“Love one another.” Every week in our worship, we say this phrase in one form or another. Read page 2 of our weekly bulletin and you will see that “love” is part of the vision, mission and values our congregation developed a couple of years ago. In our vision statement, we tell our community – and the world on our website! -- that we are a caring or loving congregation. In our mission statement, we say we strive to bring to life the teachings of Jesus Christ. The command to love one another is clearly one of Jesus’ fundamental teachings. We have just heard it in today’s Scripture reading of John 13. And in the list of our values, we include the words compassion, caring, respect and the word love itself.
Sometimes even saying the word “love” can be interesting. Perhaps you see yourself or a child you know in this conversation:
When she was three years old, a little girl had trouble pronouncing the letter “L.” Instead of saying Heather Lynn (which was her name), she would say Heather Yynn [replacing the L with a Y]. One day, she gave her mother a big hug and said, “I yove you, Mommy!”
Seeing a teachable moment to help her pronunciation, her mother replied: “I love you, too, Heather. But it’s ‘love’ not ‘yove.’ Do you understand?”
To which Heather proudly exclaimed, “Les!”Today Jesus’ call to love one another does not seem new to us. I don’t think the call to love another person is particularly new to many in our society or in other cultures either. For instance, in our Growth Task Force meeting, one person observed that many people this person associates with talked about not going to church because they feel they are already good people. And I suppose they would also include in their statement that they are as caring or loving toward others as anyone else. There are various books on the market today with titles such as Can We Be Good Without God? [Robert Buckman] – with the expected answer “Yes we can.” Or the book titled With or Without God by United Church minister Gretta Vosper – with the idea that compassionate living does not necessarily depend on believing in God. So, for many, the call to love one another does not depend on believing in God.
[Cathy Roberts & Heather Bennett, Christian Reader, “Kids of the Kingdom.”]
Actually, the commandment to love one another goes back centuries before even Jesus himself. It is an ancient commandment that goes back 3,000 years to the founding of the Hebrew community. Would you be surprised to know that the command “Love your neighbour as yourself” is found first in Leviticus 19:18? And Jesus himself certainly repeated those words again and again while he was physically on Earth. So what was it that made what he called “a new commandment” for his followers (and that includes us) so special and so memorable?
In John 13:34, did you notice the qualifying phrase Jesus added to the words “Love one another”? He told his followers very specifically they were to love one another as he had loved them. His way of loving was to be the new pattern of their love for each other – and also for us in 2010. In one of his sermons, the late Episcopalian minister, theologian and author Rev. Dr. John R. Claypool said:
“Here is one of those places where the famous imitation of Christ’s ideal got its origin, and it raises the seminal question: ‘Exactly how did this [Jesus], who became what we are so we could understand more fully who God is, actually and realistically love?’”Out of the many ways Jesus showed love to people, to the world, I will mention only three – but these are significant ways. Jesus’ love was sacrificial. Jesus’ love was forgiving. And Jesus’ love was full of grace.
First, Jesus’ love was sacrificial. Jesus gave of himself constantly to everyone he encountered. People would flock to hear him speak. They would throng to him because they believed he would heal them of their sicknesses and diseases. Even when he was tired and needed some rest, they still pursued him. But he would never neglect them even though he was weary. And he did find rest time because he knew he needed it. He found a place of relaxation in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and would try to spend as much time as he could with them whenever he was in the area.
Tim Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. In his bestselling book The Reason for God, Keller reflects on the meaning of Jesus’ love as sacrifice. He writes:
“In a real world of relationships, it is impossible to love people with a problem or a need without in some sense sharing or even changing places with them. All real life-changing love involves some form of this kind of exchange.”Keller then gave two examples of what he meant.
“Imagine you come into contact with a man who is innocent, but who is being hunted down by secret agents or by the government or by some other powerful group. He reaches out to you for help. If you don’t help him, he will probably die, but if you ally with him, you -- who were perfectly safe and secure -- will be in mortal danger. This is the stuff that movie plots are made of. Again, it’s him or you. He will experience increased safety and security through your involvement, but only because you are willing to enter into his insecurity and vulnerability.”Then Keller made a keen observation about parenting.
“Children come into the world in a condition of complete dependence. They cannot operate as self-sufficient, independent agents unless their parents give up much of their own independence and freedom for years. If you don’t allow your children to hinder your freedom in work and play at all, and if you only get to your children when it doesn’t inconvenience you, your children will grow up physically only. In all sorts of other ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, and over-dependent. The choice is clear. You can either sacrifice your freedom or theirs. It’s them or you. To love your child well, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into the dependency they have so eventually they can experience the freedom and independence you have.”Keller then said:
“All life-changing love toward people with serious needs is a substitutional sacrifice. If you become personally involved with them, in some way, their weaknesses flow toward you as your strengths flow toward them.”
[Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (Riverhead Books, 2008), pp. 201–202]
Essentially, that’s what Jesus’ sacrificial love is like. His love – God’s love – meant that he became personally involved in suffering the same violence, oppression, grief, weakness and pain that we human beings experience. And his love – God’s love – meant that he sacrificed his life on the cross for us, taking on himself the just punishment our sin deserved. Our love for one another – if we love as Jesus loves us – carries a similar sense of personal involvement and even suffering with one another.
Jesus’ way of loving also means forgiveness. Forgiveness is about loving in the midst of people betraying you. If we had read the entire chapter, we would have noticed a deeply troubled Jesus saying to his disciples, “I am telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me.” Forgiveness is about loving in the midst of people denying your very existence. Immediately after Jesus told his disciples to love one another, he told Peter that he would deny him – not once but three times – even though Peter vigourously protested he was prepared to die for Jesus. Remember, it was on another occasion that Jesus gave the mathematical equation for forgiving one another to Peter: “seventy times seven.” In other words, forgiveness is like the Energizer bunny: forgiveness keeps on forgiving and forgiving. Forgiveness is also about loving in the midst of negligence and unprovoked senseless personal suffering. Jesus obviously loved like that. But can we do that too?
In 2005, a news reporter once editorialized that “Forgiveness has power to change the future” [Jay Evensen, “Forgiveness has power to change future,” Desert Morning News (8-21-05)]. He wrote about Victoria Ruvolo, a 44-year-old collection agency manager, and 19-year-old Ryan Cushing. Ryan and his friends stole a credit card and then took off on a shopping spree.
They stole a 20-pound frozen turkey and threw it from their speeding vehicle headlong into the windshield of the car driven by Victoria Ruvolo. The result: she underwent surgery for six hours as metal plates and other pieces of hardware were fitted together in an effort to rebuild her face. The prosecutor made an intriguing comment: he noted that for crimes such as this one, victims often “feel no punishment is harsh enough.” In fact, “Death doesn’t even satisfy them.”
How did Victoria react to what had happened to her? She was primarily concerned with “salvaging the life of her 19-year-old assailant.” She did not seek revenge in any way. She sought information about the youth and how he was raised, insisting that he be offered a plea deal. He could plead guilty to second-degree assault, be put in the county jail for six months and placed on one year’s probation. He could have been sent to prison for 25 years, returning to society middle-aged with no job skills or prospects.
According to the news article, “This is only half the story. The rest of it, what happened the day this all played out in court, is the truly remarkable part.” The young man walked “carefully and tentatively” to where his victim was seated in the courtroom. With tears and in a whisper, he apologized: “I’m so sorry for what I did to you.” He and Victoria embraced, both weeping. She comforted him and said: “It’s OK. I just want you to make your life the best it can be.” It was reported that “hardened prosecutors, and even reporters, were choking back tears.”
The article concluded: “Slowly, humans seem to be learning to understand the power of forgiveness. As a healing agent, it appears to be stronger than any surgery, counselling or anger-management course.”It does appear in stories such as these that our love for one another can also be forgiving -- the way Jesus loved and forgave us.
And Jesus’ way of loving is also filled with grace. Here is a true story about a father (who happens to be a minister) and his children that illustrates grace. Pastor Bill White wrote:
“It was one of those evenings when everything goes wrong. The kids were cranky while I was making dinner, so I gave them some hot chocolate to tide them over. Timothy, who is five, decided to throw his marshmallows at his little sister, knocking her hot chocolate all over her. As she began screaming, the phone rang (and I foolishly answered it) and the doorbell rang (and I foolishly answered it -- with the phone on my ear and a screaming kid in the background). I then returned to the kitchen and hollered at Timothy, and promptly had two crying kids.
“As dinner began to burn and I deposited my daughter in the bath, I loudly announced that I was so angry I might do anything, so I declared I was putting myself in timeout. I closed the door, none too gently, and tried to get dinner to be the only thing simmering in the kitchen.
“Everything changed about ten minutes later when I caught sight of a yellow piece of construction paper sliding under the door. In the unsteady hand of a kindergartener was scrawled a message of grace that pierced my heart and turned me around: ‘From Timothy. To Dad. I still love you even when you’re angry.’”
[Bill White, Paramount, California]Grace – God’s grace – defies reason and logic. We live in a world in which more often than not, how we act toward someone else comes back to us like a boomerang: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But love or grace interrupts the consequences of our actions. As Bono of the rock group U2 said:
“[Love] doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”
[Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assaya, (Riverhead Books, 2005)]Sacrificial, forgiving and grace-filled love is the kind of love Jesus meant when he said “Love one another as I have loved you.” Is it possible for you and me as followers of Jesus to love in the same way Jesus did? It is possible when we are connected to Jesus like a branch is connected to a tree. Because the branch gets its very life from the oxygen and sap flowing through it by being attached – otherwise it would wither and die. It is possible to love as Jesus did when we obey his commands. And we can obey when we are connected to Jesus Christ in a relationship of love with him – like a branch is connected to a tree. It is possible to love as Jesus did because, as another Scripture states, “God loved us first.” [1 John]
In John 15:12, John recorded Jesus repeating his command to his followers to love one another: “My commandment is this: Love one another, just as I love you.” But then, in the very next verse, Jesus said, “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.” We might look at our friends and wonder: if the moment ever came, would we be willing to die for them?
The Rev. Joachim Alexandropoulos was an Orthodox priest on a Greek island during the Second World War. He is memorialized at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. One day, the Nazis came and demanded he provide them -- the next day -- with a list naming every Jewish person on the island. When the next day came, he handed them his list. It contained only one name -- his own. He loved his friends to the end.We might never be tested to such an ultimate limit of love. But even if we are not, we are still called to fulfil whatever works of love -- of sacrifice, forgiveness and grace -- that lie before us. And if we love one another in this way, then everyone will know that we are his disciples – serious followers of Jesus Christ.
May this be so for you and for me.
Rev. Chris Miller
OYM - Oriole-York Mills United Church,Toronto [website »]
May 2, 2010
Easter 5
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