So That Everyone Knows
A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
Abington
Presbyterian Church
May 6, 2007
John 13: 31-35
31 When he had gone out, Jesus
said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been
glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also
glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little
children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me;
and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you
cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love
one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one
another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if
you have love for one another.”*
The first question of the Westminster Confession asks is “What is our chief end?” The answer to that question should be burned on the mind of every Presbyterian: “Our chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.” This answer, however, begs a second question: “How do we glorify God?” The theme of this sermon is that we glorify God by loving one another.
Let us set the context for today’s gospel lesson. It was Thursday evening, the last night that Jesus would be with his disciples. He was in the upper room with them and it was at that time that Judas was identified as the betrayer. Judas left and then Jesus taught them about his relationship with God and how both would be glorified in the events that were about to take place.
But the conversation abruptly changes and suddenly Jesus is giving them a new commandment. He tells them to “love one another”. Maundy Thursday derives its name from this moment. The Latin word for commandment, mandatum, is the root for the word Maundy.
But what is new about this commandment? Didn’t Jesus already tell his followers to love others? Didn’t he say that they must love their neighbor as themselves? Didn’t he say that it was easy to love those whom we care about, but that his disciples must also love their enemies? The difference: Christ’s command that we love one another is inner directed. It is directed solely at Jesus’ disciples. He told them to love each other.
This is also a command that is directed to the church: to us. Some scholars have mused that Jesus probably knew what the church would be like and how it would be challenged by dissent and discord and so, anticipating this, Jesus gave us a new command: Love one another. It is a recognition that before we can talk about loving the world, we need to be able to love the one who is sitting next to us!
The juxtaposition of this command with his teaching about glorifying God leads me to conclude that one of the primary ways that we glorify God is by loving each other. The Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier captured this sentiment when he wrote:
To worship rightly is to love each other
Each smile a hymn,
each kindly deed a prayer.
Jesus was not suggesting that this was a good idea. It was a command! “Love one another. Just as I have loved you!” Jesus was not giving us something that he would not do. Indeed, he is the model for this command. Imitating him is the style of our love. How did he love his disciples? He sacrificed for them, he spent time with them. He broke bread with them. He taught them. He washed their feet, as a servant. He died for them.
That Thursday evening was filled with irony… because on that night when he told his disciples to love each other, one of them earlier betrayed that love. It is not the cross which is the nadir of John’s gospel. No, the cross is a cross of glory. Rather it is the rejection of that love, the betrayal by Judas. That is the low point of John’s gospel.
We are the inheritors of that command to love one another. It should be enough to hear the command and just do it, but Jesus also gave us a reason for his new command: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Everyone will know…… The call to love one another, though inner directed, also has its implications for evangelism and outreach. We are called to be a community of love, one that people will want to be part of. We have a message for the world.. and that message is that Christ enables us to live together in love, harmony and peace. Our behavior toward one another can be inviting, or repulsive. Jesus commands us to love each other. If we do so.. we are irresistible.
Sadly our churches are resistible. Our actions don’t always square with our words. How can we expect there to be peace in the world, in the Middle East, in central Europe, in northern Ireland, and other places if we cannot even embody it amongst ourselves? What moral authority do we have, if we can’t get live together in peace and harmony? Of course the question is “how?” To answer that question, we need to understand what impedes our love for each other. I am becoming convinced that the enemy of love is not hate, but rather two things: anxious fear and indifference.
Fear: fear triggers another impulse in our psyche.. and that is the impulse to control. Friederich Nietzsche called it “the will to power.” The will to power, generated by fear, has a way of undercutting community and destroying it, be it families, neighborhoods or the church. That is why cults ultimately degenerate into tyranny and destruction. In John’s first letter, he picked up this theme again: “Let us love one another, because love is from God…. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another…. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.” And finally, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear… whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Indifference. We live in a day of anonymity… we know a lot of people.. but do we really know them. Do we know their hopes, their fears, their faith and vision? Do we know their history, their pains and their joys? Love, within churches, is developed where intimacy is fostered among people. One of the things that Abington Presbyterian Church is about to launch is a small groups ministry. Why small groups? Because it will enable people to actually develop friendships and opportunities to share. It is a concrete expression of Jesus’ command to love one another.
Today we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper… we will break bread and drink the cup and witness to our unity in Jesus Christ.. we will speak the words of his love which unites us.. but the challenge of eating the bread and drinking the cup is that we live out these symbols of our faith, in a community of love. We will also close with a hymn that many people like… “the tie that binds.”…. I encourage you to listen to the words as you sing them, and ask yourself… how can I make this a reality in my life, and in my church? Amen.
*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.
Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania, www.apcusa.org
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