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| Dr. Brashear and Father Clyde |
On the 5th Sunday if April, a mild spring day, I came to lead worship for the Ecclesia congregation in Marcus Garvey Park. Ecclesia worships outside every Sunday in three parks around the city. The word is broken, Eucharist celebrated and then a meal served on the altar on which communion was shared. The service begins with my friend Father Clyde consecrating the ground with holy water as he does every Sunday.
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| Consecrating the ground |
You ever encounter those people who want to know if you are saved? You see them on the street, on the subway, any public place. And I'll be honest..sometimes it can worry you, right? Do I believe the right thing? Am I going to get into heaven? How could God possibly love me? It's easy to feel that way.
I'd like to share two words of "Good News" with you today. First from the First letter of John. (This was a really important verse to me...) When I was young and wanted to get married, I was in love and going to marry a young Jewish woman. I was a little worried about this and asked a minister friend about this. And his response was these words:
Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God
and...God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
So I want to make sure you heard that and got that straight...if you can love, if you love, you are born of God and know God and you abide in God and God abides in you...it's that simple. It's not about what ideas you believe or with what words. Or what church you belong to or even what religion. The bottom line is love....
As for worthiness, that story in Acts of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is one of my favorites. Now on the one hand, he was doing pretty well. He was a court official. In charge of the whole treasury of the Ethiopian queen. He came to Jerusalem to "worship", so he was already looking for something.
BUT from Philip's perspective, the guy had 3 strikes against him already. First, he was not a Jew. Not only that , but he was a eunuch. Which meant under their law, he was permanently unclean....like being gay or trans today in the eyes of some church people, and to top it off, he was BLACK. So when he asks Philip sincerely if he can be baptized, Philip's got to cross some boundaries.. And he does. And the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized and becomes the first non-Jewish Christian. And the whole thing is so amazing, Philip is blown away. So blown away, he wakes up the next day in Azotus. (Which always sounded like one of those New Jersey towns to me like Paramus or Bogota or...)
Anyways, the point is...there are no bounds to God's welcome and embrace. It's about one thing and one thing only...LOVE...
When we come to the sharing of bread and cup, we all, ALL of us are invited to share in this holy meal together. As brothers and sisters. Fully welcomed. Fully accepted. And fully loved. As together we share in ....and become...the body of the risen Christ.
After the eucharist is celebrated and we have our prayers and sing more hymns and pass the peace, the service is over. Oh, there were prayers for the recently fired House Chaplain Father Conroy and Paul Ryan who fired him. The homeless people thought it might have something to do with them. It's time to share a meal (provided by my friends from West End Presbyterian).
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| sharing another meal |
One by one the people go off in different directions...
the peace of the Lord be with you...
Amen
First Reading Acts 8:26-40
26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” [37And Phillip said,“If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Second Reading 1 John 4:7-21
7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
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