2119AFC050721 – You are here by choice
Read it online here, please. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Acts 10:34-35 – 34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Psalm 98:3b-4a – 3b All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4a Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
1 John 4:10-11 – 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
John 15:16-17 – 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
John 15:9 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Thank you for your kind messages regarding my stasis ulcer! We’re trying everything the good doctor knows to get it to heal. It’s been gradually growing since January, so – quite frankly – has our impatience. Also, I appreciate those of you who have gone to https://www.catholic365.com/ to read Renewed Again – Part 1 and Part 2. Mahalo nui loa!
This coming Sunday is the Sixth Sunday in Easter. The readings focus on the growth of the Church. It is growing because the leaders of The Way have been gifted with extraordinary courage, insight, and Power in the Holy Spirit. Peter – Cephas – is so greatly transformed one would hardly recognize him. The rough-hewn fisherman whose pride and confidence were completely reworked after Jesus’ resurrection now speaks to large crowds as if he has done it all his life. One might even say he has the same sort of crowd-pleasing pull his Master, Jesus, had. Young John, “the Belovéd Disciple” is right there with Peter and some of the others as they stare down their fear and boldly do what they have been trained to do – spread the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. They all know that at any moment the Romans or the Jewish leaders or both could come down on them with deadly force. They kept testifying anyway – and ʻŌmea, you remember what “testify” means; you know its root is the same as the root for our word martyr. They know death is just one sly betrayal behind them. How did they find that strength?
1 John 4:10-11 – 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. They remembered HIS love (↔ Music Link), and that was enough. Every Disciple suffered martyrdom; pious tradition has it the Belovéd Disciple John survived his death penalty (some sources attest he was plunged alive into boiling oil, but survived that martyrdom) and was banished to the Isle of Patmos. Further traditions (non-biblical) place him later in Ephesus where he died around the close of the first century AD. It was Love that kept them together. How could they be so fearless?! Here is what John said about that in 1 John 4:18-19 – 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again.
Does that make us special? Of course it does! No one would claim that being Loved by God is not extraordinary. God Loves everybody, right? So why doesn’t everybody love God? Why are there so many hateful haters in the World? Did God really pick just a few people to be saved? I’m going to give you a link to part of Peter’s speech at Solomon’s Portico and quote just a small section of it. I really want you to follow the link and see the quoted passage in the context of Acts 2:22-24. Here is what I want you to weigh in your own mind: 3 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says in §600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.396 Now, let’s compare that with what Peter said to the
New Testament 3 Production Still Photography
Centurion, Cornelius: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Let’s try the old, “phrase by phrase, precept by precept” approach on that.
First he says God shows no partiality. No partiality in what? Did he not choose Israel to be his nation, “a particular people,” and set them aside as his sanctified friends and servants? Yes, he did that and we know that the purpose for that election was to provide for the installation of a Messiah who would reverse the curse of sin and death. Every living soul has access to that reversal, which is why Peter says, “but in every nation.” Peter now understands that souls outside the Chosen are also beneficiaries of the salvific Grace in Jesus’ Gospel, Life, death, and resurrection. It is not just Jews who are chosen by God; it is anyone from any nation.
Next he says “anyone who fears him and does what is right.” Ahhh, there’s a familiar concept – Do The Right Thing. (↔ Click Link) Now most readers will know that in this context “fear” doesn’t mean frightened; it means reverence – to show God respect, admiration, awe; to worship, to venerate, to trust and obey. And Belovéd, why would we do all those things? We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. It’s a LOVE thing (↔ Click Link).
Lastly he says is acceptable to him. Altogether, then, God has decreed there is no partiality, no exclusivity, not a speck of prejudicial treatment when it comes to Salvation. It’s ours for free if we take it, it’s ours if we honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, it’s ours whenever we Love. Think about that for a moment. I’ve often asked in these pages, “Why would you want anything less?” (↔ Click Link) How would you feel (how should you feel) if anything and everything you did that was wrong simply disappeared? See if this comes close: 3b All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4a Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. These days, it seems to be acceptable form that instead of applause, a crowd gives up raucous screams, whistlings, and fist pumps. That’s kinda like grabbing every musical instrument you can find and playing them all at once while shouting and dancing and singing and just celebrating until we fall over – the ultimate happy dance! And not just us, but all the earth rejoices as well. That would be celebrating something we should recognize by now – We love [him] because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. How do we deserve to be so blessed that we can go back to him!?!? (↔ Music Link)
Ready for a bit of a curveball? Here we go:
16 You did not choose me but I chose you. You see, that’s what I mean when I say, “You are here by choice.” God has chosen me, (↔ Music Link) chosen you, chosen us as the recipients of the Perfect Gift of Love. Why is it a Perfect Gift? Because no matter how much of that Love we give away, there is always more than we can give because he first loved us. He Loves us. We Love him. We Love each other. He Loves us again. You get it now, right? What is the point? Like me, perhaps sometimes you turn tearfully to God and say, “Why have you chosen me? (↔ GREAT Music Link) Q: What did we do to deserve this? A: Nothing, for there is nothing we can do to deserve that perfect Integrity, endless Mercy, and eternal Salvation. How then did he choose us? And what does he mean when he says, “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last“? The word here for “appointed” is ethēka meaning planned or ordained. In this context, Jesus is saying, “My plan has always been for you to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. It is the Work of my Father which I now pass on to you so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” That is the choice he made – the choice to make us his own. Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift. The Gift is the very paragon of one-sided Love.
“Huh? How can that be – One-sided love? But what about that we-Love-each-other thing?” An Illustration: Do you love your Dad, or your Mom? Is there a sibling you love? Is there a spouse you love? If you stopped loving that extraordinary person in your life, WOULD THEY STILL LOVE YOU? I can tell you this – my Mom and I didn’t always get along really well. We had many tense moments before I went out to the World. But, I always knew, no matter what, my Mom loves me (yes, present tense). That’s one-sided love. It becomes two-sided love when we give someone our one-sided love – completely given with nothing held back. When we give that sort of love to Someone who gives us Love, Perfect, Endless, Selfless Love, we are chosen in HIM to bear much fruit, and to receive the gifts from the Father because the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
Why would we ever want anything less? John 15:9 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Now we know: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He chose us to receive the atonement from that sacrifice. We are here by choice – his choice.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
