Loading...Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter
May 21, 2017
Offered by the Rev. Matt Rowe
Collect of the Day: O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sermon Audio
Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter
Many of us learned a wonderful truth through a simple song we learned as children. “Jesus oves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus loves me. It is a message we need to continually hear as we go through life, so that our lives may be fashioned as responses of love to the great love he has shown to us, love displayed most perfectly, as we hear in the eucharistic prayer, that he suffered “death upon the cross for our redemption” in Rite I) (“stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself. . .” in Rite II). I want to consider this morning some ways that we fashion our lives in loving response to God’s love in Christ.
When the word “love” enters into a human relationship, it is a sign of great significance. In such relationships words matter. It matters when we speak words of love to another person, but it matters also when we give credibility to those words. Words of love are reinforced by actions, things we do, even small things, that demonstrate our love. Words of love are reinforced by our treatment of those we love. As Christian people, the highest form of love we seek to express is Agape, the kind of love Jesus has for us, the kind of love that puts the beloved first. Words of love are reinforced by time given to those we love: time to be present, time to offer help, time to be attentive, time to listen, time to enjoy, time to cherish, time to dream, time to just be. Our relationship with God in Christ is characterized by the word “love,” which means that what we say is reinforced by action, by our treatment of our beloved, and by the time we give to this most significant of relationships.
Jesus says that we can demonstrate our love for him by keeping his commandments. There is probably no more top priority command from Jesus than to love one another. It was his command to the disciples in the upper room on the night before he died, when he said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” (John 13:34). This imperative the followers of Jesus have had a rough time obeying. Almost from Day One, there has been argument, dissension, disagreement, and all manner of uncharity
that tears away at the Body of Christ, the Church for which he died and of which he is the Head and Cornerstone.
I learned this week of an effort to restore some essential unity between Christians when I read a report that a dialogue between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church that began in 2002 has resulted in a proposal for full communion that will be considered by the United Methodist General Conference in 2020, and by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in 2018, where one of our own, Mary Tinsley, is to serve as a Deputy. If accepted by both churches, there will be full recognition of the validity of the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the other, as well as the ability to have exchange of clergy to preside in the sacraments. It is not a proposal for merger, but intercommunion and more intentional partnership. Such a relationship we already have with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a few other traditions. To have such a relationship with the United Methodist Church would be something of a family reconciliation, since it was out of the Anglican tradition that the Methodist tradition evolved.
As important as these larger church initiatives are, it is even more important that the command to love one another be observed in the local parish, for the love we show one another either validates or nullifies our gathering around the scriptures and the breaking of bread. I give thanks for the many expressions of Christian love I have witnessed in nearly five years of service to this parish, and I pray that godly love may continue to be incarnate in our midst.
Jesus gave another commandment to his disciples. Just before his Ascension to the right hand of the Father, a feast we will celebrate with an Ascension Eve service on Wednesday evening and an Ascension Day service on Thursday, he said to them, as the King James Version renders it, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
That command took Paul to Athens, preaching in that highly religious city, so religious that they had an altar dedicated to an “unknown god,” just in case they missed someone, and Paul went to Athens to tell them about this “unknown God,” who makes all other gods somehow irrelevant. We “go into all the world” as we live into our Baptismal Covenant, a life described by Peter as one of “good conduct in Christ.”
We live this life, first of all, by loving our Lord Jesus. “If you love me,” he says, but St. John, who wrote down the Lord’s words, wrote this phrase in such a way that the “if” speaks to a background condition, a logical assumption that some state of affairs exists. That little bit of Greek research tells us something very important. When Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me,” he assumed that to be the case. They had, after all, given up all to follow him, and so Jesus said to them, in effect, “If you love me, and it is apparent that you do, you will keep my commandments.” In the same spirit, then, I can say, “If you love Jesus,” and I assume that you do because here you are on a Sunday morning, then you will go from this place into all the world in witness to his love for all the world.”
We are to “go into all the world” as those who are prepared, as Peter exhorts us, ready to give an accounting of the hope that is in us. For his first audience, that meant to be able to stand up and declare faith in Christ before the Roman authorities, knowing that such an accounting would likely lead to persecution and death. Such extreme conditions are still encountered by Christian people even in our day, and to remember the persecuted Church In your personal prayers would be a worthwhile addition to your spiritual practice.
So also would be becoming ready to give an accounting of the hope that is in you, which means to reflect on the story of your journey of faith, prepare yourself to present it when given opportunity, and then sharing it when the opportunity does arise. Not sure you have a story? Come see me. After five years I know this congregation to be full of faith stories, stories of God at work in so many lives. I’ve seen it. I’ve been inspired by it. So, if you’d like some help giving voice to your story, I would love to assist you in being ready to give an accounting of your hope.
Jesus promises us that, as we step out in faithful obedience, that God our Father provides us another Advocate, meaning “one who comes alongside,” to be with us. He is speaking of the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon the Church at Pentecost, the Spirit of Truth, leading us into all truth, pointing us always to Jesus, bearing witness always to Jesus, whom we love, whom we obey as we love one another and go into the world with his love poured into our hearts, showing forth in hands that reach out to seek and serve all persons, and in lips that speak always the praise of his marvelous name.
Matthew Rowe+
5/21/17
