[Mcgregorpage] Fwd: McGregorPage #554, Easter 5, 5/6/07

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Subject: Fwd: McGregorPage #554, Easter 5, 5/6/07


 






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Subject:McGregorPage #554, Easter 5, 5/6/07
Date:Mon, 9 Apr 2007 8:15 AM

EASTER 5 - (May 6, 2007) 
 
Acts 11:1-18 
Psalm 148 
Revelation 21:1-6 
John 13:31-35 
 
  GOD'S LOVE CONQUERS 
 
  Acts 
Peter dreamed that the Pizza deliveryman showed up with "The Works." 
"I didn't order all those toppings," said Peter, "just kosher." 
"Try it; you'll like it," said God. 
In order to be sure it was the right order, he tried it three times, and he bought it. 
 
The lynch pin of the theological argument for Gentiles being included in the Jewish sect arising from Jesus is the discovery that the Holy Spirit works equally in Gentiles to convince them of the resurrection and convert them into disciples of Jesus, "the repentance that leads to life." (What is that exactly, the repentance that leads to life?") God delivers the movement of the faith across the borderline between Jews that believe and Gentiles. It was not a church growth insight on Peter's part or a marketing breakthrough. Church growth is appropriately a function of perceiving what God is doing and then following. 
 
  Psalms 
"All things praise the Lord" is not exactly the same as all things are good to eat, but it might mean that there are no taboo things in creation. God called them all good. "Clean and unclean" (taboo) is a different distinction than "good and bad". God sets aside the distinction "clean and unclean" along with "Jew and Gentile." 
 
  Revelation 
 
The movement of the consummation of history is not from earth toward heaven but from heaven toward earth. It is therefore not something we perfect and give to God, but rather something God perfects and gives to us. Therefore, our appropriate response is faithful, prayerful submission to the gift. We cannot create it and bestow it on ourselves. The role of the church is not to perfect the world, but to show faith to the world and call the world to faith. The image of the church in Acts, the image of Peter in our text, is one of faithful, prayerful submission. 
 
  John 
Our public relations are to be based on our obvious love for one-another. This is the sign that Jesus gave us to give to the world, not the cross. The cross is an appropriate reminder of the kind of love that flowed to us from God, but it is this love that should relate us to the world. It is in this sign -- love, not the cross -- that we conquer. And, what do we conquer? We conquer (the love of God in us conquers) the barriers that break down community: God-people, Jew-Gentile, religion-religion, male-female, class-class, age-age, nation-nation. This requires a new commandment, not just that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but that we love our fellow church member the way Jesus loved us. It doesn't replace the former commandment. It adds to it. We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to love each other as Jesus loved us. Is there a difference between the way we love ourselves and the way Jesus loves us? I should say. 
 
The United Methodist Church is contemplating striking a blow for the faith by creating a new distinction among us, "Confessing" versus just plain. Does God's love conquer by dividing? One could ask the same question of every division of the church through history. No, God's love reveals a unity from which people may separate themselves. The vast majority of the Jewish community of the first and second centuries chose to separate itself from that unity revealed to Peter and the church. John quotes Jesus as using the term "the Jews" to indicate that choice, people choosing to separate themselves from the unity that God reveals. We do it for the best of reasons and the worst of reasons, but when we do it, we do not love one another as Jesus loved us. 
 
[The flashpoint for the confessing movement has been treatment of homosexuals in the church. Their contention is that full equality for them would be contrary to Scripture and the will of God. I wonder if homosexuals are a taboo rather than an evil. People shun taboos like evil, but they are not the same.] 
 
May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
(an e-mail service) 
 
[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with these lections.] 
 
http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/ 
 
Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at 
http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/ 
 
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 --Copyright 2007, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved— 
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