The Gospel
According to St. John, the 14th Chapter.
8
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be
satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on
my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me
because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who
believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater
works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you
ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my
name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 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.
18
"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while
the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also
will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me,
and I in you. 21 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." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord,
how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23
Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father
will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is
not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do
not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
The Gospel of the
Lord.
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
Last week I
preached on Jesus’ prayer in John 17, and what was so important to him that he
would pray about it with his disciples at that time, just hours before his
crucifixion.
I talked about
how we as Christians have argued and fought over many things we thought to be
so important.
But in the end,
in his prayer, “Jesus didn't care about bacon. Or even theology or sin.
He prayed that we
might be one, even as he and the Father are one.
Love makes that
possible.”
Well the response
to that message on-line has been interesting to say the least.
As of yesterday
morning, the sermon had been sent to over 750 people in our community.
Of those people,
209 “engaged” the message.
87 “liked” the message.
25 “loved” it.
12 shared it with
their friends.
And 3 were angry
about it.
Actually, based
on the 23 comments, there were more upset by the message than that.
The strongest
objection that was voiced was that they felt that sin, judgment, and repentance
needed to be emphasized a lot more.
One person
commented:
“The Real God is
all about love and forgiveness. He gave his only begotten Son to show it!” John
14:6.
In response
another said:
“He's also about
judgment. The judgment of sin. All sin.”
Yet another person
said:
“Wrong Wrong
..Catholic doctrine is not touchy and feely..”
To which I
responded:
“According to
John, Jesus did three things during the last meal with his disciples. 1).
Washed their feet. 2). Gave them a new commandment “to love one another even as
I have first loved you. And 3) prayed that they may be one, as he and the
Father are one.
Touchy feely Jesus. Or no Jesus.
The loving forgiving Jesus is all we got.”
Touchy feely Jesus. Or no Jesus.
The loving forgiving Jesus is all we got.”
The strongest
reaction came from a man who claimed to be a “constitutionalist”, i.e part of a
radical fringe political group, who declared that before there could be unity
in Christ a civil war needed to be fought in this nation. He went on to say that the 600,000 that died
in our nation’s first civil war would be like a drop in the bucket compared
with how many would die in the next.
So there you have
it.
Many people
absolutely loved the message on Christian
unity.
Some were angered
by it.
And
this man was willing to kill millions of people in a civil war as a means of
achieving it.
John understands
the message of the Gospel to be about love, pure and simple.
"For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may
have eternal life.” John 3:16
John shares Jesus’
words “And I, when I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all people to myself." John 12:32
In John we
receive the new commandment Jesus gives to us:
“I give you a new commandment, that you love
one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another." John 13:34-35
Last week we
heard these words from Jesus’ prayer in John:
20 "I ask not only on behalf of these,
but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that
they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also
be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21
And the Gospel
concludes with Jesus asking Peter if he loves him, three times.
Touchy, feely,
Jesus indeed.
But that’s the
only Jesus we have.
And he’s clearly
about love.
And yet there are
many who simply do not like this message of love.
In response to
all of this I shared on Facebook that The saddest thing about some
Christians, I think, is the deep conviction they have that someone needs to be
condemned.
No. God doesn’t have to do that.
No. God doesn’t have to do that.
In fact, God
could simply love the world.
Imagine
that. Imagine a God who so loved the
world that he would die rather than condemn it.
Imagine that.
Today is
Pentecost. We celebrate the gift of the
Holy Spirit.
It is by God’s
Spirit that all things were created, in fact the Spirit of God is the very
breath of life.
As the Psalm
says: You send forth your Spirit, and they are created.
God’s Spirit
creates not only life, but faith. And
through faith, love. And through love,
perfect obedience for ‘love is the
fulfillment of the law.’
This is the work
of the Spirit.
Paul writes about
the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians, the 13th Chapter:
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not
envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it
will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was
a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a
mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then
I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and
love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
The Spirit
creates faith.
The Spirit gives
us hope.
And by the power
of the Holy Spirit we are loved, and love.
I can already
imagine the responses I will get when I post this message online.
What about sin
and obedience?
As one person
said last week:
“Sounds like hyper grace without judgement;
"just love everyone" ...repent.”
Going back to
Jesus’ words in the 3rd Chapter of John:
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do
not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name
of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil.
So let me put it
this way:
God loves the
world. Everything. Everyone.
Period.
And what is sin?
Well, if the
commandment is “that you love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another”
Then it follows
that sin is to reject the love that God has for us, and both to fail to love our
neighbor, and to refuse to accept the love that our neighbor shows to us.
The condemnation
is that love flows so freely and graciously to us, BUT, rather than live in the
light and in love, we choose to remain in the darkness, condemned to hate not
love, which is its own punishment.
I wish above all
else that I could get everyone to see this.
But alas, that is
above my pay grade.
Faith, hope, and
love are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It is only by the
power of the Holy Spirit that people can live in faith and trust the God of
love.
It is only by the
power of the Holy Spirit that we can embrace the hope that is ours because of
the love that God has showered upon us.
And it is only by
the power of the Holy Spirit that we can experience the love that God has for
us, and that we can love God in return.
May God’s Spirit
fill your hearts with this faith, this hope, and this love.
Amen
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