Based on Acts 11:1-17, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35
I’d like to start our reflection time this morning by asking you, “What is the most challenging command, order or request that you have ever received?” For me, the most challenging commands, orders or requests were those that pushed up against my moral, ethical or theological understanding. For example, I wrestled quite a while in 2017 before vowing to uphold the United Methodist Book of Discipline – some portions with which I significantly disagreed. Specifically, those portions which I strongly believed inhibited me from being a pastor to all persons whom God might call me to serve. I made an uneasy peace with my vow – and I lived fully into it accepting the restrictions to my ministry, while I advocated to change those Book of Discipline rules.
It took seven years from that point, and more than 50 years overall, for those portions regarding the status of Queer persons within the Church to be changed to come into alignment with how I understand the teachings of Jesus – especially his challenging command to love everyone unconditionally as I am loved by Him. Jesus’ love for me and for all of us frees us to be able to interact with everyone as beloved children of God instead of as something less-than.
Loving everyone as Jesus loves us is challenging for humans since we have seemingly always had a dualistic worldview, that is we understand people as “Us vs. Them”, “We vs. They” or “I vs. It”. It gives us a perspective that creates an arbitrary in-group and an out-group. Some of the more challenging commands of the Bible call into question this human mindset. Our scripture readings today speak directly against such an understanding or way of interacting between people – opting instead for a unitive way of relating – a worldview where all are welcome and no one is left standing outside our ability to love unconditionally as we are loved by God.
Jesus is talking with the disciples in the Upper Room in our reading from the Gospel of John. Judas has just departed to betray Jesus and the remaining 11 are given a new and very challenging command – “…Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another….” Peter, and the other disciples probably initially understood this to mean that they are to love the other disciples as they have been unconditionally loved by Jesus. However, in just a short span of time following Jesus’ Ascension, Peter will see how loving others as Jesus loves him is actually much more inclusive than Peter would have ever imagined.
In the Book of Acts, Peter has a vision from God that shows him that in God’s view all of creation has been created good or “clean”. Humans created rules and regulations that designated certain animals off limits for consumption. Peter had followed these Jewish dietary restrictions his whole life – studiously avoiding anything that humans had designated “impure or unclean”. God commanded Peter that nothing was unclean in God’s eyes and then God sent Peter to the house of a Roman Centurion, an “unclean” gentile and an oppressor of the Jews! Peter began to speak about God’s great act of love in Jesus and the Holy Spirit came and anointed all in the house, allowing them to speak in tongues and praise God. Peter realized that the gift of God’s Spirit was available to all people and that there was no reason for him to stand in the way of God’s inclusive plan.
John’s Revelation has the New Jerusalem descending from heaven to be on earth. Those whose names have been found in the book of life are welcomed into the new holy city to live with God. All people will be blessed to live with no pain, mourning, crying or death. This revelation of how the world will be at the end of the age, puts an exclamation point on the inclusive love of our God.
Jesus commands us to love others the same way he loves us. He does not ask whether we want to or not, he does not suggest that this might be something for us to consider, he does not offer this kind of love as an option for us to choose or deny – it is a command! Jesus challenged those first disciples and challenges all of us who have followed to live up to that command. In fact, the Gospels tell the story of how he lived his whole life and ministry openly loving everyone with whom he made contact.
Seminary professor, Audrey West writes about Jesus loving approach in this way, “…As John’s Gospel unfolds, Jesus embodies God’s love not only to all people broadly speaking (though surely at least that!) but also to the particular individuals who cross his path, whether or not they are believers and even if they are strangers to him. Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the man at the pool of Bethzatha: nothing suggests Jesus knew them prior to the encounters as recorded in John. Yet his compassion and healing power are offered to each one.
What is ‘new’ about the commandment to love one another is that our love is measured against the love Jesus has for everyone rather than against our love for ourselves. ‘Love as I have loved you,’ Jesus says. Everything else flows from that.
Thus, the primary point of Jesus’ new commandment is not the object of one’s love but the manner of loving. Not the who but the how.
Jesus heals the royal official’s son without requiring the man to follow him. He heals the man at the pool of Bethzatha without demanding a confession of loyalty. He feeds the crowds on the side of the mountain without asking for proof they are hungry or whether they have food at home. (Call it) fierce and mighty love…(call it) loving as Jesus loves. Call it what you will - it heals, it feeds, it fills, it brings life, it accompanies, it abides. It is who God calls us to be and what God empowers us to do….”
To put a fine point on that last emphasis about God empowering us through the Holy Spirit to love in this new way, Lutheran pastor, Sarah Scherschligt, offers these thoughts, “…The heart of Christianity is never what we do; it is what God does. The community of God’s people doesn’t spring up from our activity; it comes from God. Peter’s vision was, after all, from God and not of his own making. As long as we err on the side of love and stay open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we follow the commandment Jesus gave the community formed in his name: to love one another, so people will know we are his disciples….”
Jesus had no requirements to earn his love – that’s what we call grace. Grace is the freely given gift of love that God showers on us every moment of our lives. We can never lose God’s love, and we can never earn more of God’s love – we receive the same abundant and overflowing amount no matter what. How do we fulfill the challenging command of Jesus to love in the same way? We fulfill this commandment by dropping our judgments, our preconceived notions, our worthiness and purity codes, our entrance exams and dualistic thinking. Then we pray for God to give us the means and the grace to love everyone, regardless of any issue we might have with them or they with us. For as Jesus showed his disciples time and again, loving like Jesus comes directly from God through the transformative power of prayer.
Challenging commands require that we take them seriously and that we follow them – or that we turn away from the One who issued the command (like the rich young ruler). Challenging commands require us to wrestle with our understandings, our feelings, our ways that we have been living and interacting up until that point. The challenging command of Jesus to love everyone as he loves us compels us to look at how we are loving. As professor West wrote, “…the primary point of Jesus’ new commandment is not the object of one’s love but the manner of loving. Not the who but the how….”
How is this command of Jesus challenging you to address the way that you love? Challenging you to open yourself through prayer to allow God’s Holy Spirit to powerfully flow through you so that no one ever has to earn your love again – that no one is ever turned away from the love you freely and abundantly receive from Jesus. To grow in love to the point that we love like we are loved by Jesus seems like an impossible challenge – but nothing is impossible with God. May God continue to help us grow in love until we all meet the challenge to love like Jesus loves us. Amen!