Show Notes
In this fifth week of Eastertide, we reflect on our mission to share the Gospel, and how our actions and behavior can sometimes speak louder than words.
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Episode Transcript
Just as a stone thrown into the water sends out ripples, so in this fifth week of Easter, we reflect on another of the ways Jesus’ death and resurrection, evidenced in the rolling away of a stone, continues to flow out into our lives in transforming ways.
A reading from John, chapter 13, verses 31-35:
When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The longer I am a parent, the more I have realized children’s behavior is more caught than taught. Children catch more of who we are and what we value more so than that which is taught. Without diminishing the fundamental importance of clear instruction, young ones learn as much, if not more, by what they observe than what they’re told. It’s still true that actions can speak louder than words. This is a sobering thought when it comes to the mission of the church to take the good news of the kingdom of God into all the world, a journey we should remember that starts in our front door. That’s why one Florida church has a sign for those exiting its parking lot that declares, you are now entering the mission field. As we pray and look for opportunities to speak for Jesus in our workplaces, we need to bear in mind that before we ever get to proclaim any of our beliefs, we are modeling them. And it’s instructive that Jesus told his disciples that others would know that they were his followers not by what they said, but by how they treated each other. War time apart, there may never have been a period in history when the capacity for loving others you may not agree with was ever more absent. And so, what an opportunity to show to the world another way of living. Sadly, onlookers often see a church divided and critical, at odds rather than at peace. Notice that Jesus didn’t say people would recognize the disciples because they agreed with each other about everything. Church unity is not church uniformity. We should hold firmly but graciously to the doctrinal foundations we believe God has shown us. As Jude reminds us, we are to contend for the faith. However, let’s remember that Jesus’ call for us to love one another was a command, not a suggestion. How might seeking God’s heart and wisdom to do that change your ways and your witness this week as you step out into your part of the world?
A reading from Acts chapter 11, beginning in verse 1:
1 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, our darkened world so desperately needs the light of your gospel shining the way from sin to salvation. We want to follow in your footsteps, being full of both grace and truth. So as we hold to the clear truths of scripture you have shown us, help us through the leading and life of the Holy Spirit within us to do so in a manner that confounds our fallen human propensity for division. Help us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we may not see eye to eye on everything, in a way that demonstrates to outsiders the transforming, reconciling power of your love, which is our ultimate hope. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
And finally, a reading from John’s Revelation, chapter 21, verses 1 through 6:
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
