The Christian Agenda

Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

I saw a new heavens and a new earth, says John the Revelator, and the one sitting on the throne said: “Look, I am making all things new!”

I know some of you have been up to D.C. to see the Kennedy Center performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It’s not exactly a new telling of the story of Jesus, it’s already more than 50 years old now. If you haven’t seen it, one of the main questions (if not the main one) explored in the play is: Why did Judas do it? The gospels don’t actually tell us why Judas betrayed Jesus. They are clear that what Judas did was bad, but there’s no attempt to get inside his head and figure out why he did it.

But in the gospels Judas does ask a lot of questions, and Judas is always asking why. We had one a few weeks ago – when Mary of Bethany anoints the feet of Jesus, Judas asks, “Why wasn’t this sold and the money given to the poor?” Judas knows something about Jesus, Jesus cares about the poor. Judas knows something true about Jesus. But Judas couldn’t figure out how what Jesus was doing fit into his partial understanding of what Jesus was supposed to be about.

In other words, Judas had an agenda. He was interested in Jesus if Jesus acted in accordance with his agenda, but if Jesus went off and did something else, something new, something Judas didn’t expect, Judas was confused. Judas wanted to know why. Judas didn’t trust anything Jesus did that didn’t fit in his agenda. What exactly that agenda was we don’t know – artists have tried to guess, and you can decide if “Jesus Christ Superstar” is persuasive or not. But whatever his agenda was, it came before Jesus, and that was a problem.

In our first reading today from Acts, Peter is in trouble. He’s like the pastor who has done something controversial and has been called in before the Council who wants to know: Why did you do this? What Peter has done is go to non-Jewish people, to baptize them – which is bad enough – but even worse, to stay in their house for a few days. Which meant eating their unkosher food, living in their unkosher house, sharing life with unkosher people.

The community in Jerusalem does not understand why Peter would do such a thing. They know the Biblical rules on kosher; they have been brought up to believe that faithfulness to God means following the rules and living as a distinctive people who don’t compromise the rules. They know the people once went into exile when they didn’t follow the Law and so they hope that by following the Law as completely as possible they would make the Kingdom of God a reality. They had a clear idea, they thought, of what God wanted them to do – and they didn’t understand why Peter would hang out with people who didn’t follow the Law.

And notice what Peter doesn’t say in his defense. He doesn’t say, Look, if you want this church to grow, we need to stop requiring that people get circumcised and give up bacon before they can join. Trust me, it’s a real turn-off. And Peter doesn’t say, I had a vision, Jesus left me in charge, do what I say. Peter doesn’t make a practical argument. Peter doesn’t make an argument from his authority. Peter doesn’t even make a theological argument. Instead, Peter tells his story.

Look, Peter says, this wasn’t my idea. I had the same hesitations that you do. But I saw what God was doing, and when I saw the Holy Spirit descend on them exactly as it descended on us at Pentecost, I remembered what Jesus said: I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptized them in the Holy Spirit. And I thought to myself, Who am I to get in God’s way? Who am I to impose my agenda on God? Who am I to put limits on what God can do? Or as a modern pope might say, Who am I to judge?

Peter does not impose his agenda on God, and Peter invites the community at Jerusalem also not to impose their agenda. Their reaction to Peter’s story, as recorded by Acts, is first silence. Then praise. That God is making things new. Their view is still fairly condescending – Wow, so God is even letting those people repent, wow! But even though they don’t really understand, even though maybe they’re not completely convinced, they can at least see that there’s something more important than their agenda going in here. And they’re willing to step aside and let God do what God wills to do.

Our gospel passage today tells the story of the Last Supper, beginning at the moment that Judas gets up from the table and leaves. When Judas takes his agenda, whatever it is, and goes off to do what he’s going to do. And as the door closes behind Judas, Jesus says, Now the moment of God’s glory has come. Now I am going to go somewhere that you cannot come, but I leave you here with a commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. Not necessarily as you would like to love, not even as you imagine others want to be loved, but the way you have been loved – unconditionally, and to the end.

And then Peter says, hey, why can’t I go with you? I’ll go anywhere with you. I’ll die for you. Jesus gently tells Peter no. No, you won’t die for me. And when the events of that evening go differently from what Peter expected, his willingness to follow Jesus into something new and different suddenly fell away. Peter hasn’t learned yet how to let go of his agenda – that doesn’t happen until after Easter.

We also have our agendas. We also have things we expect God to do for us, things that we want God to do for us, and things we’d rather God leave alone. We want the church to be just like it was in the good old days, whether that was when we were children, or in the first century, or in Luther’s time, or whatever. We want God to help us achieve our objectives and our hopes and dreams and don’t want God to call any of our dreams into question. We want to love the people that we are comfortable loving, the people who deserve our love and concern, the people who will love us back, to love according to our agenda and not God’s. We want to make people act the way we imagine God wants them to behave. Like Peter at the Last Supper – and maybe even, if “Jesus Christ Superstar” is to be believed, like Judas – we think our agenda is God’s will, and we are willing to do heroic deeds to carry it out.

And then Jesus up and goes somewhere without us, somewhere that we cannot go. Jesus up and goes to follow Judas, to go into death as Judas did, to go to the place of the dead to rescue the undeserving and those no longer able to save themselves. And Jesus returns with wounded hands, but not with empty hands – he goes to death alone, but he does not return from death alone. He comes back bringing all the dead to life. And the one seated on the throne said, Look, I am making all things new.

Peter had to learn, painfully, that God’s agenda is bigger than his. That God’s agenda is nothing less than a new heaven and a new earth, where every tear will be wiped away, where death will be no more and the former things – the things we invested so much of our agendas in preserving or accomplishing – have given way to God’s new way of love.  And when Peter let go of his agenda and got out of the way, the Holy Spirit showed him a more expansive vision of love than Peter could ever have come up with on his own. Peter finds fellowship with people he could not have imagined himself befriending.

May we also learn to set aside our own agendas, and discover that in opening ourselves to the commandment to love as we have been loved, however and wherever God calls us, whether it fits our agenda or not – and discover that in doing so, we will not be alone either. Instead, may we find God in the new community that God is creating, whatever that looks like, however that comes.