"...if you have love for one another"

THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

April 24, 2016   Year C

The Rev. Dr. Jack Eastwood

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."

Two weeks ago Richard began his sermon on the theme of love in this way: It takes years and years to marry a man, years and years to marry a woman. Sometimes love comes easy, other times it’s damn hard. For most of us mortals, real, genuine love doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a matter of years, a matter of a lifetime. For many of us married folks, no matter how long we’ve been married, we’re always beginners.

I remember this not just because today’s lessons present us with the same theme, the commandment to love one another, but also because those words echoed in me on a deep level where I know that love is hard work, and indeed takes a lifetime.

With that said I want to offer this story. Bruce Larsen, a Presbyterian minister, tells the story of a young woman who joined his congregation in America having moved from Angola in West Africa. Her name was Maria, and Larsen says, "she was always laughing." She sparkled with her faith. Love leapt from her to others. One day she went to a meeting on evangelism that the presbytery was sponsoring. All kinds of pamphlets, mission strategies, campaigns, and statistics were distributed to the participants. Lots of furrowed brows put lots of brain power into figuring out the best way to get the unchurched churched.

At one point, toward the end of the day, someone turned to Maria and asked her what they did in her church in Angola to evangelize the unchurched. Knowing how rapidly Christianity had grown in her country, they were curious to know more of the African "methodology". Maria, slightly intimidated by the spotlight, stood up, and, after a moment's thought, said, "We don't give pamphlets to people or have missions. We just send one or two Christian families to live in a village. And when people see what Christians are like, then they want to be Christians themselves."

For me, this story poses a very important question. What is the special character of Christian love that can be so compelling or so attractive? What does it look like? How does it feel?

When we think about what Jesus said and the context in which he said it in today’s gospel ­ we know that his love for us was a sacrificial kind, and the love that we should have for each other, too, in some sense is also sacrificial. He tells us to lay down our lives for each other. And that is a great challenge. It seems an impossible command! But I'd like to wrestle with that this morning because I wonder if it is, after all, that impossible.

I remember being at an inter­faith conference on civil rights and hearing a rabbi tell this story about the meaning of love. He said, "One day the son of a rabbi came to his father and said, "My father, I love you." "Oh?" the old rabbi said and he said nothing more.

The next day the son came again to his father and he said more loudly, "My father, I love you." "Oh?" he said, and nothing more.

On the third day, the son came again to his father and said in the loudest voice, "I love you". "My son," the old rabbi began, "do you know what hurts me?" "No, I don't", the boy said quietly. "I am too young to know what hurts you." His father replied, "when you know what hurts me, then you will know how to love me."

The night was murky with darkness looming not only in Jesus’ life but also the lives of his disciples. Issues of status and power, envy and resentment, jealousy and fear filled the atmosphere. Chief among these barrier­-creating emotions was betrayal. Jesus was “troubled in spirit” the text says; “one of you will betray me.” They are set to wondering and asking who is this traitor? Here John, unlike the other gospel writers, presents us with an important picture about God and God’s table fellowship. Jesus responds to the question of identity by dipping bread into the dish in the middle of the table and giving it to Judas. Separation from God’s love will never come from God’s side.

The message of inclusion is given eternally, even under the threat of darkness and betrayal. Loving all in washing their feet, including all in table fellowship, Jesus is the beginning of what makes new the commandment of love. Jesus is glorified in his giving himself away. Love is glorified when it is given away. It is the new meaning of what is fair.

Yesterday I heard a mother, her name is Mary, tell her story of her son’s loving. Several weeks ago he went into a coma and was in the hospital. He had tried to commit suicide by hanging. He had struggled too much of his young life with alcohol and drugs. Mary and her family had gathered at the hospital to be with her son at his bedside during his final hours of life support. A nurse came into the room and asked Mary to step outside to speak to someone. Puzzled and distressed at being pulled away, Mary went to the hall. A representative of the organ donor program was waiting outside the room. She had come to inform Mary that her son had registered as an organ donor. Mary respected her son’s wishes. She now lives not only with the loss of her son in the way he died, but in the way he gave himself for others.

And so it is for folks like you and me, who gather around the Lord’s table, living with our Lord’s death in the way he died, and gives himself to us so that we may give ourselves to others. AMEN