by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
—John 14:15-21
We just heard a relatively short but meaningful gospel. It takes place towards the end of Jesus’ last evening with his friends. Judas has gone out to betray him. Jesus has told Peter that he will deny his friend three times before the cock crows. The Passover candles are burning low. Jesus is reaching out to them for one last time. He talks about the Holy Spirit, the advocate, who will be coming to comfort and be with them in his absence. But more than that he talks about love, love for each other. This is the direction we will be heading this morning. But first a couple of funnies about love. First up here is a letter to a lady’s husband.
Dear Herbie, I know it was our joint decision for you to go off to the army for the year, but it’s so hard not having you here. We are married. Doesn’t it make sense that we should be together? I’m so miserable without you. It’s almost like you are still here. Love, Anne
Now a story about what not to do when the love of your life is mad at you.
Bob was in trouble. He had forgotten his wedding anniversary. His wife was angry. She warned him. “Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!"
The next morning, he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway and brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand-new bathroom scale. Bob has been missing since Friday.
Ok, time to get serious.
Love is a central theme in the New Testament. It is a central theme in the theology of Christianity. It often is thought of as the primary answer to every question.
I, along with a great many members of the Episcopal Church, listened to our Presiding Bishop speak about love a week or so ago. This is a man I have the highest respect and regard for. He has appeared on the national news many times and is one of the leaders sought out on matters of national interest. In fact, I relatively recently saw him interviewed regarding churches that were choosing not to follow distancing and rules relative to the size of groups meeting. He handled himself well as he always does. I am quite proud of him as a spokesperson for the church.
Anyway, those of us in attendance recently listened to him talk about the importance of love. He said that every decision to be made in life would best be made if run through the lens of love first. And I think he is right. I just don’t know how to do it with any kind of consistency. Do you?
One of the things in life I am convinced of is that God loves us. In fact, God is crazy about each one of us. We are after all God’s creation and God has proven over and over again the incredible love God has for us. It abounds in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures, and it is the primary point in the Christian Scriptures. Just two weeks ago we talked about the 23rd Psalm as a metaphor for God’s love for us. And the words of John say it all. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” That’s a pretty awesome gift, even more so than something that goes from zero to two hundred in six seconds.
And God did even more than that in the person of Jesus Christ. He gave us a blueprint for living. He taught us about the importance of compassion, of common sense, of relationship with God and one’s neighbors, about servant leadership, and most of all about love. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And Jesus even left us a commandment about love. We are to love each other as he has loved us. In this way others would know we are his disciples he said.
Now I will confess to you I often feel a great burden of guilt over all of this. I know my life and the life of those around me would be greatly enhanced if I could follow his commandment as he did. But so far in my life here on earth I have come up short on a continuing basis. I guess that’s one of the reasons we have saints. They don’t seem to fail at loving others as much as the rest of us seem to do.
What saves me is my recognition that I am not Jesus Christ. I am not fully human and fully divine. Jesus is and I am not. I cannot do this alone with any kind of consistency. I need help. And that is where the Holy Spirit, the advocate, comes into play. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would be here to help us and if we are willing to acknowledge the spirit’s presence, we can begin to make some progress in the “loving others” area. Note please I said progress, not completion. We must reconcile ourselves to a lifelong struggle in this area.
Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels
So here is my suggestion. Loving is easier with people we like or already love. But even with them loving can become an impossible chore at times. People we don’t love, like, or know is just that much more difficult. The Holy Spirit can help us. For me I try to make a triangle out of this loving issue. Me on one side, them on another, and the Holy Spirit on the other. Things change when God is truly involved. God is crazy about this person and crazy about me. With that in mind all things become possible. God can intervene and help us.
And this brings me to the most important issue of the day. Do we love ourselves? I don’t know that loving others is even possible very often unless we do.
Now I am not a psychologist. But I am going to posit that self-regard is incredibly important to the formation of a well-integrated person. So many of us, in fact I imagine most of us, struggle with our own self-image to one degree or another. Dealing with that is just as important as learning to love others as Jesus loved us.
In 2008 during the economic debacle of that time I was involved with a group of folks attempting to find a new job after having lost their last one due to the economy. We talked a lot about the interview process. I used a metaphor that seemed to hit home with them. We talked about asking another person if they would like to go out on a date with you. I gave two examples. In the first the asker said something like this. “If you have nothing to do Friday night, and you probably do, but if you don’t what would you think about going to dinner or something with me? I mean I hope I am not offending you in any way so please feel free to say no if you don’t want to but I thought I would ask.”
Now here is the second example. “Hi. I have to tell you that I am completely taken with you and find you one of the most intriguing people I have ever met. I really would like to get to know you better. Would you like to get together Friday night? I think we would have a great time together.
I think the answer to which is the better approach is pretty obvious don’t you? Today we have a different context we are dealing with but the metaphor still applies. Today I want to tell you that second example is God contacting each of us. God is constantly in contact with each of us asking us for a date.
Let me continue. See if you can wrap your head around this truth, one you have heard several times before but probably could use a booster shot about. God loves us, each of us, in ways we can’t even imagine. Think of how you feel about a brand-new baby, an important baby to you, one that makes your heart feel like it might burst. The love you feel is a drop in the ocean compared to how much God loves you. And if God is that crazy about you doesn’t that mean something? Doesn’t that mean something important?
God is the creator of the cosmos and the creator of each of us. We are the apple of God’s eye. Can’t we understand God sees something we don’t? Perhaps it’s just that we are, that we exist, that God thought it worthwhile to create us and thinks we are pretty cool. If God feels that way about us perhaps it would be a good idea to reconsider our self-image. And if we do that, then working with the Holy Spirit we might have a chance to fulfill the commandment of Jesus, loving others as he loved us. Hmmmm. What do you think?