First Lutheran Church
May 9, 2021 + The Sixth Sunday after Easter B
John 15:9-17 [Jesus said:] 9“As 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.”
“Impossible Love”
Pastor Greg Ronning
Many years ago, in my first call as a Youth Pastor, I was in charge of the confirmation program. And part of that program required the students to turn in “sermon notes.” The confirmation students were supposed to take notes during the sermon and then summarize the main points in a brief written report. And they were always very brief! It didn’t take long for the students to realize that every sermon was ultimately about “love.” And that they could get away with simply reporting that, “God loves us, and we are supposed to love each other.”
Now I was always hoping for something more profound, I was always hoping they would pick up on a profound theological point, that they would really relate personally to a story that was shared, or that they might discover their great calling in life. But that was seldom, if ever, the case. More times than not, all I got from them was, “God loves us, and we are supposed to love each other.”
But you know what, - they were right. The heart of the Gospel is “love,” the power of the Gospel is knowing that you are loved, and the great calling of the Gospel is to love others as we have been loved. In many ways, that’s what it’s all about! They got it right, that’s always the main point! Of course, as we all know, it’s always easier said than done!
In today’s Gospel reading from John, we are reminded of this main point. We are reminded how great God’s love is for each and every one of us, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” God in Christ Jesus laid down his life for each of us, for all of us, revealing the incredible breadth and depth of God’s love, and the liberating and saving power of God’s love. We are invited to “abide” in that love, and then we are exhorted to practice that love, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
God loves us, and we are supposed to love each other.” On one level it’s simple, but once again, as we all know, - it’s just not that easy. To love as Christ loved us, is extremely difficult at best, - and most likely impossible. Heck, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find it hard just to be nice to other people, let alone love, or love like Christ! And yet that’s exactly what Jesus asks of us, he wants us to love like he loved; to love people that make us uncomfortable, people who scare us, people who are strange, people who don’t think like us, people who don’t look like us, people who don’t share our political views, people who don’t act like us, people who don’t like us, even people who might hate us. How is it that we will ever be able to “love one another” as Christ loved us? There’s just so much doubt and fear residing deep within us, not to mention all around us, to ever overcome.
Is Jesus really serious about this commandment? And more importantly, are we willing to be serious about this commandment?
To be honest it’s kind of scary. It takes me to the edges of my life where I don’t feel safe, - and I like to feel safe! I’m more comfortable where I can keep things under my control. I prefer to practice love on my terms and not on the open-ended terms of Jesus. I prefer to volunteer when it’s convenient and conventional. I prefer to be present when I am in charge and balanced. I find it easier to give away little pieces of my heart, and not risk my whole heart. I find it much easier to practice charity, than I do to practice the love of God found in Jesus.
Yet, despite all my fears, there’s just something about the commandment, the invitation from Jesus to love, even to love recklessly, that causes me to lean in and to imagine, there’s something about it that compels me to respond. And in this moment, Jesus softly welcomes me, “Abide in my love.”
Because that’s where it all begins. Truth be told, we cannot begin to love until we have experienced love. Doubt and fear can only be conquered by that unconditional and relentless love that produces that peace which surpasses all understanding, the peace that guards our hearts and minds, and sets us free to finally be loved and to ultimately love others.
Today’s reading from John, the commandment to love, is preceded by Jesus’ teaching about how we are opened up and empowered to such love. “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
It’s important to note, and to remember, that Jesus is not asking us to somehow find the courage and strength to love all on our own, but rather is inviting us to “abide” in his love, and in doing so, let his love become the source and strength of our ability to love. Theologian Debi Thomas writes, “In the vine-and-branches metaphor, Jesus’s love is not our example; it’s our source. It’s where our love originates and deepens. Where it replenishes itself. In other words, if we don’t abide, we can’t love. Jesus’s commandment to us is not that we wear ourselves out, trying to conjure love from our own easily depleted resources. Rather, it’s that we abide in the holy place where divine love becomes possible.”
This my sisters and brothers, if you are taking sermon notes this morning, is the main point of today’s sermon! When we abide in the love of Christ, the love of Christ abides in us, strengthening and empowering us to love others. We begin by abiding, and abiding leads to loving. That’s how the love of God works! Thus, the question for today is, “Where is your holy place where divine love becomes possible?”
Faith comes to life, in the life of the faithful community. Love comes to life, in the life of the beloved community. So it is that we gather together, for the sake of faith, for the sake of love. To follow Christ, to live out the commandments of Jesus, is not a personal undertaking but rather a profoundly communal activity. Christ is present when two or more are gathered together seeking simply to be “faithful people doing faithful things.” To abide in Christ is not to be alone but to be intimately connected to the vine, the vine that is Christ, the source of our love.
And together in Christ, all things are possible – even “impossible love” comes to life. In our life together, in this holy place where divine love becomes possible, we become love fleshed out for each other, we become love fleshed out for our neighbors in need, and we become loved fleshed out for our community to see and behold. Apart from Christ we can do nothing, and such love remains frightening and unattainable. In Christ, in the vine, abiding in love; we bear the fruit of love, even unconditional and sacrificial love. Alone I cannot begin to love, but with you, my sisters and brothers in Christ, I am able to love, even as Christ has loved us.
Hear the word of Christ spoken to us this day, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
Let us give thanks for our Holy Place, for the love that abides here, the love among us, the love deep inside of us, that love that enables us to love, the impossible love that makes our joy complete. Amen.