5th
Sunday of Easter (Five
= 5) 24
April 2016
• Acts 14:21-27 • Psalm 145 • Revelation 21:1-5a
• John 13:31-33a, 34-35 •
Title:
“Old to New”
[__01__] Can old
become new? Can old become young?
We read in the Book of Revelation the promise of God, “Behold, I
make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
John the Evangelist, in this book, was reporting a vision that he saw a
new heavens and a new earth, that God would create a new heavens and a new
earth.
[__02__] Can an object or person
with age, experience, and years become new, become young?
Is this desirable?
Of coruse, at times, we
say YES. This is very desirable.
We report that we feel
young that we have the emotional experience of renewal or renewed youth.
This is possible not just
by diet and exercise and good genes but also be the vitamins and minerals of
long-standing relationships and friendships.
Staying connected to people – to persons – we have known
for many years helps us to remember younger days, earlier days. We are young.
[__03_] Do we want, however, to remember our youth? Do we
want to be renewed?
Yes, we would say because youth and renewal signify to us greater energy,
health ..or, perhaps, fewer responsibilities.
[__04__] On the other hand, does not youthfulness
reminds us of our fragility, our weakness, our vulnerability?
It can be risky, then, to be made new or to be made young.
It may seem safer, more secure, to be experienced, to be intelligent, to be
street-smart, to be older.
[__05__] We – who are old – can be
become young.
Jesus, our Savior, teaches his disciples that love,
charity, kindness, mercy, help us to become younger.
For example, isn’t this true for mothers and fathers and
teachers who are raising and instructing the next generation of children? In order to love a child, we – in some way –
are called to become childlike.
We read – in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 11 that Jesus
finds that the young and the inexperienced have a special connection to God.
That is, God teaches us not when we are strong but when we are vulnerable. Paul
affirmed this in his letter to [??], “when I am weak it is then that I am
strong.”
Or, could we say, when I am
weak, it is then when I am young, when I am renewed… In Matthew’s Gospel we read, “I
thank thee, Father, lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these
things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.” (Matthew 11:25)
Jesus also does not want to
teach us what is complex and difficult but what is simple, reminding us that “my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
[__06__] When we
try to love another person, we are also made new. This can be true whether the
person is younger or older than we are.
This is because love invites
you and me to change and to be changed.
Paul writes in his famous 13th
chapter of 1st Corinthians: “love does not insist on its
own way, it is not irritable or resentful … love hopes all things, endures all
things.” (1 Corinthians 13:5-8a)
Love, then, invites us to
repent of our sins and welcome those how remind us not only of who we can be in
the future.
Those who love us – yes –
they push us forward to do our work, do our homework, go on interviews, get a
job and more.
However, those who love us
also remind us not only of who we can be but who we always have been, who we
are right now, and that we have been loved by God from the moment of creation
that we are always young, always renewed in the new heaven and the new earth. [__fin__]
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