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| Churches, New Jerusalem, Aristarkh Lentulov, 1917 |
A sermon given during the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Sunday 18th May 2025 (Easter 5, Year C) based on the text of Acts 11.1-19, Revelation 21.1-6 & John 13.31-35. The service was followed by the Annual Parish Meeting.
After this service, we will
gather for the annual meeting of this parish. A time for some very necessary
formal business - but also an opportunity to think about what it means for us
to be this church today. What it is we are here to do.
Today’s Collect – the
prayer sung at the start of the service – offers succinct and ample inspiration in this regard. It calls upon God to help us bring into effect the ‘good desires’ put into
our minds by God’s grace.
To say that the scriptures today offer us several
‘good desires’ for our minds to ponder is an understatement. This morning, we hear three
amazing visions that reveal what it means to put our faith in the risen Christ
into effect – how we may become bearers of God’s transforming grace in the
world.
First, we encounter Peter in Jerusalem under attack
from his own team - Jewish Christians. They are astounded that Peter has been
fraternising with Gentiles – even sitting down to eat with them – something
prohibited under Jewish law.
It’s a reference to Peter’s meal with Cornelius, a
Roman Centurion in Caesarea. Cornelius, we are told, had a vision in which he
was instructed to send three men to go and find Peter in nearby Joppa and
invite him to come and meet him and his family.
Just before the three emissaries of Cornelius
arrived in Joppa, Peter saw a vision of his own - a sheet coming down from
heaven carrying all manner of animals, reptiles and birds. He then heard
a voice saying “get up, kill and eat.” Three times he protested, saying that
under Jewish law he could not eat impure things; but the voice told him that it
is wrong to call impure anything God has made.
Peter came to realise that the vision was not about
food at all, but the people he meets and associates with. Cornelius’s men - all
Gentiles - invite him to travel with them to Caesarea. “The Spirit told me to
go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us” Peter explains.
When he meets Cornelius, Peter preaches the Good
News of the risen Christ to his family. He senses that the Holy Spirit has
fallen upon them - and they begin speaking in tongues and praising God. Peter
realises that this is the work of the same spirit that he received at his
baptism – and decides to baptise all of them in the name of Jesus Christ.
In doing so, Peter put into effect the vision of
radical hospitality he had received from God. This meant a complete about-turn;
a setting aside of the cumulative impact of generations of teaching about who
he could and could not mix with.
In recounting the event to his critics back in
Jerusalem, Peter convinces them that it is God’s will to welcome all into the
church, no matter what rules and traditions influenced the way they lived their
lives before their baptism.
Peter listened to the message of Jesus and instead
of making excuses to justify his behaviour when it did not match his belief, he
changed his behaviour and – miraculously – persuaded others to do likewise. An event that some have described as a paradigm shift in the history of the church.
One theologian has written that if we draw a line
separating ‘them’ and ‘us’ we’ll always find Jesus on the other side. Who are
we to second guess the work of the Holy Spirit when we encounter the outsiders
of our own time? What barriers do we need to break down, what lines do we need
to cross, in order to be effective bearers of the radical hospitality of Jesus
Christ today - to welcome all into his church?
Our second reading is a description of one of the
revelations to St John the Divine revealing what awaits us after the final
judgement. A vision of a new heaven and a new earth that emerges after the end
of the present age.
A new heavenly city – a new Jerusalem - comes down
from heaven, prepared as if a bride for her husband. A loud voice declares that
in this age, God and humanity are fully reconciled – God is among mortals, he
will dwell with them.
In this new age there is no death, mourning, crying
or pain. God will satisfy the thirsty without judgement, offering them the
water of life. Seated upon the throne, he declares that he is the beginning and
the end and has made everything new.
This is a new start, a new creation.
John’s
vision offers assurance to the faithful that God will triumph over the pain and
suffering of this world. That it is our destiny to be wedded – united – with
God in his new creation, his kingdom. This is the fulfilment of every desire.
The hope which the risen Christ assured.
We are called to put this vision into effect by
walking confidently towards this future reality – bearing witness to the
transforming power of God’s grace. Challenging injustice and inequality.
Lightening the heaviness of despair of the world with God’s glory. Being
prophetic witnesses of this Good News.
In
our Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to the disciples shortly after Judas has left
the supper table to betray Jesus. The start of his final words to them before
his journey to the cross.
Jesus explains that he will be with them only a
little longer – and that they will not be able to follow him.
Then he gives them what he calls a new commandment.
That they should love one another as Jesus loved them.
By effecting this new commandment – this
sacrificial love – in their own lives, the world will know that they are his
disciples.
Jesus’
vision is that once he has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, love
is to be the defining characteristic of our faith. The one thing that stands
out from all we do, all we say, all the decisions we make together as his
church. Sharing the sacrificial love he embodied on earth is to be the hallmark
of Christian life.
Peter
realised this love was at the heart of the radical vision of hospitality that
he experienced in his dream. That there is no boundary to God’s love, no line
it cannot cross. Peter set aside years of engrained teaching to welcome gentile
believers into the church.
In John’s vision this love has expanded to become the very place in which we will find our rest - a new creation in which we are fully reconciled to God at the end of this age. Where there is only love - there is no pain or suffering or crying or mourning in this place to which God is calling each of us. A place which gives hope to all who follow his way; a hope we are to share in the church; to model – albeit inadequately and incompletely - a foretaste of the kingdom to come which we wholly desire and earnestly pray for.
Today
these three amazing visions show us how to do that. How to put into effect the
‘good desires’ planted in our minds by God’s transforming grace.
A ready-made mission action plan for this and every parish?
Learning to embrace the work of the Spirit not only in our own
lives but in the lives of all. Not seeking to control or challenge it - even
when it moves in a way that seems contrary to our will. By breaking down the
barriers we have made that separate God’s people.
Acting as prophetic witnesses as we walk towards the kingdom of
God, sharing the reality of the Good News of the risen Christ with those we
meet. A church with the confidence
to continually invite others to come
and see what it’s all about for themselves – no strings
attached.
And by striving to ensure that the love of the risen Christ shines through
all we do and say. A manifestation of the Spirit at work in the world, a beacon
of hope revealing a glimpse of the kingdom to come.
By this, Jesus says,
everyone will know that we are his disciples.
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