Organic Unity

 The lectionary for our Sunday scripture readings

            presents to us three beautiful selections,

and not being able to chose between them, 

                                                I will say something about all three.

Each are worth some in depth study, which I will not go into here,

            but for the sake of the usual allotment of time for the sermon

                        I hope to hit the salient points as relevant for us here today.

There will always be more to say.              So let the dialogue begin.

 

Let’s start with the reading from Acts.

            Right from the beginning of this passage it is Holy Spirit driven.

 

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 

“Get up and go … to the road … from Jerusalem to Gaza.” … 

So he got up and went. 

            [Deacon Philip trusts the command he hears and responds – that’s faith.]

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, 

                        [that is] queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. 

 

Okay, why is this significant?  

Why is this story included in the Acts of the Apostles?

 

Well, it certainly is significant because this is the origin story

            for the Ethiopian Coptic Church.

We remember that in 1 Kings 10 the Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon.

            And this began a connection between the two countries.

And now this high court official has an encounter 

            that is just as much as important 

            because it connects the history of Christianity in Ethiopia 

                        to the very earliest days of the Christian Church.

 

But who is the one to be the carrier of Christianity to this African nation?

            A eunuch.

            Someone who does not identify with the standard binary sexual identity.

This may seem like a footnote in the text for most of us,

            but for a segment of the whole population this is huge.

Philip has no problem at all with crossing the usual social norms

            to join the eunuch in the chariot and to sit beside him,

            to engage in conversation about the Isaiah text,

            to witness to him about Jesus,

            and to set no barriers between this African and baptism.

And this happened before Peter got in trouble for baptizing 

            the Gentile, the Roman Cornelius and his household.

The early church had to figure out who could be in 

            and who’s out, who would be excluded,

            from this new aspect of their faith experience,

                        the Resurrection Life of Jesus they were now experiencing.

We know the answer – no one is excluded, all belong

                                                            even an African and a sexually deviant belongs.

Enough said.

 

The Gospel reading is well known and beloved.

            Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.

                        He tells us, “Abide in me as I abide in you.”

The truth, the reality is that there is organic union with God for all of us.

Why then did Jesus say, “Abide in me as I abide in you”?

            There is the reality of this intrinsic union with God

            and then there is our recognition that this is so.

There have been relatively few who have fully realized what this unity means,

            what this union is,

            and then have lived in that knowledge and experience of God.

We call such people enlightened.  They are our greatest saints.  They inspire us.

 

Just accepting this verse that Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches

            as a creedal statement doesn’t really cut it, is not sufficient.

There’s more.  

            “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, 

            because apart from me you can do nothing.”

So it is really important that we get this, 

            because our purpose as followers of Jesus is that we produce fruit.

Saying this in a straightforward way without metaphorical allusions,

            we do not exist for ourselves as Christians, but for the benefit of others.

After all the branches do not consume their own fruit – right?

The fruit produced nourishes others.

            If we really got this, we would find our greatest joy

                        at those times when we can see that we have truly benefited others.

            We would be eager to make that a first priority in our lives.

Something to ponder.

 

Now, the Epistle reading.

 

During the Great 50 Days of Easter this year

            on Sunday mornings and recently during the Daily Office lessons

we have been reading our way through the first letter of the Apostle John,

                                                                        the beloved disciple.

And the overall theme of this very significant epistle is love.

 

Today’s reading is probably the heart of what the whole epistle is trying to say.

            “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God…”

And             “God is love, 

            and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

 

Now you have probably heard at one time or another 

            that there are different words in Greek that get translated as love.

We too have different meanings for the English word love,

      but the meaning has to be extrapolated from the context in which it is used.

Let me review these different meanings quickly:

 

1. We often say that we love a particular movie or brand of some product 

            or a recent book we have read.

That form of love means that we gain joy and satisfaction from something.

            Or that we prefer the object of said love over other similar objects.

It’s quite relative, depending on the object.

 

2. Then there is familial love.  

            Now we are getting to something much more substantial.

There is the specific Greek word for this love 

                                    for family members and for close friends.

Think “Philadelphia,” the city of brotherly love,

            not that everyone there always expresses that love,

but the name for that city was a hopeful expression of an ideal to be lived into.

 

3. Then, of course, there is eros, erotic love,

            that strong natural force that draws individuals together

                        and produces new community in the form of family groups,

            a step towards that vastly larger community of all living beings.

Well, perhaps that’s a fresh way of looking at erotic love. 

 

But we are still not at that next form of love 

                        for which the Greeks had a different word.

4.  And, of course, that word which is used so often in the New Testament

            is agape, which signifies godly love,

                        the love that exits in the Trinity, three in one and one in three,

                        a relationship of pure unity of being.

So this agape love is both another name for God 

            and expresses God’s love for us, which unites us with God.

                                    agape love is unitive love.

 

The Apostle John writes:

“God is love, 

            and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.…

God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.…

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, 

                                                                        because he has given us of his Spirit.…

We love because he first loved us.”

 

And he continues, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; 

            …whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”

 

This kind of godly, unitive Love is lived out in relationship:

            relationships with those who are near

                                                and those who are far away,

                        with those with whom we have a natural affinity and attraction,

                        and those who are hard to get along with,

                                    even those we dislike and those we fear.

 

Love that comes from God and is given to us            casts out fear.

            When fear is cast out we may come to see

                        that those we disliked or even hated

                                                                                    were actually ones we feared.

Then the whole relationship gets reconfigured.

            Once we have looked into each others’ eyes and breathed the same air,

                        it is only a small step

                                                            to seeing that we are indeed related.

We are more similar than different.

We are all branches on the same vine.

We all have the same Divine Source of what animates our bodies

                                                                                                and our consciousness.

 

Now this is true:  We are always given a chance to activate love.

For instance, every day the news brings us new opportunities to activate love.

 

If we say we love God,

            but ignore all these opportunities to love our neighbor,

then we are either lying to ourselves,

            or have gone numb inside and are hiding out.

 

Now, we don’t have to wear ourselves to a frazzle

                                    in attempts to respond to everything.

Each of us needs to discern which opportunity to respond to

            according to what each of us has to offer.

And then live that love everyday in selfless service.

 

The Resurrection Presence of Jesus is ready to flood hearts that are open

            with Divine Love,

                        Love that can transform our vision                                    

                        and empower us to respond in ways we never could imagine.

 

Who might be the equivalent of an African eunuch for you to meet today?