5th Sunday of Easter
READING 1:
Acts 14: 21 -27 Psalm
145 READING 2: Revelations 21:1-5a GOSPEL: John 13:31-33a, 34-35
Congratulations to all who are graduating this weekend from the University and all who will be graduating from all levels of education in the weeks ahead. May the next chapter in your journey be a spectacular adventure traveled in love and joy and victory. Today’s reading from the Book of Revelation speaks of visions of a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus speaks of a new commandment. The second is the condition for the possibility of the first. Jesus raised the stakes here from loving our neighbor as ourselves to loving one another without qualification. They say that to a tennis player love means “nothing.” But Jesus really did mean something. And he was speaking to us. When Jesus said, “This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” he is speaking of the kind of love soldiers in war have for their fellow soldiers in their unit. I recently heard of a soldier who lost one of his eyes and actually wanted to return and did return to his unit in Iraq . This is love that stands together or falls together; love that heroes share. It is visceral, brave-hearted, unreasonable, sacrificial love. Jesus knocks the world off balance. Did you ever think about it? If you really believe he is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, God’s love enfleshed, everything changes. Jesus knocks the world off balance. We live in a dog eat dog, survival of the fittest, he who has the most toys wins world or we live in a world that is off balance. I put this in today’s terms but it has been this way throughout history. Either we surrender to American idols or we stand together in a war against the prevailing commercial mindset. There’s a war going on all right, it is the war for the world, we are either soldiers standing together in the battle or we are on the other side. Jesus doesn’t say love one another as sweet parting words; he is issuing a call to the front lines. Look at his life with me please. In the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, we hear that when the Magi arrived in Jerusalem looking for the newborn king of the Jews, King Herod was upset and all Jerusalem with him. Jerusalem was the seat of illicit government. Herod wasn’t a king by birthright; his family converted to Judaism because they were opportunistic shrewd politicians. Jesus by his loving acceptance into Mary and Joseph’s home was descended from King David, the greatest of all Jewish kings. Herod was a homicidal paranoid who didn’t win his rank and power in battle or by election but depended on the foreign Roman army. Jesus birth established a beachhead for the one who will judge without boundaries by standards that are out of balance with the false powers of this world. My friends, graduates, learn your lessons before you jump into the fast lane. All that glitters is not gold, all that looks like wealth is not wealth, and all that passes for success is not success. Some think the big beemer, the corner office, the latest toys are meaningful; they tell you nothing, as we have seen in Enron, Tyco and how many other false powers? There was no room for Jesus at the traveler’s lodges. Grads, remember to make room for your only everlasting real friend. The fast lane is, well, fast, and crowded, and loud. We hear a constant tick, tick, tick, hurry, hurry, hurry that quickly crowds out God. It’s commonly called the “rat race.” Wherever Jesus goes, he drives the rats out of their holes. He did that when he drove out demons and told them to be quiet. He did it whenever he engaged the powers of his day in debate. His war didn’t start the week he died; he was knocking the world off balance from his birth and throughout his ministry. Oh yes, when Jesus said, “love one another,” he knew what he meant would knock the dominating attitude in this world off balance. We are choosing sides here. The commercial media offers false idols and many of our friends through the years will fall into that line and march to that cadence; they will leave the room with Judas, live with the rats, discover neither power nor glory in a selfish, never ending quest for the happiness that always eludes those who aim too low. If we choose to be part of God’s liberating army, we will stand together, love one another like soldiers, and stay in the church like the disciples who stayed with Jesus in that room, not because it is perfect or we are perfect, but because it is where we receive our strength. Jesus needs friends who will stand with him; soldiers who will love one another with a foxhole mentality; disciples who will put their lives on the line and win the victory. It’s an exciting adventure; it’s about life and death; it’s going on now and ultimately it makes life a purposeful adventure. That’s why, challenging as it is, loving one another as he loves us knocks the world off balance and that is the good news! Fr. Jeff McGowan |
