Hinder or Help?
Easter 5C
Acts 11:1-18; John 13:31-35
5/2/10
Lorraine Ljunggren

        There's a question I remember hearing as I was growing up: “Well, are you going to be a help or a hindrance?” Being a help seemed easy enough because I understood something of what the word meant. I helped around the house, I helped friends, and others helped me. But what did the adults around me mean when they asked if someone was going to be a 'hindrance?' I found out that 'hindrance' is from the verb 'to hinder.' A rather funny sounding word on its own. Here are some of the words which can be used to explain or define 'to hinder': obstacle, block, impediment, get in the way, slow progress, limit, forbid, check, hold back, barricade, restraint, disfavor, disadvantage, stop.

        Think about these images as we re-read a question Peter asks in today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles: “Who was I that I could hinder God?”

        Let's put ourselves into that question: Who are we that we could block God? Who are we that we could get in the way of God? Who are we that we could forbid God?! Who are we that we could disfavor or put at a disadvantage God? Who are we that we could hold back, restrain, stop God?

        Puts some additional oomph into Peter's question, doesn't it?

        Peter asks the question, “Who was I that I could hinder God?” after he has a vision in which God tells Peter he must not name as profane that which God makes, including foods traditionally prohibited by Jewish law. This is pretty outrageous to Peter because, even with his lack of understanding so many times about who Jesus is, Peter has followed his tradition. The question Peter asks also comes after he and six others go to Caesarea to visit with a Gentile who saw an angel in his house who told him to have Peter come to them. Once Peter and his companions arrive, the Holy Spirit comes upon those Gentiles gathered together just as the Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus at what we call the Feast of Pentecost.

        This is an astonishing chain of events. It brings to mind the disciples' memory of John saying he baptized with water, but those who came after would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Well, the skeptics in Jerusalem to whom Peter relates these things end up praising God and saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to eternal life.” (Acts 11:18) It is as if they are asking, “Who are we that we would hinder God?”
        Add to this the reading from today's Gospel in which Jesus, after washing the disciples' feet, says to his followers, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:34-35)

        Jesus gives a clear command to love as he loves – not just in a casual, whenever we feel like it sort of love, but in the committed, compassionate, and expansive love Jesus has for us, which happens also to be the way in which Jesus loves the creation and the Creator. Peter shares a clear message following his vision and his journey to Caesarea that the community of God's people is to be open to all and that we, along with him, are not to hinder God – not to block God or stop God from being in relationship with any of God's people. Nor are we to hinder our own relationships with others of God's people.

        So, how on earth, however we may read it individually – how as people of faith can we read a law the State of Arizona has passed which has the potential to drive a further wedge between people of one color and another?! A law which has the potential to wreak havoc on the poorest of the poor? Let's face it, aside from true Native Americans, we are all immigrants! Why is it that we so quickly forget that? Why is it that we are so ready to build walls between ourselves and those who may – may mind you – be recent newcomers to the United States? I believe there are dangerous attitudes and actions coming into the light of day – attitudes and actions which I truly believe threaten the liberties to which our nation aspires. I find it difficult to find love in the anti-immigrant law of Arizona. I find only the ramping up of fear which has been an on-going focus of many a political act since 9/11. How beyond sad that we are become a nation identified by fear instead of by love.

        Though, I will admit, it isn't as if we've ever been great at living into the liberties to which we aspire. There was slavery and the Civil War; there were Japanese interment camps in the World War; there was Jim Crow in the South. I'm not naïve – though sometimes I feel as though I am because I question such actions as those. What if we ask ourselves, “Could it be that God has given even to recent immigrants the repentance that leads to eternal life?” In light of that, what if we remain silent? Could it be that our silence is a hindrance rather than a help?

        And, then, there are challenges we face in the care of the earth. There is an oil slick poisoning the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and killing marine life along the coast. Yet I'll bet we will continue to dig more oil wells and build more offshore platforms to sustain our dependence on fossil fuels. Think, too, of the families grieving the deaths of their loved ones – miners who died in a coal mine cited over and over again for safety violations. Then, what of the families whose lives are threatened by the valleys in Appalachia filled with slurry which is a by-product of mountaintop, or should I say mountain-destroying coal mining? Who are we to hinder the care of God's created order? Could it be that God has given to us the will to repent of our abuse of this planet? Could it be that as people of faith we are to insist on alternative forms of energy – energy given to us from the sun and the wind? If we remain silent, are we a hindrance to God?

        I've watched the barons of Wall Street, many of whose greed and dishonesty have destroyed countless lives in the financial meltdown still being felt around our globe, and ask myself how can they sit straight-faced in hearings and act as if they are innocent of any wrong-doing? Repent? If there is repentance, where will the money come from for the next mansion or the next designer suit or the next $5,000 dinner? If only they would ask themselves, 'Who are we to put at a disadvantage the most vulnerable of God's people? Who are we to think we deserve immense wealth at the expense of others?' And if we remain silent on the sidelines, are we a hindrance to God?

        Then, here we are gathered only a day-plus away from the May primary in North Carolina. When we go to the polls to vote for whatever party's candidates we support, will we take Jesus' command to love one another into the booth with us? Will we take into account the expansive nature of the Gospel? Will issues of justice and equality – two of the issues for which Jesus gives his life – be front and center as we make our decisions?

        In all aspects of our lives, are we going to be a help or a hindrance? Will we take the words of the hymn we sang before the Gospel with us into every day of our lives? Will we teach the spirit of the Gospel and the inclusive spirit of this hymn to our children and youth and share it with those who are new among us?
Whether the topic is immigration reform, environmental reform, economic reform, or equality at the local level, will we love and serve each day of our lives as Christ loves and serves? I pray we will, for...
        “In Christ there is no East or West, in [Christ] no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth. Join hands disciples of the faith, what e'er your race may be! Who serves [our God] as [God's own] child is surely kin to [us.] In Christ now meet both East and West, in [Christ] meet South and North, all Christly souls are one in [Christ,] throughout the whole wide earth.” (The Hymnal 1982, # 529) Amen.

©2010 Lorraine Ljunggren