2025.05.18 | Freedom to Love
“Freedom to Love”
John 13:33-35; Acts 11:1-18
Preached by
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
18 May 2025
Beloved it’s good to be with you this glorious Lord’s day. Won’t you join me in prayer?
Holy One, thank you for the radiant sun, and Your luminous son. Gracious God, open our hearts to the voice of your Spirit. Let Your Word speak not only to our ears but into the depth of our being and becoming. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“Little children,” Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “I am with you only a little longer, Where I am going, you cannot come.” These words feel especially poignant today, don’t they? Because today we will gather again in this sanctuary at 3pm with mixed emotions—joy and gratitude, tinged with sadness—as we mark the retirement of our beloved Senior Minister after 22 faithful years.
One of Jesus’ final petitions to his disciples before he left them was a new commandment: “That you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” At first, it may not sound that new. But listen closely: “As I have loved you.” Not just any love. Not just convenient or comfortable love. But a radical and inclusive love. The kind of love that washes feet, eats with outcasts, touches the unclean, and remains faithful to the end.
This is the love Jesus commands us to embody. And as we learn again each Maundy Thursday, it’s not a suggestion. It’s the defining mark of Christian community, that which sums up the way of Jesus: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Pastor Arlene embodies that love, and during her tenure helped this congregation, Eden Church, embody that love even fuller, loving neighbor in both word and deed. The seeds of that love have long since sprouted, and over the past two decades, many of us have been part of sapling ministries that have matured into towering groves. These ministries, however, have included many folk that did not look like those who made up this congregation in the last century.
Which brings us to Peter’s vision: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” The sheet that Peter sees descending from heaven is full of lechón, tacos de carnitas, all those yummy things that were deemed under Torah law unclean for consumption, because well that’s what those “yucky” Philistines ate back in the day.
In other words, God in a vision told Peter, don’t be yuking other people’s yum. God’s pretty emphatic about this, three times this happens with the voice booming, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” What’s more, the Spirit schools Peter even more, telling him to no longer make a distinction between them and us, that is the circumcised Jew and the uncircumcised Gentiles, for the Holy Spirit was already with “them,” the outsiders.
I’m sure there were many people within our own fold and outside that stated something similar to “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” “Why are you eating with all those brown people?” “Oh my Gah, they put chile on their ice cream,” or “they eat tripe tacos.” How ‘bout chitlins’ or pig’s feet tostadas?
The story of us and them and the fear of contamination is as palatable today as it was fifteen years ago, as it was 2,000 years ago. But this was the very essence of Jesus’ radical new way: mix and mingle, for we might just create the very best buffet.
And you know what, while we may no longer have the pews overflowing like we did in the ‘50s and will this afternoon, I’m willing to bet Eden’s potlucks have gotten more varied and more delicious over the years Pastor Arlene has been here.
God’s vision to Peter confirms a freedom to love not only members of your own community of origin, but all. Jesus’ “love one another as I have loved you,” while told to his disciples, belongs to us all who are walking the way.
En el Evangelio de Juan, Jesús dice: «Hijitos míos, ya no estaré con ustedes mucho tiempo. No podrán ir a donde yo voy.». Estas palabras son especialmente conmovedoras hoy, porque a las tres de la tarde vamos a reunir de nuevo para celebrar, con alegría y algo de tristeza, la jubilación de nuestra querida pastora principal, Pastora Arlene, tras 22 años de su servicio fiel.
Antes de su partida, Jesús dio un último mandato: «Ámense los unos a los otros. Como yo los he amado, también deben amarse los unos a los otros». No cualquier amor, sino un amor radical e inclusivo: el que lava los pies, acoge a los marginados, toca a los impuros y se mantiene fiel hasta el final. Este amor no es una sugerencia; es la marca del verdadero discipulado.
Pastora Arlene ha encarnado ese amor, ayudando a la Iglesia Edén a convertirse en una comunidad que no sólo predica el amor, sino que lo vive, dando la bienvenida a vecinos que no se ven, hablan ni comen como antes, a los inmigrantes.
La visión de Pedro nos recuerda: «Lo que Dios ha purificado, no lo llames profano». El Espíritu lo dejó claro: ya no hay línea entre ellos y nosotros. El amor de Dios incluye a quienes alguna vez podríamos haber considerado extranjeros.
Algunos aún susurran: «¿Por qué comes con ellos?». «¡Le ponen chile al helado!». Pero el miedo a la diferencia es antiguo, y precisamente es lo que Jesús vino a cambiar. Su camino nos invita a socializar y relacionarnos, y al hacerlo, a descubrir algo más rico. Seguramente los convivios de Edén se han vuelto más diversos y deliciosos en las últimas dos décadas del ministerio de la Pastora junto con las Compañeras. El llamado de Jesús a amarnos unos a otros no se limita a los primeros discípulos. Es también nuestro llamado. Y gracias al liderazgo de la pastora Arlene, es un llamado al que hemos respondido con gracia y valentía. La libertad de amar que ofrece Jesús no es un amor limitado por la tradición o el miedo, sino un amor que libera. Es un amor que abraza a los marginados, a aquellos cuyas historias, luchas e identidades no siempre encajan en el molde dominante. El amor de Jesús, el amor de Dios, es lo suficientemente grande como para albergarnos a todos. Así que en Cristo, tenemos la libertad de amar a todos.
Today also happens to be Mental Health Sunday as declared by the UCC Mental Health Network. This is a day that the United Church of Christ sets apart to affirm that all of who we are, including our minds and emotional well-being, is embraced by the love of God. So, when we are called to love as Christ loved us, this includes those often unnamed experiences which come to those who live with a mental illness, including generational trauma and grief. To love as Christ loved is to widen our hearts beyond their current capacity, but to also unlearn unhealthy habits and ways of thinking, including that Iron Age story of us and them. Shameless plug: Our Mentes Fuertes or Strong Minds program seeks to do just that, introducing liberating cognitive patterns in community. See Lupe or Yuliana for more information.
So, this is the freedom to love that Jesus offers: not a love constrained by tradition or fear, but a love that liberates. A love that embraces those on the margins—those whose stories, struggles, and identities don’t always fit the dominant mold. Jesus’ love, God’s love, is big enough to hold all of us, all of our identities, expressions, ethnicities, spectrums, continuums.
And here’s the kicker, Peter, as with Saul, wholly surrenders: “Who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” Sometimes, we might find ourselves screaming “yuck” at things God has called “yum.” Think about that. What or who might we be calling profane that God has claimed as clean, good, holy?
Faced with the awesomeness of God’s expansive love, those within Peter’s group became speechless and ultimately rightfully concluded, “So then, even to the outsiders God has granted repentance that leads to life.” May all “insiders” come to this pivotal and holy realization. And who knows we might like chile on our ice cream once you try it.
Friends, in a world full of gatekeeping and drawing lines, the Gospel is God’s relentless work of erasing them. Who are we to hinder love? Who are we to limit God’s grace? No matter what others say, be they bullies on the school yard or in the oval office. In Christ, we have the freedom to love all. Amen.