Revelation
21:1-6
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice
from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will
dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4
he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and
crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all
things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true." 6 Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give
water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
John
13:31-35
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now
the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God
has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will
glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer.
You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you,
"Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34 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."
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have
love for one another.
· In this day and age,
we can be in touch with each other almost instantaneously and almost at the
push of a few buttons. Telephones - whether for talk or text, e-mail (if we
have it and use it), Skype for video calls are all quick. I use some of them to
send and receive information from the Synod, the church council, groups I am
attached to, and from friends, near and far. I hear from friends in London, in
Dutton, in Toronto and Hamilton, in the United States, in the United Kingdom,
and in Greece, Italy, and Finland. It’s fun and it’s a good way to keep in
touch.
· But it isn’t
face-to-face contact. There is something lacking that only actually being there
can offer.
· With this in mind, our
Gospel reading today takes us back to the upper room and the Last Supper to
hear what Jesus told the Eleven after Judas left.
· I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. We’ve heard so
often, we don’t even hear it anymore. Theologians have studied this passage and
picked it apart, interpreted it and reinterpreted it many times. Yet it stands.
If it falls, it is because we ignored it.
· I don’t really know
why this reading was chosen for this Sunday, and yet it makes sense. We’ve
talked about “living in the Resurrection” before. Since Jesus spoke to his
disciples about this before his crucifixion (and resurrection), this must be
how he wanted his disciple to live. This is what it means to “live in the
Resurrection.”
· Even the book of
Revelation echoes this when it says See, the home of God is among mortals. He
will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with
them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning
and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
Despite the troubles of the writer’s time, the community of the faithful would
receive this as a gift from God.
· So through all our
troubles, will the world know that we are disciples of Jesus by
· Our dress?
· Our speech?
· Our choice of jobs?
· Where we live?
· Our backgrounds?
· The number of our
children?
· How clean our houses
are?
· What we “like” on
Facebook?
· Whether or not we
wear a little cross on a chain around our necks?
· No, it’s actually
simpler and tougher … By this everyone will know that you are
my disciples, if you have love for one another. As the writer G.K.
Chesterton put it: Christianity has
not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
· That’s what it’ll
take. It won’t be easy although it appears to be the easiest thing to do. It is
actually the hardest thing to do, to love God and to love unreservedly the
person next to you, behind you, and in front of you.
· It is what ultimately
draws people to the Christian church – not the quality of the preaching, not
the liturgy and the music, not the coffee and cakes, but the acceptance, the
common concern, the support, the lived message of the grace of God. For lack of
a more precise term – the love.
· It is what the world
needs now and has always needed. It is what we all need, what we will always
need, and what has been promised to us by the grace of God, both now and in
what is to come.
· It is grace lived
out.
By this everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
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