Pastoral Update
for Sunday, May 2, 2024
Sixth Sunday of Easter
WORSHIP IS IN-PERSON AND LIVESTREAMED ON VIMEO
10:00 a.m. HST
Aloha, Keawalaʻi ‘ohana,
It's almost the end of the semester at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I teach "Philosophical Ethics" in the Department of Philosophy. I began my "so called career" (as I like to call it), as a philosophy professor, and have continued to teach a few classes each year as a way of staying in touch not only with one of the great passions of my life, but with this remarkable generation of young people, who continue to inspire and challenge me. Due to my move to Maui, my classes are completing the semester with me on Zoom.
This week, we discussed Aristotle's ideas about friendship, which happens to coincide with the gospel reading for this Sunday in church, found in John 15: 9-17 (see below).
Today in class I asked my students what they are learning from Aristotle. One student, who keeps hanging around after class, hungry to learn more about philosophy, shared these thoughts with the class (I share this with his permission):
"Aristotle hits a few points that resonate with me. First, his taxonomy of friendships makes it easier to understand the dynamics within the different types of friendships. Second, the role of virtue in genuine friendships and how friendships are based on mutual admiration and a shared commitment to moral greatness. We base/strengthen our relationships on the virtues of trust, honesty, and other virtuous qualities. Third, friendships should benefit both parties, and we see that a commitment to sacrificial altruism embodies itself in all healthy relationships. Fourth, we should spend time with those we wish to remain or become close with, as time together maintains and fosters our relationships. Fifth, the strongest friendships embody a shared pursuit of the truth, mutual respect, and intellectual exchange."
Another student in the class was more succinct:
"True friends challenge you to become a better person."
All week I have been thinking about John 15:15, when Jesus says: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”
I’m not sure what to make of this startling claim, that we are friends of Jesus, friends with God. My gut tells me that God has been a better friend to me than I have been to God.
The sermon this week has taken several twists and turns. Today, as I write this Pastoral Update, I’m still processing some profound insights from today’s “Zoom Room” Discussion. This group is growing—today we had 14 people in the room—and increasingly, they are helping me think about the lectionary texts and new possibilities for a sermon that (I hope) will be helpful to all of us as we all struggle to live faithfully in a faithless generation. I am also encouraged to see more folks join the Wednesday Zoom Room from “off island,” showing the reach of this church.
Finally, we are still living in the “afterglow” of an amazing day in church this past Sunday, when two young parents and their ‘ohana presented a little girl named Keawalai for baptism. Today in the Zoom Room I learned that Judi and Fred Pasco also have a three-year-old grandchild who bears the name of this church!
Come to church this Sunday. Expect a miracle.
Gary Percesepe
Here is the gospel text for this Sunday:
9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants[a] any longer, because the servant[b] does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 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.
Click to view: Sunday, May 5, 2024