Make Your Home in God...on the Moon?
(Free Version) The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)- Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
From what we know, John 15:5 was the first verse of scripture ever read on the surface of the moon. In 1969, Buzz Aldrin was an elder at his church, Webster Presbyterian, just outside of Houston. He and his pastor discussed together the best thing for him to do when he first landed and decided that, upon arrival, Aldrin would celebrate communion, with bread and wine from a plastic packet. Aldrin writes,
I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.
And so, just before I partook of the elements, I read the words, which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ.
I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere.
I read: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5). 1
Why, in such an extreme environment, might someone do such an ordinary, and specific thing?
Life with Jesus is clearly specific. At the communion meal, the church reenacts the reality that Jesus has done something from which the world will never go back. In his life, death, and resurrection, God has shown us the definition of true love. His people are to be formed in a very specific way—the way of the cross.
This may free us from thinking that Christianity is a tool for self-help, means to an end, or that Jesus gives us a general way of being “good” in the world. “Love” looks specifically like Jesus, it is cross-shaped.
The second truth may feel like it pushes against the first: God’s love is for all. There is no limit to God’s love: neither language, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity are barriers to God’s love; and there are no outsiders in the love of God.
This week’s readings can be found here.
In our Acts reading (8:26-40), Philip (one of the seven chosen to serve in the growing church, chapter 6), is led by an angel of the Lord to a man who is a eunuch, and an Ethiopian, serving in the royal court of the queen. The man is drawn to worship of the God of Israel and has come to Jerusalem to worship. Luke (the author of the book) already sets up an interesting scenario: an “outsider” with a unique sexual identity from far away who is seeking the one true God. As Philip approaches, the man has questions about Isaiah’s reflection on the “Suffering Servant”: who is he talking about? Philip then tells him the story of Jesus, which leads the man to want to be baptized. Philip must listen to the man’s questions, to hear what God is stirring in his heart. At the same time, the man must seek out Philip (the representative of God’s story) for interpretation. The scriptures themselves are powerful, and the church is the locus of interpretation. The man is baptized, and rejoices.
Later tradition will tell us that this man would go on to be the first evangelist to his homeland. This reading tells us that the first Gentile to come to faith is a black man from Africa. This may lead us in our preaching to ponder the racial issues that we have dealt with in own country and the ways in which Jesus is the true reconciliation for the things which still divide us.
Additionally, this story may lead us to reflect on the significance of the continent of Africa in the world on on our faith, while seeing the continent’s great challenges through this lens. We remember the challenges of apartheid in South Africa. We might observe issues including AIDS, hunger, and malnutrition that plague this continent. We also recognize that, while Christianity may be in decline in the Western world, it is currently experiencing massive growth on the continent of Africa.
As we reflect, we remember that Jesus has fulfilled the promise. He has stood in our place and sin and death have been overcome. And all peoples of all nations are invited into the story.
Some in our congregations may feel like they have been excluded, like they are outsiders. They feel drawn to God, but still feel like, because of their past, because of what they’ve done, because of their culture. Indeed, Paul tells us that all of us have been far away (Col. 1:21), which protects us from making this only about them. Today all of us hear that the promise has been fulfilled: the foreigner, the eunuch, the sinner, the tax collector, even those like Paul (and all of us) who have been zealous for the wrong things, are all invited in by God's grace.
Then, we might ask: who are the “outsiders” in our communities? The people who do not look or think like those in our congregations. How is God calling us, by his Spirit, to live out the narrative of Jesus in such a way that invites questions and breaks down walls of exclusion? This is the voice and work of the Spirit and we are invited to listen.
In our epistle reading (1 John 4:7-21), John continues to proclaim that our definition for love must come from God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. This is expressed in the church loving one another. We do not merely “love” in the general sense. We love in the way of Jesus. In fact, this is how we see God, and what makes our love “complete”— the love we have for one another.
This loving in the way of Jesus is not dependent on us, of course; for we fail quite often at loving. It is the work of the Spirit who has been given to us. We do not need to be afraid of punishment at the day of judgement—or anything else for that matter—because perfect love casts out all fear.
In our gospel reading (John 15:1-8), Jesus says, “I am the true vine…” This continues in the series of “I Am” sayings in John’s gospel. The calling here is to “remain” or to “make one’s home” in Jesus. We might ask: What does it look like to “make one’s home” in Jesus? In John’s gospel we see a few things: 1) responding to Christ’s calling in preaching and in prayer (1:38-42; chapter 4). For This will lead us to the waters of baptism. 2) meeting him at the communion meal (chapter 6); 3) Continuing in his words (John 8); 4) Loving one another (John 13).
As we remain in him, we bear much fruit, which is always God’s heart for us. In Jesus, we see that abiding and going (the universal call) are not mutually exclusive. When our lives are centered on the love expressed in Jesus Christ, we will be changed in such a way that, the Church bears witness to that love.
May we hear the good news: we have been welcomed in to the family, through the waters of baptism, and out the other side rejoicing! There is no world-imposed barrier which stands in the way. May we know God’s love, expressed in Christ—the Suffering Servant; the perfect love that drives out our fears. May we make our home in God as he has made his home in us, living with him and bearing fruit.
Buzz Aldrin, “Communion in Space,” Guideposts, October 1970, Posted online August 10, 2009, Accessed on March 16, 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20100416070924/http://www.ericmetaxas.com/writing/essays/buzz-aldrin-guideposts-article-full-text/.