This morning, we are turning to a passage that is part of the conversation Jesus had with his disciples at his last supper. Jesus knew he was about to be crucified, so he was sharing his final message with his followers, his final words of wisdom, his final instructions. He wanted his friends to embody his message to the world by how they treated each other and how they lived out their faith. So, Jesus gave them a new commandment: that they should love each other as Jesus loved them.
This passage was lifted up by our own Phyllis Schlotterback…four verses from God that command all of us to love each other.
Listen now to the word of God as we read John Chapter Fifteen, starting at verse 9:
The Scripture Lesson John 15:9-17
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
This is my command: Love each other.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen
Let us pray…
The Message Chosen Friends
When we are children in elementary school, we don’t have a choice about who is in our classes…we have very few choices, period. The teachers often assign our seats – sometimes we sit in alphabetical order by our last names; sometimes we sit in alphabetical order by our first names; sometimes the teachers decide based on putting the trouble-makers close to their seats and the good kids further away. Our classrooms may have kids from different neighborhoods, kids whose parents have very different types of jobs, kids from a variety of ethnic groups, kids with different religions, kids who are only children or kids with lots of brothers and sisters. It all seems pretty random – yet, I recall, I often became friends with the kids who sat closest to my seat.
As we grow older, we have more control. The kids who want to be in band may be in classes with other band kids. The kids who are taking a lot of advanced placement classes may end up together. The kids who are into school sports may all be placed in classes together so that they can leave early for meets and matches. We may end up in classes with kids who are more like us because of the things we share in common.
And, then, after high school, some students go to college, and some go to trade school, and some start working right away. Some kids join the military, some go on long-term missionary trips for their faiths, and some stay in their basements and play video games.
We end up spending most of our time with people who are like us….people with the same type of job training, people with a similar education, people who live in our neighborhoods, people from our families. As our life moves forward, we have fewer and fewer opportunities to mix with lots of different types of people.
Our worship centers, our churches, are one of the few places we spend time with people who may be very different than us….we may have different types of jobs; we may live in different kinds of neighborhoods and housing; we may have different ethnic backgrounds; some of us earn a lot of money and some of us are barely getting by; we are married or divorced or widowed or single; some of us were born in Sellersville and some of us were born thousands of miles away; some of us are young and some of us are old…..yet here we sit, side by side, every week.
And, not only do we sit side by side and worship together, we also work together to practice our faith, to put our faith into action. We have committed to loving God, following Jesus,and….strangely…loving each other. We love each other despite our differences.
This doesn’t always come easy for us. It is easier to love people who are just like us. It is more work to love people who are different. But, we are called by our God, and commanded by Jesus, to love each other. So, that is what we endeavor to do….to love each other.
We live in a period of human history when people are more and more isolated. People work from home, so they don’t mingle with co-workers at the water cooler. Most of us have air-conditioning, so people stay behind the closed doors and windows of their homes….not really getting to know their neighbors. People watch screens all day long – and sometimes all night long – feeling lonely yet watching other people doing things 24-7. People are more and more isolated.
Yet, we are here, choosing to sit alongside each other. We are here, working together to serve God. We are here, accepting and loving each other despite our differences. We are here, working to love each other.
This is a message other people need to hear. This is a welcome other people need to hear. We don’t expect people to become part of our church because they are just like us. We don’t expect people to become part of our church because they are perfect and don’t have any problems. We don’t expect people to come to join in our work on Christ’s behalf because we think we have the perfect solution to address every one in the world’s needs.
Instead, we are all people who are working on ourselves, working to do each day a little better than the next. We are learning from each other, and learning from our God, how to serve the people in our world who are suffering and learning how to support each other as we suffer. We are working to love each other despite our imperfections…despite our differences….despite our flaws.
And, we are bolstered by our belief that our God loves us, and loves all the people of the world, no matter what. We are loved. Other people need to hear this message, that God loves them. And we will endeavor to love them too.
May it be so, today and all days. Amen.
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