Today’s Gospel reading has us again abiding with God. Living out the Great commandment to love one
another “that our Joy may be complete!” Jesus lifting his followers claiming
and proclaiming I no longer call you servants but “I call you friends”. So Lovely, what a beautiful concept it
calls to mind the old hymn Oh what a friend we have in Jesus… A friend of Jesus a friend in God….
Let me share this Fred Craddock story….
Fred explains that for some reason he had never preached
on this verse before and he found himself a little nervous;
“From servant to
friend – do you welcome, will you accept this promotion?...
I must acknowledge
that my trembling before john 15:15 has an antecedent in a sermon heard almost
twenty years ago on a kindred theme: Abraham was called a friend of God James
2:23 The preacher, a large man, made painfully awkward by a number of maladies,
including poor eyesight, moved to the pulpit and read in crippled speech his
sermon text James 2:23.
His opening words
were, “Abraham was a friend of God. I’m sure glad I am not a friend of God.”
His sermon was an explanation of why he was pleased not to be a friend of
God.... (Fred goes on to explain)
I cannot recall
being so engaged in a sermon… He recalled the story of Abraham, pilgrim and wanderer,
who, after years of homelessness, died and was buried in a land not his own.
“Abraham was a friend of God,” He said; “I’m glad I’m not. “He then spoke of
others who had been called friends of God, faithful in spite of dungeon, fire,
and sword. He concluded with Teresa of Avila, remembered by the church as a
friend of god. He recalled her begging in public to raise funds for an
orphanage. After a series of setbacks- flood, storm and fire repeatedly
destroying the orphanage- Teresa in her evening prayers said to God, “So this
is how you treat your friends; no wonder you have so few.” The sermon closed
with Counsel: if you find yourself being drawn into the inner circle of the
friends of God, blessed are you. But pray for strength to bear the burden of it.”[1]
Oh what a friend we have in Jesus… Cradock’s story does
make one pause
One way this Easter season can be described is
"trekking through John's Gospel!" This passage is more of the same of
last weeks passage it is a continuation of Jesus’ farewell speech. So, we are
still on the move, called to abide in Christ’s love. To make our Home in Christ
and allow Christ to make home in us.
This part of Jesus teaching opens with as the father has
loved me so I have loved you and ends with I am giving you these commandments
so that you can love one another. A Nice
pair of Book ends. But the opening verse does make me ask or ponder and wonder:
how has Jesus loved us as God loves Jesus? What is this mirror image supposed
to tell us about Jesus' love for his people, the love in which we are to abide?
Well there are some things we learn as we have walk with
Jesus through the Gospels… “God’s love towards Jesus is demanding, full of
presence and promise, rich in public displays of God's power. It prunes,
cleanses, molds, forms, challenges, and supports Jesus in his ministry. This is
the love of Jesus Christ in which we are invited to abide.”[2]
This is the Love we are called to live into, a love
fully and completely around us at all times Challenging us to do better, to be
better. This love we are called into is full of the promise of being welcomed
home into the eternal love that is God.
Jesus emphatically says the road of abiding consists in
keeping his commandments (John 15:10). So what is Jesus’ commandments he is
requiring us to keep? This is the little trick in John…John assumes his readers
and his community know the stories of Christ including the great Commandment.
Jesus again urges his disciples to do this since he has kept God's
commandments, and the results of such abiding, the results of that love were
observable in all he did, and we can still live into that presence today!
One commentator reflects that in the first two versus of
this reading we can imaging “a parent leaning over a young baby, with smiles,
trying to elicit smiles, and with gestures encouraging the baby to do the same
as the parent.” Of course, how many
parents recall trying to get their baby to smile and they get everything other
than a smile? Jesus knows we are human.
Yet, Jesus' use of himself as the model for love, and for commandment keeping,
is anchored in daily life. One imagines his encouragement: "You can do
this! You can do this because I have done it, and I am here to show you how to
do it."
“Verse 11; “I have said these things to you so that my
joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” This, this is an odd
outcome, this is not one would expect to hear…the results of keeping Christs
commandments is Joy--joy. And not just any joy, but the joy of Jesus the
Christ, a complete joy. I would even venture to say an incomprehensible joy.
But what does this mean? What does this
Joy look like? I believe it means an exuberance of faith that nothing can
destroy. It means a deep-seated sense of happiness that is not merely emotion
alone, but also a lively pleasure in the things of God. It is such a deep-rooted
joy that even in the most challenging of times we can find a comfort or even a
bit of holy sarcasm…remember Teresa’s prayer…in the face of extreme adversity
she can comfortably come to God and say so this is how you treat your friends…
This passage gives a view of what we are truly called to
as Christians
… these words of Jesus effectively combine human action,
the fulfilling of his commandments, love God with your whole heart and Love
your neighbor, with a radical human emotion as their effect, Joy! Abiding in
Jesus the risen Lord is not a matter of grim-faced respectability or dour
commandment keeping −it is a joy, a holy hilarity!
Right here is the great commandment as Jesus reminds us
is "that you love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
love one another. Jesus extends the depths and extent of this love by saying
the greatest expression of love is dying for one's friends.
Let me say this… there are many ways of dying that do
not require a cross.
Giving up time or a want, so that another may be happy,
sacrificing a meal so another may eat, walking a little further down a road so
one does not have to be alone. These are all little deaths, deaths of one’s own
ego. Sacrificing of our time, talent and giving up our many ways of being
self-serving and becoming self-sacrificing truly this is laying down one’s life
for their friends.
Biblical commentators have pointed out some interesting issues
of which to be aware of in verses 12 and 13. In these verses, Jesus is speaking
of love between and among friends. What about the enemies? The strangers? Would
one die for love of these as well? Well, well, well, what about that…if we love
our neighbor no matter who that is…how can they be an enemy. Often one is heard to ask who is my
neighbor? Who am I called to love, who
is my friend that I am called to love? Well…mm mm…ok who is my enemy, who, I
mean really who is your enemy? Who is so excluded from our world view that we
can truly claim them as an enemy. In Mathew we are reminded you have heard love
your neighbor, but I say love your enemies.
In this day and age, we may feel we have enemies at
times, but do we really? Aren’t our true enemies empire? Perhaps our enemies
are attitudes of what mine is mine and what yours is mine, or attitudes of superiority
which can easily be seen in white privilege and male dominance or the way
society may scapegoat a particular ethnic population. The list could go on and
on. But we do not, as Christians, have people as enemies. I believe we have
behaviors, attitudes and egos to resist and hearts and minds to change!
Jesus reminds us
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No
greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”, Jesus then
clarifies how he regards his disciples. They are not strangers, nor merely
disciples, and certainly not just servants: they are friends.
Jesus notes the reason he calls them "friends"
is he has shared the riches of all he has with them, in terms of his
relationship with God. "I have made known to you everything..." (John
15:15). Here Jesus' offer of the intimacy of friendship is overwhelming. To live
in the love of Jesus, Jesus the Risen Lord, is to be invited into friendship
with God. There it is, we are invited. Through the Gospels Jesus has made known
to us everything as well and so we are called to be friends of God.
Friends of God. The reality of friendship with Jesus
offers in full disclosure is this; To know the Risen Christ is to know the
heart of God. Then Jesus reminds us we did not choose Christ but Christ choose
us…We were chosen just as the disciples are chosen John 15:16 and then we are reminded
of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Christ…Go and bear fruit ...fruit
that will last.
We are recieving something we did not create, go
searching for, or earn on our own. This is pure grace…the gifted-ness of God.
But there responsibility attached to the work of fruit
bearing. Not only are we to do it, but we are to bear "fruit that will
last."
Bearing fruit means making wise choices and decisions
for the work of and on behalf of God. It means acting thoughtfully over a life
time; discerning what thoughts, words, and actions best serve the intentions of
a loving God in this world.
Let us Pray as we continue to grow in God the we be that
loving presence of Christ, just as Christ is that loving presence in us. So
that all around us one by one hearts and minds may be changed, bent towards the
arch of love. That truly is fruit that will last!
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