| First
Reading | Psalm | Epistle | Gospel |
| Acts
8:26-40 |
22:2430 |
1
John 4:7-21 |
John
15: 1-8 |
If
you look at the listing of houses of worship in the Ithaca Journal,
you would think that Ithaca was in a major metropolitan area. I
suspect we have more individual churches of various religious persuasions
than most areas with a population ten times our size. Indeed if
we were to visit a different church each week, I suspect we could
go through the whole year worshipping at a different place.
I am not denigrating our
tradition of religious freedom or our climate of diversity, but
I would suggest this is not necessarily evidence of spiritual
health. We live in a great age of salad bar spirituality. Many
pick, chose, and discard as they move through their lives, always
searching, looking for something more to their taste and pleasing.
There is always another entrée to be discovered, and who
knows, something down the line waiting to be sampled may be just
the thing. Of course, rushing through salad bars, looking for
something different, but not knowing exactly what one is hungry
for, rarely results in a balanced or nutritious meal. In the same
way, there are few roots in the individualistic, restless sampling
of much spiritual practice of our culture.
John’s Gospel for today
took place as the last days of Jesus’ earthly life were drawing
to a close. Jesus knew that the disciples would face a great transition
in how they would relate to the living Lord and to each other.
Those who stayed and continued to break bread together would find
the risen Christ among them, and would be given the continuing
strength of the Holy Spirit. The editor of John's Gospel was a
leader in a fledging Christian community which at the time was
undergoing temptation to break off into separate parties. He wanted
to remind them and us that being in Christ involves sticking together,
of sharing and bearing the discomfort, and of not simply individual
picking and choosing.
The original first century
readers of John’s Gospel would have been very familiar with
the analogy of Israel as a tree or vine called to bear fruit.
It would have been easy to understand Jesus as the true vine and
those who remain attached to Christ becoming the new Israel. Being
clean is being equated with being pruned and ready to bear fruit
and live the Good News. What John wanted to share with the Christian
communities for which he wrote, also speaks today to us, as the
emotional high of Easter fades, and the adjustment to Jesus’
Ascension soon lies ahead. The process of discovering the Christ
who is within us and among us, requires a commitment of remaining
together, of remaining attached to the vine and to each other.
At first glance, Philip's
baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch does not seem to have much in
common with the Gospel. It seems to tell a story far removed from
Jesus' analogy of the vine. Yet going deeper, the writer of Acts
is stressing that unity of fellowship in the body of Christ, not
uniformity of birth or culture, is the prime characteristic of
the church. This baptism is only the second of a trilogy of baptisms
of people outside the mainstream.
The Ethiopian eunuch who
came to Jerusalem to worship very likely could have been a Jew.
By this time, Jews of all races lived in virtually every nation
surrounding the Mediterranean. However, his birth and background
was entirely different than any of the Jewish-Christians of metropolitan
Jerusalem or the rural agricultural or fishing villages of Galilee.
Right before the story of
the Ethiopian's baptism Philip was preaching in a town of Samaria.
Sarmaritans were not orthodox Jews nor Greek-speaking gentiles.
They were a sect isolated and shunned by everyone else. However,
Philip baptized a significant number of them, and with Peter and
John's blessing they were accepted as full members into the larger
church.
Shortly after Philip baptized
the Ethiopian, Paul is converted. Peter has his vision of all
animals being declared clean. Peter baptized a Roman centurion
and all his household. Taken as a unit we have the baptisms of
Samaritans, an Ethiopian, and a gentile Roman soldier. They're
all very different from each other and those who made up the early
church, yet they were made part of one body.
In this season of graduations,
transitions, moving on and vacations pulling us away, the lessons
after Easter are a special gift to us. The body of Christ gives
us the stability of roots. If we can't find God working among
us here, it is doubtful we will quickly find God working anywhere,
for the disclosure of God germinates and takes root where we are.
Salad bar spiritual searching is basically running away, running
from the vine and breaking attachment. As Easter fades, the process
of discovering the living Christ within us requires a commitment
of remaining together, of remaining attached to the vine and to
each other.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen
