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Thought for the
Week 17 May 2009 – Easter 6
It
seems to me that there are just two essentials to the Christian faith; both
are what we might call mysteries. The first is a belief in the Incarnation,
the second is a belief in the Resurrection; without these two ingredients to
faith there is no Christianity. Indeed Paul wrote in his first letter to the
Corinthians “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so
is your faith.” Both, of course, require a belief in the
existence of a personal God, his mighty power, and the existence and
connivance, in the best possible sense of that word, of Jesus Christ as his
Son. Underpinning
both the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one fundamental,
which over the past few weeks has cropped up time and time again in our
readings. Love. The
love of the Father ---“ For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believes In him shall have eternal life” John 3,
16 tells us. The love of the Son for he was prepared to go to the cross for
us. In
his book “The Gospel according to Pilate” Eric Emmanuel Schmitt quotes Claudia,
the wife of Pilate, who, you may remember, warned Pilate to have nothing to
do with the man Jesus because of a dream she had had, becomes a follower of
Jesus. Schmitt puts these words in her mouth; “It’s
on the cross that Jesus manifested the essential ingredient. If he allowed
himself to be crucified, it was through love of humankind. If he is
resurrected it was to show that he was right in loving humankind. And so at
all times, in every circumstance, , we must have the courage to love.” And
that is it isn’t it ----having the courage to love. Fear of exposing
ourselves to ridicule, fear of being rejected, fear of appearing naïve to our
peers ---- there are so many fears that prevent us from loving and yet John
writes, “perfect love drives out fear”. The living example of perfect love
was Jesus Christ, the man. I say the man because to God all things are
possible, even loving the unlovable. Which is of course what God has done for
us, there is no restriction to John 3 16 ------ it was the world that God
loved not just the good people, not just the easy to love but all people who
comprise the population of the world. So if any of us feel that we are not
worthy, if any of us feel that before we can justify God being interested in
us, let alone loving us, we have to reach perfection, it just is not like
that. God’s love for the world --- for you and me --- was and is entirely
unconditional. He wants us back into the relationship with him that is
perfection; but he knows and indeed knew that we are just not capable of that
and so he accepts us as and where we are. He has given us Jesus Christ just
as John writes “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Consequently as Acts 4 reminds us “There is
no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” ------- all that is
required of us is an acknowledgement of what Jesus Christ has done and an
acceptance of him as Lord of our lives. “If
anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in
God. And so we rely upon the love that god has for us.” Verses 15 and 16 of chapter 4 of 1 John
tells us. But
it was Jesus the man who went to the Cross and it was love that drove him on.
Two weeks ago our gospel reading was from John 10. If you remember it was the
passage that begins “I am the good Shepherd.” Every Jew that heard that
reference would have known that Jesus was referring to himself as God,
probably that’s why many of those hearing the claim thought him stark raving
mad. You see since Ezekial chapter 34, written about 580 BC, God through
Ezekial’s prophesy was unhappy with the way the rulers, kings and
administrators had lined their own pockets; rather than properly tend the
flock of Israel and God, in the prophecy, basically says I’m sacking the
shepherds and assuming that role myself. Thus God was understood in the
Jewish mind to be the Good Shepherd. It is not until verse 30 of Chapter 10
that Jesus pursues the reference and declares that he and the Father are one.
That being the case there was no reason for Jesus, as a man, deciding he
didn’t want to go through with what was being demanded of him by the Father
and reverting to God to get himself out of the situation. But He didn’t. The
problem was that Jesus, the man, loved as well. He loved as the Father loved
and because of his love for the Father manifested in his obedience to the
Father’s wishes and because of his love for humanity, you and me, he was
prepared to carry through to his death on the cross the divine plan to rescue
us. So as
a man Jesus, who shows us the way, says these poignant words. “Love each
other as I have loved you” That is a command, not a suggestion, not a
proposal, not a choice ----- it’s a command, there is no alternative. The
command is repeated in the last verse of this morning’s gospel, “ This is my
command, love each other.” I think the words “ as I have loved you” are here
implied having been stated once. If we
believe in the Incarnation, if we believe in the Resurrection of Christ, and
if we call ourselves Christian, then we must, it follows that our desire is
to be obedient to God ----- to live righteously. It follows from that that we
must love. Jesus makes it as plain as the nose on your face ---- if you obey
my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s
commands and remain in his love. Love equals obedience equals love -------
St. Augustine got it right really “Love God and do what you like” ------- in
loving God we of necessity will be obedient to his commands and not do
anything contrary to that love. Or will we? Of
course we will --- its part of the condition humaine; even Paul had to
struggle with this one, so you are not alone. “I do not understand what I do.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” He tells us “For I
have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is
not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do --- this I keep
on doing.” Don’t ever think you are alone in your struggles with the love
that we are commanded to give – you are not, even the best of us fail. Paul
finishes the 7th chapter of his letter to the Romans with the
words “Who will rescue me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is
precisely through him who commands us to love one another as he has loved us
that we have the ability to do just that. As
Tom Wright draws to our attention the verse from our gospel reading which
says “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his
friends “ he quite rightly points out has been taken out of context so much
by leaders, to justify war and killing an enemy. It was not meant in that way
at all ----- this was Jesus talking about himself and what he had to do out
of love for his followers; as he quite clearly refers to those who obey his
commands as his friends. He was talking about his own sacrifice. But what he
does say is "If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much
fruit.” That’s
all very well but what does it mean to bear fruit in this context? The week
before last we had a reading from 1 John 3 and at verse 18 it said, “Dear
children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in
truth.” James was a little more severe he said, “ Faith if not accompanied by
deeds is dead. “ ---“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without
deeds is dead.” So there is no point in being grafted into the body of Christ
without there being some concrete manifestation of the grafting, of our
faith. In 1
John 4 verses 15 and 16 we read “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son
of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love
God has for us.” At verse 11 we read “Dear friends since God so loved us we
also ought to love one another.” Faith works itself out through the love that
we have for one another. The natural consequence of being grafted into Jesus
is a love driven faith, which of itself drives us to acts of love. John goes
to the heart of the matter in today’s reading, his letter tells us that “This
is the ‘If the
Father and Jesus are one, as verse 30 of chapter 10 of John’s gospel tells
us, and if God lives in the person who acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God,
as 1 John 4 16 tells us, then the very person who tells us to love one
another lives within us. But not only that. Next Thursday the church
celebrates Ascension, the day Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; it is an
integral part of the double mystery of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Jesus
when telling his followers of his going away from them tells them that unless
he goes the Counsellor –the Holy Spirit – will not come to them but that if
he goes then he will send him to them. We know from elsewhere in the New
Testament that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. It means that
the living God, Father Son and Holy Spirit lives within those of us who
believe Jesus to be the Son of God ---- those of us having the Christian
faith. The very Godhead, the Father Son and Holy Spirit that has so
manifested love for humanity lies within each of us who are Christians.. God is
love ----- if that is the case and he lives within us how can we not love our
neighbour? We may not be called upon to actually lay down our lives as such
but we may certainly be called upon to do all within our power to help them
i.e. love them. To bear fruit that will last.
Do you remember at the beginning of Acts? --- If you look at Acts 2
verses 42 to the end you will find that the community of believers devoted
themselves to one another. “Selling their possessions and goods they gave to
anyone as he had need.” verse 45 tells us. And what do we find at the end of
that chapter? “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being
saved.” How do
we tap into that love that is God within us? We really do have to spend time
going deep within, searching out every nook and cranny of ourselves and
ridding ourselves of self. We have to face up to ourselves, we may not like
what we see or find, but then measure what we find against the love of God. In
other words surrender self to God and lead the life he wants us to, not the
life we want to. It is not an easy exercise. It was
Robert Louis Stevenson I think who said To have an aim in life is the only
good to seek; it is not to be found in far off countries but in your own
heart Mel Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy
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