6 EASTER, YEAR B

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE

THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY

17 MAY 2009

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Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

Today, as last week, Jesus is busy delivering his farewell discourse to the disciples. It’s Jesus’ special time with the disciples before his passion and death.

And once again today the theme is love. Not love in the sentimental sense of Valentine’s Day love, but love as a way of life, a commandment to action. “This is my commandment, that you love one another the way I have loved you.” We humans tend to talk more about love than practice it. Jesus seems to be addressing this human tendency. 

I wonder sometimes if one of the reasons we find it so hard really to treat each other in love the way Jesus loved, is that we don’t feel all that loved ourselves. Do we really believe we are loved by God? Chosen? “You did not choose me but I chose you.” Deep down, do we know that? What difference would feeling deeply loved and chosen by Jesus make in our lives?

There’s a story about an Irish priest who was walking around his rural parish. He spotted an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road. “You must be very close to God,” said the priest. The old man looked up from his prayers and smiled. “Yes, God is very fond of me, he said.” Do we live as if we know that God is very fond of us?

That story was told by the author Brennan Manning. Another writer, Anne Lamott, tells about a favorite aspect for her of teaching Sunday School with pre-schoolers.   “Is there anyone here today wearing a blue Pokeman t-shirt?” she asked. A little boy looks down at his chest and discovers that he himself matches this description. He raises his hand. “Come over here to the couch….You are so loved and so chosen.” And the little boy clutches at himself as if he’s won a contest.

And Anne Lamott goes on. “Is there anyone here wearing green socks… brown shoes… a Giants hat…..? Come here!” One by one the children recognize themselves and they hear how loved and chosen they are.

What do you suppose they got from Sunday School that day? Can we hope that they never forgot the lesson?

Can we go home and look in the mirror and tell our reflection, “You know, you there, God is very fond of you…..You are so chosen and so loved…….and that’s me!”

That’s what Jesus is teaching his disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”

Of course, in this particular gospel text, Jesus specifically talks to the group not to an individual. “You” is plural. God loves not simply random individuals but the whole group. It’s the group that Jesus commands to go out and love as God has loved him. To practice love, to bear fruit. To know they are all loved so that they can then love others.

Jesus doesn’t specify here what the commandments are. We know what they are from his other teachings: caring for, feeding, clothing, forgiving, reconciling, all in the name of love. Jesus doesn’t say all that in this passage. Here he simply says that if we love one another as he loves us then, lo, we will find ourselves living his commandments as a manifestation of that love. Likewise, if we live the way he taught, if we do his commandments, then that means we are abiding and resting in his love. The two go together. Our obedience as a sign of Jesus’ love. Jesus’ love leading us naturally into following his commandments.

One of the things that I discovered early on about the Christ Church community, one of the things that attracted me and has kept me here, is the love you all have for one another. The caring and attention and respect you give to one other. “It’s like a family,” I often hear.

Doing that is a challenge, though. And it means we have to be careful. Because for many, “family” doesn’t bring back such happy memories. And often, “family” means an exclusive club. So that strangers and visitors may not feel related to this particular family group.

We need to ask ourselves: How careful are we on Sundays to scoot over from our spot in a pew so another person can easily get in? How eager are we to share a Hymnal or prayer book or show a visitor where we are in the service? How readily do we ask the newcomers their names and to “come with me” to meet the rector or go to coffee hour.

And of course, coffee hour itself can be another obstacle. In her wonderful little book, Down and Out in Providence, the Bishop of Rhode Island talks about coffee hour. Bishop Wolf spent a month of a recent sabbatical heavily disguised as a homeless person, living as an outsider, sleeping in shelters, eating at soup kitchens and churches. And attending church services. Since she spent most of her time in Rhode Island, her own diocese, she knew the churches, the clergy and many of the people.  

Bishop Wolf writes about one service she attended at which she felt welcomed and her soul nourished. But then came coffee hour.

“The coffee hour might as well be renamed the members club. It’s important for people who know each other to reconnect, but visitors and newcomers, or those who are a little different, discover a warm welcome upstairs that gets lost over coffee and cookies downstairs.

When you know that you’re an outsider, the coffee hour only affirms your distinction. But I suppose I could be a member and still feel alone during the coffee hour; that must be even worse.”

We have a fabulous and newly-decorated room for coffee hour and we will be oohing and aahing about it today. For good reason.  It is truly astounding! But even today, let’s not forget that our true mission is not decorating but hospitality. Hospitality can include an attractive and welcoming setting but it’s much more than that, especially for newcomers and visitors!

In her book, Bishop Wolf’s focus was on the church’s mission to the poor, to those who do NOT show up in our pews or come to our coffee hours on Sundays. The poor and outsiders of all kinds are Jesus’ mission, too. The love Jesus demonstrated, beginning with the love Jesus has for all of us, no exceptions, is the love we are called to live out of.  The more we trust that we are deeply loved and chosen, the easier it will be for us to reach out to everyone else, too.