5 Easter B May 3, 2015
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Acts 8: 26-40 + Psalm 22 + 1 John 4: 7-21 + John 15: 1-8
Master Gardener. Bless the hearing. Bless the speaking. Bless our together-ing. And all for your sake. Amen.
We have a grammar challenge in today’s Gospel reading. I’ve mentioned this before – the English language does not have a third person plural pronoun. Well, we do, but it’s terribly ineffective, especially when it’s used in translations of other languages that actually DO have a separate pronoun for the 3rd person plural. In English, 3rd person plural is ‘you.’ So, imagine with me that someone is evesdropping on Donna’s Sunday School class. They are standing outside the door and they hear Donna say: “Jesus loves you.” But because they can’t see who Donna is talking to, they don’t know if she is addressing one student or an entire classroom full of students. She would say the same thing either way: “Jesus loves you.”
But if Donna were a southerner, she would say to one student “Jesus loves you.” But to more than one student she would use that most beautiful of pronouns and say “Jesus loves y’all.”
Which brings us back to John’s Gospel. The Greek language of the original Gospel has a 3rd person plural pronoun, but it gets translated as “you” in English. And Jesus is talking here to a group, which means we need to hear this differently. So, hear it read as intended:
Jesus said: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. Y’all have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to y’all. Abide in me as I abide in y’all. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can y’all unless you abide in me. I am the vine, y’all are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me, y’all can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If y’all abide in me, and my words abide in y’all, ask for whatever y’all wish, and it will be done for y’all. My Father is glorified by this: that y’all bear much fruit and become my disciples.
This is not just a grammar lesson or another fine example of the useful beauty of the word y’all.
This is a clear and present reminder that our work in the Kingdom is not solitary work. We are a community of faith, a community of disciples, one flock with one shepherd – and that y’all is widely encompassing.
And what this means for us is that we cannot separate ourselves from the rest of the world. From what is going on outside of these doors from the desperation and struggle of our neighbors. Families desperate for an affordable place to live. Mothers desperate for food for their children. And it also means that we cannot separate ourselves from the people of Nepal as they bury their dead and tend to the injured and search for the missing. And yet, some news accounts last week lead with: “Nepal Earthquake: 3 Americans dead.” What of the thousands and thousands of Nepalese also dead? They are also our sisters and brothers. Y’all. One flock.
And regardless of the politics of what happened in Baltimore this week, we acknowledge the pain and the sense of hopelessness. And more than that, we must acknowledge and admit that these protests in Baltimore and Ferguson and Brooklyn and in fact, right on the sidewalk in front of this church building two weeks ago…these protests are not born out of nothing. They are responses to systemic racial injustice. And so our prayers must join with others for all who mourn their dead too soon, for all who lash out, for all who defend their city, for all. Y’all. One flock.
And this week the Supreme Court began hearing arguments regarding marriage equality and our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers who have been denied the very same basic rite that you and I have been granted – to have our committed, loving, relationships recognized by our government, wait with baited breath. Y’all. One flock.
Sisters and brothers, this is hard stuff. To look beyond ourselves is tough. Our instinct is to figure out who is right or wrong. Who is guilty or innocent. Who is in and who is out. Who is included and who is excluded. And then we hear these words of Jesus, who reminds us that God is the pruner. Not us. We don’t get to cut out who we are or are not in community with. We don’t get to determine who our neighbor is. We are branches. And branches are tangled us messes of things in well populated gardens. God is the vine grower and Jesus is the vine.
The tribulations of this day are many. How do we, how can we, as the branches growing at Greenwood and 132nd, possibly effect any difference in Nepal or Baltimore or Ferguson or in the halls of the Supreme Court? And what do we do with the fears that we carry with us? The fear of not being enough, not being able to do enough. The fear of having something taken away from us if someone else is given what we also have.
And into our fear and confusion comes the word from our Epistle reading today…words that both comfort and condemn us. God is love and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as God is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
What does acting out of love look like? I want to think that it will look like something exquisite and lovely and beautiful. That it will feel good to me, you know, give me some warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
And then there is the story from Acts that was our first reading today. A story of how Philip acted out of love.
The reading says that an angel of God came and sent Philip out into the wilderness road. He didn’t get to travel on a familiar road. He didn’t get to go where he knew everyone and the folks there were his own people. Instead he found himself on an unfamiliar wilderness path where he came face to face with an Ethiopian eunuch – a sexually mutilated foreigner. How comfortable do you suppose that was for Philip? But the eunuch needed Philip to act in love and to help him make sense of Scriptures. And Philip hung in there with him. And at the end of their rather lengthy exchange the eunuch asks Philip to baptize him. Rather than being able to bask in the beauty of this mission moment, though, Philip is snatched away, finding himself again at yet another strange city, where his task was to proclaim the good news until he was back at home in Caesarea again. Philip went from wilderness to wilderness. As long as there was missional work to do, as long as there was Gospel to proclaim in word and deed, God expected that Philip would do it.
The word, the Word, that comes to us this day, through these words of Scripture, is clear. The Gospel is radically inclusive. It includes those with whom we disagree, on all sides. It includes foreigners in nationality and physicality. In includes all people. Make no mistake, the Gospel will not be hindered by our unwillingness to carry it into the world, but we will not grow into the fullness of our discipleship if we love in speech, but not in action. We will not abide in God if we are so busy abiding in ourselves.
We are being called into a wilderness journey. It’s a place where we will feel out of place and uncomfortable and maybe even unprepared. But perfect love casts out fear, and the love of God in Jesus is perfect love, for us and for all people.
Thanks be to God. Amen.