Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 19 May 2019, is the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V).
The Readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The Readings:
Acts 11: 1-18 or Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21: 1-6; John 13: 31-35.
There is a link to the readings HERE.
Introducing the readings:
As you read and reflect on the readings for next Sunday, you might see whether you might watch for the connections between the readings from Acts, Revelation and Saint John’s Gospel.
What about the images of water in Revelation, and the water at the washing of the feet?
What about Peter’s resistance to having his feet washed by Christ, and his resistance to baptising the new Gentile believers?
Can you make a connection between the Old Jerusalem as the location for both the readings from the Acts of the Apostles and Saint John’s Gospel, and the passing away of the Old Jerusalem in Revelation 21?
Between the old laws that hold Peter back and the new promises that urge him on?
How about the Old Jerusalem as the location of the old believers and the New Jerusalem that opens its gates to all believers?
Is the New Jerusalem the Church or a promised future that the Church must symbolise, must be a sign of, or a sacrament of?
Acts 11: 1-18:
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells of a time when the Apostle Peter has gone back to Jerusalem and finds that the Church there is suspicious of outsiders, Gentiles, people from other nations, people who are different in language, colour, ethnicity and nationality.
And he tries to deal with their exclusivism, their fears of the outsider, their far-too-tight drawing of the boundaries of the Church by describing a vision he had in Joppa.
What he provides is not some exotic recipe page from an apocalyptic cookery book. This was a time when one of the most visible marks of difference when it came to ethnicity, nationality and religion was what people eat.
When it comes to food, variety truly is the spice of life. What Saint Peter is saying is: no matter what they eat, no matter what their ethnic, national or religious food is, all are invited to eat at the Heavenly Banquet in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The Promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth is a rich promise that draws on the images found in the writings of the Old Testament Prophets. The Prophet Isaiah paints one such beautiful image: ‘For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord; so shall your seed and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord’ (Isaiah 66: 22-23).
In the two previous chapters (9 and 10), Saint Peter has been in the coastal area north-west of Jerusalem. Already, Christians of Jewish origin are living in this area. Further up the coast, in Caesarea Philippi, Cornelius, an officer in the Roman army and a Gentile, has had a vision in which a messenger from God tells him to send for Saint Peter (Acts 10: 1-8).
As Saint Peter approaches Caesarea, he too has a vision in which he saw ‘the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered” (verse 10). In the sheet are ‘all kinds” of animals, reptiles and birds (verse 12). A voice says: ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat’ (verse 13). But, at first, Saint Peter resists eating any animals forbidden by Jewish law (verse 14).
At the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, Saint Peter has told the assembled company, which includes both Jews and Gentiles: ‘You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean’ (verse 28).
Saint Peter summarises the good news, telling them that ‘God shows no partiality’ (verse 34). The Holy Spirit falls on all who hear him (verse 44), and many of the people who are there, including Gentiles, are baptised.
Now, news of this has reached Judea. When Saint Peter arrives back in Jerusalem, the Christians who are of Jewish origin, who ask why he has broken Jewish law by visiting and eating with Gentiles (Acts 11: 2-3).
Saint Peter explains what has happened, and why. He does this, not chronologically but from the viewpoint of God’s plan of salvation (verses 5-15).
Just as the Holy Spirit came on the apostles at Pentecost, so the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and the members of his household. He recalls a post-Resurrection appearance, in which Christ promises the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (verse 16, see Acts 1: 5).
In defending his actions, Saint Peter says God gave those gentile believers in Caesarea the ‘same gift’ when they believed as he gave to the first Jewish Christians when they came to faith (verse 17).
Saint Peter’s critics are silenced into acceptance (verse 18). God is seen to be working in a new way, and it is accepted in Jerusalem that even Gentiles who turn to God can receive new life (verse 18).
Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18:
The Old Testament alternative (Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18) to the reading from Acts calls the people to be holy (verse 2). But how are we to be holy?
Being holy involves loving care, but not just for our neighbours (verses 11-13). It involves providing for the poor and the alien (verses 9-10), being just to the worker who can only live by earning wages through labour (verse 13), being just to the deaf and the blind (verse 14), and loving our neighbours as ourselves (verse 18), which is repeated but brought to a new height of expectation in our Gospel reading.
Psalm 148:
Whatever our glimpses of heaven and earth may have been, whatever our expectations of the new heaven and the new earth may be, the praise of God remains our shared, common, constant call.
In this Psalm, all creation praises God and gives thanks for God’s promises of saving grace.
Revelation 21: 1-6:
I find it so appropriate that the Bible opens with a description of God’s creation of a beautiful cosmos in the Book Genesis. And then, after the whole story of redemption in the New Testament, that the Bible should close with the dramatic account that we have in the readings next Sunday morning and for the two following Sundays of God’s promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
And if we ignore it, if we leave that promise to those who want to indulge in the strange and the weird, we are missing out on part of the great Christian promise of hope and of love that should be to the fore in our faith in this season between Easter and Pentecost. For those who are coming to the Church, exploring Christianity with real vibrancy and real questions, if we ignore that promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth, then we are in danger of relegating all of Christ’s promises, all of the promises waiting to burst forth with Easter joy, to what Joe Hill in his song parodied as “pie in the sky when you die.”
God’s promises are not of ‘pie in the sky when you die.’ For, ‘the home of God is among mortals.’ God will dwell with us; we will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21: 3, 4).
And it is the responsibility of the Church, of Christians, of each of us, to see that the Church is a sign, a reflection, a sacrament of that promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
What is your idea of heaven?
I have special places where I imagine I have a little glimpse of what the promise of a New Heaven means: the beach at Rethymnon at sunset; the beaches at Ballybunion and other places in this group of parishes; by the banks of the River Slaney as flows down to Wexford Harbour; the Vee Road across the Knockmaeldown Mountains, down into Cappoquin and then following that road along the banks of the Blackwater and along to Lismore; the Cathedral Close in Lichfield under a star-filled sky on a clear night.
But what about a New Earth?
What would a New Earth mean for someone who is unemployed?
What would a New Earth mean for a woman who is battered and beaten?
What would a New Earth mean for a child who is going to go to bed hungry tonight?
What would a New Earth mean for an immigrant or a refugee family who are stuck in a direct provision centre, find themselves unwelcome, or who listen daily to racist taunts?
Would they feel God has wiped every tear from their eyes?
When they hear about the Heavenly Banquet, when they see us gathered around the altar or the Table for the Eucharist or the Holy Communion, will they know too that they have been invited to be here?
When they look to the Church, will they look to you and me and see that we too have a vision for, that we live in hope for, that we reflect and are signs of, sacraments of, that New Heaven and that New Earth?
For to the thirsty he gives water as a gift from the spring of the water of life (see Revelation 21: 6).
In this reading, Saint John brings us to his vision of the end-times. He has told of the destruction of the old order, under Babylon (or Rome) and of the old heaven and the old earth (Revelation 20: 11). Now Saint John sees the new creation. The ‘sea’ – the time of turbulence, unrest and chaos – is no more (21: 1).
He sees ‘the holy city, the new Jerusalem’ (21: 2) prepared as a ‘bride” for her wedding. Saint John then hears ‘a loud voice from the throne’ announcing that this New Jerusalem is God’s home among with ‘his peoples’ (verse 3). Death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more (verse 4).
God speaks from his throne, promising to make all things news, transforming all of history, for he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of everything, and he brings water to the thirsty, life to all.
John 13: 31-35:
The early church writer Jerome tells the well-loved story of how the author of Saint John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation, Saint John the Evangelist, continued preaching in Ephesus, even when he was in his 90s.
Saint John was so feeble in his old age that the people had to carry him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. And when he was no longer able to preach or deliver a full sermon, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on every occasion and say simply: “Little children, love one another.”
This continued on, Sunday-after-Sunday, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed.
Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out of the church.
Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: “Little children, love one another.”
One day, the story goes, someone asked him: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, “little children, love one another”?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’
If we want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All we need to know is: ‘Little children, love one another.’
That is all he preached in Ephesus, week after week, and that is precisely the message he keeps on repeating in his first letter (I John), over and over again: “Little children, love one another.”
There is no such thing as “loveless Christianity.” It is like saying you can have a meal without eating anything.
Where there is no love there is no Christianity. And Saint John says it over and over again to his readers – in his Gospel, in his three epistles, in the Book of Revelation – because it’s worth repeating, because, indeed, it is enough.
Christ’s love for us shows that it is enough. That is the real hope in the promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth. And that is the message at the heart of the Gospel reading next Sunday morning: ‘I give 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, if you have love for one another’ (John 13: 34-35).
In this reading, Christ is preparing the disciples for his departure. After the Last Supper, he washes their feet in a sign of servanthood. Peter misunderstands Christ’s action. Christ tells him that to share in Christ requires accepting Christ as his servant as well as his master. Peter will understand later (verse 7).
The reading ends with Christ giving his new commandment: ‘I give 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, if you have love for one another’ (John 13: 34-35).
Sermon thoughts
Next Sunday [19 May 2019] is the last Sunday before the local and European elections on Friday 24 June 2019.
All three main readings offer interesting opportunities to reflect on these elections and to challenge people about the ways they are thinking of voting, without in any way being party political in what we speak.
For example, in the first reading, Saint Peter has already told people that ‘God shows no partiality’ (verse 34), and now explains that the Holy Spirit is available to all. To what degree are our candidates pledge to work impartially for the benefit of all?
In the reading from the Book of Revelation, we are invited to begin thinking of the vision of a new heaven and a new earth. Are our candidates filled with a vision that embraces all, that invites all in? Or are they still clinging to old ways that excluded some and admitted others only on sufferance?
In the Gospel reading, the new commandment is to love one another. How is this commandment to love others going to be given practical expression in the way we work through the ballot paper?
John 13: 31-35 (NRSVA):
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: White
The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
Grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Introduction to the Peace:
The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said, Peace be with you. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).
Preface:
Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
in word and sacrament
we proclaim your truth in Jesus Christ and share his life.
In his strength may we ever walk in his way,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Blessing:
The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:
or:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:
Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
The hymns suggested for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year C) in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling, include:
Acts 11: 1-18:
250, All hail the power of Jesu’s name
97, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18:
515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you’
494, Beauty for brokenness
39, For the fruits of his creation
321, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty
535, Judge eternal, throned in splendour
525, Let there be love shared among us
497, The Church of Christ in every age
509, Your kingdom come, O God
499, When I needed a neighbour, were you there?
Psalm 148:
682, All created things, bless the Lord
24, All creatures of our God and King
683, All people that on earth do dwell
711, All you heavens, bless the Lord (Surrexit Christus)
350, For the beauty of the earth
705, New songs of celebration render
708, O praise ye the Lord! Praise him in the height
366, Praise, my soul, the King of heaven
709, Praise the Lord! You heavens, adore him
Revelation 21: 1-6:
512, From you all skill and science flow
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
466, Here from all nations, all tongues, and all peoples
300, Holy Spirit, truth divine
670, Jerusalem the golden
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
425, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts
592, O Love, that wilt not let me go
473, Síormoladh is glóir duit, a Athair shíorai (All glory and praise to you, Father, above)
369, Songs of praise, the angels sang
138, Soon and very soon we are going to see the King
528, The Church’s one foundation
681, There is a land of pure delight
144, Word of justice, alleluia!
292, Ye choirs of new Jerusalem
John 13: 31-35:
515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you’
298, Filled with the Spirit’s power, with one accord
520, God is love, and where true love, God himself is there
525, Let there be love shared among us
432, Love is his word, love is his way
315, ‘This is my will, my one command’
530, Ubi caritas et amor
531, Where love and loving-kindness dwell
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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