May 2, 2010

 

Scripture:         John 13:31-35

 

Sermon:           “It’s In You”

 

            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Gospel According to John, chapter 13 where we will read together verses 31 through 35.  You can find that easily on page 145 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            The words we are about to read begin like this:  “When he had gone out…”  When he had gone out.  Who?  When who had gone out?  When who had gone out of where?

            It’s an important thing to get straight, who had gone out at the beginning of this, because it sets the stage for what Jesus said next.  Read a little bit before this, and John’s gospel is telling the part of the story where Jesus had gathered with his disciples in an upper room.  It’s the last supper.  Jesus gathered with his followers for one final meal together.  This would be his final night.

            One of his disciples, some would say a man very close to Jesus, betrayed Jesus to the authorities who were looking to arrest him, hand him over, and have him killed.  Who had gone out?  It was Judas Iscariot, the disciple that betrayed Jesus for a small amount of money.  Judas received a piece of bread from Jesus on that night and then went and did quickly what he was planning to do.

            When he had gone out, the Bible says, is when Jesus began to speak.  So, you might imagine that what follows is part of Jesus’ last words to those that followed him.  Judas left the room and Jesus began to get things clear in his disciples’ minds.

            Have you ever heard the last words of a dying man?  They’re very important, you know.  What is it that I could say at this moment to convey my deepest wishes for when I am gone?  What do I tell my friends and loved ones?

            This is the word of the Lord…

 

            When he had gone out, Jesus said, “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.  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.’  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

            Dying words.  Last words.  Final instructions.  And what did he say?  What did Jesus say that night that was so very important to get off his chest?

            Have you ever heard the words of a dying man?

            It’s a rather gloomy beginning to things, wouldn’t you say?  But, I’ve heard words like that.

            The phone rang late one night with the news that there had been a terrible accident out on the road to Lexington.  I hated that road.  Two lanes with folks driving over hills and around corners just as fast as they could.  And this night one of those cars crossed the yellow line directly into the path of a car driven by a woman in my church.  I was on my way to the emergency room to respond to a family that was about to lose a beloved member of the family.  There wasn’t much hope as her old body had been beaten up and broken pretty badly.

            I even had to drive down that same road to get there.  And it was blocked off with flashing lights and police officers.  I rolled down my window and told the officer directing traffic that I was the pastor of the woman who’d been in that car.  He said, “I’m going to let you through here, but you better hurry on over to the hospital.”

            The whole family was arriving and filling up the waiting room.  I didn’t even know where to start.  They were in shock.  So, I just told them I’d go back and see her and be back to talk with them afterward.

            Anita Wilson was her name.  Now, it turns out that Anita was much too stubborn to give up on life that night.  She lived for several more years, in fact, having recovered from head and leg injuries that you wouldn’t believe.  But, that night we were all sure she would not live.  And I was escorted to her room in the ER where her three great-grandchildren had already been allowed to see her.

            The words of a dying woman.  Well, everyone thought she was dying.  She thought so, too.  And she said to those kids, “I want you to take care of one another.  I want you to love each other no matter what.  And take care of you mom, too.  She’s going to need you.  Do you hear me?  You do it for me.  No more of this fightin’ and arguin’ like you do.  And don’t you worry about me, either.  I’m going home where everything is just the way it’s supposed to be.”  And she slipped away into unconsciousness where we thought we’d never hear from her again.

            I’d like to tell you that those great-grandchildren stopped all of their bickering and quarrelling.  But, like I said, Anita actually lived through all of that.  And they were brothers and sisters, after all.  You know how it is.  But, for as long as Anita was by all appearances dying there in the hospital, by golly, they actually took care of each other.

            Not everyone gets to say what’s so important to them before life escapes them.  Not everyone has a chance to prepare.  And we’re left to guess at what folks would have us do in their absence.  That’s hard to do.  We’re just guessing.  I think she’d want me to do this.  Daddy would have wanted it this way.  It’s hard.

            Jesus knew his time had come, though.  He knew.  And what he said sounded pretty familiar.  “God has been glorified in all of this.”  Remember that?  Judas just left the room to betray him to his death.  “God has been glorified.”  I heard that woman in the emergency room say, “Don’t you worry about me.  I’m going home…”  What they both were saying is that this is the way you ought to interpret this awful thing that is happening.  God’s going to see to it that everything is going to be okay.  You’re going to be okay.

            But, that isn’t the only thing Jesus said that night.  It’s important enough, of course.  It’s important anytime tragedy occurs to have some way to interpret what’s happened.  And he gave that to them.  He gave that to us.  God is actually glorified in this.  Just you wait and see.  But, it’s not all Jesus had on his mind.

            What was so important to say?

            “You love one another.  It’s my commandment to you.  You love one another.  Love one another in the way I have loved you.  Otherwise nobody’s going to know that you’re my disciples.  My disciples love one another.  It’s my commandment.”

            Commandment’s a strong word, isn’t it?  Commandment.  I think I’d be more likely to say, “It is my deepest hope for you that you love each other.”  But, it just doesn’t carry the same weight does it?  “This is my commandment…”  Strong word.

            Love one another.

            Now these were some of the last words of a dying man.  Judas had just left the room.  He had something to say.  And what he said was “You people have to love one another.  Just as I have loved you.  You have to love one another.”  And he said it was a commandment.  Not just a suggestion, mind you.  A suggestion?  Well you can take that or leave it.

            “Can I give you a suggestion?”  You know how that goes.  “Let me suggest something to you.”  It’s condescending.  Nobody wants to hear that.  It’s like your meddling in somebody’s business.  “Can I give you a suggestion?”  You ever have somebody begin a conversation with you like that?  “You should put a little more sugar in your biscuit mix.”  “You might not bring your golf club back so far.”

            That’s why there’s a little wooden box on the wall that says “Suggestions”.  You can slip a little piece of paper with a thought or two on how you might do things differently.  And then it could sit there in that box forever.  Or somebody might read it and roll their eyes.  Who knows?  Maybe your suggestion might even change something.  But, a suggestion you can take it or leave it.

           “I give you a new commandment…”  Now, that’s a rule to live by.  It’s not intended as a suggestion.  It’s a rule to live by.  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  Do not have any other gods before me.”  Rules to live by.  “You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.”  Not really suggestions are they?  “You shall not steal.  You shall not tell tales against your neighbor in order to take advantage of him.”

          Rules to live by.  That’s what a commandment is.  “I give you a new commandment,” Jesus said.  “That you love one another.”  Pretty serious.

It’s not a new idea, you know.  Love one another.  It’s not a new idea.  “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  I am the Lord.”  (Leviticus 19:18)  It’s not entirely a new commandment, to love.

Maybe we have thought of it as more of a suggestion.  Maybe we haven’t taken it very seriously.  Maybe we need to be reminded.

          I had this remarkable spiritual guide during my seminary years.  She was just one of those folks that you were sure was in close company with God.  Some people, you know, they know of God.  They can tell you some things about God.  And maybe that’s most of us.  But, there are some people that know God.  She knew God.  You could tell it to be in her presence.  She knew God.  It was her life of constant prayer and humility, sprinkled with hope and humor and great compassion.  She knew God, Roberta Bondi.

           She said in a book that it is possible to love as God loves because God asked us to do it.  Jesus asked us to do it.  We’re capable of it.  It’s in us.  It’s in you.  We’ve just failed to do it.

           Here’s how she explained it:  “the very desire to love and be loved is part of human nature.  It is part of the image of God.  Loving is natural; it is unnatural not to love.  Of course most [of us] fail to love or love badly a lot of the time.  This is because…”

          Okay, wait here.  I think this is too important to miss.  Why don’t we do what should be so natural to us?  Why don’t we love the way we ought to?  Why would Jesus have to say this to us as his last words and in the form of a commandment?  What is our problem?

          We fail to love, or love well “because we are dominated by the fear of death and of our own physical and emotional vulnerability, and by our ways of compensating for this fear.  We need power over other people.  We are afraid of the future.  We suffer from envy, resentments, depression, hyperactivity, and boredom.”

          It’s in us.  It’s in you.  We just are not accustomed to understanding ourselves as free from all of our fears and all of our pains in order to start seeing and treating all the other people around us in the ways that Jesus sees and treats them.

          “God has come to us and still comes to us in Jesus to overcome our fears, to break the hold our destructive ways of being have over us, and to restore our wounded and distorted humanness if we want it and are willing to seek it.”  That’s what one of my mentors wrote.

          If you could just get your head around the incredible depth of love that God has for you, it would change everything. “As I have loved you,” Jesus said—a man who died so that we would understand forgiveness of sin.  It would change everything if we could grasp that even somewhat.  See past everything that causes you to live in the ways that you always have.  See past anything that has obscured the truth of who you really are—a child of the Living God with a sacred image stamped on your very being.  It’s in you.  If we could just…

          If we knew God’s love for us, really, it would be impossible to do anything but love one another.

 

 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)