My Sunday Sermon

Abide in Love

May 13, 2012

John 15:9–17

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

This text is part of John’s larger witness of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, which began with the intimate meal Jesus shared with his disciples in chapter 13. In this Farewell Discourse, we find Jesus and the disciples together as he seeks to deepen the disciples’ understanding of the power of his love found in his connection with God. In Jesus’ love, “community” is formed as the living expression of God’s love for the world.

Community was found in the relationships of the very earliest Jesus movement, before a church was even organized. Jesus had taught them the value of taking care of one another. In his acquaintances, there were no untouchables. There were women in his ministry..some even financed his ministry. Tax collectors were a part of his group. They met together each day and shared what food they had.

After Jesus death, the early movement continued his ministry by promising to take care of any who were sick. They fed the hungry, visited those in prison, clothed those that needed clothing. Even Paul spoke of deacons caring for widows. For over a hundred years people flocked to the new movement because of the love they found there and the care they were given.

Jesus unfolded the prior vine and branches metaphor used to express the relationship he called his disciples to have in him. When the branches connect with the vine, they produce and bear fruit. Without the vine, branches cannot produce the fruit for which they are created. Through this metaphor, Jesus wanted the disciples to understand their capacity to produce and bear fruit. This fruit only comes when they learned to love as Jesus did…unselfishly, all inclusive.

What is the fruit they will bear? Following the meal, Jesus said to the disciples, “I give you a new commandment to love one another just as I have loved you.”

There is an essential message seeking to be heard in this commandment offered three times in this discourse. “To love one another as I have loved you,” only has potential when we find the capacity to appreciate the love of God. To love like this is to be there for the other, to do for the other, even if it means giving things up for ourselves. When we recognize God’s love for us, we find the presence and gift of grace flowing into our lives. Through the presence of grace, we can experience and see ourselves and others as people of worth. It is through this grace that Jesus can say “I do not call you servants any longer…but I have called you friends.” It is this grace that will help us see all others as friends. When our congregation as individuals are willing to live in this new way of viewing people and embrace the blessing of our unity in diversity, amazing things will happen.

Latter Day instruction from Grant McMurray in Section 162 said it this way:

8a. You are a good and faithful people, but sometimes you fail to see the power that is resident in your own story and fellowship. Look carefully, listen attentively, and sense the Spirit among you.

b. Do not be unduly concerned with numbers. Be fervent in your witness, passionate in your discipleship, and vigorous in your labor on behalf of peace and justice. Where two or three such disciples form community, there will the Spirit be. Many will come to see.

c. Continue your journey, O people of the Restoration. You have been blessed thus far but there is so much yet to see, so much yet to do.Go forth with confidence and live prophetically as a people who have been loved, and who now courageously choose to love others in the name of the One you serve. Amen.

And this kind of love is not only present in our congregation and church members but we find it as well in the lives of our good friends who have learned to love the way Jesus taught.

Last month at our PINCH meeting, Mary, a Catholic woman who teaches the Hispanics members of their congregation the English language, pled with the group for help for one of her students. Maria had been caught in a traffic check on her way to Independence. She had to show her expired drivers license. Then she received a citation for driving without a license. She had had a license when she lived in Missouri but moved to Kansas where Kansas requires documentation for folks to get a driver’s license. Maria had no documentation. And her Missouri license had expired in 2009. She and her husband had lived and worked here in Coffeyville for many years. They had three children who were born here. But she was illegal. She had been deported twice without her family. After a long time, she managed to make her way back to Coffeyville to her family. Immigration from Mexico is backed up for ten years. The prospect of waiting to be legally imported, was dim. In ten years her children would be grown.

Mary brought Maria’s plight to the attention of PINCH. None of us thought there was a solution to her dilemma because of her illegal status. I talked to Judge Cullins about her case and he said if she was not incarcerated, she was only being charged with a traffic violation. However, if she went to court, her true status might be revealed. Jack, a retired judge, and dear friend, belongs to the PINCH organization. He said very little during the telling of Maria’s story. I did most of the talking but could not come up with a solution.

The Friday following the meeting, Jack paid Maria’s fine. Now Maria will not have to go to court. The fine was $138.00. I only know this because I work in that office. To me, that was evidence of “abiding in God’s love”. …of extending ourselves in love to care for the needs of others.

The word “abide” gives us a sense of security, of knowing we can trust God as our friend. It also represents a feeling of closeness, of knowing that we are never alone.

This story was shared with me by Madaleen Miller:

In Peshawar, there was, and perhaps still is, a driver named Riaz. He had the reputation of driving the Grant Trunk like a maniac. If one was interested in the quickest way to Islamabad, Riaz was chosen. On the other hand, our visiting son remarked that he had ridden the scariest roller coasters in existence and nothing equaled a trip down the Grand Trunk with Riaz at the wheel.

But the demon driver had another side usually unknown. He and his wife adopted children--in a country where child labor was much more common than adoption. Even a five-year-old can turn over bricks in a brick factory and thus 'support' himself.

Up country in one of the remote areas some young tourists (a Japanese couple I think) became seriously ill with a debilitating infection. There was rudimentary medical care at a clinic but no hospital. Riaz took them home and he and his family cared for them until they were able to travel, not for days, but for weeks. and refused recompense, though a drivers salary was not significant. Mud walls and dirt floors can contain great beneficence!

Now there is a disciple….abiding in love. Was he a Christian? No….but his actions were an illustration of Jesus’ challenge.

Humans are created to be with God and one another like the branch with the vine. When Christ-like love draws us deeper into relationship, mutual respect, and trust, the essence of worth becomes an expression of love between brothers and sisters in Christ.

We dwell in God’s love. In love, God pursues us. As Jesus said, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” This continues to be the miracle in this enduring story of love. God pursues us because God wants to be in relationship with us where true love flows inward and outward. And when this joy of God is in us, our joy is complete! Let us ask ourselves, when have we experienced God’s pursuit in our life and the invitation to abide in God’s grace and love?