The Boundary-Breaking Love of God
Free Version, The Fifth Sunday of Easter- Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
This week’s lectionary readings can be found here. This post is a short snapshot of three of the readings. For a deeper look at each of these readings, including historical context, quotes, and commentary, check out our subscriptions.
In all three readings, we hear the story of the God who desires to be near to his people, to know and to be known by them.
In our Acts reading (11:1-18), we see the internal wrestling of Peter as he tells the story of his new revelation to the Christians in Jerusalem. He struggles between the vision which he has received and the previous categories which have shaped him. Peter learns that God is up to something new in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the great (yet surprising!) fulfillment of all that has gone before. God has always desired to dwell in and among all people. Yes, God calls a people: Israel, the disciples, the community of tax collectors and sinners, the Church. And that calling is always for something. It is always for the sake of the world.
Our reading from the last chapter of Revelation (21:1-6) gives us a vision of God’s new world and our great hope. God dwells with his people, sits with us in our grief and wipes every tear from our eyes. This is in God’s very nature: the one who dwells, who draws close, the God who is near. In fact, this is the very reason why the temple was created in the first place: as a tangible embodiment of the presence of God. As the church, we have the opportunity to live God’s future world here and now, to be his people, to sit with the grieving as we live out and long for the restoration of all things.
Our gospel reading (John 13:31-35) reveals something important about Jesus’ calling to his disciples. Jesus calls us, not only to follow his teachings, but into a relationship of love: the love he shares with the Father and the Spirit, and the love God has for the world.
When we follow Jesus and we give our hearts to him, the command that we are given, the proper response to this love is that we love one another. Jesus calls us, not because we are the best of the best, but because he loves us and has chosen us to carry forward his life in the world.