Audio and video were not captured for this sermon, which was based on the manuscript below in a response to John 13:1-17, 31b-35. The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews, vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick, preached.
Jesus said “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
In This House, We Believe:
Black Lives Matter,
Women’s Rights are Human Rights,
No Human is Illegal,
Science is Real,
Love is Love,
Kindness is Everything.
“And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot
be killed or swept aside.” [1]
From yard signs to Lin-Manuel Miranda to the Beatles
we’re inundated with the simple message
about the need to love one another
and the ways that love will prevail
and why can’t we all just get along?
Our friend Tom reminded us of some of this
in his sermon in February.
Despite yard signs –
which you’ve seen or may even have!
(and there’s nothing wrong with them) –
and the Beatles, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s sonnet
we haven’t gotten it right.
We haven’t even started to.
Jesus said “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
On Sunday we didn’t read the part of Luke’s passion
that includes Jesus’ last meal with the disciples
and his farewell address.
This final meal and farewell address and teaching
are a key point of John’s gospel,
where Jesus spends time with his friends
shores up any confusions
and reiterates what it is that he’s come to do
and what it is that he’s been training them to do.
Tonight we hear one piece of that:
That Jesus’ disciples should love one another,
and that that is how people will know
we are Jesus’ disciples.
Over most of the next year
the Bishop’s Committee will be reading the book
The New Parish by Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens, and Dwight J. Friesens.
Among many of the challenges we face today
whether within or without the church:
is that of fragmentation, separation from one another,
and living above our place,
not knowing what’s around us
and how our lives interact with each other
and our environments.
Love is love is love is love
and I appreciate that message as someone whose marriage
had to be granted by legislatures or judicial decisions
based on the idea that love is love.
But love is love is love
doesn’t help us to show our love to one another
if we don’t know one another.
One of the reasons we’re gathered together to eat
is to spend more time together.
Jewish leaders and scholars have been asking for decades
that Christians not appropriate contemporary Seder services,
but there’s no reason for us to not share food
and get to know one another.
This coming together,
especially after the last two years –
is one way that we show and know our love for one another
and God’s love for us.
Sparks and the others say,
“When followers of Jesus share life together in a particular place
they become much greater than the sum of their parts—
they actually become something altogether new.
The parish forms the context,
and relationships of faith form the connectivity
for wonderful new possibilities.” [2]
They continue,
“Not only does living above place
disconnect you from the effects of your actions,
it enables you to concoct visions
regarding the welfare of others
without ever being in relationship with them…
without a practice of being with diverse neighbors in real-life contexts,
it is easy to forget that humans need reciprocal friendships
and communities of genuine care if they are to flourish.” [3]
As Jesus gathers with his disciples the night before he’s crucified
as he gives them the new commandment
he shares a meal with them,
gives them some teachings,
and demonstrates what he means by telling them
to love one another.
John’s Gospel does not have the narrative
that we call the institution narrative,
which is why we hear Paul recounting it to the church at Corinth.
In telling the disciples to love one another,
to wash one another’s feet,
and washing their feet himself
Jesus lays out for them a new covenant
and shows all his disciples
what this new covenant with God through him means.
In telling the disciples to love one another,
Jesus lays out the mission of the church.
Fred Craddock, commenting on Luke’s institution narrative says,
“Jesus’ blood seals a new covenant
offered to the faith community
by a God who sets free.
Jesus’ blood seals a new covenant
offering a new kind of freedom,
a release from captivity to sin and death,
a new covenant extended by the liberating God
to all who believe,
both Jew and Gentile.
Those who share in this covenant
are joined to one another,
life to life,
as signified and sealed
in the cup divided among themselves.” [4]
As we’re joined together in this new covenant,
living life to life in bread and wine divided among ourselves,
we move from fragmentation to togetherness.
As we share this meal together,
wash one another’s feet,
and then share Jesus’ body and blood,
we are unified in the Spirit
just as we’ve been unified to Jesus’ resurrection
in our baptisms.
Jesus says that people will know we are his disciples by our love,
but yard signs and the Beatles and Lin-Manuel Miranda
aren’t changing humanity or bringing us to unity in love.
In telling the disciples to love one another,
Jesus lays out the mission of the church.
The Prayer Book says that the mission of the church
is to restore all people
to unity with God and each other
in Christ.
How are we doing this work of reconciliation,
this work of the Spirit directed and empowered
by Jesus the resurrected Christ?
All our outreach is a part of that.
Planting our sock box and pantry
right here on our property and in our neighborhood
is bringing people together
even if they never meet in person.
We’re doing some new outreach, too.
Reading The New Parish, we’ve reached out to the 125 homes
that are in the 1 mile block radius of the building:
letting them know we’re here
and asking what the neighborhood and community need –
and how they’re excellent already!
We’re here tonight, gathered,
learning to love one another
and showing our mutual humility and love.
But what of our neighbors and the world?
How do we reconcile them to God and one another in Christ?
Jesus said “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
[1] “Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Sonnet From the Tony Awards,” The New York Times, June 12, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/theater/lin-manuel-mirandas-sonnet-from-the-tony-awards.html.
[2] Sparks, Paul; Soerens, Tim; Friesen, Dwight J.. The New Parish (p. 22). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
[3] Sparks, Paul; Soerens, Tim; Friesen, Dwight J.. The New Parish (p. 25). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
[4] Craddock, Fred B.. Luke: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 256). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.