Love One Another John 15: 9-17 – 2024/5/5

May 5, 2024

“Love One Another”
John 15: 9-17

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

John 15: 9-17

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.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I 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. You 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. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

 

---

 

Love One Another John 15: 9-17

I am having a déjà vu sort of week. I feel like I have been in this place before. I’m not talking about being in this sanctuary on a Sunday morning for worship. I’m talking about standing behind this pulpit saying these words, over and over again, time after time: “Love one another.” I feel like this is what I say each and every week. And yes, I know I am probably preaching to the choir. I have seen this congregation time and time again live out this commandment, sharing God’s love for all of God’s people.

But like I said, it has been one of those déjà vu sort of weeks. Could it be that I feel like I say these words over and over again each and every week because somehow each week, these words are shared over and over again in the Scriptures we read, in the Scriptures which we say are the Word of God for the people of God? Sure, maybe not these exact words but when we read the Gospel words, whether they come from the Old Testament or New Testament, in some shape, in some form, it all boils down to: Love one another as I have loved you.

Why is it so hard? There it is in black and white. We can’t misinterpret it. Jesus says “Love one another as I have loved you.” We can’t pretend we don’t understand. We know what Jesus is talking about in this passage. He tells us plain and simple. “Love one another as I have loved you.” And just in case we miss it the first time, Jesus goes on to say “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you”. Then he continues by saying: I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

How are we not getting this? As people of faith, we have one standard. To love as Jesus loved. We certainly can’t pretend we don’t know what Jesus is talking about when he says these words. He showed us just exactly how we are supposed to do this as his disciples! We know exactly what he meant when Jesus said “Love one another as I have loved you”.

Everything Jesus did, everything he taught, everything he preached, every act of ministry Jesus did while here on earth, was an embodiment of these words. During his time here on earth, Jesus showed love to all. Jesus showed grace to all. We know exactly what Jesus meant when he said Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus even went as far as showing us how to live out this greater love to all by laying down his life for his friends, for his disciples, for us, the ones who claim him as our Lord and Savior. We know exactly what Jesus meant when he said “Love one another as I have loved you.”

As I continue to hear all the stories of hate and hurt that fill our world, I just want to shout: “People, how are we not getting this? Jesus said over and over again, time and after time, in some way, in some form, “Love one another as I have loved you.” People, how are we not getting this?

Maybe we aren’t getting it because it has become so ingrained in us that for us to function as a society there has to be insiders and outsiders, that there has to be people we love and people we don’t love, that there has to be people we accept and people we don’t accept.

Or maybe we are not getting this whole Love one another as I have love you thing because we think love is a limited resource. Maybe we have tricked ourselves into believing that if we share it with others, there won’t be enough for us.

Or maybe the reality of it is why we aren’t getting this whole love one another thing is because it is simply too hard. It requires too much from us. It requires too much of us. It requires that we tear down the walls which separate and divide our communities. It means that we would have to start seeing each other as made in the image of God. It means recognizing that we don’t get to pick and choose who is worthy of God’s love.

Maybe that’s the real reason why we really don’t want to start loving as Jesus has loved us. Because if we love as Jesus loved us, then that means we aren’t in control. It means we don’t have a say of who is in and who is out. If we really started loving as Jesus loved us, then that would mean we don’t get to choose who we will love just because they happen to think, act, or look like us. And I mean who wants that, right?

We would rather hold on to our control of who is in and who is out rather than let the Spirit of God come in and start meddling…Except ….except here is the thing we tend to ignore when it comes to Jesus’ command to love one another as he loved us. We tend to ignore the fact that “when we invited Christ into our lives, he insisted that we let him bring his friends along with him.” Let me say that again. “When we invited Christ into our lives, he insisted that we let him bring his friends along with him.”

And we all know who Jesus claimed as his friends right? Sinners, Tax collectors, Prostitutes, Lepers, and oh, yea…us.

Jesus lumps us, the people who are his followers, the people who claim him as our Lord and Savior, Jesus lumps us, his friends, together with all those other people. Jesus claims all of us, from his followers right down to those sinners he broke bread with, Jesus claims all of us as his friends. No divisions, no special treatment, no extra perks.

I’m going to let that sink in for a moment. You see when it comes to God’s love, we don’t get to decide who is worthy or not. God does. And God decided a long time ago that all are chosen to be named and claimed as God’s beloved children. God decided a long time to show how much God loves this world by sending God’s only son so that we might live. God decided a long time ago that all are to abide in God’s love.

People of God, how are we not getting this? Especially now when our world is so in need of understanding, is so in need of healing, especially now when our world is so in need of experiencing the life transforming reality that love is not a limited quantity resource. Rather instead, what we know as one who has experienced it, we know…we know God’s love is abundant and overflowing.

Here and now, Our world needs to know that God’s love never runs out. Here and now, Our world needs to know that there is more than enough to go around. Here and now, Our world needs to see what can happen when we all begin to love as God has loved us.

Here and now, as Jesus’ disciples, we are called to celebrate the amazing gift of God’s love. We are called  to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We are called to embrace the connection we have with all of God’s children. Here and now, as Jesus’ disciples, we are called to live out this vision of what it would look like if, when we all love as Jesus loved.

May it be so.

Amen.

Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.

Listen to the podcast.