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Sunday, May 28, 2006

Easter 6 5/21/06 Text: John 15:9-17 Title: Friends

Easter 6
5/21/2006
Text: John 15:9-17
Title: Friends

Grace, mercy and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s Gospel reading is about love. Not just any kind of love, but a type of love that is almost impossible for us to grasp. In fact I am going to go out on a limb and say it is impossible for us to completely understand the love Jesus is talking about, for our understanding of love is corrupted by our sinfulness.
Jesus tells his disciples and us through his Word, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
In those two verses Jesus is saying something that he had never said before to his disciples. He is calling them friends and not servants. I am sure that that probably caused some excitement because I would wager they never thought of themselves as being friends of Jesus. After all they were his support staff as they helped him in his preaching and healing ministry. Jesus in those few words is telling them, and us, that those who follow him have entered into a new relationship with him, a relationship of love that is like no other love they have ever known.
Now I am not sure whether they really got it our not, but in his explanation of the kind of love he has for them, he is telling them why he is going to die.
His death is to be the proof of the love that he has for them, and us, his friends. But he doesn’t stop there, for he tells them and all who call themselves followers of Jesus, that they are to have that same kind of love for others. In other words we are to not only love each other, that could be a whole sermon by itself, but also love those who dislike us, those that society considers unlovable, those who disagree with us, those who might wish we didn’t exist. He knows how hard it is for us to love others, unless of course we are getting something back for our love, and so he is giving us a special command to love each other.
That reminds me of an old preacher story that I heard many years ago. There was a new preacher at this particular church. It was his first Sunday and he preached a pretty good sermon on loving each other. The next week, a few people noticed that his sermon he was giving sounded an awful lot like last week’s sermon. The next week, several more people noticed that that week’s sermon seemed to be similar to the sermon of the last two weeks.
The next Sunday by the time the pastor had finished his sermon, almost everyone was in agreement that he had been preaching the same sermon for four weeks.
They were pretty upset, for they didn’t pay him to preach the same sermon each week. They wanted their money’s worth so they sent the head elder to talk to him.
The pastor’s response to their complaint was, “I am going to keep on giving it until you live your life the way God wants you to.” Just as he preached that same sermon on love each week, we too need Jesus’ constant reminder that we are to love each other.
I almost choose not to preach on this text, for no matter how many times I have heard Jesus’ words in verse 12 they are like a kick to the stomach, at least it is to me, for I know how many times I have failed in following his command to “Love each other as I have loved you.”
But if we take God’s inspired Word seriously we need to understand what he means when he tells us to “Love each other as I have loved you.” It is a puzzling statement for two reasons. The first being, how can a person be told to love another, especially if you don’t like them? The second reason that it is puzzling is because in our lives, love is usually considered something expendable, insubstantial, disposable, and yes, even recreational.
Oh, we take it seriously when that new baby is born or when somebody is getting married. We love our kids and sometimes even the kids of others, but as far as other adults are concerned, especially if we know them, or don’t like them, or disagree with them, love really doesn’t even enter the picture.
That is the way we feel, but Jesus is insisting that if we are going to call ourselves followers of his, and take his other commands seriously like, “Thou shall not murder,” or “Thou shall not commit adultery.” Then we must also take seriously his command to, “Love each other, as I have loved you.”
Does that bother you as badly as it bothers me? Because, I have to tell you, I know from experience that to love as Christ would have me love is harder than any of his other commands. Keeping God’s command to love is hard. It is hard because the temptations to not love are great, and the penalties for not loving are, for the most part, pretty light, almost non-existent.
Loving your neighbor, who really cares? The government doesn’t care. The courts don’t care. The news-media doesn’t care. Even the lawyers who advertise on TV don’t care. Your neighbors probably don’t even care. And unfortunately some who call themselves Christians don’t care either.
Besides that, how can you be commanded to love someone? That is going to go over big. It can’t be done so why is it that Jesus is giving us the command to love each other as he has loved us? As complicated as it might sound there really is a pretty simple reason behind Jesus’ command to love each other. It is the only way those who are not followers of Jesus will know of his love.
Oh you can preach it, you can teach it, you can read it, but if you don’t live it, those outside the faith find no meaning in God’s love. I have lost track of the times non-Christians have told me they see no reason to accept Jesus as their Savior, for it has not made any difference in lives of those Christians that they know.
Oh, I always have an answer for them, as I usually say, “That might be true, but can you imagine what they would be like if they didn’t belong to a church. I would rather not have to say that, but statistics show that there really is not much difference between how Christians and non-Christians live their lives.
I know, I know, it is really hard, and sometimes downright impossible to love some people. Jesus can love like he wants us to, but after all, Jesus is Jesus! He is God, so it easy for him to say “Love each other as I have loved you.”
Things are different now. I bet nobody ever cut Jesus off when He was trying to change lanes on Hardy Street during rush hour. Or charged him a late fee because the postal service took too long to deliver the mail.
I bet Jesus never had to put up with a store clerk that was more interested in talking to their friend on a phone than wait on him.
I know Jesus never had to put up with somebody talking on their cell phone during a movie that you paid good money for. Nope it was a different world back then, much easier to love people.
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but Jesus command still stands today as he tells us, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Friends: Does that mean that we are not friends of Jesus if we don’t do what he tells us to do? It kind of sounds like it doesn’t it?
The love that Christ showed toward us is the type of love that we are to show to others and that includes those people who cut us off in traffic, the kid screaming in the next booth over at your favorite restaurant, the officer who caught you speeding, and yes even those who don’t agree with our understanding of God’s Word.
You say, “You can’t love everyone.” Well join the crowd, for you are right. You cannot love everyone. You can’t truly love anyone. That is you can’t do it without Jesus’ help. Living in his love, you are able to love. You will fail at times, but because of Jesus’ love, you are okay, for out of his love he has made it possible for God to forgive you, to love you in spite of your failures.
It is hard to love, but absolutely necessary, for when you look through the Book of Acts you see that Christians make their greatest strides for God’s Kingdom when we overcome our willingness to condemn, and our desire to get back at those who have harmed us.
Jesus got it right; we must love, for as the hymn goes, they will know we are Christians, not by our condemnation, not by our might, not by our savvy; they will know we are Christians by our love. Amen

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