6 May 2007

Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Newness fills our scripture readings this morning. Freshness abounds throughout this season of Easter. A newness that can permeate our very beings if we let it. This freshness that can change our lives and affect everything we do.

Let’s look again at the three scriptures that bring the new to us (the Psalm doesn’t really have it in it—it’s all about praise as you may have noticed). First we have the Acts passage. Peter’s vision brings about a new way of life for the usually hard-fast apostle. He has never eaten anything unclean, as proscribed by the ancient texts. He has kept, what we would call today, kosher according to the Jewish law.

But his vision leads him to a new understanding. For God tells him that nothing God has made is unclean; nothing God has created is profane. So all of creation is clean. Peter therefore can eat with the gentiles, with the uncircumcised. He has this vision in the town of Joppa but has to explain to the elders in Jerusalem why he’s had this sudden change.

The passage from Revelation is also about newness. It begins with it in fact: the first phrase is “then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” John’s vision here is of the old being wiped away and God’s new creation coming into being. John’s vision is one of newness for all of us; all creation is made new.

In Revelation, John has a series of visions of heaven. The author, John, lived in perilous times. Rome was the power in much of the world without a doubt and had proved it. And one of the ways it had proved it was to completely overcome Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. There had been constant insurrection in Jerusalem about owing Rome its allegiance. Rome had finally had it and overcame the Jewish puppet state and began the Jewish Diaspora.

If ever there was time for a new heaven and a new earth, it was then. There was much oppression and Rome ruled with a heavy hand. The people, especially Jews and the early Christians were particular targets of the Roman state. And there was need for newness in their lives. John’s vision fits in with the need for something new to happen.

Finally, in our gospel reading, John, a different John than the one who wrote Revelation, quotes Jesus as forging a new commandment. This newness is one that is addressed directly to us, Jesus’ followers. The commandment is, of course, that “you love one another.”

The context for this new commandment is the last supper, just after Judas had left to go and betray him. Jesus had just taken the basin and washed all their feet, an unknown act of service by a teacher, telling them that they are to wash each other’s feet as he had done so. Then Judas departs to do his work. And finally we have the section we heard this morning. Jesus gathered with his disciples, tells them that they must love one another as he has loved them. This precedes all other commandments that they have learned before.

Jesus, knowing that his earthly time was coming to an end, had to sum up his teachings to his followers. He gave them something new; something that they could easily remember and follow his example on. This, tied to the foot-washing, which was about service, is a new way of being for them. And for us.

Yes, all this newness is for us too. We have to find new ways of being: as an individual, as a church and as a society. We must be brave like Peter and recognize that the freshness of our visions is viable and useful. We may tend to discount our visions for the future as unworkable or too new. But Peter’s change was major; no good Jew of the 1st century had ever considered eating something unclean. And similarly, John’s vision of the new heaven and new earth was one that shattered the old ways and overturned the status quo.

We have to embrace new ways. As a church, of course, this may not seem like a big deal. We were born, not that long ago, out of a new thing; out of a new way of being. We were created when a group of us decided to try something new; something that hadn’t been tried before. So we’re a church that knows what newness is about. But are we able to accept the newness before us now? I think so. I think we, as a congregation, can accept the new with relish and acceptance.

Individually, we must also be new people; the people who accept Jesus’ command to love one another. That is the basis of all newness in our lives; our loving each other. If we can really love each other, really truly love each other, with that Jesus-love, we can accept anything that comes our way, any new thing or change. For if we love one another we can accept change and move on.

Newness can be frightening. We don’t know how to behave or what will happen or what will come. All we know is that things are new. We struggle to keep our equilibrium, to keep ourselves in balance while things around us change. We are uncertain about our own reactions and our very selves at times.

But newness need not be feared. Peter, John and Jesus all embraced the idea of newness, bringing about changes in their worlds. We too can embrace this newness, a freshness of the Spirit in our midst, moving us to new ways of being, new ways of doing things.

Jesus calls us to be new people; to new ways of being. Through love, we can become the people Jesus calls us to be. Love one another. That’s the newest concept that we need accept. From there, we can accept anything that comes our way.