Love on the Loose
Text of a Sermon Preached
by Reverend Ed Rowe 

May 2, 2004 
 

Acts 11: 1-18

John 13: 31-35
Scritpure Referenced
for this Sermon 

I’m thinking of a very good friend of mine and of many of you who a few short years ago had reason to believe that she was going to die very soon. I remember her telling me that dying would not be so bad except for these two beautiful children whose lives she desperately wanted to share. So she talked about making tapes of her thoughts and feelings that she could leave as part of her legacy. You probably know or have heard of other people who have done very similar things when they believed that death was or might be imminent.

The scripture from John today, John 13:31-35, is the beginning of Jesus’ last will and testament, and Jesus has done what most of us do, which is to wait until death is just around the corner. It isn’t that he hasn’t warned the Disciples several times before about what he believed was going to happen, but, as death became more certain, it became important to record his legacy. This text is not exactly a will and testimony, but might better be called a will and testimony.

I know that there’s been at least one group of Centralites who met with Rev. David Kidd around the issues of death and dying and were asked to write down their own obituary. It can be a very powerful thing to do, especially if you know that all of life is connected.

By the way, we’re having a lot of fun discussing Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley. And one of its main points is that the space between us is not empty. She explains that it is like looking at a fish bowl with many fish and not knowing that there is water in the bowl. And so you wonder why the movement of one fish disturbs another. Or why something being placed in the bowl affects everything. If we understand life as connected in a similar way, then our legacy is what we believe we have added or wish to add to the creation that was not and would not be there without us.

Maybe all of us should record our obituary/legacy/last will and testimony — NOW. It would not only make sure that it was done, but it might change the rest of our life, depending on how unhappy we were with the result.

Jesus did not have a tape recorder, and so he was expecting his Disciples to be the recorder. The setting of this presentation for Jesus’ last will and testimony is the Last Supper. Jesus has just told Judas to go and do what he must quickly. The main part of the meal is over, but special festivals like Passover would almost certainly have a second phase to the meal called a symposium, which is usually wine and lively conversation, or wine and entertainment. And, as you remember, Jesus loved to party. He started his ministry of miracles at a wedding, and he was well known for his picnics with 5,000, 4,000, 15,000 hungry people (we’re not sure, since they only counted the men). But, after Judas left, Jesus got serious, and he started talking about leaving. “I am with you only a little longer.” To which the not-too-smart Disciples responded with something like, “Yeah, we know, Jesus, it’s getting late, we’ll all leave with you.” To which Jesus responded, rolling his eyes, “Where I’m going, you cannot go. You’ve got to stay and be my recorder. So, please listen”:

I am giving 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. 

So, Jesus is telling them that his legacy is that he has shown them how to love differently than the world loves. Perhaps he reminded them of how he told them that if they only love those who love them they are not acting any differently than those who don’t believe. Or when he told them that the Commandment was no longer an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but to love friends and enemies alike. Jesus set love loose! Without condition. Love and honor . . . love long-suffering . . . love transforming . . . love persevering . . . love without borders . . . love inspiring . . . love resurrected . . . love unpredictable . . . love on the loose!

Jesus’ last will and testimony ends with a prayer in Chapter 17. Verse one begins:

Then Jesus looked up to heaven [again, I imagine him rolling his eyes, as if to ask God, “Is this the best we can do for Disciples?”]. Then Jesus says, “Creator God, the hour has come. Glorify Your child so that I may glorify You.” 

Then the chapter and the prayer end with Jesus saying to God:

I have delivered Your Word to them [my Disciples, followers, believers] and the world hates them because they are strangers in the world, as I am. I am not praying for You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the Evil One. . . . It is not for these [Disciples] alone that I pray, but for all those who, through their words, proclaim their faith in me. May they ALL BE ONE. So, as You are in me and I am in You, may they be in us. 

Now I know that Peter was at the table when Jesus delivered his last will and testimony, and you would think that if you were ever going to listen, that might be the time! However, Peter did what we all do, he heard what he wanted to hear. And so, until the moment that is recorded in our reading from Acts, Peter spent his time after the Resurrection making sure that nobody became a Christian who didn’t first convert to Judaism. So the message, at least to the male candidates, was “No baptism without circumcision.” I suspect that slowed down church growth considerably.

Now, if you believe that the struggles around inclusiveness in the church today are worse than ever before, you don’t understand the early church struggle around including you and me. That is, all of us who are not religious Jews first. Peter had the first chapter of “Jews for Jesus.” Non-Jews were not even allowed to be members. So, as painful as the struggle to find equality in the church for people of color was and continues to be, Gentiles could not even sit in the balcony. As painful as the struggle for gender equality has been and continues to be, the exclusion of non-Jews was its match. There were not even tokens on the cabinet. And, as horrendous as the struggle is to get the church to be inclusive of the victims of poverty and the ongoing classism that is in our veins, the exclusion of non-Jews was its match. And, as prone as we are to believe that the ongoing exclusion of our Gay brothers and sisters from full membership in our church is worse than any struggle our church has ever been in, this first century controversy threatened to split the church in a very similar way.

I don’t know where Peter was when Jesus prayed, “It is not for these alone that I pray, but for ALL who proclaim faith in me.” For that matter, I do not where my own church, the United Methodist Church was when they read the legacy of Jesus. While we preach today, General Conference is meeting. Somewhere in Pittsburgh, there are people deciding whether our called-by-God Gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters can be ordained, and whether they can be married or in any kind of union. They are also deciding whether Gays and Lesbians should be allowed to have leadership positions in the local church, and whether churches may employ Gays or Lesbians in non-clergy roles.

Aside from the complete violation of Jesus’ last will and testimony, there is a problem similar to the problem we had with the whole notion of integration. The assumption was that those white folks who were in charge would bestow the gift of equality when they were ready, as if the gift belonged to them, when, in fact, the gift belonged to God, and we had stolen it.

Similarly, males somehow believed that it was within their power to distribute equality to women, as if the gift of equality belonged to them. But, in fact, the gift of equality had been freely given by God, and we had stolen it, and continue to try and possess what is not ours.

And so people are now meeting to decide if they will extend the gift of equality to Gay and Lesbian people upon whom God already has bestowed that gift — except we have attempted to steal it.  

And so our reading from the Book of Acts this morning has Peter going around excluding everyone who does not meet his criteria. And he has a powerful following. I am sure that God has sent many messengers prior to the ones we read about this morning. But, for some reason, when Peter went to Joppa to stay with Simon, his life was changed by the power of the Spirit. Our text is after Peter already has been convinced and has been sent to Cornelius the Centurion’s home to share the Good News of Jesus. His followers have challenged him, saying, “How dare you include Gentiles in the church!” And Peter is saying, “It isn’t me, it’s God.” And for the first time, in a long time, he was right. Peter went up on the roof to pray while the meal was being prepared. He was hungry, and while he was praying he went into a trance, and God sent him a vision. It was like a sheet coming down out of heaven — or a table, if you like — full of all kinds of animals that the Jews could not eat. And the voice came to Peter telling him to kill and eat. But Peter replied,

“By no means, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” And the second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” This happened three times, then everything was pulled up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not make a distinction between them and us. 

There is plenty of evidence that the controversy did not end there, but at least Peter had finally understood Jesus. I can’t help but wondering if Peter called together a national Conference on Reconciliation to confess and apologize go Gentiles — similar to our Service of Reconciliation with our AME, CME, AME Zion, brothers and sisters that took place eight years ago. love on the loose! And I wonder when we will have a similar Service of reconciliation and confession, asking for forgiveness from women. love on the loose! And, again, a service in which we ask for forgiveness from the poor. love on the loose! And — mark my words — there will come a day when we will have to have a Service of Reconciliation with our Gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters and appeal for their forgiveness. love on the loose!

In the meantime, we are dividing a church, the church of Jesus Christ. The church that Jesus lived and died in order to make us one.

Every communion service is a vision. It is a table lowered from heaven. And in the Biblical vision, all of God’s people are around the table without distinction, and we are asked to come and eat. love on the loose!

But the church is still saying, with Peter, “we cannot eat with those we consider unclean.” And God’s response is the same now as it was then: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” God has sent us messengers from the community of the exiles. And they appear at our door even now. If we will allow this service of communion to remind us of the moment when Jesus delivered his last will and testimony, then perhaps we can hear him say, “This is not just for those who around the table now, but for all those who proclaim faith in me.” love on the loose!

The question is when will allow ourselves to see the vision, because, at the final banquet table, it will be God issuing the invitations, and the only people we will manage to exclude will be ourselves. I do not know how better to end this than to recall the words of a previous pastor of this church who said:

The General Conference said No, but God said Yes! The Cabinet said No, but God said Yes. The Board of Ministry said No, but God said Yes. The homophobia of our ancestors said No, but God says Yes! The fear within us said No, but God said Yes. The government said No, but God said Yes. The court system said No, but God said Yes. Brothers and sisters, there are two books for United Methodists. There is the Discipline and the Bible. We must choose who we will serve.  

As for me and my church, pray we will serve God. Let us let Love on the Loose!