The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the Sixth Sunday of Easter — with food for thought on leading a consecrated life. Gnaw away!
John 15:9-17
Jesus said to the disciples, “As my Abba has loved me, so have I loved. Live on in my love. And you will live on in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I live on in Abba God’s love and have kept God’s commandments. I tell you all this that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer speak of you as subordinates, because a subordinate doesn’t know a superior’s business. Instead I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from Abba God. It was not you who chose me; it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that whatever you ask of Abba God in my name God will give you. This command I give you: that you love one another.
The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?
“Live on in my love” is what we heard Jesus say to his disciples last week. It is
the night he was betrayed, the night before he dies. He has washed their
feet and said “this is what you must do for one another.” And when we hear
these words from Jesus it is the second time he has said the very same
thing: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have
loved you. This is the point upon which everything hinges. Are you a branch
that bears much fruit or are you a branch that will be cut off and thrown
into the fire? That’s easy to tell … How do you love? Love is the whole
ballgame. It is the journey — the way to abide in Christ — and the
destination — the fruit of abiding in Christ. And not an easy love but a
costly love, a love that is about laying down one’s life. A love that is
willing to give up everything. That is what our friendship with Christ is
based on … our willingness to love like Christ.
A few things to chew on:
*Not servants but friends. Jesus draws this distinction and it an important
one. In addition to the truth that superiors might keep secrets from
subordinates (“a subordinate doesn’t know a superior’s business.”) but not
friends is the larger reality about any inheritance. Under Jewish law, you
couldn’t leave a slave any inheritance at all unless you first freed that
slave. For the disciples — and us — to be not subordinates/servants but friends is to
say that we can be full inheritors of everything that Jesus taught, lived
and was. It is a level of intimacy in relationship that you would expect
from a Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us” … and perhaps a concept
of intimacy with which we have become familiar. But to those who heard
these words, this was a statement that was so radical, it bordered on
blasphemy — if you believed Jesus was who he said he was!
* “It was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that whatever you ask of Abba God in my name God will give you.”
There are some people who look at passages like this and take it to mean
that following Christ is a guarantee of wealth and success. This so-called
“prosperity Gospel” is popular in America and has been exported around the world
with great enthusiasm.
Of course, it completely misses the point. Yes … God will work through our efforts – often in ways we can neither predict or desire … as long as it is a part of our bearing fruit. As
long as it is part of our giving up ourselves for the life of the world.
What Jesus is saying here is a foretaste not just of his next three days
but of the life to which we are invited and even chosen. Yes, the
unimaginable joy of resurrection is yours. But there is no shortcut around
the cross to get there.
Try This:
“This command I give you: that you love one another.”
The command to love seems simple and basic. Of course, in practice, it is anything but. Our relationships with one another, even the most intimate and loving, are a huge mixed bag … and that’s OK … that’s part of our humanity.
Part of what we do as followers of Jesus is to do something small as a sign of the whole. We give away a portion of our money as a nod to the fact that all comes from God.
This week, pick one day and pick one person you see that day and try to love them as completely as possible. Give them your full attention every time they speak. Ask yourself what love would look like in their lives and try to do that for them. Ask THEM what love would look like in their lives and try to do that for them. Be other-focused on them … not in a way that is abusive to you (abuse is never loving to anyone), but in a way that grows the heart of generosity of love inside you. One day. One person. Then at the end of the day, spend some time thinking about how it felt … and how you feel different.
The consecrated life
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”
President Lincoln stood over the bloody battlefield at Gettysburg and by
his very brevity made a point.
The battlefield was consecrated not by any words he would say, but by the
actions of those who died there. Who gave “the last full measure of
devotion.”
What consecrated that battlefield was people who were willing to give up
their own lives for something greater than themselves. This in itself is
not new. Tales of heroes have been told throughout history of extraordinary
people who did the same.
But they were always seen as that … extraordinary people.
That was always the rub. It was never expected to lay down your life. It
was seen as extraordinary. You couldn’t be faulted for not doing it. In
fact, the assumption was that most people probably didn’t have it in them.
In this week’s Gospel, we hear something different. Jesus tells his
disciples to love one another as he has loved them … and then to drive
the point home, he says “No one has greater love than this, to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends.”
To follow Jesus means that laying down your life is no longer extraordinary
but ordinary. It is expected … part of the package.
Lincoln rightly recognized that the sacrifice of the Union soldiers’ lives
consecrated that battlefield. It made it holy. But he was only repeating
what Jesus had said nearly two millennia before.
We are invited to lay down our lives for one another so that our very lives
… and the whole world … become consecrated. When God became human in
Jesus we weren’t given a vision of what one extraordinary person could do
… someone whom we could never hope to emulate. No, we were given a
glimpse of the full potential of each person and all of humanity. How we
can each and all be the glory of God.
Our invitation to abide with Christ, our invitation into Christian
discipleship is an invitation to lead the consecrated life. To realize
that, like the Eucharistic bread and wine, our whole lives are offered to
God to become one with Christ, broken and given away.
It is not just for some of us to do. It is for all of us to do. And it is
our greatest honor, purpose and joy.
Lincoln realized this, too. And he said as much that day. What was up to
those who stood there, Lincoln said, was to “resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain.” It was up to “us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us.” It was up to all of us, Lincoln said, to give
our last full measure of devotion. It was up to all of us, Lincoln said, to
consecrate the ground of this still fledgling nation … and to consecrate
our lives in the process.
So Lincoln said on that battlefield in 1863.
So said Jesus to his disciples the night before he died.
So say we all today.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings
The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every
Sunday – [2]just click here[3].
Collect for Sunday
Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.
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.
Want to read more?
[4]“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource for anyone who
wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References
1. http://www.thelastfullmeasure.com/gettysburg_address.htm
2. http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Easter/BEaster6_RCL.html
3. http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Easter/BEaster5_RCL.html
4. http://www.textweek.com/
