The high standard - 5th Sunday of Easter

This Easter season reminds us of all things new. Nature cooperates with this cycle that has continued since the beginning of time as we know it – birth and life is true for everything. What is more beautiful than a new born child? Trees that blossom, grass that turns green, flowers that appear on a bush all have a resurrection theme that is undeniable. Sunshine after a rainy day, even here in the Northwest, lifts our spirits. Even the more mundane things that excite us: a new car, a new home, a new computer with all the bells and whistles and multiple “gigabites,” and “megabites,” of which I have no idea what that is. Money in your bank account at the beginning of the month, all things new are good.

On this Fifth Sunday of our Easter journey we hear much about new things and new beginnings. In the Acts of the Apostles 14: 21-27, St. Paul and Barnabas carry on their mission as they visit the ancient Christian communities of Lystra and Iconium. There for the first time, the Gentile community has flourished and embraced this message of hope and salvation in Christ Jesus. Paul and Barnabas are building a Church community with elders to lead this new born people to reap the harvest of seeds sown through their ministry and the action of the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas do not sit on their laurels but move on further to Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga, and Attalia, and then finally to Antioch where they proclaim what God has done as he, “opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” The temptation is to guide success by numbers. In that sense, we can say that Paul and Barnabas were enormously successful. The scriptures tell us that, “. . . a considerable number of disciples . . .” had accepted the faith.

But, if it was only about numbers, then Jesus failed. He had twelve, one of whom turned against him. Then, he was crucified and mysteriously disappeared, after strange reports of a resurrection. The remaining eleven claimed his return to heaven but he left little behind except these eleven who later chose a substitute for Judas. Yet, our readings for the Easter season, and today is no exception, reassure us that the mission of Jesus on earth only began after his death and resurrection.

The bad news of today’s Gospel in John 13: 31-35 is that Jesus would be with his disciples only a little while longer. The good news is that what may have seemed like the end, his death on the cross, is the beginning, when “God is glorified in him (Jesus). . .” But the mission must be continued through his appointed Apostles and from them to all believers. While the Apostles had a singular purpose, we as believers in Christ, consecrated through our baptism, all share in the glory and the burden of spreading the good news. As priest, I know that my mission is not to be above or arrogantly set apart from the community entrusted to me. But, like Jesus to stand in your midst and to share in that same call that we all have. Regardless of our position, we are called to a higher standard of morality and behavior than what the world might measure as success. This standard, a bar set very high by Jesus, is our mark.

Jesus’ words call us to live by this higher morality and behavior marked by love and unity: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another . . .” Everything we stand for, our morals and standard of behavior as disciples of Christ, is based in this commandment of love and unity. He calls it a “new” commandment not because loving each other was new but because the way in which we are to love was Jesus challenge to his disciples to think outside the inner circle. As the faith spread beyond Jerusalem to the ancient world, as the Church changed its face from being exclusively Jewish to being primarily Gentile, the meaning of his words, “as I have loved you,” became more apparent.

The character of a follower of Jesus was not to be set apart from others but to relate in a more inclusive way. Who we forgive and what we forgive, to question our prejudices and our attitudes towards one another, who receives our respect, and how we care for the less fortunate is one measure of our Christianity. What we vote for and who we vote for, how and where we spend our money, and whether we view our faith as a call to “love and serve” or merely a call to just “show up” is meant to be touched by this high bar which Jesus has set for his followers.

To love as Jesus’ loved is likely the highest bar that he could have set. Because it is so high, we may never completely succeed but the standard is always before us and becomes the measure of our lives.

Every time we fall short of the high bar and recognize that we’ve been more judgmental than forgiving, more selfish than generous, more jealous than humble, more self serving than forgiving, we come back to that high bar and it becomes the measure of my life. Christianity is not for the faint of heart. Jesus’ uses his own example as a standard for morality.
It demands: courage, humility, truth, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, generosity, charity, compassion.

There is a verse by an unknown author which goes:

Time is too slow for those who wait.
Time is too fast for those who fear.
Time is too long for those who mourn.
Time is too short for those who rejoice.
But for those who love,
Time is eternity.