A, Sixth Sunday After
Easter
John 14:15-21 By
the Rev. Blake R. Hutson
O Lord to see you is the end and the beginning. You carry us and you go before us. You are the journey and the journey’s end. Amen.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” (vs. 15)
Think back with me for a moment. Can you remember the first time you really liked someone? Your feelings grew and grew and you fell in love. Now a lot of things come with falling in love. At some point in the relationship did you notice you started doing things for this person that you cared about that you would not have done for anyone else. You started going out of your way to do things that normally would have been an inconvenience or a burden, but for some reason at this point in your life… meeting this person, falling in love with them, doing these extra things did not seem to inconvenience you.
In fact, you wanted to do them. You wanted to show this person that you cared for them. So you sacrificed. You may have actually become thoughtful. You may have done little things to show your devotion, to let them know that they were in your thoughts and affecting your life in a good way. In the relationship, you may have wanted something to symbolize the feelings of love you had for this particular person. So you may have given this person something of value to you. Eventually you may have given someone an engagement ring or another token or symbol of your commitment. You knew that as they wore it, it was a sign that they had a connection with you that they had with no one else. Perhaps the relationship progressed and the engagement led to marriage. In our culture, it has been tradition for the woman to take on the last name of the man…showing that they are united as one and that they belong to each other.
Possibly a next step, outwardly showing your love, you may have decided to start a family with your spouse or your partner. As the two of you came together and had a child, the two of you together would have an opportunity to show your love as parents. The act of being a loving parent requires constant sacrifices. You sacrifice your time, financial resources, emotional and physical energy, training, teaching, giving of yourself. Again, you wanted to do it, because you love your child…those sacrifices, acts of love, were something you wanted to do to show your love and care.
So, what does this have to do with today’s scripture? Today’s scripture Jesus was talking about Love in action. Love displayed in sacrifice. Doing things in our lives because we want to show that we care, that we love and that we are committed.
In our spiritual lives a similar concept applies. Every week we come to this place to worship a God of love. Now, internally worship completes our lives, it completes who we are. It also does something else. Our coming together for worship is also a statement of our commitment to our faith. Our singing, our prayers, our sacrifices of time and monetary means are an outward display of the love we have for our God.
When we love we do things that we would not normally do. It is easier to sacrifice of ourselves to show our commitment and feelings when we love.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” Of course, we easily say we “love God” and we all know the song “Jesus loves me,” but when it comes to God, maybe we throw the word “love” around without realizing what we are saying.
Outside of these doors, in a romantic relationship with another adult, when we say we love the person, when we come to that point, we have taken a big step in the relationship. Using the “L” word is a turning point in the relationship and the step of love often leads to acts of sacrifice, giving of ourselves and doing things to show our devotion.
In a similar way, saying that “we love” God, is also a big step in our spiritual lives. Now, feelings of love for God are not romantic in nature. Actually, they are much more. We are talking about the spiritual part of us, who we are on the inside, at the core. If we “love God” we will find that our lives have been changed for the better because of our relationship with God and we may find ourselves doing things that surprise us and that we wouldn’t ordinarily do because of how we feel and because of who we are on the inside.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my
commands.” He also said, “Love your
neighbor as yourself.” “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mt.
These commands, these actions go against our human nature,
but we as Christians do our best to do them because we “love.” We sacrifice, we
care, we show compassion, because we “love.” At St. Philip’s we try to provide
outlets or opportunities for you to show your dedication and love for God
through our different ministries. Every person here has different ways of
expressing love and our church offers nearly 100 ministries and groups in which
you can become involved to show your outward expression of dedication and
commitment to God. Our lives are changed
because of the love God has for us, and we do our best to show love in return. Love in action. We do because we
love. We do not serve here at Church out of a sense of guilt, or legalism. Rather,
when we are at our best, we “act,” we join, we contribute and we serve because…when
you love, you want to show it.
This morning we are reminded that love is more than a feeling. Love is to be acted on. We as Christians, by obeying Christ’s commands show our love and dedication to our faith and to our God. But unfortunately, our human nature is often the opposite of Christ’s commands. In a culture of “more is better,” and self-centeredness, and where we are often led to ask: ‘what can I get for myself’? It is easy to loose perspective of our spiritual lives and not obey Christ’s commands.
Every Sunday we say a prayer of confession. We say it because we love God and we are committed to God, but we haven’t loved God perfectly. We have made mistakes, we want to make “it” right and we want to try again.
We pray: “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. By what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways to the glory of your Name. Amen.” (BCP, 331, 360)
This prayer that we say every Sunday speaks to the struggles that we face every day. It is as if we are saying, ‘God, as a Christian, I want to show my love for you. I want to live a life of sacrifice and not of selfishness. I want to be humble. I want to love you and I want to love others. But I realize that I do not do this perfectly. I have made some mistakes and I want to try again. God please forgive me… and I will try again to show that I love you by obeying your commands.’
As we say this prayer this Sunday, may we be reminded of what it is to “love.” Love is more than a feeling. It is a feeling that we put into action. When you love, you can’t help but show it. This morning we are reminded that this fact about love applies to every relationship, even our relationship with God.
Remember outward displays of love complete the relationship…any
relationship….including our spiritual lives. May we ask God to help us to love more
perfectly, to help us to learn to give of ourselves so that it becomes a part
of our nature and may we ask God to open our eyes and our hearts to ways that
we can put our love into action.
Amen.