Sermon: April 27, 2025
Readings: John 20:19-31 / Acts 5:27-32
Bishop Curry once said in an interview about the fundamental distortion of Christianity, “If it does not look like love, if it does not look like Jesus of Nazareth, it cannot be claimed to be Christian. We are experiencing a fundamental distortion of the Christian teaching of what it means to follow Jesus, and if it does not look like Jesus of Nazareth, you cannot claim that it is Christian.” If it’s not about love, then it’s not about Jesus.
As Doctor King pointed out, if we are silent when human-made policies violate God’s love, the very thing we base and shape our lives around, then we further harm and divide the children of God. But, when we give voice to those who are oppressed or marginalized, we are co-workers with God in sharing God’s love.
As co-workers with God, we are enacting the covenant we made with God at our baptism by striving for justice and peace by proclaiming with word and example the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are demonstrating the good news of God’s love by seeking and serving Christ in all people and respecting the dignity of every human being, loving our neighbor as ourselves.
As part of the Jesus movement, we are to place Jesus at the center of our lives, allowing God’s love to be at the core of what motivates us to act in the world, becoming co-workers with God, speaking the truth of God’s love for all.
This love transformed the disciples from hiding behind locked doors to boldly proclaiming God’s love to the temple authorities. It is a love that can transform our lives. And maybe that begins by asking ourselves a question: If we believe, as the disciples did, that Jesus is the Son of God and was resurrected out of God’s love for us, then what are we to do now? Are we to go forth and proclaim God’s love to the world or remain silent?
May we, like the disciples, empowered by the breath of the Holy Spirit and commissioned by Jesus to be sent into the world, boldly proclaim for all to hear of God’s wondrous love. That there is a different way to live, a different way of being that looks like Jesus of Nazareth. A way of living and being that is grounded and based in God’s all-inclusive love.
