Scripture texts: Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8
Today’s texts seem to tie together a number of themes from my sermons of these past several weeks. In Acts, we hear the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, a tale where, once again, someone takes the Scriptures and leads another through the story of salvation just as Jesus himself did with the disciples in the upper room. First John speaks again of agape, of selfless love, and how God’s love for us is meant to compel us into sharing that love with others. And lastly, Jesus speaks of the metaphor of a grapevine; that good vines produce good fruit and that as long as we abide in Christ’s love, we too will produce “good fruit.”
These texts are linked, not merely because they all appear on the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year whatever of the lectionary (B, I think.) They are linked because they are a perfect encapsulation of the Christian life. This is it. This is what it means to truly be Christian. We love, because God first loved us. Who do we love? All people, even those as odd or out-of-the-ordinary as a rich black Ethiopian court official of alternate sexuality. And it is through loving the ordinary and the extraordinary that we bear that fruit of God’s kingdom.
I talked last week about how “God loves you” is the first and most fundamental teaching of the Church. The second teaching flows from that. “You therefore love others.” We are taught this also from the very beginning. How many Sunday School lessons begin with some or another Bible story, but end with the exhortation to kindness, compassion, mercy, and love? God loves us, therefore we love others. Christianity 102. It’s the second thing we learn when we become Christian.
But again, like the first lesson, this one gets lost in the shuffle of life.
I have a number of non-believing friends: atheists, agnostics, and the like who are often highly critical of religion in general and Christianity in particular. And whether they are talking about historical atrocities, like the Inquisition, to today’s abuses of the Church, like the Catholic sex abuse scandal, it is hard to argue with them. Because they’re right. The Church has not borne much good fruit over its 2000 years of existence. And why is that? Because we have lost track of why we are here.
So why are we here? We know the correct answer. I’ve just told you. We are here, united together in the love that God has given us so that we can then give that love to the world, to other people, to our neighbors, to strangers, to everyone. That’s what the Church is for. That’s why we’re here, or at least, it is supposed to be.
We are not here to support the status quo of our society, a status quo that often abuses and belittles people of color, women, and those of alternative sexuality. A status quo that looks down upon the poor, the sick, and others in need. A status quo that is built on hate and greed.
We are not here to idolize the golden age of our childhoods, that time in our lives when everything made sense and we felt safe. A golden age when pews were full, money was abundant, and everything appeared to be wonderful. Those days are gone and they are never returning again.
We are not here to fantasize about worldly success, to hear God tell us how wonderful we are and here’s a million dollars, all for being such good and faithful people. That has never been how faith has worked and it never will be.
Yet, every Sunday, right now at this very moment, those things are being proclaimed from pulpits in churches all over this country. Do you notice what’s missing? No talk of Jesus, the cross, the tomb, or God’s love. We do not abide in the vine and thus we do not bear good fruit.
I told the council a brief anecdote that I’d heard earlier this week. Back in the 1920s and 30s, the church in Europe, both Protestant and Catholic, went all in on the Nazis and the fascists. And now, 70 years later, those churches are empty. They took their eyes off of Christ. They did not abide in the vine and now they have withered away. I saw a report this week that less than 20% of citizens in the UK have any religious affiliation at all. Germany, Italy, France, much the same. That is very likely to be our future as well, if we do not remember why we are here.
We love, because God first loved us.
I said last week that agape was selfless love, a love the gives with no expectation of return. The eunuch gave nothing back to Philip. It’s quite possible the two men never saw each other again after their encounter. There are thousands upon thousands of people out there who hunger for love. And they are never going to show up here on Sunday. They are never going to make one whit of difference in your life. But we are called to love them anyway. Why? Because there is nothing we can do for God. We can’t give him anything. We can’t offer him anything that he does not already have. And yet, he loves us anyway, so much so that he went to the cross for us, for you and for me.
God got nothing out of that deal except pain, anguish, and death. We got everything, life, love, eternity. And that is what we are called to do for others. Give all of ourselves for the sake of our neighbors. To love them until it hurts and then some. That’s how good fruit is made. That’s how the kingdom of God comes about in people’s lives. Christianity is not about we get, it’s about what we can give. The core of this faith is selfless love. That is what the disciples were taught by Christ all those centuries ago. It’s what Philip demonstrates in his encounter with the Ethiopian stranger. It’s what we are called to do as the Church today in these trying and frightening times. Love, because God first loved us.
Amen.
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