We are in some very dark and depressing times. Over the weekend, there were mass shootings in Buffalo, NY, and then later in Orange County, CA. In the Buffalo case, hatred of Blacks fueled the rampage at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood. The Orange County shooting was at a Presbyterian Church which hosts a largely Taiwanese congregation. The shooter is a Chinese man with a grudge against Taiwan.
I didn't address gun violence in this sermon. But I did give a brief mention of the other major activity over the weekend: the Bans Off Our Bodies rallies in reaction to what's happening with the U.S. Supreme Court. The pending ruling in the MS case has many of us wondering, "They came for our right to privacy in abortion, what other privacy rights are at stake?" It is unnerving.
All the more reason for followers of Jesus to step it up in the name of Love.
This sermon, which I pounded out following three days at Honey Creek for the spring clergy retreat, seemed to hit home with the St. Barnabas congregation. Maybe it might speak to you as well.
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Have you ever had a conversation that just seems as if it’s going to be really important or pivotal? A time when you hear something in the moment that makes you realize in your heart of hearts that this is something I will remember forever?
One such moment that I had like that was with my father at the end of his life. He’d been sent back to his assisted living facility from the hospital after they treated him for aspiration pneumonia. My dad had been diagnosed with something called progressive supranuclear palsy, which had the same effect as Parkinson’s disease. His speech was greatly affected and at this point in his life it was really hard to understand anything he said.
It was in the evening. He was lying in his bed in his room and making all kinds of noises because he was in pain. I kept trying to understand what he was saying, but I just couldn’t make out the words. Finally, I looked up at the ceiling (because…y’know…God always is up in the ceiling, right?) and I prayed. I asked God to please help me understand what was going on with my dad.
And then it came to me.
Leaning down, I told my father to breathe out his words one by one so that I could understand him.
I placed my ear next to his mouth and clear as day he breathed out each word. One by one.
I. Want. Outta. Here.
I straightened up and looked at him. I repeated back to him what he had said.
“I want outta here? Do you mean outta here as in Alterra (which was the name of his facility) or outta here as in the whole shebang?”
I leaned in again to listen. And again he breathed out his words one by one.
“Whole. Shebang.”
I straightened up once again. I took in the meaning of what he’d said.
“OK. OK. You don’t have to keep going, dad. You’ve done enough. Mom and everybody…we’re all going to be OK.”
My dad stopped groaning. His body relaxed. I laid my head down on his chest and gave him a hug.
Those moments…especially end of life moments…often feel as if all rules of physics and time and space are suspended. Perhaps that’s why those types of conversations make such an indelible impression on us.
As I read our gospel…I wondered if the disciples who were there at the table with Jesus could appreciate the words he was imparting to them.
Did they know that this would become known as the beginning of his farewell discourse? Could they understand the intimacy of him calling them “little children”? Could they comprehend the meaning of his command to “love one another” or that he had reached the time of his glory?
Do we even understand all of that now?
When we think of who gets glorified in our society…it’s usually associated with somebody rich, or meets some unattainable standard of beauty. Some of us might think of sports figures or whole teams like when the Braves won the World Series. But the glory Jesus talks about at the opening of this passage is different. This comes right after Judas has left the building to betray him to the authorities. The “glory” Jesus is about to experience is ridicule, mockery, and be nailed to a tree to die. From the standpoint of any rational person, that’s not very glorified.
Any reasonable person will do everything they can to avoid being attacked in that way.
But that’s the upside downness of God. In God’s economy…those who seek glory for their own gain and their own fortune are not the rich; that’s how we judge who is worthy of attention. But God is not fixated on the outside of our selves; God looks to our heart, to the core that motivates us to act. For God, true glory belongs to the one who says that they “will lay down their life for their friends” (John 15:13). That’s glory and the way of God’s love.
Jesus talks about love. And he tells the remaining disciples that he’s giving them a new commandment, to love one another just he has loved them.
In truth, there is nothing new about this commandment. All of these disciples, good and devout Jews, would know that the commandment to love is found in the 19th chapter of Leviticus. Fun fact: the Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis at Duke Divinity School came to Tallahassee to do a teaching about Leviticus as the greenest book in the Bible. At that lecture, she highlighted the beauty of the poetic Hebrew language that is in Leviticus, and more importantly, she revealed that if you don’t have time to read the whole book, just turn to chapter 19. She says it’s basically the Reader’s Digest version of the all the codes and instructions written in the rest of the book.
OK…so it’s not really a “new” commandment as in one they’ve never heard before. But what makes it “new” is the source of this love comes from God and not as part of a ritual code. This love needs to be the way…the truth…and the life of anyone who has come to believe in Jesus.
This is a reshaping of what they had known before. They’re called to become the new hands and feet of Jesus in the world.
And if they do this…if they love one another just as he has loved them…and just as he will be showing how far that love extends by going to his death…then…then…people will know the disciples as followers of Jesus because they will be known by their love.
There’s a tune that’s popular at Christian camps written by a Catholic priest in the 1960s that plays on that theme of Christians being known by their love…by their love.
Trouble is…too often…what people have encountered from those who call themselves Christian has not been too loving.
We are fortunate that at least in our Episcopal Church, there are real concerted efforts to acknowledge and atone for sins such as slavery…and the attempts to wipe out the indigenous cultures of various Native Americans.
We believe in the sacredness of life…including women and girls.
And we have largely lived through the upheaval of acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ persons in the church. A painful process which our siblings in the United Methodist Church are now facing for themselves involving many of the same factions as the ones who broke away from the Episcopal Church almost twenty years ago.
Fear and the desperate need for control always seem to want to get in the way of Jesus simple command to love one another.
What Jesus is communicating in this farewell speech is like a last will and testament to his friends.
They might not have known in the moment how important these words were going to be for them going forward.
But we know that seed got planted and came to bloom in Peter when he realizes that he can love those foods and people he thought were unclean.
Philip will baptize an Ethiopian eunuch.
James of Jerusalem will settle a dispute between the way Peter wants to grow the church and how Paul was ministering to the Gentiles.
All with love. A love that flowed from them from having known Jesus.
His simple words to love spoken at the end of their final meal together became imprinted on their souls and guided their actions in a world where they faced indifference and hostility.
If this was true for them…how much more so is it true for us?
The closer we stick to the source…the more we pay attention to the words and ministry of Jesus and open ourselves to seek and serve God in each other…the greater chance we have to be the agents of change that this world needs now more than ever.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
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