EXTRAVAGANCE!!!
Acts. 10:44-48; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Well, as a matter of fact, yes. In the story immediately preceding this one, the Ethiopian Eunuch asks a similar question of Philip: “Here is water, what keeps me from being baptized?” Well, you are a foreigner, sexually disordered, and you hardly know anything about Jesus!
The church has a long, long history of doing this exactly. You know: Gentiles, women, Samaritans, look at Jesus life! Look at Pentecost! The whole known world suddenly is included. Not because us preachers want to welcome them. Of course not! We are the keepers of the order. It is just like the Holy Spirit to interrupt Peter’s sermon - every preacher’s dream or fear, frankly.
Throughout the last 2,000 years, lines have been drawn of who is in and who is out. Who can be baptized? Who can be included? By what criteria? I know a writer who says, quote: “At first I was told I had to believe to be fed the bread of life and the cup of salvation. But at my little church, they fed me at the table of life UNTIL I believed...” unquote. Denominations are ripped apart by the disagreements over inclusion of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers. What about the ordination of women as pastors? Still not a universal standard.
In other words. We humans draw boundaries.
And God, in Her wisdom and love, blows them apart!
It is built into the scaffolding of forgiveness. There is an extravagance to God’s grace— we can catch glimmers when we lay down our rigid lines and look with curiosity on what the Holy Spirit might be doing in our midst. From the prophets of old to Jesus’ life and teachings, to the Holy Spirit poured out in Jerusalem and now in Caesarea, a Gentile Pentecost you might call it, there is a through line of God making clean and right, healed and whole, shalom shared, that extends far beyond any boundary we might lay down.
The truth of the matter is we do not have capacity to cross the boundaries we set up on our own. By nature or nurture or both, we are attuned to create categories of inclusion and acceptability. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible to move from a segregated place to a landscape of welcome. It takes humility - I have to tell you - you gotta to be able to say, “I don’t know what God is doing here right now. But its chaotic...” and a measure of trust that in fact, God IS doing something. It’s an open stance. EXTRAVAGANCE.
Tell me, have you thought about Jesus’ commandments this week? Have you pondered how you can give shape and form to your life in a way that more deeply reflects His demands? Do you rehearse them in your head when you wake up, bind them as a fronts-piece on your foreheads, have them tattooed on your arm or your chest? Take a measure of each day’s success or failure at night before you go to sleep?
His first command? and His only. LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.
Abide, remain, hold onto, My love. Don’t let go. Your obedience is a reflection of My love for you and through you for the world. Always remember I love you, I call you My Beloved. Jesus’ standard is plain: follow this command only. Are your words and actions rooted in Jesus’ love for your neighbor? For the world? For Yourself? For your intimate partner? Your children? If you answer No, I’m not doing this in love, I’m doing it for me! You can know you are not abiding.
What is striking to me about this whole story is the setting. It is John’s portrayal of Jesus’ last night with His disciples before His arrest. He offers these deep and comforting words as pastoral care for the worried and wounded disciples. He knows they won’t abide, there will be moments when they turn away, deny, even betray Him. Remember, Judas and Peter and Thomas with the big questions are still in the room!
Jesus’ love is fueled by His eternal connection to His Father, therefore, He can say with impunity, “I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. Here is your golden inked invitation to join us in the grand dance of eternal life.” If the disciples remain, the joy they will treasure is richer, deeper, wider and more long-lasting than anything they have already experienced. Jesus is not leaving them bereft when He dies, He promises to live on in connection and community with them as they abide in Him.
This joy may be likened to a woman giving birth, as Jesus says in chapter 16. She labors hard, in severe pain and then the baby arrives. Most women will tell you they ‘forget the pain’ when the baby is laid on their breast. An incredible feeling of joy washes over, oxytocin, I think it is. (Later, us mommas get very afraid as well, sure we are going to mess our babies up:). These metaphors are offered to sustain faith all the way to the cross and beyond. Remember - the religious boundaries have been set AGAINST Jesus and His disciples, they are being hunted by the preachers and the elders, for a host of reasons, most having to do with the distribution of power. The Roman Empire bears down on them, they are simply trying to survive! Based in a thick historical understanding of what it means to be ritually clean, the authorities of the Temple cannot allow this ethic of love to be displayed. EXTRAVAGANCE!
And then there is this: “I no longer call you servants or slaves, I call you friends. And I’m going to lay down My Life for you, friends.” Such a gift of dignity Jesus hands over.
Stop and think about your dearest friends. What is it they offer you? Creativity, generosity, forgiveness, honesty, accountability, mutuality, even joy? This is Jesus’ direct address to all His disciples, not just the ones gathered there on that fateful night. But all of us. He builds communities of friends: places of welcome for the excluded, His purpose is to bring healing and then joy, real alive joy. The kind that makes you smile and laugh out-loud. This is what it means to abide, to remain. It is this in filling, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Tell me, can anyone withhold the waters of baptism? Absolutely not! EXTRAVAGANCE.