AtomLove One Another
John 13:31-35
BEFORE THE LESSON:
In the Gospel, Jesus identifies what sets apart a follower of Jesus…love for one another. As the early church worked through this, how wide and broad this love for others would be…the answer was given pretty quickly…it extends even those most different from us…even the Gentiles!! The story is told in the lesson from Acts today…
BEFORE THE GOSPEL
There are many who suggest that today’s Gospel reading contains words of Jesus that were actually spoken AFTER the resurrection…a compilation of sayings of Jesus that give this new Christian community an identity and a set of values. In a time when these first disciples were seeking to learn how to live as followers of Jesus, Jesus words gave voice to the question being asked today, “How do you identify a Christian!!”
READ ENTIRE GOSPEL…
Pastor Timothy Kennedy tells the story of traveling by bus in the Holy Land one summer. During one part of the journey the bus driver placed a large plastic sign in the window. Since it was in Arabic, he asked what it said. The bus driver replied, “This is an Arab bus, owned and operated by Arabs. Please do not throw stones.”
But then, as they approached Tel Aviv, the driver pulled out another sign and replaced the one in the window. Since this was in Hebrew, he again asked the bus driver to translate. “This is a Jewish bus, owned and operated by Israelis. Please do not throw stones.”
How do you tell the difference between an Arab or Jewish bus? With a big sign I guess!! And, when we go back to our question of the day, “How do you identify a Christian”, I guess we could all wear plastic signs…but would that really work? Yet, this is an important question for God’s people today…because, it’s kind of hard sometimes!! Consider:
In 2002 the Barna research group conducted a nationwide survey of people who do not consider themselves Christians. They were asked to offer their impressions of 11 groups of people ranging from military officers to clergy, to evangelical Christians to prostitutes.
* Christian clergy gained a 44% favorable rating!! Not too good!!
* Evangelical Christians…came out with a 22% favorable rating…which was below Democrats, television performers, real estate agents, lawyers, Republicans. In fact, the only group that scored lower in favorable ratings were prostitutes…
This should be of concern to followers of Jesus because, this suggests that the church is struggling with communicating it’s central message of the Love of God given in Christ Jesus, and is ending up communicating things it doesn’t want to (and shouldn’t) be communicating. Things that cause others to have a pretty low impression of the church…that should be known by it’s love…not for what it sometimes gets known for!! Things which are often pretty petty!!
I’ve spoken before of the phone call that I received a few years back asking me about my willingness to interview for a call. It was a two-point parish…with one church named “east” something and the other named “west” something.
And, when I asked about this and why there were these two churches located just a short distance apart with the same name, the chair of the call committee said,
“Many years ago, the church split over an issue. We don’t remember what the issue was…but it must have been important enough to not let us get together even today!!”
Again, let’s ask, what type of witness does this make to the community of people that Jesus wants us to go to and tell that God is alive and that Jesus loves them!!
Sometimes, this can happen even when we’re doing mission outreach; if we are doing it with the wrong motives!! Consider the young man who energetically was handing out blankets to the homeless in Cleveland , Ohio . Eagerly he told his father, “We’re going to hand out blankets so we can tell people about Jesus!!”
His father, who understood this a bit deeper responded, “My son, you need to hear this clearly. Followers of Jesus don’t give out blankets to people so we can tell them about Jesus. We give out blankets to people because they’re cold and we love them like Jesus loves us; unconditionally.”
And this difference is crucial!!
If we seek to love in order to make the church bigger, or to simply feel better about ourselves, then our witness will ring false to the world…AND…our witness may not be based on love for another, but may be based on something that is simply self-serving. On the other hand, when we are simply motivated to transmit the love we have received from Jesus without any strings attached…then the world will gladly receive us!!
Let’s remember that Jesus said his followers would be identified by their love for one another: Not by their clothes, not by their bumper stickers, not by the part of town they live in, not by the car they drive, not by their differences with each other…but by their LOVE for one another; without distinction!! Remember…
“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.”
Today, First Lutheran is OPENING DOORS TO LIFE IN CHRIST.
Today’s Gospel reminds us, the best way to OPEN DOORS is through acts of Love: Love that is just like the Love Jesus loved us with…Love that is unadulterated, selfless, sacrificial, non-judgmental, forgiving: LOVE that is lived out by all and given to all without distinction: Love just like Jesus loved us with!!
And people of God, without question, we have seen and experienced this LOVE at First Lutheran…love that serves and honors and gives freely without distinction.
We’ve seen this in the Mission emphasis this year…all the way from people being sent to rebuild Mississippi, to loving the children in Haiti, through building a Habitat Home, through TeacHaiti for a better tomorrow…and the list could continue!! Today’s Gospel though comes as a reminder!! Consider:
* As we prepare for VBS again this June…let’s be reminded that we’re not OPENING these DOORS in order to get more members at First Lutheran. We’re doing VBS to offer the Love of Jesus to kids, both inside and outside of the church!! If someone happens to join the church because of VBS (or any mission door that we open), that’s secondary!!
* As we Open Doors and prepare to be more involved with building a Habitat Home this summer with the June fundraiser and more…this is a way to share the Love of Jesus!!
* When we move our worship outdoors…it’s not to improve our offerings!! It’s to share the Love of Jesus with those outside the walls of First Lutheran.
“How do you identify a Christian?” Is our question from the Gospel…
Pastor Dayle Casey tells the story of a young man was converted to Christ during his senior year in high school. Here is his story in his own words:
“I was a fresh, eager Christian, so when Tony Campolo came to our town to speak, I went to hear him. He was great! After he spoke, he asked us to sign up for his program of inner-city ministry in Philadelphia that summer. So I did.
“Well, in mid-June, I met about a hundred other kids in a Baptist church in Philadelphia . We had about an hour of singing before Dr. Campolo arrived. When he got to the church, we were really worked up, all enthusiastic and ready to go. Dr. Campolo then preached for about an hour, and when he finished people were shouting and standing on the pews and clapping.
“‘OK, gang, are you ready to go out there and tell ’em about Jesus?’ Dr. Campolo asked. ‘Yeah, let’s go!’ we shouted back. ‘Get on the bus!’ Tony shouted. So we spilled out of the church and onto the bus. We were singing and clapping. But then we began to drive deeper into the depths of the city. We weren’t in a great neighborhood when we started, but it got worse. Gradually, we stopped singing, and all of us college kids were staring out the windows. We were scared.
“Then the bus pulled up before one of the worst looking housing projects in Philadelphia . Tony jumped on the bus and said, ‘Alright, gang, get out there and tell ’em about Jesus. I’ll be back at five o’clock.’
“We made our way off the bus hesitantly. We stood there on the corner and had a prayer, then we spread out. I walked down the sidewalk and stopped before a huge tenement house. I gulped, said a prayer, and ventured inside. There was a terrible odor. Windows were broken out, no lights in the hall.
I walked up one flight of stairs and toward a door where I heard a baby crying. I knocked on the door. ‘Who is it?’ said a loud voice inside.
Then the door cracked open, and a woman holding a naked baby peered out at me. ‘What do you want?’ she asked in a rather mean voice. I told her that I wanted to tell her about Jesus. With that, she swung the door open and began cursing me. She cursed me all the way down the hall, down the steps, and out to the sidewalk.
“I felt terrible. ‘Look at me,’ I said to myself. ‘Some Mr. Christian I am. How in the world could somebody like me think that I could tell people about Jesus?’
I sat down on the curb and cried. Then I looked up and noticed a store on the corner, windows all boarded up, bars over the door. I went to the store, walked in, and looked around. Then I remembered: the baby had no diapers, the mother was smoking. I bought a box of paper diapers and a pack of cigarettes.
“I walked back to the tenement house, said another prayer, walked in and up the flight of stairs, gulped, stood before the door, and knocked. ‘Who is it?’ growled the voice inside. When she opened the door, I slid the box of diapers and the cigarettes in. She looked at them, then looked at me, and said, ‘Come in.’
“I stepped into the dingy apartment. ‘Sit down,’ she commanded. I sat down on the old sofa and began to play with the baby. I put a diaper on the baby, even though I had never put a diaper on a baby before in my life. When the woman offered me a cigarette, even though I don’t smoke, I smoked. I stayed there all afternoon talking, playing with the baby, listening to the woman.
“About four o’clock, the woman looked at me and said, ‘Let me ask you something. What’s a nice college boy like you doing in a place like this?’ So I told her everything I knew about Jesus. It took me about five minutes. Then she said, ‘Pray for me and my baby, that we can make it out of here alive.’ And I prayed.
“That afternoon, after we were all back on the bus, Tony asked, ‘Well, gang, did any of you get to tell ’em about Jesus?’ And I said, ‘I not only got to tell ’em about Jesus. I met Jesus. I went out to save somebody, and I ended up getting saved.’”
And that’s the way love is; which brings us back to our original question: How can you identify a Christian?
Jesus tells us how:
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another; love that is unconditional, forgiving, non-judgmental, given freely, filled with the grace of God…given to all…without distinction!!
AMEN!!
Page 1 of 1 comment pages
Before I got saved I thought church walls was
The main problem I got saved and blended into
The walls and now fourty years later I’m trying
To get out of the walls . Your story really impacted me. Pray for me I’m trying to do stand up comedy/witnessing in bars. Keep up
Your writing , you popped up with a church to church love, google search. Thanks again