Year C Easter V Acts 11:1-18 John 13:31-35

When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?"

Religious intolerance! Since WWII, at least in most of the countries in the west, such problems and misunderstanding/nonacceptance of each other have been sorted out. Laws have been passed, and major corporations, major countries, have cleaned up their act, or so we like to think.

Thursday morning, I was reading the news apps on my phone. So much negativity! And in amongst the accusations and counter accusations, shootings, stabbings, war and chaos, appear arguments we thought had been laid to rest, but have arisen anew. Things we thought had been settled decades ago are now flaring again, so I probably should not have been startled when I came across this headline. “German airline apologizes after a large number of Jewish people are denied boarding.”

The incident is, of course, under investigation, but all that was known that morning, as I read that article, was that those men and women who were by their clothes and manner obviously Jewish, they were Orthodox Jews, were not allowed to board their connecting flight on their pilgrimage trip.

Why do we look at some people and see “the other”, the “not of us and therefore to be scorned – or worse”? We do it now, still today, and we did it long ago, but in the time of our first lesson we know what the answer was, we know why the circumcised were so angry with Peter.

Peter had been teaching and preaching, but some believers, Jews who had accepted Jesus as Messiah, had gotten wind that Peter was also eating with the gentiles, those non-Jews who had accepted what Peter was teaching, had accepted Jesus as the Messiah..

They summoned Peter to defend his actions, but it is interesting that this one “infraction” as they saw it, caused them to challenge the Apostle.

Teaching the gentiles? Fine.

Preaching to the gentiles? Fine.

But eating with the gentiles? Absolutely unacceptable!

For Jews – including Peter – the observance of strict dietary laws was not a matter of ritual piety or cultural observance; it was a matter of worship and identity.

In the midst of an empire that was not only non-Jewish, but also often hostile to the Jewish people, dietary observances served as a reminder to Jew and gentile alike of the distinction between those who were included in God’s covenant with Abraham and those who were not.

And so the religious leaders in Jerusalem received the news that Peter had been sharing meals with the gentiles with mix of anger and fear. For them, Peter was not only blurring the lines between those who were God’s people and those who were not God’s people, he was forsaking God’s laws.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? We, like those early religious leaders, endorse tradition, the comfort we feel from “the old ways”, and the assurance of our rightness, found in doing it “the way we always have”. And many of us know the “rules” as they may have stood when we were younger. No matter if they have changed. If it was good enough for our ancestors, it should be good enough for us today. If we, for whatever reason we justify ourselves, perceive something or someone as “wrong” – then wrong it or they must be.

This very normal human attitude seems logical and acceptable to us, chiefly because we don’t look at it objectively, but emotionally. We get very caught up in our own self-righteousness – and this is the reason it is so very difficult to follow Jesus and live as He has commanded us to do.

Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.

We focus in on that word “glorified” – and we react emotionally. Glory! We think of bright light and joy, of, as my sister used to say, of ”confetti and balloons”. Isn’t that what joy is all about? And the answer is that, of course, in our experience it is. In most cases we would only apply the term to great happiness, but in John’s Gospel – in this passage, Jesus is referring to His death. For our salvation, He will be glorified on the cross.

We who follow Him ae called to look at things in ways that are not based on our first emotional response, on our traditional reaction, on ourselves.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

We’ve heard this many times, but we tend to focus in on it emotionally, on the cozy sound of it, focus on that word “love” that we all interpret according to personal experience. We prefer not to focus on the painful reality that loving selflessly isn’t an easy way to live, that loving selflessly is embodied for us by a man who died an horrific and painful death on a cross..

I give you a new commandment … this is not a suggestion from Jesus, it is an order.

The disciples certainly heard that. All of them were Jews, and they knew The Law, the commandments given to Moses by God. A commandment is a powerful thing. It’s not just a rule of thumb, something one uses as a guideline. A commandment is meant to be written in the heart of the believer, and lived with body and soul. And now, Jesus gives a new commandment. It may not sound like an all-powerful pronouncement from God, but that is exactly what it is.

No wonder the early Jewish community did not wholeheartedly embrace Jesus as Messiah. They are a people of the Law, what we call the Ten Commandments, the Law as given by God to Moses, and Jesus makes it very clear that His is a new commandment. Not only that, the entire image of God has been transformed in Him. As it was for the early Jewish community, to accept Jesus as Messiah, as our Lord and Savior, means we have to make a shift in our perception of reality. We have to stop relying on our own emotions and when necessary our established traditions, setting them aside and clearing space for the Holy Spirit to fill us and guide us.

This is not an easy task, and because we are people of the world, sinners, we resist. St. Paul fought back so strongly, God blinded him on the Damascus road. Peter, too, resisted the idea of not following Kosher Law, and he tells the circumcised believers of the vision that made him change his mind. We might hope for a vision or a miracle to sway us from our less than holy ways – but what we really need, we already have.

We are the baptized and we have received the Holy Spirit, we have the gift of prayer, being able to speak directly to, and if we quietly listen, hear Jesus’ response. And don’t let anyone who says, “God never answers my prayers” lead you astray. God always answers, but we need to be paying attention, because the answer is not always the same as what we asked for. Keep in mind always that the commandment is to love, and the glory of God was manifest on the cross.

We are the people baptized and called to wake up every morning and be amazed by Jesus’ commandment to us, and despite knowing it may not bring us confetti and balloons, be flooded with the desire to live it. Each new day should call us to pray for the renewal of this commandment in our hearts. We are members of a living faith, carriers of a living Spirit, and this new commandment is new every moment. We cannot doubt this, because Jesus has told us it is so.

How do we do this? No one can have the strength of love that our Lord has, but then we realize what Jesus has told us. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. We are not left on our own to conjure up concern for one another out of a determination of will, but we are empowered to love though being ourselves loved. Jesus new commandment is a revelation of our relationship with Him.

Jesus will continually send us new situations to deal with, and new people to love. They will not always be easy, or comfortable, or pleasant. Sometimes they will be difficult, challenging, and require of us sacrifice. But if we are doing our job, Jesus will fill us to overflowing with the love we need to follow His commandment. Then, we are truly His, His children, and, “By this everyone will know that we are His disciples, if we have love for one another." As the hymn says, they will know we are Christians by our love.

Let us pray – in the prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.