May 29, 2011 Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 14:15-21

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

 “Love...As Struggle Together” 

“Love is, as much as it is anything, a struggle together that is always seeded with new possibilities and challenges...even in old age.”    Eugene Kennedy

Jesus is talking about such a struggle in our text for today.

He is not talking about a comfortable system for getting into heaven. 

He is talking about the struggle inherent in loving one’s neighbor as one’s self!

Jesus can be very demanding.  To know of his amazing grace is also to learn of his demanding love.  For once we are loved and know lit, we have to love so others know it.

To say that God loves me is to say something not only life giving, but also something life demanding.  This means we are to be about the task of healing where ever it is needed.

As Sam Keen says, “The task of the lover is to be an agent of healing.“ 

This is the struggle to be human in the image of Jesus. 

This is the bottom line with Jesus: to love God and live it by showing love to others.

This is no extra curricular activity we are called to do. This is the heart of it all.   

We have been loved with a great love!  We are to love with a great love!

“Unlike The World”   

“The disciplesare utterly unlike the world.  (They) live under a different command, are given a different spirit, serve a different God, and engage in a different love.  (this) community-defininlg command...is new and unexpected....the command is an invitation to live a different life together, unlike the sways of the world. The practice of love makes the church staggeringly unlike the world.”    Walter Brueggemann 

We are called to be different.  Not perfect, not sanctimonious, not judgmental, but different!  Different because of the role love plays in our lives and relationships.

 “All gestures of love however small they be in favor of the poor and the unwanted, are important to Jesus.”  Mother Teresa: 

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”  Mother Teresa: 

 “Let them say, ‘He tried to love somebody.’”   Martin Luther King:

We are called to be different in how we love.  This is the all consuming task of following Jesus.