Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29

St. Paul once wrote that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  Contrary to what the unscrupulous investor Gordon Gekko said in the 1987 movie Wall Street, greed is not good. Yet we all need money. Indeed, most of us wouldn’t mind having a little more!

Money can even teach us things. If you have a $1 or $5 bill, pull it out of your wallet, purse or pocket for a moment. On each of these bills are the words, “In God We Trust.” Considering the rapid secularization of our society and the deterioration of many religious values and virtues, we might question whether that’s still true. 

These bills also display the Great Seal of the United States, featuring a bald eagle and the Latin words, e pluribus unum, “out of many, one.” Given the tremendous divisions in our country, we might also question whether these words are still true. 

Placing our trust in God and forging a true community out of diversity has also been a challenge also in the Church from her earliest days. How can we live in true communion with each other? Our scripture readings today give us a vision of what the Church can be, offer us a promise of help, and provide us with an example of how we can realize the four marks of the Church noted in the Nicene Creed: “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.”

In Revelation 21, John presents us with an image or vision of the Church as the New Jerusalem. God personally revealed God’s self to the human family through our Jewish ancestors, the tribes of Israel. God gave us the foundation of the witness and teaching of the apostles. God gave us the Light of the World, Jesus.

In our gospel reading last Sunday, Jesus gave us a new commandment: to love one another as he has loved us. Today he reminds us that loving him means keeping that word. Our love for him is made real in our love for others…especially those who make it difficult! His love for us was revealed first in the cross, but the abiding legacies of his love are his gifts of peace and the Holy Spirit.

The world promises peace but rarely delivers it. It promises peace through domination and conquest. Jesus promises peace through love and communion. But as we know from experience, realizing the promise of Jesus is often easier said than done. 

In the early Church, one of the questions that threatened to divide and destroy the community concerned the requirements for membership. Specifically, when gentiles wanted to join what had started as an exclusively Jewish community, was it necessary for them to observe the Mosaic Law, including the obligation of men to be circumcised? There were strong opinions all around.

In order to resolve these questions, the apostles followed what might be called the 5 D’s: 

(1) They drew together in a council in Jerusalem.
(2) They passionately and respectfully debated the issues.
(3) They discerned which way the Spirit was leading them.
(4) They decided what to do.
(5) They delivered their decision to the Church. 

This model of addressing issues has continued in the Church to this day. It’s been followed in our ecumenical councils like Vatican II. When we’re at our best, it’s followed in our parish councils, religious communities and our other church organizations. It’s the model on which Renew My Church is built.

We proclaim our trust in God. We believe that out of many races, languages and ways of life and out of many experiences of church and theological understandings, we are still one. Believing in Jesus’ promise and following the example of the apostles, we pray that we may live up to that motto attributed to St. Augustine and others: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” +