Oboedire "UMC: The Newness of Oneness" by [J. Steven Harper]

Oboedire   "UMC: The Newness of Oneness" by [J. Steven Harper]
Acts 11:1-18[Acts 11: God Has Broken Through

11 1-3 The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in.” When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?”

4-6 So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in.

7-10 “Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.’ The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.

11-14 “Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’

15-17 “So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?”

18 Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”]

Revelation 21:1-6[21: Everything New

1 I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.

2 I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.

3-5 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

6-8 Then he said, “It’s happened. I’m A to Z. I’m the Beginning, I’m the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I’ll be God to them, they’ll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it’s Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!”]

John 13:31-35[John 13: A New Command

31-32 When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!

33 “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’

34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”]

The lectionary readings from yesterday should be required reading for every delegate to General Conference, every Bishop, every Board and Agency attendee, every caucus member, and every Conference observer. They offer us a pre-Conference word from the Lord, if we have ears to hear. They provide a moment of opportunity if we have the will to claim it. The timing of these texts is providential.
The texts all point to something new, and they do so within the context of inclusion, love, and God's transformative creation. They were marching orders for the first Christians, and they should be so for us now.
In the early church in/out thinking existed, and it took direct action by the Holy Spirit in the heart of the church's primary leader to break it. Gentiles were considered "outcasts" and excluded as much as any people who are treated as "less than" today. The Acts passage makes it clear that such exclusion is not God's will. In nothing short of an absolutely amazing text, universal inclusion (Jews and Gentiles include everybody) replaces human-made exclusion categories--an idea which Paul strengthened by adding two more "less than" peoples--slaves and women, all of whom are now (along with Gentiles) one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28[Galatians 3: In Christ’s Family
28-29 In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.]).
This revolutionary life together, Jesus says in the Gospel lesson, is initiated and sustained by love. The commandment to love is "new" precisely because of the vision represented in the Acts passage. Because of Jesus, "love one another" means love everyone, and moreover, love will now be the mark by which the world will see that we are Christians. "They will know we are Christians by our love."
All this, Revelation shows, will be carried forward into a new heaven and new earth created by God, who makes all things new. The trajectory begun on earth is now made eternal. Another text in Revelation shows the radical universality of this new creation (Revelation 7:9[Revelation 7:9-12 I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:

Salvation to our God on his Throne!

Salvation to the Lamb!

All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing:

Oh, Yes!

The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving,

The honor and power and strength,

To our God forever and ever and ever!

Oh, Yes!]).
These passages define God's new wine, made sacramental in the Gospel lesson as Jesus ate the bread and drank the wine at the table. At General Conference, The United Methodist Church has the opportunity to become (by God's grace) a new wineskin that can hold the new wine of inclusion and love, and in doing so be a sign of God's new heaven and new earth. The One who said, " I am making all things new," seeks to include The United Methodist Church in that newness and the mission such newness generates.
We still have two weeks to decide to become a new wineskin church and then gather in Portland to become one.[J. Steven Harper]
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