The Sixth Sunday of Easter --- 25 May 2014

(The sermon was a bit short today. Make up your own reason and I won't deny it.)

                                                                                                                          

John 14:15-21
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."

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."

• We all know the Ten Commandments. The Small Catechism spends a lot of time on them and it is important that we know and remember them. When we were baptized, our parents and godparents pledge to teach us the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed.
• So what are these commandments that Jesus speaks about? Is this something new? Something to replace the Ten Commandments of the Law of Moses?
• Hardly! Listen to the passage from John's Gospel where Jesus speaks of a new commandment.
• 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.’ (John 13:34-35)
• That passage and the Gospel reading we read today both come from the Last Supper discourse in John's Gospel. This rather lengthy talk goes on for a few chapters and speaks of Jesus' relationship to his disciples, what is to come, and how the Advocate will come to them and allow Jesus to remain with them always. Jesus also speaks of what it means to be a disciple, saying the the first commandment of discipleship is to “Love one another.”
• With these further words that we've heard today, we are told that those who follow the command to love one another are those who love Jesus and are in turn loved by Jesus and the Father.
• There is one more thing: Those who keep Jesus' commandment will be loved by Jesus and he will reveal himself to them.
• There's an interesting thought – That Jesus will reveal himself to those who love their brothers and sisters. Could it be that Jesus will reveal himself IN the love we have for one another? This may be the full truth.
• We have been taught that we are to be “little Christs” to one another. In fact, Martin Luther wrote in his book “The Freedom of the Christian”: “[A]s our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians....
• Sisters and brothers, this is calling of ours -to be 'little Christs' to each other- is quite a high one. Left to ourselves, we would certainly and utterly fail. With the grace of God and Holy Spirit, the Advocate, dwelling within us, even if we fall short at times, the presence of God with us will see us through.
• Jesus assures us that we are loved by him and by our Father and the way we show our love is, first and foremost, by loving those who have been given to us as our sisters and brothers in discipleship. We know this is not an easy thing to do since we remain both saint and sinner all our lives long.
• So we rely on God's grace and God's forgiveness as long as we live.
• As children, we loved our parents, but not in the same way we loved them when we had become mature adults. In the same way, our love for God will mature. As we grow in the grace of God, we will come to know that loving our brothers and sisters is how we love God.
• So then, our mission is to proclaim the love of God. Our life is to love, beginning with our fellow disciples and spreading to all the world. In that, we love God and know the love of God in turn.
• 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."