Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B

THE GOOD SHEPHERD IS LOVE

 

1 John 3:16-24
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Analysis by Mark A Marius

16 We know love by this, that [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

From Canva

“God, full of compassion, decided to give us what we truly need – love in the person of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who lays down his life for us.”
“Laying down his life for the sheep frees us to let go of our own lives in order to take up the lives of our neighbors.”

DIAGNOSIS: Not sharing the love we know

Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Goods not living up to their name
Goods: We all have some goods. We all desire goods – more goods, better goods. But so often our goods are not for the common good. They are pursued and procured for our own benefit, for our own lives. Once we are satisfied we may share the left overs or give them away when they no longer have value to us. But what about our responsibility to love those who suffer, lack resources, and are in desperate need of something good? Not sharing goods sounds bad, and void of love.

Step 2: Advance Diagnosis (Internal Problem): Hearts not living up to our words about love
We know how to say words that sound like love. We may utter, “love the sinner but not the sin,” without any loving action of welcome or compassion to support it. We know how to affirm our love for all of creation, yet we exploit it for our own purpose. We paint a nice picture with our lip service, but our actions betray us. Our hearts are not in our words. The truth we may affirm is betrayed by our deceitful actions and intent. Our trust is not in how our loving shepherd leads and provides. It’s in the comfort of our own pastures.

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem): Not living at all
God is greater than our hearts. Which means God has the power to condemn us and our hearts for not obeying God’s commandments. Living apart from God is not living at all.

PROGNOSIS: Loving us to share

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution): Jesus Christ is love in action
God is greater than the deadly sin in our hearts. Which means that God has the power to change our hearts instead of condemning them as we deserve. And so God, full of compassion, decided to give us what we truly need – love in the person of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who lays down his life for us. God resurrecting his Son to new life is an action through which we now know love.

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): Hearts full of the Holy Spirit
Before we abide in God, the good Shepherd calls us, and in doing so gives us the Holy Spirit to abide in us – in our hearts. Filled with this Holy love our hearts receive the faith necessary to trust the Truth that is Christ. Our hearts now long for all the goods God gives – the gifts of grace, forgiveness, compassion.

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): Meeting needs is good
New hearts are where loving action is born. Laying down his life for the sheep frees us to let go of our own lives in order take up the lives of our neighbors. God’s command to love one another is good and possible when we follow the Good Shepherd’s lead. The Love we know flows from our faith that is latching on to Christ’s death and resurrection. The goods of the world are now reclassified as the means by which we care for others and creation. And when these means are coupled with God’s grace it is reckoned as right and good. So we share the means of grace with the flock, those in our midst and even those who have wondered off. In fact the means are anything but mean, as the grace of God produces great joy in the care and redemption of all that God has made.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

More Than Enough

 

Acts 2:42-47
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Analysis by Brad Haugen

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

St Peter Preaching – Masolino da Panicale (1383–1447)

The Jerusalem church’s radical stewardship and benevolence expressed their newfound freedom in relationship to the risen Christ.

DIAGNOSIS: Never Enough on Our Own

Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Not Enough

Rather than sharing all things in common, we tend to hold things more in competition with one another.  Habits of comparing and competing drive people to possess their possessions and money and call it their own.  “This is mine.  That is yours.”  Granted, we have worked for and earned some of what we own.  But not all of it.

Overwhelmingly, we feel that what we have is not enough.  Comparing ourselves to others who have more of what we want—more of the right stuff—we are driven to compete.  We are compelled to feel that we never have enough.  Having identified ourselves so closely with money and possessions, of which we’re already convinced we don’t have enough, we see ourselves as lacking and not being enough.

Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): Not Enough in Common

When Acts 2:42-47 comes up in the Revised Common Lectionary, we might see a blueprint or strategic plan to resolve the problem of not having enough.  “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45 NRSV).

“Why can’t our churches fit this picture?” we wonder.  Why can’t we give more out of what we share as a church and have in common?  After all, that there are and continue to be ever-increasing human needs is unquestionable.

If only we could clearly distinguish our needs from our wants, then we could

be content with meeting our needs and having enough.  Next, we could share the proceeds from selling our non-essentials with any who had need.

The problem is we’re just not sharing enough.  Furthermore, we can’t all agree on what our needs are and what our wants are.  So, we can’t have all things in common—not even in church, sometimes especially in church.  Besides, how can we trust that other people are asking for what they really need?  And how much help is enough?

As a passage that conveys God’s law, Acts 2:42-47 holds up an ideal of stewardship and benevolence that congregations with flawed human beings cannot attain through their own human efforts alone.

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem): Nothing in Common with God

Earlier in Acts and prior to the common life of the Jerusalem church portrayed in Acts 2:42-47, the apostle Peter preached a sermon in Jerusalem during what was then called the Feast of Weeks.  God’s Word was set loose during Peter’s sermon, along with the power of the Holy Spirit.  The activity of God’s Word and Spirit composed the events we know as Pentecost.

Peter’s sermon delivered God’s law: the clearest revelation that humankind had become enemies of God and couldn’t live as God’s people. Jesus’ crucifixion was humankind’s doing.  The crucifixion of Christ is a testament that God and humanity are fundamentally at odds, rather than having all things in common.  As Peter proclaimed to the crowd: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonder, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know – this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law” (Acts 2:22-23NRSV).

This man, Jesus, you crucified and killed: Peter’s stinging truth delivers God’s convicting Word which resounds throughout the ages.  Through our own complicity in Christ’s crucifixion—our refusal to fear, love, and trust a God who is willingly crucified—we show that we have nothing in common with this God.  We are thereby forsaken by God.

PROGNOSIS: More Than Enough in and with Christ Risen

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution): Having Christ in Common

Peter’s sermon, however, isn’t over yet.  He concludes: “But God raised [Jesus] up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. […] This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses” (Acts 2:24, 32).

Although Christ’s crucifixion sentences all people to death, the power of Christ’s resurrection frees all people from death.  Because the risen Christ forgives enemies of God like us, we and all people have a common need for Christ and his love that overcomes death.  Despite all that we don’t hold in common with God and other people, we have Christ in common.  We share a common witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection, which raises us all to new life with God in relationship to the risen Christ.  As Peter proclaims, “…of that all of us are witnesses.”

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): More than Enough in Christ

Fast forward from Peter’s sermon and the events of Pentecost, ahead to Acts 2:44-45: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”  In the light of their common witness to and belief in Christ’s death and resurrection, they experienced more than enough freedom through Christ to share, sell, and distribute possessions and goods as need arose.

Having all things in common, selling their possessions, and distributing the proceeds did not remain an impossible ideal for which they strived and fell short.  Rather, the Jerusalem church’s radical stewardship and benevolence expressed their newfound freedom in relationship to the risen Christ.  They had enough to share, sell, and distribute because through Christ they experienced more than enough freedom from human competitiveness, fear, distrust, and greed.

To paraphrase the Roman Catholic priest who hosted and gave the welcome at this year’s ecumenical Good Friday service in which I participated: “When Jesus prayed that his followers would be one, I believe this is what he had in mind.”  He was referring to our ecumenical gathering, our commitment to worship together in Christian unity and to hear the words of the crucified Lord, which we have in common.

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): More than Enough in Community with Christ

As I write this, I am reminded of the offering collected at our recent Good Friday ecumenical service.  The offering contributes to our local church ministerium association’s benevolence fund.  In small but significant ways, the churches of our community—as a ministerium using our common benevolence fund—respond to the needs of our community.

Having heard the words of Christ crucified and risen, we trust that he loves us more than enough, and we grow in the freedom that is ours through him.  As we live together in community with Christ, we take more opportunities to help meet our neighbor’s needs.  Rather than the nagging fears or doubts of “not having enough,” living together in community with the risen Christ opens our eyes to the needs of our neighbors more than ever before.  Finally, there are more opportunities to share when Christ enables us and our congregations to trust that we have enough to share.