May 17, 2009

Acts 10:25-48 Psalm: 98 1 John 4:7-10 John 15:9-17

Way back in the 1960’s, the Beatles sang “All you need is love.” This is the only place where I have heard “love” more often than St. John’s epistle. Today you will hear this Epistle for the last time. We will hear it again when the cycle of Sunday readings is repeated three years from now.

St. John seems to take his ideas from the fourth gospel. Love is described not in terms of moral or ethical instructions. There is no series of statements of what we have to do or to avoid. The model for love is the very person of Jesus. Jesus gave glory to the Father by his obedience. And we are invited to do the same. That is how we are to love.

Love is a way of life. Love is a decision we take. Love is “being” for another. This not seem to click with the common perception of love. We think love is a warm fuzzy feeling we get when we look into the eyes of the beloved. The feelings are there without doubt, but they are not central to the subject of Love. The feelings are an added bonus.

The first reading gives us a picture of God’s love, God’s grace. It leaves us a bit shocked. This picture invites us to step outside our comfort zone. We recently had a march on Parliament in Ottawa on the 40^th anniversary of the “omnibus bill” that opened the floodgates to abortions. Now, suppose at that march of thousands, the “faithful” saw the Spirit of God descend on these very lawmakers and on the pro -abortion lobby. You can imagine the shock you would feel almost to the extent of paralysis.

If you can imagine that, you can get a clue to how the early Judaic Christians must have felt when the Spirit of God came down on Cornelius and his household in the first reading. It is true that he was a good man. He is described as a person who feared God. But there were already three strikes against him.

a. he was not circumcised

b. he did not keep the law of Moses or live according to the prophets

c. he did not abuse the Sabbath, but he did not keep it either.

It was on him and his household that the Spirit of God descended. And as Peter said, how was I to refuse baptism to him and his household?

The Gospel gives us a new dimension of God’s love. It is full of assurances, warnings, instructions and promises. The assurance is that God has no favourites. If God does, then they are the “outsiders” – with whom we are not comfortable. They are the sinners, the tax collectors, the women caught in adultery. The warning is that, we cannot and should not exclude anyone from the church.

i.) love is not exclusive: How easily would we exclude those who are of a different culture and a different ethnic group, or those who do not speak in English in Ontario or French in Quebec! The statement “outside the church, no salvation” we take very literally, and we want to keep out of heaven all those who are not baptized, all those who are not Christian.

Our look at love is a challenge to take another look at the person we call God. If God is love, then we can know God only by loving, and not by excluding people no r putting them in categories and leave them on the doorstep to be picked up like garbage.

ii.) love is a many splendid thing: The Love referred to in the Gospel is like a cord of many strands. We have love, joy, friendship, unity. The Word of God lived in unity and joy with the Father. He then became flesh and dwelt among us, and “apart” from the Father. Now he is returning to the Father, and his joy will be complete. The Apostles are invited to rejoice with him.

iii.) love from a distance: The instruction: The Apostles are invited to abide in this love, so that they too can share in the joy, Jesus had with the Father, before he became flesh. To abide in God’s love involves a relationship that is based on trust. This trust comes from the knowledge, the remembrance, the recalling of how God took care of the People of Israel, and takes care of us now. This relationship is built on love and holds the promise of union with God, just as “the Father and Son are one.”

Even though on earth, - Jesus could still abide in the Father, abide in the love of the Father. He thus set a model for his Apostles, now that he would be separated from them, they too could abide in his love, just as he had abided in the Father. They could still share his joy, they could be his friends.

iv.) all you need is love:  The promise: They could and should rejoice that he was returning to the Father. Now he could be with “everyone” and everywhere. While he was on earth, and before returning to the Father, he could only be with a limited amount of people, and in a limited space – a certain place. Now he could be with all of them, in all places and all the time. All they need is LOVE.