How Will They Know?

John 13:31-35

This is the way the church always looks, empty (except for 1 hour on Sundays).
Presumably those who have experienced the love of God are elsewhere while
this place is empty, sharing that love of God with those who do not come to this
place. 

                By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. These are the last instructions; the last lesson before Jesus execution.  Whatever detailed, nuanced teaching Jesus may have offered before, this is the summary, this is the brass tacks. 

                Those of you who have raised children know and I am learning, that you spend a lot of time teaching them things when they are little so that they are equipped to handle the world when they get older.  Then, all too soon, it seems that knowledge it put to the test.  They go off and get drivers licenses. They become interested in a certain other.  They have their own opinions! As they head out the door to whatever they have chosen to face you hope and pray that all the wisdom that you had to offer was learned and all the brokenness you may have passed on can be erased.  It can make a person feel very inadequate compared to the great responsibility that they have been entrusted with. 

                By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And you do have love for on another.  I see it frequently.  I saw it on Friday.  It was a packed house for Babe Lundberg’s Funeral.  A difficult day but a blessed day because the love of God flowed through His followers and sustains that family in their loss. 

                I see the love you have for each other on Sunday mornings during our greeting time.  I’ve been to Christian gatherings where people greet each other only because it is in the bulletin and only with those seated right next to them.  You all…you mix and mingle and get caught up.  You hug each other; you go out of your way just to shake each other’s hand.  It’s beautiful.  In fact a week ago Thursday we had a gathering in the Activity Center for visioning and discernment about the future of St. Paul UMC.  As part of that I asked those present to write down ideas, things that we could do to transform our ministries here at St. Paul to be more purposeful and closer to the realized kingdom of God in this place.  One of the responses was to let that time of greeting go on as long as people were visiting, not to cut it short.  Loving each other is your impulse.  Loving each other is what you do. 

                By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Lately I have found myself asking, “How can I be more faithful?  Where can I improve in my service to God?  Where have I become satisfied and therefore complacent?” If I think too long on those questions the list becomes staggering, but the words of one, whom I respect very much, come to mind.  He said, “There are other ways to experience encouragement, fellowship, and the like…often at bars!” This is true.  There is a bar in a small town where I had previously served as pastor that has a pencil sketch of a young man who tragically lost his life.  The owner and patrons of that bar apparently had love for him.  They apparently found fellowship in that place.  They mourned together and presumably comforted each other. The one I was conversing with was referring to our purpose and task as a church to point people toward Jesus Christ and how if we fail at that, what are we even doing? 

So I go back to the scripture for the day. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

We love each other! But how does Jesus tell us to love each other?  He said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love on another.”

Just as I have loved you…

I know I am a long way from that.  Jesus fed people, thousands of people.  Jesus healed people. Jesus forgave people.  Jesus taught people.  Jesus told people about what God. Jesus told people about his relationship with God, even though it was dangerous and eventually life-threatening. 

Ultimately the way Jesus loved us is sacrificially.  He loved us in a way that we gained everything and he lost everything. 

So when Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” That was no small statement.  It isn’t about buying your wife a hallmark card on your wedding anniversary.  It’s about sacrificing yourself for others out of love for Jesus Christ. 

Tim and Tammy Martin, many of you know them.  They are the directors of Hospitality In the name of Christ, The local Homeless shelter.  They give so much time and energy to that ministry and they each get a second full time job that doesn’t pay a dime.  They sacrifice and the guests that come know from the very start that they are Jesus’ disciples, because they tell them.

You ever hear the phrase “preach the gospel always and when necessary use words”?  I don’t really like that.  Because I think words are always necessary.  Friday after Babe Lundberg’s funeral I got a call from a young couple that needed gas.  They had to spend their gas budget this month on an emergency dental procedure.  So I took some of the money that you all gave for John’s eggs and paid for a take of gas.  He knew who he called.  He asked for the pastor.  I could have just left it at that but I told him that the farmer donated the eggs and the people of the church gave money just so that God’s blessing would come to any who would need it.  That young couple knows about your love that came two bucks at a time on Sundays. 

The sacrificial love that we demonstrate can be big or small sacrifices.  For the world to know that we are Jesus’ disciples we do have to love each other sacrificially and we have to tell people of the love of God that is flowing through you.  If you don’t tell them about Jesus sacrificial love, you just might get the credit and not God. 

So, how is it with you today?  Have you ever gotten the credit for God’s blessing? Today is a new day.  Today I invite you to remember all that the Lord has done for you.  I invite you to refocus and recommit yourself to making Jesus the centerpiece of your day and of your life.

Would you pray with me? 

Superheroes

John 10:22-30

I will give them life and they will never perish. We are the sheep that hear our shepherd’s voice.  We hear him and follow.  No one will snatch us out of his hand.

It’s been quite a week!  A couple of young men decided to cause panic and terror by detonating two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Tips, surveillance cameras, photographs, evidence at the scene lead the FBI to those two young men.  There was the gun battle, the pursuit and the death of one of the brothers.  Then the discovery this weekend of the other brother, weakened by his wounds, taken into custody and we wonder and ask: “Why?”

                Why did those three people have to die?  Why do all those people have to suffer the pain of their injuries and for many their loss of limbs.  Why?  What was so important to those two young men that they would attack the innocent?   

                Much has been made about their nationality and ethnicity, but those are the lesser factors in all of this.  What is true is that there is darkness in this world that those two young men gave in to, that they became a part of.  It might come out that they are fighting for this or protesting that but the fact remains that they destroyed innocent life, and that is evil.

                The other day my son Julian asked me, “Why aren't there any real superheroes?”

My little warrior.  Julian has a spirit
of action.  He is always fighting some
imagined enemy.  He makes Bows out of
sticks and rope. He is know to do
the occasional "combat roll" for
no particular or practical reason.

                We follow a Lord who has overcome evil and death! Our Jesus assures us of eternal life and no one can snatch us out of his hand.  That is why it is possible to face our earthly death unafraid.  When we are focused on our heavenly home and the promise of resurrection, when we remember the promises that every tear will be wiped away, when we remember that all the saints of God will be there, this life with its pain and threats to our to our earthly comfort, is easier to endure.  More than that! Not only can we endure, we can enjoy!  We can relish this life because of what Jesus did.  We can enjoy the love of God’s family and the abundance of his creation because we know who holds the future.  Superheros?  Look around you.  The pews are full of potential superheroes.

                Those two young men in Boston don’t get that.  They don’t get you can’t threaten and scare a people who are not afraid of death!  Sorry boys, my Lord has already taken care of that for me.  Now either go away…or step into the light. 

                In the scripture today it was Hanukkah. It was probably chilly that day, probably a lot like it is here today.   Jesus was in the east portico of the Temple in Jerusalem, this is just off the court of gentiles so there were probably all sorts of people around.  But some Jews came up to Jesus and started asking him if he was the messiah.  They said, “If you are the messiah, tell us plainly.” 

                Now we know, with 2000 years of hind-sight that Jesus is the Messiah.  And we know that the Jews were desperate for their messiah. They were desperate to be delivered, once again from their oppressors.  They were occupied by the Romans.  But they remember all too well especially at Hanukkah, when the temple had been taken over by pagan and profaned.  They remember the pain of loss.  They remember the humiliation of their sacred temple being misused and their very identity as Jews being under attack.

 So if they were asking Jesus to say it plainly that he was indeed the Messiah, he must not have verbalized it at that point.  But to ask meant that there was some evidence that he was.  Someone was saying that he was the messiah. But more importantly as Jesus says “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you don’t believe because you don’t belong to my sheep.”

He was saying that he was the Messiah all along.  The birth in Bethlehem, the ease with which he spoke about God when we was 12, the teaching and healing ministries as an adult all pointed to the Father; all pointing to Jesus being the Messiah.  But Jesus wasn't about having a title; Jesus was about doing his Fathers work. 

So no, there are no superheroes wearing tights and a cape.  Well there are people who wear tights and a cape and claim to be superhero’s but you probably have to watch out for those guys.  There is no bat car patrolling Gotham, there is no caped crusader flying over metropolis.  But there are many, many just like you who know the Lord and listen for his voice.  You don’t need super powers to be a super-hero. If you know Jesus we will do what he commands.  Jesus commands that we love one another.  He says to love God and to do that and to show that you have to love one another. 

Here I would be tempted to elaborate or to qualify that statement.  But let’s let that soak in.    Jesus once was asked ^“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In any given moment you may be needed to be the hero. It’s been quite a week being a hero this week meant various things it meant taking your spouse the Emergency Room in the middle of the night, it meant being available to one who is struggling far away, it meant carrying the victims of senseless violence out of danger, It meant caring enough about someone that you shared your greatest joy with them. 

So, how is it with you today?  You know that you will live forever, right?  You know that nothing can snatch you out of Jesus’ hand, right.  You know that your faithfulness will be rewarded in heaven, right?  All this is because of what Jesus has done for us.  Let us be about following his commands. Let us loosen our grip on the things of this world that are temporary.  Let us stop being defined by the things we have and be recognized by the love we have for each other. Let us be about bringing more sheep into his flock, and bringing more light into the darkness of this world. 

Would you pray with me?