Don't hate your family, despite what you may have heard...

Brad Sullivan

Proper 18, Year C
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

Some time last week, I was getting ready to go to work, about to head out the door, and my two and a half year old son, Noah, looked up at a little figure of Jesus in the manger and said, “I like that Jesus guy. He’s really cool.” Kristin and I agreed. We laughed and said, “yeah, he is really cool, Noah,” thinking “that’s great, good for him,” and yet today, that story seems to stand in stark contrast to what Jesus says in the Gospel.

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” What do I tell my son in relation to this passage? Sorry son, I know you think Jesus is really cool, but you don’t hate mommy and me, so you can’t be his disciple, you can’t really like him.

We’re told in Leviticus, everyone’s favorite book of the Bible, we’re told in Leviticus 19:17, “don’t hate your kin, your family.” We’re told in 1 John 4:20 “Those who say, ‘I love God, ‘and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have see, cannot love God whom they have seen.” We’re told by Jesus, in Luke 6:27 “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…”

So, in light of all of this “don’t hate people” teaching, and in light of Jesus’ vast teachings about love, what are we to do with a passage in which Jesus tells us to hate our families. Well, as is often the case, we take a look at language. Jesus said, hate your family, but rather than the contemptuous detestation which we generally understand as “hate”, the word Jesus uses sometimes means that, and it sometimes means “turn away from,” “disregard,” or “be indifferent to.”

So now we hear Jesus saying “turn away from” your family, “disregard” your family, “be indifferent to” your family, if you’re going to be my disciple. That may still not be the best thing we’ve ever heard in our lives, but it certainly is a lot better than what we understand as hate.

Still, the question that lingers for me is “why?” Why do I have to disregard my family in order to follow you, Jesus? Am I now supposed to tell my son, “Sorry, Noah. I love you, I think you’re great, and I know you think that Jesus guy is really cool, but I want to be Jesus’ disciple, so I just need to be a bad father to you and ignore you, just please go away.” I tell Kristin and Rhys the same thing, and then say to Jesus, “Ok Lord, I’m a terrible father and husband, I’ve blown them all off. I’m ready.”

That doesn’t seem quite right either. Looking at the rest of what Jesus said in today’s Gospel passage, he talked about counting the cost, making sure people are willing to make the sacrifices necessary in order to be Jesus’ disciple. We make sacrifices all the time in order to do various things or be with certain people in our lives.

Those who have had kids know kids demand a lot of time and that there are some relationships you might not be able to keep as closely because of the time needed to be with kids. Those in marriages or committed one-on-one relationships know that such relationships require some level of sacrifice in other relationships. Before I was married, I had great friends. Now that I am married, I still have those great friends, but I don’t spend as much time with them as I did before I was married. I’ve had to disregard them, somewhat, in order to have time enough to give time and love to my wife and family.

The same goes for any good friendships we have, or jobs and activities we pursue with passion, going to school, learning a trade. Focusing our energy and attention on any one thing requires that we divert some energy and attention from other things in order to delve deeply into that one thing. I think of great musicians, the best of the best, who spend hours, and hours, and hours each day devoted to their instrument and their music. That doesn’t mean musicians don’t have friends, but they put in the work necessary in order to be devoted to their music. They’ve counted the cost.

The same goes for following Jesus. I knew folks in seminary who had wanted to be in the ministry for years, and initially, got some resistance from family and friends. You’re not going to make enough money. You’re not going to have weekends free. Initially some of these folks listened to the objections of family and friends, and then eventually, they had to disregard some of their family and friends, be indifferent to some of their family and friends, not regarding them as people, but they disregarded or were indifferent to the objections of their family and friends. They had counted the cost.

I’ve been reading a book called, “The Hole in Our Gospel” which is about the Gospel imperative to serve others, especially where there is poverty and injustice. The author is Richard Stearns, President of World Vision which is a Christian humanitarian organization which works worldwide with children, and families, and communities to help solve problems of poverty and injustice. Richard Stearns has been president of World Vision for 12 years now, and when the opportunity to become president of World Vision came up, he really, really, really didn’t want it.

He writes of himself as one who had committed himself during his 20s to following Christ, no matter what, and yet he was one who hadn’t entirely counted the cost. He wrote, “I was a poster boy for the successful Christian life – church every Sunday, great marriage, give attractive (and above-average) kids, a corporate CEO with a Bible on his desk, a faithful supporter of Christian causes – the whole Christian enchilada”, and yet when asked to take this new job, he found himself running for the hills. “Quitting my job, selling my house, and moving my family to serve at World Vision”, he wrote, was not in any way what he wanted to do, and yet he had said that he wanted to follow Jesus no matter what. He felt Jesus calling him to this job at World Vision, his family was supportive, and yet, he found himself initially unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to follow Jesus’ call.

Obviously, he eventually did answer Jesus’ call and was blessed by doing so. It doesn’t sound like he ever really regretted giving up quite a lot of material things in order to follow Jesus. He wrote of his blessings in this way,

Does God bless those of us who commit our lives to following him? Of course he does. Sometimes He does bless us in material ways, with money, success, good health, and happy families, but those things are not guaranteed. Yet we are always blessed by God’s love for us and the meaning He brings to our lives, whether in hardship or prosperity. God also blesses us through our sacrifices for Him as we feel the privilege of being a tool in His hand.

Others who have heard his story over the years have asked him about serving God more directly and committing themselves ministry in some way, and he’s responded by asking questions about their preconditions. He wrote that usually the list of conditions sounds something like this:

“Well, we’re very committed to staying in the Atlanta area. All of our friends are here, and we have spent years getting our house just right. Our kids are in a very special private school, and we don’t want to move them. We waited six years to join the country club, and now we’re members. We couldn’t take too big of a pay cut and still maintain our lifestyle…But other than that, we’re wide open to serve.”

The preconditions that he mentioned, they sound pretty normal. School’s important, friends are important, and yet, as the author continues (and this is the last quote I’m going to give), “When we say we want to be [Jesus’] disciple, yet attach a list of conditions, Jesus refuses to accept our terms. His terms involve unconditional surrender.”

In order to be Jesus’ disciple, we’re asked at times to give up some of the life we have planned out for ourselves in order to live a life that he has in mind for us. For Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, giving up some of the life he had involved a different job, a different city, a different house, a different car. He still has his family, everything that was really important to him, and he didn’t make these sacrifices on a whim simply because he felt guilty and self loathing about having too much. He made the sacrifices necessary in order to follow Jesus when Jesus called.

So, counting the cost and following Jesus doesn’t mean that tomorrow we’re all supposed to go quite our jobs and say goodbye to our family and friends and move somewhere else, just for the sake of sacrificing stuff, in order to be Jesus’ disciple. That would be like a single person who spends a lot of time with his really good friends telling them all that he can’t hang out with them any more because one day he might be married with kids and would then have to sacrifice some time that he spends with his friends, and he has to get ready. That just seems kinda silly. On the other hand, so does saying to someone, “I want a deep and fulfilling relationship with you, but I’m not going to make any sacrifices in order to have a deep and fulfilling relationship with you.” Or, “I’m going to do really well in school and make straight ‘A’s, but I’m not going to study.” “I’m going to do really well at this job and advance and move up the ladder, but I’m going to come in at noon, leave at three, and whatever I don’t get done is your problem.”

Following Jesus, counting the cost, of course these things require sacrifice on our parts. We all know that. Sometimes, after careful consideration, we even need to disregard some of the objections of our family and friends in order to be a disciple of Jesus. We get to live lives in which we work for and promote the kingdom of God, a kingdom of love and compassion. Being Jesus’ disciples requires surrender, but we’re surrendering to one who has our best interests at heart. Or, as the prophet Noah says about the one to whom we’re surrendering, “I like that Jesus guy. He’s really cool.” Amen.

Did Jesus come to tear families apart?

Brad Sullivan

Proper 15, Year C
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

So, Jesus came to tear families apart. That’s kinda what it sounds like on an initial reading of today’s Gospel. Father will be against son, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, ok that last one might not be because of Jesus, but we can’t really ignore that Jesus said he came to bring division. I thought a house divided against itself couldn’t stand, and yet here’s Jesus today bringing division and fire on the earth. I thought he was supposed to be the prince of peace.

Jesus did bring a lot of peace, after all. When he healed folks, he often told them to go in peace. When his disciples went out to minister, he told them to offer their peace to those with whom they stayed. Jesus was definitely not averse to peace. Therefore, by saying today that he came to bring division, I don’t believe Jesus was saying that he came to add rancor and strife to world simply to make the world a less pleasant place to live. Jesus healed. He taught about blessedness. He told people they were beloved of God.

He also told people when they were living destructive lives, counter to how God had taught them to live. Jesus may have been the prince of peace, but that doesn’t mean he came to remain silent when he encountered problems or that he came simply to play nice.

Looking back a little way in Luke’s gospel, Jesus had been preaching against the Scribes and the Pharisees. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees,” Jesus said, “that is, their hypocrisy.” He then went on to teach about the blessedness of every human being. Do not fear because God cares about you was the basic message. Then we get to the story we heard a couple of weeks ago. A man interrupts Jesus and asks him to help him out with his family inheritance. I can see Jesus being a little annoyed at this point.

“Seriously dude, your inheritance? I was preaching to you about blessedness, and God’s love for you and how you don’t need to fear, and you want to ask me about money?” Boy that guy got more than he bargained for. Jesus went on to talk about money and the dangers of putting our faith in our money and our possessions rather than in God. “All your possessions, all your stuff, it’s gonna be gone one day. You’re gonna be gone one day, and what good is all that stuff going to do you then?”

I can see the guy who first asked the question about inheritance at this point trying quietly to extricate himself from the crowd, and his friends holding him there saying, “Way to go Steve, he was being nice being nice before you spoke up.”

To be fair, having a question about an inheritance is fine; it happens. Sometimes we have disputes and we need help settling them. Jesus seemed to notice something more in the man’s question, however, than a purely innocent request for help in settling a legal matter. I’m further guessing that the man who asked about his inheritance was simply one among many in the crowd who wasn’t so much interested in God’s kingdom as in getting what he wanted and having Jesus help him get what he wanted. “That’s nice, Jesus. God’ loves us. We should care for one another, blah blah blah, now here’s what I need.” The yeast of the Scribes and the Pharisees seems to have been taking hold in the crowd.

So, Jesus speaks today about wanting to throw fire down on the earth and bring division. Well, throwing fire down on the earth was an act of cleansing perhaps to burn away the yeast of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The fire Jesus was to throw down on the earth was like a fire of burnt offering to cleanse people, to take away their misdeeds (as they offered them up), and to remind them of who God is and to get them back to walking in God’s ways once again.

We might also note that there was no actual rain of fire that Jesus sent down (the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire), but I think we can safely say Jesus’ fire was kindled. His fire continues to this day, sometimes burning where there is injustice and greed, cleansing people from walking in ways that God knows are not helpful ways for us to walk. I believe I’ve been cleansed at various times by Jesus’ fire (metaphorical fire we’re talking about here). Perhaps some of y’all have experienced that as well, and if you have, then you know that being cleansed is not always the most pleasant thing in the world.

Turning back towards God, seeking his help and forgiveness, changing one’s life, stopping unhealthy practices and starting healthy ones is cleansing by Jesus’ fire and it is not necessarily a pleasant experience. The result, however, is great and well worth any discomfort along the way. Jesus came to bring fire on the earth, and thank God that he did. We need his fire to cleanse us and then to remain in us to be light to the world and to cast darkness out of the world, and if we do that. If we allow Jesus’ fire to cleanse us, and if we allow his fire to remain in us, and if we take that fire with us to help cast darkness out of the world, then we are going to cause some division.

Demons, Oil, & Atonement

Brad Sullivan

Proper 7, Year C
Sunday, June 20th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Kings 19:1-15a
Psalm 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

In both the old testament reading and the Gospel reading today, we have stories of spiritual warfare. In the reading from Kings, Elijah had just won a major victory for God against Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. Baal was a Canaanite deity, and Jezebel, wife of Ahab, king of Israel, Jezebel was uncompromising in her devotion to Baal. The fire and zeal she had for Baal dwarfed the devotion that the people of Israel at the time had for God.

Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, and finally, Elijah had a contest with the prophets of Ball to see whose God would win. Elijah called the people of Israel to watch the contest between God and Baal, represented by Elijah for God and 450 prophets of Baal. Baal’s prophets called repeatedly for him to come down and consume an offering by fire to absolutely no effect.

Then, Elijah called on God who immediately consumed with fire the offering, the wood, the stones and all of the water Elijah had pored on it. The people turned back to God and had the prophets of Baal killed. As a result, we get the story we heard today. Jezebel was going to have Elijah killed so Elijah fled and met God on the mountain.

The contest between God and Baal was spiritual warfare lived out physically through Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The spiritual and the physical were united in the conflict.

In the Gospel too, we have today a story of spiritual warfare. Jesus casts demons out of a man of Gerasa. This was not the first healing done by Jesus nor was it the first time he had cast out demons, but in today’s story, Jesus cast out not one demon, but many, and those many demons were called ‘Legion’. Well, a legion was a Roman military unit of several thousand soldiers. This military unit of demons had possessed a poor man from Gerasa. As far as he knew, when Jesus cast out the demons, he’d been healed. Hearing the story as told by Luke, however, we know there was more going on than a man being healed. Jesus was engaged in spiritual warfare with these demons, and like Elijah called on God in his battle with the prophets of Baal, there was no contest. The demons, even a legion of demons, had no power against Jesus.

Spiritual warfare was lived out in a very concrete and physical way in the contest between God and Baal and in the contest between Jesus and the legion of demons, and that spiritual warfare is still being lived out today. We talk about people fighting their inner demons, and we tend to mean people simply have struggles within themselves, and the stories of our faith tell us there truly are forces of darkness that assault us. An example of where I see the assaults of demons attacking humans is in the reaction of so many people to the oil leak in the Gulf.

I realize this is a touchy subject, and the fact that people are very upset is perfectly understandable. Folks are worried about jobs, worried about plant and animal life, worried about the economy. These are all justifiable concerns and worries. People’s anger and fear is totally understandable, and yet amidst all these worries and fears, there have been calls for murder. Folks have said that people from BP should kill themselves or that various politicians should kills themselves. Anger and frustration is one thing, but calls for murder and suicide, that’s something else entirely, perhaps even the influence of demons.

Demons have at times been personified as the darker aspects of humanity. That we become angry when tragedy strikes is understandable. That our anger can become so all consuming that we are blinded by it is perhaps us suffering from the attacks of demons. Perhaps at times we too, like the man from Gerasa whom Jesus healed, are assaulted by demons.

That’s part of why Jesus is our savior to drive away “Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God.” You may have noticed I was quoting from one of the renunciations in the baptismal covenant. The other two things we renounce are “the evil powers of this world” and “all sinful desires.” I would include vengeance, hatred, self-righteousness as sinful desires and evil powers.

Healing, Death, and Trust in God

Brad Sullivan

Proper 5, Year C
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Kings 17:8-16
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17

What happens when we die? Why did Jesus heal the boy in this story? Was he showing compassion to a widow? Was he showing us his divine nature? Why don’t we still see healings like this in our world today? These are all questions that were raised for me in reading our Gospel story today. Looking first at the question about Jesus’ divine nature, then we look at the story, and if we believe Jesus was God, then his raising the boy to life in the story we heard today was in some ways no big deal. Jesus was God, of course he could raise this kid from the dead. At the time, of course, people didn’t believe Jesus was God. When he raised the boy, the people didn’t say, “look, there’s God.” They said, a “a mighty prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!”.


I’ve often heard folks comment on the people’s lack of understanding as to who Jesus was. “How could they not know Jesus was God? Look at what he did; he raised this boy from the dead.” Jesus’ miracles were the power of God being shown forth, but they were not obvious statements of Jesus’ divinity. The people’s belief that Jesus was a prophet, and not God was not because they were dim witted or unfaithful. Even after seeing him raise the widow’s son from the dead, the people had no reason to believe Jesus was God. Both Elijah and Elisha raised people from the dead. They were both mighty prophets, and they both showed God’s favor to his people. So, the people’s response to Jesus raising the widow’s son from the dead was totally appropriate.

I find rather interesting the paradox, that the people, seeing Jesus raise the boy from the dead, were amazed and yet didn’t think Jesus was God. We, on the other hand because of our belief that Jesus was God, might find ourselves no longer amazed. This thought led me to one of my other questions, “why not now?” Why don’t we still see Jesus’ power to raise folks from the dead and to heal disease demonstrated in the world today, in the church? Didn’t Jesus give that power to the apostles? Shouldn’t it still be among us? Shouldn’t we be able to go to the healers whenever we’re sick and be healed just as readily and as surely as the boy in the story today?

If we look at the history of the prophets, and Jesus was a prophet, we find that God would show up occasionally with great power through a prophet. This was often done with the purpose of delivering his people from oppression or in order to call the people back to God. Why did the power of God manifest in the prophet not continue? Why did the miracles of Jesus not continue in an obvious way for all of his followers? Why do we still die and get sick? Why are we left feeling so powerless for so much of the time? Perhaps the power of God is a power too great for us to wield.

Imagine 12 people who were given God’s power to heal and to raise the dead. Those 12 would pass the power on, and pass it on, and pass it on. So there was always, throughout history, this group of people who had the power of God to perform miracles, to heal and raise the dead. Suppose people came to them to be healed and to raise the dead. If they said yes to everyone, then all they would do would be to heal and raise. People would clamor continuously for the miracles.

People might come to expect the miracles or demand them as a right. What if one of the healers ever refused? I can see that one being killed for the refusal. I can also see these healers being elevated as gods over the rest of us. Perhaps they would never be corrupted by this power, but we’ve seen far too many with far less power become corrupted far too often to believe that 12 people perpetually given the power of God would remain uncorrupted forever.

Further, when would the healing and life giving end? When people reached 120 years? 200? 900? Would people ever accept death as the natural end of life? Would we ever let go of life and trust in God?

Would these healers become those who determine when people live and when people die? You I’ll heal; you I won’t. You’ve lived long enough; you can keep going for a while. Might we end up hating the healers and God along with them because they didn’t bow to our every wish?

Perhaps, again, the power of God is too great a power for any human to wield for more than a very short time. We tend to want what we can’t have, dislike those who won’t give it to us, and all of this, largely due to our fear death and loss. Having healers like Jesus with us continually would not allay our fear of death and loss. It would simply put those fears off and possibly increase them over time.

Why, then, did Jesus exhibit his power over disease and death? I believe he did so, as did the prophets before him, to call the people back to God and to show the people who God is. Consider the words of today’s psalm:

What is God?

Brad Sullivan

Trinity Sunday, Year C
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Canticle 13
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

I glanced at an interesting article earlier this week, regarding Trinity Sunday, and this article referred to God as a thing. Rather than ask the question of who God is, the article raised the question of what God is. I find this both an interesting and a helpful question on Trinity Sunday. Today, we’re specifically celebrating God as Trinity, one God in three Persons. How can God be three and yet one? We don’t know. It’s a mystery. At the heart of the Trinity, however, is person: God as one in three persons, not one in three things. Asking the question of what is God seems rather antithetical to an understanding of God as three persons.

One essential thing the trinity tells us about God is that loving relationship is part of God’s very nature. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is this unity of persons bound together so tightly in love that they are one. So, “who is God?” seems a much more appropriate question than “what is God?”.

Even before there was ever any doctrine of God as Trinity, there was an understanding of God as person in some way. God spoke in creation, on Mount Sinai, through the prophets, and many other ways. God cared for his people like a mother or a father. In God’s interactions with our forefathers, with Israel, God seems much more like a who than a what.

Still, I find the question, “what is God?” to be a helpful question to ask from time to time. We understand God as a person and largely experience God as a person. Our doctrine tells us that God is three person united perfectly into one. We have some understanding of God based on scripture’s and our experiences of God, and yet, we don’t want our understanding of God to go unquestioned.

“What is God?” is a useful question because it helps prevent us from feeling like we know or understand God better than we do. I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the concept of the Trinity. God is three and yet one doesn’t bother me. I can deal with that. I love that understanding of God. When I consider, however, the enormous lack of understanding that I truly have of God, then what seems like a better question than who. Consider the answers to the questions.

Who is God? God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What is God? I don’t know.

That we all may be one...

Brad Sullivan

7th Sunday of Easter, Year C
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 47
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26

“…so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus’ prayer offers us a rather beatific vision of the Church. We are one. We are without conflict. We are at peace with one another, giving and receiving love to one another as freely as the air we breathe. We have something of this vision in Revelation: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”

In John’s vision the Church is one, and at peace forever, freely drinking from the water of life. His vision of the church, like the vision we get from Jesus’ prayer is beautiful and comforting. His vision is of us as we will be and as we truly are. We look around and we don’t see such a heavenly vision. We look around and we see things looking very plain and ordinary, and this is exactly what the adversary wants.

In his book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis writes as a demon, Screwtape, giving instruction to his nephew, Wormwood, about how best to tempt and torment a human being. Screwtape is a senior temptor, very skilled at his craft and was very disappointed to find that his nephew’s charge, an unnamed human being, had joined the church. So, he wrote to his nephew, giving instruction for how best to deal with the most unfortunate situation of this human becoming a Christian. Screwtape writes:

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we [demons] see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like “the body of Christ” and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy’s side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous…Work hard…on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman.
C. S. Lewis – The Screwtape Letters

Perhaps when we hear Jesus’ prayer that we all may be one, even as the Father and he are one, and we think of the beautiful vision which comes with that prayer, we too might become somewhat disappointed. On the one hand, I find Jesus’ prayer deeply comforting, the fact that he prays for us so lovingly, and yet on the other hand, I look around and notice that all too often, we certainly don’t act as though we are one. The church worldwide with our denominations, we fight with one another over who’s right. Within denominations, we struggle with each other if not over contentious issues, then over membership, competing with each other. Within each local church, we tend to struggle over any number of thing: people that upset us, our imperfections as a community, differences in our preferences about worship. We struggle over our building and property and all sorts of things. Sometimes our boots do squeak, some do sing out of tune, and these struggles are nothing new.

Thinking about the beginning of the church at Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate next week, I’m guessing there was about a fifteen minute honeymoon period before the first fighting of any kind took place within the church. We struggle over things; we’re human; it’s something we do, and I’m guessing Jesus knew how much we struggle over things when he prayed that all of his disciples through the centuries would be one.

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.”