Sermon for the 1 st Sunday after Trinity – May 25, 2008
“ If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. ”
A hungry world looks around for the answer. Its question hangs between anxious thoughts and urgent fears. Is there hope for us? Is there any way we can find peace? Can mankind live in harmony? Or is war and enmity, pride and greed, oppression and cruelty inevitable with people? Does mankind destroy his planet, nation against nation, populations against the world? What can save us from self-destruction?
And the world considers: communism —a laudable plan, a perspective where all men are brothers, comrades, equally sharing and giving up their own interests for the common good. But no, looking closer: just the body count of its own people in the Soviet Union, Red China, Cambodia— that isn't working .
The world also considers: atheism —since conflict and struggle have often worn the badge of religion, if we dispense with old ideas, superstitions and prejudice, and live by the light of pure reason, scientific, logical and pragmatic, we can live in peace, saving the planet from global warming, considering ourselves not above the dolphin. But no, while the wars of religion in former centuries killed thousands, the wars that mowed down millions in the last were driven by atheism. Disbelievers in God have no compassion at all.
The world considers political systems: monarchy, anarchy, democracy, republicanism, totalitarianism—all fraught with human difficulties, all might work if only mankind were improved. What else might serve to improve mankind than its government? Education? Vegetarianism ? What if we were all nudists? Hippies ? Beatniks? Millionaires ? Or should everyone be poor?
The world considers religious systems: Hinduism , with its wheel of lives and karma, fatalistically keeping its adherents from changing anything for the better; Buddhism seeking only annihilation of the self; New Age religion no better than witchcraft and spiritism; Islam at heart the war of Arabia, its scimitar aimed at the heart of the Christian world. The Christian world —is there such a place? Where can we find it to ask: do you have our answer ?
Looking for a Christian world in the 21 st century challenges us. The most evident world-wide Christian organization is Roman Catholicism . Over a billion people follow one leader, the bishop of Rome, and this ancient tattered fabric of faith. But an equal number of Christians of many stripes set themselves against Rome, citing reasons of faith, centuries-old offenses, current aberrant practices and scandals. Of these outside Rome, many think Catholics are not even Christians at all. Of these, there are Orthodox —who while having an equally ancient form of Christianity, are also divided ethnically from one another; Protestants fractured into Evangelicals, Reformed, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Mainline , and Anglican . Look closer and the Anglicans are fractured into many tiny groups. So are the Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists , and we go on. Ask why, and hear a litany of offenses, oppositions, suspicions, histories, anecdotal examples and schisms. “They're all heretics. Only we remain true to the Word.” That banner could fly over every church. And so, the world gazes at the Christian world, its hopes dashed, and it moves on…
The hope for the world was Christ. He gave it to His apostles. He lived it before all of us. His life and death and resurrection proved beyond doubt Who He was and shall always be, that His way was the only hope for mankind, and that even then it would be difficult for many to follow it. Yet, those who find that way and embrace it would have one mark upon themselves, a mark distinguishing them from the rest of humanity's restless teeming shores. They were to know the secret of love.
On the night Jesus was to be arrested, He gathered His Apostles around for the Passover meal, and following that gave them a most amazing and important talk. It is recorded fully in St. John's Gospel and covers a number of topics, warnings, prophecies, all the while washing their feet and sending Judas out into the night. “ Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him… A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:31-36 This new commandment sounds so like the old ones, our summary of the law He recited from Old Testament language, we might overlook it as a restating of “Love God with all your heart, mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” That was Old Covenant and an ideal the Jews struggled to keep. Jesus gave His disciples a New Covenant in His Blood that night, and the importance of His new commandment must not be overlooked.
For the Jews, the love of God was to mean obedience to the Laws of Moses, a sacrificial worship, a keeping of the code. Love of their neighbor was to cease offenses toward fellow Jews. Now for Christians, a New Covenant was sealed in Jesus' Blood: isn't it imperative that we know what we are to do in this new and living way? Consistently throughout Jesus' teaching and subsequent writings of the Apostles were the dual values of faith in Jesus Christ and love —a special love, a new standard of love. Love one another as I have loved you.
Christ didn't only say this once, but in the same discourse He returned to it twice. “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:9-14 “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” John 15:17
St. Paul would echo this. “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:7-8 “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” 1 Thess 4:9-10 As did St. Peter, “…obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” 1 Peter 1:21-22 “ Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren.” 1 Peter 3:8-9 And St. John, “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” 1 John 3:11 “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” 3:23 “And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.” 2 John 1:5
Could we have missed that? It is so simple, so obvious, so consistent with what we think of Christ and of God's nature, we assume that we're doing it, that we have this measure of love, and that it's working in us. That's like being a good husband. “Of course I'm a good husband. I work hard and bring home my paycheck. What else is there?” Or a good wife: “I cook, I clean, I do the laundry! I wash the kids! Who wants a better wife than that?”
Can Christians have so many churches, follow so many styles of worship, discipleship methods, evidences of spirituality, sacraments and absence of sacraments with so much history and still have any love for one another, across such fissures in the Christian landscape? Ordinary love : I'd say no way . We're too different. We can't meet anywhere. We won't even mean to offend, but our very language of faith gets in the way of communication. Better leave it alone. So… can we love one another? How was it to be? “As I have loved you, even so, love one another. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” I contend that while ordinary love—affinity, finding common ground, mutual values—is impossible for the Christians across the denominational void: a higher love is both possible and imperative, the very nature and essence of Jesus' love for poor us, sacrificial, self-forgetful, compassionate and open-hearted, willing to die for them all, willing to get to know them all and not change them at all, for Jesus is already with them and loves them all.
Were our world to look for the Christian world and not see merely a broken image of Jesus, fractured along ethnic, historic, theological and philosophical lines—which are there and inevitable—but see the evidence of overcoming those jagged breakpoints by people loving each other in beautiful ways, going over, bringing help, learning of one another with interest, ceasing gossip, speaking peace, binding wounds, confessing sins, forgiving, blessing, going the extra mile… I must guess that Jesus knew that in time, the Church would indeed go to all nations, baptize them in the Trinity, and eventually grow in a variety of ways, making many of His followers quite different from each other. After all, this was the first and only time it's been tried to give a single faith to every race of men on earth, every culture, every continent, for all ages. This stretch could break us, and did, into bits. In spite of these bits, could Christians all still exhibit the love Jesus had for his motley, variegated group of misfits, called the Apostles ? It must be so. We have to make it so. It's His New Commandment, given just before the Cross. He was willing to die for it, for us. What are we willing to do?
Before I close, I must give credit for the wonderful work looking at this New Commandment of Christ done by my friend, Gaylord Enns, an Assembly of God pastor for 33 years in Chico, now published in his book, Love Revolution: Rediscovering the Lost Command of Jesus . I hope to make it available for purchase to you soon. In the meantime…
A hungry world looks around for the answer. Is there hope for us? Can mankind live in harmony? What can save us from self-destruction? If that hungry world could only look and see the many faces of Christ, loving each other in truth, for the good of all the parts, our world would know we are His disciples and rejoice, at last, rejoice.
PFH+