This is the third week of a message series for the Easter Season called
“Ground-breaking”. It is a unique series for us because of its double meaning.
First, in just a little over a month we are actually going to be breaking
ground on a 1500sq. ft expansion which is part of our Generations campaign.
This new space on to the front of our Church will connect and complete our
campus and provide us with additional space for groups, activities and our
growing Family of Faith. (See the drawings in Parish Centre). Second - we are
in the Season which celebrates the most ground breaking event in history –
Easter.
A ground breaking describes
something that has never been seen or done or even thought of before - its
pioneering. Usually is surprises and shocks and maybe shapes culture or
redefines the way people live or work. Something ground breaking changes
stuff....and certainly Easter was that..... it changed things.... it was
groundbreaking - the impact is still being felt today
This first week we look at
that heart of the ground-breaking of the Resurrection is the fact of its a new
vision - one of Mercy. In our
second week we took a look at Fear and how we can overcome up due to the
Resurrection of Jesus by making three things a part of our life – the call to “feed,
tend, go” This week we look at what it takes to be a ground breaking Church.
The word “new” appears several times in today’s
readings. The passage from Revelation speaks of a “new” heaven, a “new” earth
and a “new” Jerusalem. Jesus in the Gospel speaks of a “new” commandment.
What’s supposed to be “new”? A new life in Christ, of course, is something that
can come early or late into the life of a person. For many saints it came after
quite a long period of loose and immoral living without God. St Augustine and
St Ignatius Loyola come to mind. For most of us, it is something that may come
in waves. In other words, it will not be a once-for-all experience but
something that comes at different stages in our life, each time bringing us to
a deeper level of understanding, insight and commitment. Something that is
ground breaking is something which is new.
John’s Gospel narrative of the Last Supper
takes us to the heart of what was going on in the Christian community following
the Easter event. Unlike the other evangelists, John does not focus on the
Eucharist but dwells on the profound action of Jesus’ washing the feet of His
disciples. Clearly, Jesus wanted to impress on all who choose to follow him
that this act of humble service is how we are to treat one another, everywhere, regardless of race,
religion, creed or colour. This action and example now provides the backdrop
for “the new commandment” expressed in today’s gospel. This is how all will
know that we are Jesus’ disciples; this is what it means to “love one another
as I have loved you.” This is the “love standard” Jesus has lived by and died
for; it is the same standard he asks of us. Love
of God and love of neighbour are now truly united—God incarnate—God, in the
fullness of humanity, now draws all people and all creation to Himself.
This is an entirely new kind of love that Jesus holds
out to us; a love that will require us to open doors that we have kept closed
to others; to respond to appeals that cry out for our help; to forgive our own
failings as well as those of others, from family members to enemies. Such a
love will open our eyes to things which otherwise we might not have seen, such
as the realization that the poor in the world belong to our own family; that
those who live in despair can be saved by our caring for them; that peace can
actually come to this planet so long as we learn to love one another. This type
of love is ground breaking! It is this nature of love that the Church is called
to be, that our parish is called to share.
The Ground
breaking Message of the Resurrection is not only Mercy, It is not only that
Fear has no power when we love the Lord and Feed, Tend and Go, but the ground
breaking message of the resurrection is also that we must be a Church that
constantly invites and invests.
In the
Gospel of today John takes us back to the last supper. Judas had left the room and now Jesus was
with His closet friends
- He had called them and in mercy
many times healed them,
- He had fed them at that last
supper the first Eucharist ,
- He had tended for them as He
washed their feet,
- He was ready to send them
But now
He said to them - others must know about who I am by the love you show and have
for one another. This love call us to be a people - a parish - that invests and
invites in others. It is too easy to become a clique - closed in with friends
huddled - but that is a Church in fear. We are a church of the New
Evangelization - not one in fear, not one in box, but one which goes to the
community and says - we are a light on a hill.
Sometimes
the people we are called to invest in don’t even know the Lord has called them
- something else brings them and our paths cross, but as people of faith we do
- we hear the words - give them time, give them you. Give them me, and in
humility we do....our faith, our experience, our time, our life learned lessons
- not so that they don’t learn their own - but that theirs will not be as
painful as ours. This is the love that Jesus speaks of in our Gospel when He
calls us to love one another - - it was ground breaking because prior to it all
things had to be earned
The
Church of today - the groundbreaking Church - must be one that intentionally
invest in relationship with people in our school, at soccer field, in social
circles, in the simple encounters we have at Chapters, Tim Horton or the
grocery line. We are called to invite them to join us here at our church - not
because we want numbers but because Jesus desires souls to be with Him - but
sometimes we don’t.
Sometimes
it because we forget how good the good news really is......... that no matter past sins or current failure - His
grace is enough - Christ is risen from the dead. But if they don’t know that
because they are not here - how will know Him? Sometimes we don’t because the
process can be intimidating but the result is liberating.
This
become clear for us when we decide that we live in obedience to God and Him
alone. When we seek to be in obedience to others, it means we must choose one
over another. Choosing to obey one person can upset others, choosing one
person’s train of thought - open us to criticism from others.
But
living in obedience to God means we are building a new heaven and a new earth
for Him. That we have one master - God -
and if we discern His will and do it - then our love for another one will show itself
and we will be what the Church is called to be - ground breaking
Listen
to this wonderful song by JJ Week Band
– “Alive in Me”