Disciples of Jesus? Love one another?

Brad Sullivan
5th Sunday of Easter, Year C
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

“[In the case of Jesus,] presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profound ignorance.” These are the words of Dallas Willard in the introductory pages of The Divine Conspiracy. He was writing about a general trend in Christianity and society in general to think that we know all there is to know about the Gospel and therefore we end up becoming ignorant of it. I believe his words might apply somewhat to our passage from John’s gospel today.

Love one another, Jesus said. By this, others will know we are Jesus’ disciples, that we love one another. That sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? How are we supposed to be Jesus’ disciples? Love one another.

I wonder if sometimes we become so familiar with Jesus’ command to love one another that become unfamiliar, contemptuous, and truly ignorant of his command. In other words, might Jesus’ command for us to love one another sound so simple that we tend to overlook it or move past the command without giving it much thought.

That’s certainly something the disciples did when Jesus first gave them the command to love one another. In the passage that follows our Gospel reading today, The first thing the disciples say is not “yes, Lord, we’ll love each other.” “How do we do that? Tell us more.” Rather, what they say is, “wait, where are you going; how do I get there?” They completely missed the command to love one another, and they focused on where Jesus was going and wanting to go with him. That’s something we tend to do in Christianity today. We’ve become so focused on where we go when we die, that we tend to forget about or at least not emphasize to nearly the same degree how we are live while we’re here. Jesus commanded, “love one another, and don’t worry about where I’m going or where you’re going; trust in me, I’ll take care of you; in the mean time, love one another.”

I bring this up not to make us all feel badly about ourselves or to have us think we’re not good enough. Rather, I’m inviting us all to hear with new ears Jesus’ command to love one another. I’m inviting us to look deeply into that command and see where it leads. So, if Jesus’ disciples are to be known by loving one another, what do Jesus’ disciples look like?

Well, Jesus’ disciples are patient and kind. If we really love one another, we don’t get envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. As Jesus’ disciples, we don’t insist on everything going our way. We’re not irritable or resentful. We’re sorrowful at wrongdoing, and we rejoice in truth. Living lives of love, Jesus’ disciples bear all thing. We believe all things. We hope all things, and we endure all things. As Jesus’ disciples, our love has no end.

You may have noticed I was using Paul’s words from the 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It’s a passage we often here at weddings. Paul was writing, however, to the Corinthian church about how they were to be together as the Body of Christ. Paul’s passage about love was really a meditation on Jesus’ command to love. If you want to be Jesus’ disciples, Paul was saying, here’s how to do it? Here’s how to love one another as the Body of Christ.

As I mentioned earlier, the passage from First Corinthians is often used at weddings, and that is very appropriate. Marriage or any relationship is a microcosm of the larger Body of Christ. We love one another, and that love requires work and preparation on our parts. When we get married, we don’t simply say, “ok, I love you, everything’s gonna be great.” In our relationships with friends and family, too, we work at those relationships. When they are fractured we try to heal them, and we try to figure out how in the world we’re going to get along with one another when sometimes getting along with each other is pretty darn difficult.

So our individual relationships require work, preparation, and practice, just like our relationships as the Body of Christ require work, preparation, and practice. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of talking to a couple of folks about their experiences first coming to Emmanuel, of worshipping here, and being welcomed into the community. Both of these people expressed to me how welcomed they felt, how accepted and loved they felt in coming here.

Now, I realize not everyone who comes here to worship for the first time feels as welcomed, loved, and accepted as the folks with whom I spoke earlier this week, but by and large, we live out our love for one another pretty well by welcoming folks into the community. Welcoming new worshippers is also something at which we’ve worked pretty hard. We’ve been intentional about welcoming folks who come here. We’ve done a lot of work and preparation to make sure that we are welcoming folks when they come here, and that work and preparation shows.

Love requires work and preparation. Being Jesus’ disciples, loving one another requires work and preparation both corporately and individually. The more we work at being patient and kind as individuals, the more patient and kind we will be as the larger body of Christ. The love we share together as the Body of Christ is dependant upon the love we show to one another as individuals.

So, how are we doing, individually? Ask yourself, as I have been this week, “how am I doing as one of Jesus disciples?” How loving am I being? Am I being patient and kind with people? Do I insist on things going my way, or do I get envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude? Am I irritable and resentful?

My guess is all of us answer yes to some of those questions. Irritability is one of mine. When I’m tired or stressed, I tend to get pretty irritable and can be somewhat of a grouch. My wife can testify to that fact. Again, this is not being said to be condemning, but as an opportunity to take a fresh look at our lives. “How might I live more fully as one of Jesus’ disciples?” The simple answer is “I will daily work and prepare to be a more loving person.”

Starting our days off with prayer is a great way to prepare ourselves each day to live lives of love. We can begin each morning by thanking God for the simple fact that we woke up.

The clergy of the diocese at our last clergy conference had the privilege of hearing from Brother Curtis Almquist, a monk in the Society of St. John the Divine, and he spoke to us about finding peace in our lives. He recommended beginning each day with a prayer of thanksgiving for having woken up and ending each day with a pray to commend ourselves to God. He reminded us of the children’s prayer:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
and pray the Lord my soul to keep,
and if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Ever since my son was born, I’ve shied away from that prayer. It seemed a little morbid to me, and it is kinda morbid. “Lord, I just might die tonight, and I pray you’ll take my soul if I do,” but of course we’ll pray that prayer because the truth is we just might die in the night. What better thing to do, therefore, than to commend ourselves to God just before going to sleep, to say, “Lord, I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight; I leave myself in your hands.”

Then, when we wake up in the morning, we can do the same thing again. We commend our souls to God, we give thanks, and then we can pray for our day. We can pray for the rides we’re going to take, for the people we’re going to see. We can pray for the interactions or meetings we know we’re going to have. We can pray for the people and situations we know are going to be difficult for us. Spending even five each morning praying for the day to come invites God into our day. When we pray for other people and situations, we bring those people and situations with us into the presence of God, into the presence of love with us.

So, then, having prepared for our day and having invited God to be with us, what do we then do when we find ourselves wronged or hurt by someone. We may still find ourselves angry and resentful. How do we love, as Jesus’ disciples, when we are wronged? We seek reconciliation. Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.” (Matthew 18:15) Further, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians,

Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 13:13-15)

When we’re wronged, we forgive, even if it’s undeserved, and forgiveness too requires preparation and work. Forgiveness is a huge part of loving each other, and both forgiveness and love require practice. We’re not going to get it right all of the time. Quite frankly, sometimes, we’re all going to behave as though we’re not Jesus’ disciples. We’re going to behave sometimes without love and forgiveness. In those times too, we are taught to treat one another with love and forgiveness.

Unfortunately, as Jesus’ disciples, Christians are not always seen as loving and forgiving. We’re sometimes called hypocrites because we don’t always practice what we preach. Sometimes we are hypocritical, but only when we intentionally refuse to be loving and forgiving. Other times, when we’re falling short of being loving and forgiving, we’re not necessarily being hypocritical. Sometimes we just need more practice and intentionality at being loving and forgiving. We’re all going to mess up from time to time, but the more we practice being loving and forgiving, the we will live as Jesus’ disciples.

That is the model of life we have as Jesus’ disciples. Practicing and living lives of love and forgiveness is how we make ourselves known as Jesus’ disciples to the rest of the world. Continuing from last week’s gospel from last week, we are all Jesus’ sheep because we are his disciples, we are also all shepherds of others. Bishop Doyle wrote the following as a reflection of last week’s gospel:

[As disciples of Jesus], we say we are the body of Christ in the world. What I am struggling to get to is the idea that all of us often get so caught up in being sheep we don’t realize that we are the everyday, hour by hour, shepherds sent into the world to gather in the others. We are the ones seeking the 1 in 99…We are the gates most people find when they enter community. Everyone who goes to church has the opportunity the rest of the week to take what is learned from the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ, and to engage in the practice of shepherding Christ’s flock in the world.
- Bishop Doyle’s reflections on John 10:22-30

We serve as shepherds by serving as faithful disciples. We shepherd others by loving and forgiving others. So, I encourage us all to take stock this week. How am I doing as Jesus’ disciple? Where do I find loving difficult? Am I generally irritable? Whom do I need to forgive? Write a list of names of people with whom you need to seek reconciliation. I’ve got my list, it’s very long…just kidding. Think about those people and seek reconciliation. Think about those ways you can live more fully a life of love and practice living lives of love. Then we can find some peace in our lives, commending our souls to God at the beginning and at the end of each day, asking God to be with us during each day, bringing people into the presence of God with us, and living lives of love and forgiveness as Jesus’ disciples. Amen.