The following material was written by the Rev. John Shearman (jlss@sympatico.ca) of the United Church of Canada. John has structured his offerings so that the first portion can be used as a bulletin insert, while the second portion provides a more in depth 'introduction to the scripture'.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)
ACTS 10:44-48. This story reads like the story of Pentecost in Acts 2
and may well have been intended as its sequel. Before Peter had
finished preaching, the Holy Spirit came upon the household of
Cornelius, a Roman military officer and a Gentile. Presumably most of
those present were also Gentiles.
Jewish Christians accompanying Peter were astonished that the Spirit
had come to a gathering of Gentiles. With the baptism of Cornelius, an
influential Roman army officer, and his household, a new phase of the
church's mission to the Greek-speaking Gentile world began in earnest.
PSALM 98. This triumphant hymn may well have been used in the temple
ritual for the Jewish New Year when Israel celebrated the enthronement
of God as sovereign of the world. Not only God's special people,
Israel, but the whole earth and all of nature are summoned to join in
the praise.
1 JOHN 5:1-5. In the controversy with Gnosticism, the heretical
teaching which is the background of this letter, actions as well as
words were essential. Believing in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God
meant obeying God's commands to love above all else.
To those early Christians, "the world" represented all that was evil
and tempting. Living love for God and neighbour was the way to live in
the world without being dominated by its sinful ways. This is still so.
JOHN 15:9-17. As in several other places in John's Gospel, chapters
13 to 17 use a familiar literary device of the time, an extended and
stylized discourse. This particular discourse includes some of Jesus'
most incisive teachings remembered by the church 60 years after the
resurrection.
John takes us to the heart of the Christian discipleship: Love others
as God has loved us. This is the practical implication of Jesus'
loving sacrifice of himself for us on the cross.
************
ACTS 10:44-48. The idea of sequential stories is not new to modern
television, movies or mass market publishing. This story reads as the
sequel to the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. It repeats many of the same
details of the coming of the Holy Spirit to a Gentile community in the
same way the Spirit came to the Jerusalem fellowship. Before Peter had
finished preaching in the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit came upon
the household of Cornelius, a Roman military officer and a devout
Gentile (10:1). It would serve well to read the whole story as the main
lesson during worship. If it is not read but used as the sermon text,
the preacher should tell the story briefly from the beginning.
Caesarea Maritima was a major city on the Mediterranean and the main
headquarters for Roman governance of Palestine. The ruins of its great
amphitheatre, with an arena larger than the Colosseum in Rome, its
fortress and aqueduct are marvels of Roman engineering still clearly
visible after having been dug from the beneath sands that hid them for
many centuries. The breakwater that protected the artificially
constructed harbour can also be seen extending hundreds of feet from
shore. In the time of this story, a cosmopolitan population included
many Jews as well as Roman officials. The lingua franca of the eastern
Mediterranean world was still Greek, although Latin would have been
spoken in Rome and perhaps among Roman officials.
In its earlier stages this narrative points out how Peter learned in a
dream that the gospel was for Gentiles as much as for Jews. Dreams were
a typical means biblical authors used to describe a theophany in which
God's will was revealed. This passage in Acts differs from what Paul
said about Peter's struggle with the expansion of the Christian
mission. In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul told how he had challenged Peter at
Antioch on this same issue. Either Peter was a slow learner or the
event in Caesarea told in this passage is a softer, kindlier version of
the tradition about the apostolic church having its vision enlarged.
Heinz Guenther, late professor of NT at Emmanuel College, Toronto,
believes that Acts presents a post-apostolic age tradition with
parallel versions of the successful work of the Spirit through the two
primary apostles. In some respects Peter and Paul competed with each
other in the Gentile mission. At the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), both
of them appear to be equally effective in convincing James and the
Jerusalem fellowship to move in a new direction. Thereafter, Peter
disappears from the narrative of Acts, but Paul's activities as an
apostle are given full treatment.
Note that in this Caesarean instance, some Jewish Christians were
present. They had accompanied Peter from Joppa to Caesarea. As Jews
they had the usual prejudiced attitudes toward Gentiles and so were
astonished to witness the gift of the Spirit to this assembly. Most
unexpected, perhaps, was the evidence of glossalalia, which adds to the
hypothesis that this event was the Gentile Pentecost. Baptism followed
the coming of the Spirit, not vice versa.
The primary emphasis of Peter's message was not repentance, but the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus, who "went about doing good" (vs.
38). Peter had spoken of repentance only in the context of John the
Baptist and concluded his message with prophetic testimony of the
forgiveness God grants to those who believe (vs.43). Cornelius had
already told Peter of his theophany in which God approved of his alms
(vs.31). Was the *kerygma* being shaped for a Gentile audience to whom
emphasis on sin, guilt, repentance and forgiveness might have been
relatively meaningless?
Those negative aspects of human morality were based on Jewish concepts
found in their scriptures. It was Paul in particular, the ardent
Pharisee, who transferred those concepts to the Christian tradition.
Further, in Peter's sermon at Caesarea, Jesus is not declared the
Jewish Messiah, but "the one ordained by God as judge of the living and
the dead" (vs. 42). The concept of a judge with command over life and
death would certainly have been more meaningful to a Roman military
officer. The way the gospel was communicated appears to have varied
from culture to culture. That is not to say, however, that the basic
meaning of it changed. Behind the concepts of law and judgment lies the
moral principle distinguishing good from evil.
A university class in ethics included both students studying for
ministry and students from a non-religious background. The professor
introduced the problem of evil for discussion. "It doesn't really
matter," said one student from the non-religious group. "It's all
relative anyway. For some people what is good is evil and for others
what is evil is good." A student who had been in the war in Bosnia
spoke up in protest. "My job in the war was to find and prosecute the
people responsible for the massacre at Srebrenica. I can tell you that
what I saw there is evil and it is not relative." Said another, "Is it
not possible that to call evil good and good evil, is what Jesus meant
as the sin against the Holy Spirit?"
PSALM 98. This triumphant hymn may well have been used in the temple
ritual for the Jewish New Year when Israel celebrated the enthronement
of God as sovereign of the world. Scholars thus regard it, together
with Pss. 47, 93, 96, 97 and 99, as a group designated as "Psalms of
Enthronement." All of them envision Yahweh seated on a heavenly throne
exercising dominion over all of creation for the coming year. The
imagery may have derived from a similar Babylonian religious tradition
which enthroned their god Marduk at the beginning of each year. The
idea of Yahweh's kingship was a common theme among OT authors. Israel's
monarch ruled as Yahweh's anointed representative. In post-exilic
times, after the monarchy had disappeared and Israel suffered
subjection to foreign domination, the concept of Yahweh as sovereign
filled a deep spiritual need. It provided Israel with a distinctive
national identity enabling them to survive as a people despite their
political subjugation.
The prophetic influence of Second Isaiah can be seen in this psalm. It
has even been suggested that the psalm originated in Babylon inspired
by the coming of Cyrus, the Mede, to overthrow the Babylonian dynasty.
Faith interpreted this as a divine victory (vss. 1b-2) and an
expression of Yahweh's love and faithfulness to Israel (vs. 3).
The psalmist summoned not only Yahweh's special people, but the whole
earth and all of nature to join in the praise of divine sovereignty. As
in all cultures, music from both stringed and brass instruments, had a
prominent place in the celebration (vss. 5-6). One wonders if the
phrase "a joyful noise" referred to a cacophony rather than melodious
sounds. References to sounds of nature - the roaring of waves on the
seashore or sudden floods in dry wadis; and the moan of wind whistling
through the hills - vividly reflect the psalmist's powers of
observation and imagination that these too sing their praise to Yahweh.
No believer in purely natural religion, the psalmist is also aware of
the role the sovereign played in rendering justice. To him Yahweh is
the just judge whose decisions are equitable for all people (vs. 9)
1 JOHN 5:1-5. The division of this letter into chapters and verses
causes some difficulty at this point. Paragraphing as in newer English
versions sufficiently carries forward the argument of the previous
passages.
As did Jesus in his teaching and actions, John carefully balances love
for God and love for one's brothers and sisters as equally important
for Christian behaviour. In the controversy with heretical teaching
which was the background of this letter, actions rather than words were
the measure of one's beliefs. Believing in Jesus as the Messiah and
Son of God meant obeying God's commandments.
It would appear from vs.1 that the heretics had separated Jesus of
Nazareth from Christ, the Son of God. The fundamental apostolic creed
was that Jesus was the Messiah/Christ and Son of the living God. This
Christological claim was the *sine quae non* of apostolic teaching.
However, membership in the Christian community involved more than just
a verbal declaration and a profession of love for God. It also required
strict adherence to God's commandments. That seems to have been the
point at which the heretical people had failed. Their difficulty with
the Christian way was ethical as well as theological.
One can assume from vss. 3b-4 that obedience to the commandments had
become burdensome to some members of the fellowship. It was ever thus
in the church. The cultural milieu always seems more attractive and
acceptable than "the narrow way" of the Christian life. "The world"
represented all that was evil and tempting to those early Christians,
as it does to us. Living love for God and neighbor was - and still is
- the way to live in the world without being dominated by its sinful
ways.
John puts this moral challenge in terms of a conflict in which faith
that Jesus is the Son of God enables the believer to emerge victorious
(vs. 4b-5). He thus sets before his audience the means for living
effective Christian lives in an unfriendly world. He does not use the
word, but he certainly has in mind what is meant by the confession that
Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the religious and ethical authority who guides
and governs Christian behaviour.
Humanity has devised innumerable means of dealing with the inevitably
difficult circumstances of life - flight from the world, persuasion
that evil does not exist and so cannot harm us, anesthetizing ourselves
with various kinds of addiction, distracting ourselves with pleasure or
cynically striking mephistophelean bargains for limited ends. All
ultimately fail except the one that provides both meaning and purpose
for every one with the faith and courage to follow in the footsteps of
the Son of God.
JOHN 15:9-17. As in several other places in John's Gospel, chapters
14 to 16 use a familiar literary device of the time, an extended and
stylized discourse. The style is characteristic of John's Gospel. These
discourses were attributed to Jesus and through the centuries have been
given literal authority. More probable, however, they contain profound
theological affirmations of who Jesus is and what he means to the
Christian fellowship and to the world. This is particularly true of the
several places where John quotes Jesus as saying "I am ...."
Containing much of John's own thought about the relationship of Jesus
to the church, this discourse includes some of Jesus' most incisive
teachings remembered by the church some 60 years or more after the
resurrection. The dominant issue for the church had changed from
awaiting the imminent return of Christ to living in a world that showed
no signs of readiness to believe or to follow the Christian way. The
theme of this brief excerpt concentrates on self-sacrificing love
(*agapé*) as the unique focus and life force of every Christian. Behind
this passage stands the intense shadow of the cross and the contrasting
power of God to raise Jesus from the dead and give the Holy Spirit to
all who believe.
So John takes us to the heart of the Christian discipleship: Love for
others as God has loved us. He interprets the meaning of Jesus' death
on the cross as his loving sacrifice of himself for us in obedience to
God's loving will and purpose, not only for himself but for the whole
world.
We cannot begin to imagine how disturbing the cross must have been to
those early Christians immersed and they were in Roman civilization and
frequently facing corrupt Roman justice. As a means of execution,
crucifixion was the ultimate in cruelty, indignity and violence.
Despite all that, the apostolic church transformed it into the only
credible symbol of living creatively in a world for which death on a
cross was the ultimate punishment for criminal behaviour.
Could this really be understood as the ultimate joy for Jesus and for
those who had committed themselves to follow him (vs. 11)? Yet this is
a repeated affirmation of other NT writers (Heb. 12:2; Gal. 5:22; Rom.
14:17; 15:13).
Furthermore, as John has phrased this tradition, there can be no
greater love for one's friends than to follow in Jesus' footsteps even
to the point of death (vs. 13). The emphasis on friendship has
considerable significance. The Christian way of life exists only in
effective human relationships. Every human institution - the church
included - works best when relationships are firmly based on mutual
respect and humane values, at the root of which is love. As we move
toward a global civilization no other value system will prove
worthwhile. The selfless relationships of *agapé* love have been proven
in the crucible of the divine-human experiment which is Jesus Christ.
This is what John is having Jesus say throughout this passage. This is
the fruit that Jesus prophesied his friendship with these few disciples
would yield (vs. 16). It began with his love for them and their love
for each other. We who believe are called to make a similar witness in
our time and place.
copyright - Comments by Rev. John Shearman and page by Richard J. Fairchild, 2006
please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.
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