Sunday
04/24/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Love each other”
New Testament
Scripture: Psalm 148
New Testament
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6
Gospel Lesson:
John 13:31-35
My friends, my brothers and sisters, welcome on this the Fifth
Sunday of this season of Easter. This season of resurrection, this season of
new life. This season were we proclaim, He is risen! He is risen indeed! We
will remain in this season of Easter for two more Sundays, until we reach the
holiday of Pentecost on May 15th.
This Sunday though, I want to talk about love. For many of
us, love is an idea. For many of us, love is an emotion. For some of us, love
is how we live our lives. For many of us, love is also something that we may
discuss every day. Perhaps you tell your husband, your wife, your children, or
others that you “love them”. In addition to this, many of us see or hear about
love all over the place. We are often told in many places that we are to love
and to care for each other. Some of us have heard songs with lyrics like “All
you need is love”. Every year on Valentine’s Day, we are inundated with
chocolate hearts, cupid, and all of these other signs of love. The word love is
truly presented all over the place.
The
concept of love is also listed throughout the Bible. For example, one of the
most famous Biblical scriptures on love is from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. This
scripture says,
“Love is
patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it
does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:4-8,
NRSV). This scripture from 1 Corinthians is often read at weddings to emphasize
the importance and the significance of the love shared in a marriage. When I
read this scripture, I read that love is much more than just an emotion.
Instead, love is how we live sacrificially for others.
The
gospel reading that we are given for this morning from the gospel of John, also
talks about love. In this gospel reading Jesus says to his disciples, “I give
you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must
love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when
you love each other” (Jn. 13:34-35, CEB). When I read this scripture at first
glance, it seems pretty straight forward. As I read this scripture again and
again though, I think that this scripture has much more depth than might
originally meet the eye. So Jesus tells us to “love each other”. As I continued
to read this scripture over and over, I wondered what did Jesus specifically
mean by “love each other”? Did Jesus mean emotions, actions, certain
obligations, or something else?
Further,
if Christianity is the biggest religion in the world, comprising about one-third
of the world, why do we still have wars? Why do we still have suffering? Why do we still have unkindness and hatred? I
mean, we see all around us, the idea of love. If the world still has so many
examples of a lack of love, did we all just miss the memo? Did we skip over
this scripture? Or maybe, just maybe, I wonder if many Christians over the past
two-thousand years didn’t look at how deep that this scripture might be.
As
I said, Jesus’ instructions in this scripture seem pretty straight at first
glance, but on a deeper level, what did Jesus mean when he challenged us to “love
each other”? For me, I believe that Jesus was challenging his disciples and us
to do much more than just have the emotion of love. I believe that Jesus was
asking his disciples and us to live out our love with each other every day.
While
I believe that salvation through Jesus Christ is a free gift that we are
offered through the repentance of our sins, what do we do with that saving love
from Jesus Christ? If we are to really and fully love each other, I believe
that we must often go beyond just the feeling or the emotion of love, to actions,
behaviors, and what we do in general.
In
the Book of James it says, “What good is it, my
brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have
works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace;
keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs,
what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
(Ja. 2:14-17, NRSV).
So
this morning, Jesus Christ, the savior tells his disciples to “love each other,”
and that through this love, the world will know that they are followers of
Jesus. I believe then that the challenge for Christians, and the challenge that
has existed from day one, is how we extend love to each other.
We
may say that we believe in Jesus Christ, and that we believe that we have
salvation through him. If the love of God, if the saving grace of Jesus Christ,
and if the power of the Holy Spirit is really that great, then how could we
possibly just have love in our hearts, and not have it in all other ways?
One
of the things that has historically been so powerful about the Christian
Church, is that when we do this thing called loving each other well, the church
flourishes. When we love and take care of each other, the church is fulfilling
an important part of its mission. Christians are called to love all people
then, and beyond just the emotion. Christians are called to care for all
people, and show love in a variety of ways.
I
really think that so many people in this world today are tired of hearing
promises, tired or hearing and seeing love in word only. I believe that people
are hungry and thirsty for real love and real relationships. When the church
operates like a loving family, then we are truly “loving each other”. This is
the kind of love that I believe that Jesus spoke of this morning.
When
this gospel reading for this morning begins, Jesus tells his disciples “Now the
Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has
been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify
him at once” (Jn. 13:31-33, NSRV). Jesus is explaining his ministry, why he
came, and what he has and will accomplish.
Jesus
then says, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look
for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you
cannot come’ (Jn. 13:33, NRSV).
Jesus
then tells his disciples that he is asking them to love each other, the way
that he has love them. The same Jesus who fed the poor, healed the sick, and
washed the feet of his disciples. I believe that Jesus Christ this morning is
asking his disciples and us to love all people like that. I also believe that
when we do that, people who see who Jesus Christ is. When people see the love
of Jesus Christ working in us and through us, they then will likely have a desire
to have Jesus in their own lives. In order for the church to grow, and to have
a vibrant future, we must, we have to “love each other”. If we don’t do this,
then what makes the church different from the rest of the world? The church needs
to be a place of love, caring, and kindness, as the song says, “They will know
we are Christians by our love”. You see, I believe that the Christian Church
should change the culture, that the culture should not change the Christian
Church.
To
better illustrate what I believe that Jesus Christ meant this morning when he
said “love each other,” I want to read to you something that I read. This
writing with stories is called “The Power
of Love and the Rise of Christianity”. This writing with stories comes from
Henry Chadwick, The Pelican History of The
Early Church and
Rodney Stark, the Triumph of Christianity. Here is what I read:
“Many historians believe that central to the rise of
Christianity was the simple fact that Christians generously loved each other
and their neighbours. They point out that in the ancient world mercy was widely
seen as a character defect that ran counter to justice. Justice demanded people
get what they deserved and was seen as appropriate, where mercy extended grace,
love, and kindness to people who had done nothing to deserve it. Yet the
Christians valued mercy. Christian communities became places where people
tended to live longer and healthier lives, for when they suffered sickness,
poverty or mishap they had brothers and sisters in Christ who provided for
their need. And Christians extended love way beyond the boundaries of family
and congregation to their pagan neighbours.”
“In
251 A.D. for example, a great plague struck the Greco-Roman world. Memories
were revived of a plague a century earlier in which more than a third of the
population died. Fear was everywhere. Those who could afford it fled to the
countryside. Those who could not remained in the cities. When they went to the
temples they found them empty, the priests having fled. The streets were filled
with those who had become infected, their families left with no option but to
push them out the door. Christian communities however took an entirely
different approach. They saw it as their responsibility to love the sick and
dying, so they took them into their homes and nursed them. This action meant
that many people recovered who otherwise would have died. Historians suggest
that elementary nursing could have reduced the mortality rate by as much as two
thirds, but it also cost a number of Christian carers their lives.”
“In The Early Church, Henry Chadwick comments: The
practical application of charity was probably the most potent single cause of
Christian success. The pagan comment ‘see how these Christians love one
another’ (reported by Tertullian) was not irony. Christian charity expressed
itself in care for the poor, for widows and orphans, in visits to brethren in
prison or condemned to the living death of labour in the mines, and social
action in time of calamity like famine, earthquake, pestilence, or war.”
“So
striking was the Christian commitment to generous love that when the fourth
century Emperor Julian sought to restore paganism to the Empire he instructed
the pagan priesthood to follow the example of the Christians: Why do we think
that this is enough, why do we not observe that it is their [Christians]
benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the
pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism
[Julian’s word for Christianity]? I believe that we ought really and truly to
practise every one of these virtues… For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew
ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but
ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”
My
sisters and brothers, I believe that when Jesus told his disciples and us this
morning to “love each other,” that he was talking about the kind of love that I
just shared. Historically when Christian Church has lived this kind of love,
the Christian Church has been strong, growing, and changing the world. May we
embrace and live the love that Jesus Christ commanded us to live this day and
every day. Amen.
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