Texts:     Acts 16:9-15
             John 14: 23-29

A sermon prepared by Commissioned Lay Pastor Pat Lucy
Yale Avenue Presbyterian Church of Tulsa, Oklahoma
May 16, 2004
Sixth Sunday of Easter

The commandment to love one another is one that even the youngest Christian can understand. When the children come forward for their children's sermon - as they roll around, displaying their underwear in alarming ways and grinning at their parents in the congregation, they know the answer to the question, "What did Jesus teach us?" "To love each other," they say with all the relieved fervor of a 3 year old just this once knowing exactly what to say.

A famous scholar, Richard Rorty, who happens to be an atheist, says that the most powerful vision of western philosophy is its definition of humanity. He believes it comes from Jesus: love your neighbor as yourself. Rory calls it a radical redefinition of humanity. And he believes that such a vision leads to democracy.

The Great Commandment is in all 4 gospels. I like Luke's version best. It has that lovely addition of defining just who it is that we are to love. Jesus was asked, 'Who is our neighbor?" He answers - The Samaritan. The foreigner. The one who is not like us. And who would that be in our lives? Iraqis - Al Qaeda - the condemned killer - the drunkard - Democrats or Republicans - or maybe, just your mother-in-law. Someone that you have come to believe is different than you - the one you believe will hurt you - the other. The real challenge is to love your neighbors even though you don't trust them.

Today's text from John is from Jesus' last words to his disciples before his death. He reminds them of the centrality of his message. "Those who love me will keep my word which is God's word." Then he promises the presence of the Spirit to be with them always. Then these words, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don't be troubled or afraid." I have been told by those that know - that the words 'Do not be afraid' are the most commonly repeated words in the Bible.

Powerful words, indeed, in these days of terror. Since the destruction of the Twin Towers and the decision to go into Iraq, the world seems to be in an ever spiraling descent into violence. This weeks headlines and pictures take us to places that we thought we would never go. And we are caught like a deer crossing the highway at night - caught in the headlights of terror - immobilized, waiting for a word that will give us courage to deal with the outrage.

In these situations, it is wise to turn to the Bible. And I think it is important to remember that Jesus told us that everything he had taught could be summed up in the commandment to love God and to love neighbor. Everything else we read in the Bible must be held to that standard.

But there are times when there are more than one thing to remember. There is a story about the father who decided to tell son the facts of life. The kid stumped him with his first question ... "but Dad, how many are there?"

So there are other things that are important for Christians to remember. God told us that we were made in God's own image and that we are good. Everyone on the planet is a child of God - every last one of us. In today's text from Acts, the apostle Paul sets sail for Macedonia to the town of Philippi. There the small group of evangelists meet some gentile women at the river outside of town. The book of Acts tells us that a woman named Lydia became baptized and opened her home to the travelers. Imagine! - a gentile woman baptized with no further comment. Clearly, the rules which bound believers were being revised. Remember the story of Paul's conversion of the gentile soldier, Cornelius - and Peter's dream which led him to baptize the gentiles. It is clear from a whole reading of the Bible that God wants us to understand that we are all God's children.

There is a bumper sticker that says , "God doesn't make trash." What a neat summing up of the Old Testament creation story. We are all God's children entitled to respect and dignity. Respect and dignity for all will bring justice ... and with justice will come true peace. Bishop Slattery, Catholic Bishop of this area, speaking to the atrocities revealed last week said that we should seek peace, "a peace based on the concept that all men and women have been endowed by our Creator with the dignity that comes from having been created in God's own image and likeness."

Peace isn't something that just happens. We can't just wish for peace. We have to will it, fight for it, suffer for it, demand it from our governments - as if peace were God's most cherished hope for humanity, as indeed it is.

Perhaps one of the things Christians like to forget is that Christians are not always on the right side. Putting the title of Christian on an action does not de facto create a good deed. We cannot forget that it was the church of Germany which participated in the ethnic cleansing of a whole generation of European Jews - all in the name of Christ! The rationale - they killed Christ, therefore, they are vermin to be exterminated. In our own time, there are many such tragic stories, some happening as we speak. For instance, Christian Somalis killed a whole race of folks whom they had named 'other.'

War brings out the worst in all of us. Dag Hammarskjold, whom many of you will remember as Secretary General of the United Nations in its founding days, said, "You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds."

Much has been written about 'the high ground' in the moral dilemmas that have been thrust upon us. Some of the most interesting comments made about the current situation were made by a man of great moral certitude and great disdain for moral relativism. This is what he said. "What we did was inhumane but we just put a hood over a man's head, but at least he still had his head." True enough, but isn't this the worst kind of moral relativity? I tested this logic on my 14 year old grandson. I asked him what he thought would happen if he got in trouble because he hurt someone at school. I asked him if he thought he would get off the hook if he reported that the other guy had done something worse. He looked at me with confusion and finally blurted out, "Are you kidding?"

An editorial in the Tulsa World this week said, "apologies won't change attitudes. It is good and right to have such a high standard," the writer said, "but not good if that standard is one-sided and undermines what we are trying to achieve in Iraq. Do we think apologizing is going to change such attitudes? It won't but total victory might." He continued, "Let's get on with it and engage in psychobabble later." Have we really come to the place where Christian repentance can be called psychobabble?

Yet, forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle where that which has been broken is made whole; that which has been made dirty has been made clean. In the business of repentance - (remember that old fashioned word?) - the first step is to claim the harm we have done to others. The next step is to tell those we have damaged that we are sorry - to apologize. The weak are never able to apologize: apologizing is a quality that comes from strength. Then, there is the messy business of trying to set it right again. Total military victory will not be the answer. Thomas Mann has said that war is a coward's escape from the problems of peace. Making things right is never easy. Can we allow hatred to become a patriotic virtue? With each gun that is fired, with each bombing run, we earn more enemies than we can subdue. We become the authors of the terrorism of which we are also the target.

There is no justification for the sort of criminal behavior that has been seen in American prisons in Iraq. And it is called a wrong by persons, whether they be Christian or not, who claim the dignity of every human being. It is important to know that American claims as protectors of human rights has been severely damaged by our unilateral invasion of Iraq and with great particularity by the reports of abuses in the prisons there. International respect for the United States is at a new low. And all at a time when the United States makes strong claims that it is inspired by Christian belief. Not only do these acts, which are judged as wrong by much of the international community, degrade respect for Americans, but they belie the words we speak about the love of Christ to the whole world.

Further, such acts of inhumanity awaken the sleeping need for vengeance from those who feel most at risk.

And even if, by the grace of God, we succeed in ridding the earth of weapons of mass destruction, the ability to make them will forever and ever be part of the storehouse of human knowledge. It would be utterly naive to believe that a nation at war would gracefully choose to go down to defeat rather than reconstruct nuclear or chemical weapons if they had the ability to do so. In other words, having bitten the nuclear and chemical apple, there is no returning to innocence. It's hard not to conclude that humanity has outlived war, but doesn't yet know it. We are beginning to resemble extinct dinosaurs who suffered from too much armor and too little brain. If nuclear and chemical war comes, all humanity will be downwind.

Especially in these times of crisis, we must tell the world of God's promise that life has meaning if we but share the gift of grace and the radical love of God; with our actions as well as our words. This is not an easy task. It is however, the task to which these times have called us. The fragility of life has become starkly real. It is has become, clearly, a matter of life and death that our actions match our high sounding words.

In these times of terror, it is good to claim that we believe in a God that tells us that we are never alone. Faith is being grasped by the power of love. Faith is recognizing that God is filled with infinite mercy; not infinite control; not power, but love unending. Faith is recognizing that if, at Christmas, Jesus became like us, it was so that we might become more like him.

In God's sight, there are no insiders and outsiders, for we are finally of one nature - one flesh - one grief - one hope. And in Christ's sight, if we fail to love, we fail in everything.

We are called to nothing more than to spread the word, by our words and deeds, that we worship a God who calls us by name, who loves and forgives us and tells us that we have been created in the very image of God. This is the good news that should not separate us from one another. Rather, this is the good news that should tie us together within the bonds of love found in the mystery of the radical love of our God. It is with this vision that we should speak and act - with passion - every moment of every day.

In closing, let us pray the prayer that St. Francis of Assisi wrote at the end of the 11^th century - a prayer that is as powerful and real today as it was the day it was written.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen