and yet is the titular head of the second largest Christian communion in the world just as Francis is the actual leader of the largest. This ecumenical gesture is the latest in a movement toward healing the split between East and West in the Christian world which has existed for more than a thousand years.

Ecumenism extended to inter-religious awareness as the twelve Syrian refugees (members of three families) turned out to be Muslims, not Christians. This sends a clear message to the world about the need better to integrate Muslims into Western society because, Francis said, “Their privilege is that they are children of God.” In other words, human beings.

The Roman Catholic community of Sant’Egidio will actually welcome these refugees into their headquarters in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood. I have worshiped, broken bread, and traveled with this amazing, primarily lay-led charitable community which has quietly led to instances reconciliation around the world and daily feeds and shelters members of the “Roma” (or gypsy) community in the city of Rome. They, like the Bishop of Rome, are examples of Christianity at its finest, putting flesh around the spirit of love demonstrated by the religion’s Founder.

Finally, just before his departure, the Pope met briefly with U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Some have decried this as an openly political move by Sanders even while Pope Francis described it as “good manners and nothing more.” Actually, it was both. Sanders genuinely admires Francis’ “democratic socialism” (otherwise known as Catholic social teaching) and is married to a Roman Catholic.

But he could not have been unaware how this would have played with desired Catholic voters in New York who will be voting in the primary this Tuesday. Nor could Francis — again, extremely politically and socially aware — have failed to know what kind of signal he was sending about his admiration for (and support of?) Senator Sanders.

I just think this brief trip was an amazing and extremely effective gesture which reveals with startling clarity how the twin poles of “the Jesus Movement” (evangelism and reconciliation) so often spoken of by our own Presiding Bishop Michael Curry can come together seamlessly.

In the words of one young Facebook commentator on Pope Francis’ recent trip: “This guy is the real deal!”