The Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 6, 2007
Acts 11:1-8
Psalm 148
Revelations 21-1-6
John 13:31-35
Not too many years ago, pop singer Tina Turner The Fifth Sunday of Easter
sang these words in a song about love, or the lack of it, in human relationship: “What’s love got to do with it!” she sings. “What’s love but a second hand emotion.” Pretty cynical, I’d say. Yet, when I looked at our gospel lesson for today, these words came leaping into my head, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. They certainly do not suit the gospel message. But I had to conclude that they ask the right questions about Jesus’ message of love in today’s gospel.
So then, what’s love got to do with it?” What’s love got to do with our relationship with God and with each other. Well, according to Jesus, love has everything to do with it. And love is anything but a second hand emotion. In fact, emotions have little to do with the example of love Jesus set for us by the ways he loved his disciples. For Jesus, love is the primary rule of life and of relationship. Why? Because God is love, and all that God created was created in love. But for his human creatures, God went one step further; he created us FOR love. And that means that love is the defining rule of life and of mutual relationship. Love is our highest purpose for being in relationship with God and with each other. In fact, love is what calls us into relationship. Love sustains us in relationship. And it is love which enables us to reach the high and noble purposes God has for us in relationship. Love’s purpose is clearly outlined in our church’s wedding liturgy: In a marriage where God’s love rules all other loves, two people become more than they ever could have been by themselves.
So what is the problem here? Why do singers and song writers take such a cynical view of love. Why is it that love can be so difficult, even damaging for us human creatures. What makes love so bitter sweet. Why does love disappoint us. How is it that love can be such an emotional roller coaster. Well, I suppose I could ask as many questions about love as there are songs about love, but you get my point. Jesus, however, makes a different point about love, and he makes it throughout his life, in all of the mutual relationships he shares with people throughout our gospels. The difference comes from Jesus’ differing perspective on love. Jesus does not see love from a human point of view; Jesus sees love from God’s point of view. Jesus lives in that love and the purpose of his life on this earth is to restore us to God’s love.
We should not be surprised to know that there is such a disconnect between the kinds of love humans manufacture for themselves, and the love God created us for. The difference is apparent in what Jesus indicates about love to his disciples: love one another, (not as the world loves, but) as I have loved you. The difference is even more apparent by the context in which Jesus speaks this new commandment. Jesus is with his disciples at the last meal they will share together. He has just washed their feet as a sign of how they are to be his disciples in the world. And now he is about to leave them. Jesus will suffer and die on the cross, and his disciples will be without him. This moment is critical for Jesus. He must sum up his whole purpose for coming to earth in one statement in the hope that his disciples will continue to preach and teach and model the message of God’s redeeming love to the world. Jesus knows most of all that carrying his message forward will depend on his disciples’ ability and willingness to love each other as he has loved them. Their relationship will be a sign of that love. And that sign will call others into love and relationship with them to serve God’s purposes for love in his world. Jesus is certain that his disciples will be able to live with one another by God’s rule of love because he has shown them the way to live in that love. It is not the way of human love, a love made of second hand emotions. Jesus’ disciples have been instructed in the differences between love which is of God and love which is merely human. And the intent of John’s entire gospel is to show us this all important difference.
So, what’s love got to do with it? What’s love got to do with the Good News of the Gospel? What’s love got to do with followers of Jesus. And the answer is, EVERYTHING. But God’s love is not anything like the love we humans have learned to manufacture for our own purposes. Not anything like self-serving love which turns love into a game or a contest. Jesus’ love is self-giving and forgiving. Not a fickle love with ever-changing rules to suit one’s own advantage. Jesus’ love is faithful and just. Not a love which seeks its own end. Jesus’ love is sacrificial and serves the needs of others. No. Human love which serves its own purpose is not anything like the love which created us; the love which made us for true and lasting relationship, the love we were meant to have and share with God and with each other. So what are these differences? How is living in God’s love so different from living in the kinds of human love which seeks to serve its own purposes; the love we hear about in pop songs, the love modeled for us in popular culture? And why does this difference matter? Especially to people like us; people who would be followers of Jesus in this world.
The clear difference, as I see it, is that God’s rule of love always makes a difference for good in the world. In other words, love serves God’s good purpose for us in creation. And anything that serves God’s purpose for us is life-giving. When human love follows God’s rule of love in creation human beings seek the highest good in and for each other in relationship. This kind of love demonstrates itself in moments of sacrifice for the good of the other, and it models the love both God and his Son made by their own sacrifices of love for our greatest good. The greatest good we can give in return is our own sacrifice of love. We have the opportunity to demonstrate such love each week when we present our offering and sacrifice to God by the gifts we bring to this communion table. They represent the best we can give for the greater good of God’s kingdom. They represent our sacrifice of time and talent and skills and material possessions for the greater good of our church community and the communities we serve in the world. We glorify God in our offerings of sacrifice and praise, and God is glorified in them. Because they are gifts of love, freely given. Freely given, with no strings attached and no expectation of a return. Sacrificial giving of oneself for another is one way we learn God’s rule of love and experience the depth of God’s love for us. And unlike the sacrifices made of human love which seek their own return, sacrificial love always has the effect of making us thankful. There is a good reason why our sacrament of communion is called Eucharist. The word eucharist means thanksgiving.
Jesus shows us another essential rule of God’s love in forgiveness. What kind of love does it take to truly and completely forgive someone of a hurt they have caused us or others whose pain we share? Self-serving love will not do it. It takes God’s love. Forgiving love is love which seeks to reconcile people to one another when relationships become fractured. There is a good reason for the saying, “to err is human; to forgive is divine.” Forgiveness comes out of a love which is capable of letting go of the negative energy which consumes the heart with anger and vengeful thoughts, smothering the inclinations of love and keeping broken people at a distance from each other. Jesus showed us how to forgive, and he continues to forgive us for the violence we do to him and to others every time we violate God’s rule of love. This is why it is so important for us to confess our sins and to be at peace with each other before we take communion. We practice forgiveness as a rule of God’s love.
Love one another, as I have loved you says Jesus to his disciples at that last supper. And his disciples know that service to others is another essential rule of God’s love. What clearer example do we have than the example Jesus gives his disciples by washing their feet. There is no better way to show who we are and how we love as a people of God than by how we serve others in the world. Human love, on the other hand, is inclined to serve its own interests. Human love expects to receive a paycheck, or a favor, or a return on their investment of time, money and skill. God’s love, however, serves for the sake of love, and not for its own reward. God’s rule of love would have us serve others by the gifts we have been blessed with in our life, gifts which have been denied to others in this world. Not just material gifts, but gifts of skill and expertise, compassion and mercy, friendship and a helping hand. There are many wonderful examples of the ways people serve others in this world by God’s rule of love; our food pantry at St. George’s is a fine example. But one who serves as a hallmark of faithfulness in sacrifice and service to God’s rule of love is Mother Theresa. This nun and her religious order serve the poorest, sickest and most needy persons day in and day out, in a spirit of love which is hard to match. I remember a film segment which showed Mother Theresa washing the diseased and pain-filled body of a dying man and soothing it with oil. She told the reporter who was interviewing her that she wasn’t afraid of contracting the disease. Her greater concern was making sure that this person would die knowing that someone cared for him. After all, he is a child of God she told the reporter. And God gave me the heart and hands to care for him.
Sacrifice and service and forgiveness are essential to God’s rule of love, but being faithful in them is perhaps the most challenging aspect of being a follower of Christ. Jesus knows how difficult it is for human love to be faithful when relationships become difficult. We are not likely to stay faithful to anyone or anything which puts us at risk or in danger, or makes us bored, or anxious, or keeps us in a state of confusion or anger by things don’t understand or agree with. Human love will often give up being faithful under such circumstances. And how well Jesus knows that. Jesus felt the sting of being abandoned by his own disciples at critical times in his own ministry. But faithfulness is a hallmark of love. As Paul tells us in his well-known passage from his first letter to the Corinthians: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.” Being faithful to God in a community of faith is difficult enough; just ask anyone who lives in religious community. But faithfulness to God’s rule of love is a far greater challenge for people who live in a culture like ours. Americans seem to admire faithfulness, but we find it difficult to practice faithfulness in a world which makes it too easy for us to change our minds and to easy for us to walk away from our commitments.
If Jesus shows us one thing about love throughout his ministry, he shows us that faithfulness is the rule of love which will get us through the difficult times of sacrifice FOR others, service TO others and forgiveness OF others. But there are important things to know about God’s rule of love. God’s rule of love is not about rules. In religious language, a rule is a standard or measure for the ways we live our life. God’s rule of love is an act of grace which enables us to accept the measure and standard of God’s love. We need to remember that God’s love can not be manufactured; it does not have its source in us. God’s rule of love is a gift, and we must be open to receiving it. Most of all God cannot make his rule of love a requirement. Because it is freely given and we are always free to walk away from it. Simply put, God’s love is not anything we can have or do or be on our own terms. The only way we can love as God loves is when we surrender to it. When we surrender the second-hand emotions of our self-serving human love for love that is self-giving. Self-giving love is the sign of a follower of Christ and this is the hallmark of religious community. “Love one another, as I have loved you,” says Jesus to his disciples. And his disciples go into the world to live in that love. They build communities of mutual love; communities of self-giving sacrifice, of faithful service and of reconciling forgiveness. They are communities unlike any the world has ever seen and they are each a stirring example to outsiders who would join them. These communities come to be called churches. And there is one thing that remains true about church communities who live by God’s rule of love; they will always draw people to them; people who long for a love the world cannot give, a love which calls them to put away all other loves in order to share in God’s love.
What’s love got to do with it? I believe the people of St. George’s have the answer to that question. The answer is EVERYTHING.