Love-like-Jesus: Francis of Assisi greets a leper, kissing the bandaged hand. "Love one another," Jesus said. He meant to love like Jesus loved, and that can be a tall order when all kinds of people are involved and all kinds of things stand in your way. He didn't mean to love lots of people; he meant all of them.
At its earliest, the faithful who followed Jesus fully considered themselves Jews. The only difference was that they were Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah.
When Peter has his vision in Acts 10 that tells him he should disregard Jewish dietary law as prescribed in the Torah, and then goes to meet a Gentile - also forbidden, making one unclean. He is a Roman centurion who receives the Holy Spirit and then gets baptized by Peter. The folks in charge of the Jesus-faithful are quite upset at all of these Torah violations.
Our passage in Acts 11 has Peter recounting what happened in ch. 10 to the Jesus community's leadership. In the end, such breaches of the Torah-Law - disregarding dietary law and welcoming Gentiles as part of the faith community - were allowed by the leaders ... at least for the time being.
We need to understand what it takes to cross those boundaries that exist for us in embracing the other, the stranger, in order to love like Jesus. It is only such love-like-Jesus that opens the way for the Spirit to transform and bring new life.
In John 13, Jesus has done the foot-washing to show the disciples what servant leadership means. Then Judas is exposed as the betrayer. Then Jesus says quite powerfully: "Love one another."
What does this mean and how do we become conduits for the transforming work of the Spirit by being faithful imitators of love like Jesus? Explore this further with the sermon video below.
At its earliest, the faithful who followed Jesus fully considered themselves Jews. The only difference was that they were Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah.
When Peter has his vision in Acts 10 that tells him he should disregard Jewish dietary law as prescribed in the Torah, and then goes to meet a Gentile - also forbidden, making one unclean. He is a Roman centurion who receives the Holy Spirit and then gets baptized by Peter. The folks in charge of the Jesus-faithful are quite upset at all of these Torah violations.
Our passage in Acts 11 has Peter recounting what happened in ch. 10 to the Jesus community's leadership. In the end, such breaches of the Torah-Law - disregarding dietary law and welcoming Gentiles as part of the faith community - were allowed by the leaders ... at least for the time being.
We need to understand what it takes to cross those boundaries that exist for us in embracing the other, the stranger, in order to love like Jesus. It is only such love-like-Jesus that opens the way for the Spirit to transform and bring new life.
In John 13, Jesus has done the foot-washing to show the disciples what servant leadership means. Then Judas is exposed as the betrayer. Then Jesus says quite powerfully: "Love one another."
What does this mean and how do we become conduits for the transforming work of the Spirit by being faithful imitators of love like Jesus? Explore this further with the sermon video below.
| 05-19-19-sermon.mp3 |
| 05-19-19-ff-answers.pdf |
| 05-19-19-love_opens_to_the_spirit.pdf |