Sermon by the Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
May 15, 2022
The Easter season is almost over. The scripture lessons focus on how to live as a people of the resurrection. We sit here today different than we were two years ago. Covid forced us to make some very quick changes in our lives. The changes were hard at first. Change in church is hard. We like to keep church the same or what we remember as the same. Change feels like we are giving up the past and as though we are giving away part of ourselves. Also, if we change and forget the past then we may lose memories of loved ones. We experienced this type of change over the last 2 years. It was difficult but we made it.
The truth is that the church and the world is constantly changing. The earth is constantly rotating but we don’t feel it. When change happens too quickly, we react.
We heard in the reading from Revelation today, “See I am making all things new.” This transformation of the earth doesn’t start with Jesus’s return. It started with his resurrection. In Acts, we see the first part of the changes. Peter includes non-Jews in his company. He eats with them. They accept Jesus. Some of the other apostles were upset with Peter. They wanted to keep Jesus just for the Jews with all the Jewish traditions. Jesus did not come for one group of people. We have seen throughout history that when one culture tries to impose their values and beliefs on another culture it can lead to slavery, death, and the elimination of cultures. God wanted Peter to go and preach the Good News to the gentiles and to make NO distinction. Peter needed to accept some gentile practices like eating unclean foods into what would become the early church. As Peter preaches, the Holy Spirit comes to the gentiles. The gentiles receive Jesus and the Holy spirit just as the Jews had received Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Peter tells the other grumbling apostles, “Who was I that I could hinder God?”
This question is a question for all of us. Who are we that we could hinder God? If God wants to include all people and God wants to transform the church, we cannot stop it. We can refuse to go along with it and find reasons why we shouldn’t change. We get angry and pull away. We can expend a lot of energy fighting it. Or we can follow Jesus’s command in today’s gospel to love one another so that all will know that we are Jesus’s disciples.
Today’s readings include three things that should be a part of the mission statement of every Christian church. 1. We are a people of the resurrection, and we believe in God’s transforming power. God is constantly at work transforming us and the church.
2. We are a people guided by the Holy Spirit. We worship, pray, and serve together to look for signs of the Holy Spirit in our midst. When we do not feel, see, or hear the Holy Spirit then we are losing our identity of a people of the resurrection.
3. We are a people that are identified by our love for one another. Traditions and policies are needed in churches, but they can become too rigid and fixed. When the church becomes divided on issues, we use love as our guiding principle. Love is our driving force as we make personal and group decisions. Let us continue to be a people of the resurrection guided by the Holy Spirit and identified by our love.