This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, January 14, 2018 at United Presbyterian Church, Sterling KS.
Listen to audio here.
Read John 13:12-17, 34-35; Leviticus 19:9-18 here.
How do you feel about group projects? If you teach, do you assign them? As a student, do you love them or hate
them? I dreaded them. I typically got good grades and didn’t like
that my grade was going to depend on other people, people I didn’t know well, or
worse, people who I knew didn’t care about their grades as much as I did. So I learned that the best solution for the
grade-conscious student is to be ready to do all or most of the work.
At Clemson University, my alma mater, group projects were
common AND they were given a high priority because Clemson was very focused on
making sure that students graduated with the skills that employers were asking
for, and high on the list was the ability to work well with others.[1] Because of that, the grades for group
projects were frequently tied to how well we worked together. Unfortunately for me, you got marked down for
taking over and doing all the work. On one of my projects, the members of the
group gave each other grades. I decided
what grade my partner would get and vice versa. We had to get along and work
together.
If life had
grades, and the grades were about how well we got along with one another, what
would your grade be?
Technically, there are no grades, but in our reading from
John today, Jesus does give us what might be grading criteria. “By
this all people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John
13:35)
Jesus is telling the disciples about this idea of loving one
another during their last meal together before he is arrested. In the other gospels, the writers tell us
about the first communion, Jesus taking bread and saying, “Take and eat. This
is my body broken for you.” And taking a
cup of wine and saying, “This is my blood shed for the forgiveness of sins.”
And he adds, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
John chooses instead to tell us about something else that
happened that night. Jesus washes their
feet. It’s a menial task that was
usually performed by the lowest ranking servant in the house. It wasn’t notable that their feet were
getting washed. That was a normal
thing. But it was unthinkable that their
teacher and leader would be the one to do it.
Then he tells them that they too should wash one another’s
feet. While they’re still pondering that radical idea, Jesus tells them he’s
got a new commandment for them – love
one another.
It’s not really new, though.
Moses had included this in the rules for living a holy life that we find
in Leviticus. Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18). And Jesus had already identified this as one
of the top two commandments in his conversation with the teachers in Matthew 22[2]:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ 40 All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The Gospel
of John, instead of telling us his version of the events that Matthew, Mark
& Luke tell, seems to be more focused on filling in the blanks, telling us
about events that the other gospel writers left out. The one thing that all four include is the
story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
John gives us four chapters of Jesus’ words that last night when he was
preparing them for what was going to happen.
Twice in these four chapters, Jesus talks about this commandment to love
one another. He says it again in chapter
15, because this is the highest priority.
So they won’t miss it, he commands it. And then he tells them how to do it.
Just
as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13:34)
He’s just demonstrated how to love one another by washing
their feet, a shocking act all by itself, and he’s going to show them even more
dramatically when he dies on the cross.
The Apostle Paul gives us reinforcement for the priority of
loving one another in his letter to the Corinthians. He says, “Without
love we are meaningless” – 1 Cor 13 (Krabbe paraphrase). I love how the Message version of the Bible
makes this really clear. It says:
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love,
I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power,
revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have
faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m
nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the
poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve
gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m
bankrupt without love.
Nothing we do or believe or say matters if we don’t love one
another.
It’s a high priority, and it’s also a challenge.
Jesus says we’re to love, “just as I have loved you.” He’s giving this command to the disciples,
two of whom are doing some rather unlovable things. While they’re in that room having supper, one
of the disciples, Judas, leaves to go tell the temple leaders where Jesus is so
they can arrest him. Jesus knows that Judas is betraying him, setting into
motion the events that will lead to his death.
But he says, “Love one another just as I have loved you.” Jesus has washed Judas’ feet, along with all
the other disciples.[3]
Peter, the disciple who seems to always have something to
say, says, “Of course, Jesus. I will lay
down my life for you.” Peter is so sure that he’s up for following Jesus no
matter what. But Jesus tells him,
“Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter has heard Jesus’ words and promised to
follow, but then he denies even knowing Jesus.
But still, Jesus says, “love one another, just as I have loved you.”
It’s a challenge, because people aren’t always lovable. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. But Jesus still died for them because he loved
them, just like he loves us.
It’s a challenge because Jesus tells us we are even to love
our enemies. In Matt 5, he says:
43 “You have heard
that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I
tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He
causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you
get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing
more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Be perfect, as God is perfect. Love one another like I have loved you. This connects us back to those rules for
living back in Leviticus, instructions for living as God’s holy people. Loving like Jesus, living as God’s holy
people, is a big challenge. Putting love
first, doing everything with love is not easy.
Which is why we need to practice. And to practice you have to spend time with
people, because we can’t love one another if there is no other.
I started out talking about the challenge of doing group
projects in school. Those projects were
opportunities to practice working with other people. Sure it would be easier to get things done if
we just did everything by ourselves. No
arguments. No having to compromise. But what
if the point is not to get things done but to learn to love one another?
We often joke about how churches do everything by
committee. Have you ever considered that
maybe we do things this way because it’s God’s way? That the point is not just that we get things
done, but that we do things together?
So we make love our highest
priority because Jesus commanded us to, despite the challenge it is to love even our enemies, and we practice loving one another by doing
things together.
Just to make sure that we don’t miss how important this
really is, Jesus also gives us a purpose
for working on this. He says, “By this
all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John
13:35)
I mentioned earlier in the service that this is the
first sermon in a series of sermons that I’m calling Together@United. We’re
spending five weeks talking about this idea of loving one another because it is
a high priority, then we’re going to have an opportunity to practice that
together by getting together in small groups for the six weeks of Lent, the six
weeks before Easter. It’s important for us all to take part in this, and to
make this a regular part of our lives.
Small groups are an important part of discipleship, of growing in our
relationship with God, because they give us an opportunity to work on learning
the ins and outs of loving one another in a safe environment. They give us an
opportunity to have conversations about God, and to get to know one another in
a deeper way…to work on being the church
– loving & growing & serving together.
It’s not going to be easy. When we get to know each other better, we may
find that we disagree about things. We will
find that we don’t all do life the same way.
Despite all that, Jesus tells us to love one another.
I’m pretty sure the hardest part
will be to accept one another, to love one another without judgment. I’ve heard it said that Alcoholics Anonymous
becomes church for some people because they
can go to an AA meeting and find encouragement without judgement, but when
they go to church they find judgment.
Do you know why there’s no
judgement at an AA meeting? Everybody
comes with the common understanding that they are all alcoholics. Some of them are sober alcoholics, and some of
them have been sober for so long that people may not even remember that they
were drunk, but they’re still alcoholics.
What do they way any time anyone
speaks? They start by saying, “My
name is ____ and I’m an alcoholic,” so that they don’t forget that they’re
all alcoholics.
Maybe we should do the same in the
church. Hello, my name is Melissa and I’m
a sinner. We all are
sinners. We all are equally in need of
God’s love and forgiveness. Jesus died
for every one of us. Love came down for
me and for you and for everyone we meet.
The most powerful way that we love one another like Jesus loved us is by
showing the same forgiveness and acceptance that Jesus showed for us. Despite
our faults. Despite our differences. Jesus
came for all of us. All of us are
sinners in need of his grace.
We’re together because we all need love – the love we
have through our faith in Jesus Christ. God put us together to love one another
– to practice what Jesus commanded us to practice – loving one another as he
has loved us.
If life had grades, and the grades were about how well we got along with one another, what would your grade be?
[1] Learning
goals for group projects https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/benefits.html
[2] And Mark 12:28-31 and Luke
10:25-28
[3] Susan Hylen : “Judas’s presence at the supper means that
the example Jesus sets is not simply one of service to an elite group of
believers. Jesus has washed Judas’s feet, and therefore has included him among
those he loved “to the utmost.” Similarly, the love of disciples for “one
another” might be understood to include even those others we might prefer to
forget.” http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1583
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