Last week, I talked about pruning and gardening and those things of which I am a black thumb. I promised that I would give an update. And, I am doing that now. I am an amazing procrastinator, and so I procrastinated all week. Remember those limbs growing from the trees that I said that I needed to prune that come up about yay high on me? I did it. I pruned them yesterday in the rain because I wanted to make sure that I was able to let you all know, because I know that you’re going to be asking me, “Mother Janie, did you prune those limbs?” I knew you would ask me. In order to avoid my guilt and shame when you asked, that work is done. Y’all, please let Allen know.
John 15:9-17: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
We’re talking again this morning regarding these passages out of John’s Gospel. Remember we talked last week about John’s high Christology, meaning he leans to the side of Christ’s divinity. It is important for us as we move through John’s gospel text to be aware of the lens, or perspective, in which John views Christ and records His movements. As we engage with our gospel passage this morning, we need to be reminded how the writer observes Jesus when He tells his disciples, “Love one another.”
Our Old Testament passages, God is calling His people into covenant. It is in love, it is through love, it is for love. As we look at our gospel passage this morning, and as I’ve been ruminating over the text that we have for this morning, I remember the book that we studied last year: “The Book of Joy.” This beautiful text is based on conversations and the relationship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It talks about joy, and that joy is what draws us to one another. The gift of what comes from love. We talk about love all the time, right? Because we talk about what Christ has done for us. We talk about the spirit that draws us to one another. We talk about what love looks like and how love behaves.
However, I believe I need to talk a bit about what love is not. I want to talk about what love does not look like. Love can bring forth this feeling of connection, this feeling of comfort, this feeling of peace. This awareness of the reality of blessing. Conversely, when love is not present, it can look like discord. When love is not present, it can look like jealousy and envy and gloating. And all of the things that we are called to be above, be careful what you put on Facebook because it might end up in the sermon. And here they come…we keyboard warriors. We sit behind the computer screen or the phones, and we see something that pricks us, and we want to put our response, our rejection, into the cyber sphere. And I admit, I do the same thing. I read something, and my hackles immediately shock to attention. With my head furiously bobbing back and forth, I type as fast as I can so I don’t forget anything. Then…hit that little blue arrow. I let it sit there for a couple of hours. Then the sweet peaceful personality returns, and I think, ‘Oh Janie, really?! Do you really want your name attached to that? Is that really what you are supposed to be putting out there?’ So, I’ll go back, and I’ll delete my post, and I’ll delete my comments. That’s what we should do. We should always be editing ourselves. Paying attention to how we behave and what we sound like.
We know here in McAlester that there is a pavilion, a bandstand, that’s been built on Choctaw Street. It’s been built for the purpose of joining the community together. It’s been built for the purpose of bringing in entertainment and music. The city helped assisted by matching funds, not funding the entire project. It’s important that we know this fact. TSET paid for all the plans, and we did our part by fundraising.
Enter our keyboard warriors. “Where is the money going? Follow the money and you will see the corruption. I agree with the town growing by building, but I also believe in maintaining what you have. And to do that, we’re going to need to clean house.”
Another comment: “More wasted money instead of fixing these roads that’s tearing up people’s vehicles. At least the homeless will have a pavilion to sleep under.”
Response to that comment: “Yep, cops will probably arrest them, but at least they’ll eat and have a roof over their heads.”
Another comment: “Covid-Biden loving guy is still mayor.”
Another comment: “They’re trying to turn McAlester into a tourist attraction with three-bedroom, two-bath size potholes everywhere.”
It’s humorous and we chuckle. But, my friends, this not love. These comments are not love. Jesus says they will know that you love me by your fruits. They will know that you love me by the way that you engage with one another.
We may sit and snicker, but we do the same things. And I think that’s what makes it a little bit funny because in those comments, we also recognize the point. The hatred that we can often carry in our own hearts towards our neighbor, towards the person who may look different from us, who may act differently than us, who may speak differently than us. What Jesus wants us to do is to create a world within our community that engages with our neighbor. That we see our neighbor as we see ourselves.
As I turn to this text we studied last year. I think about what we talked about as we were reading through this book. We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness—not despite it—that we discover the possibility of true joy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said this as I handed him a sleek black cane with a silver handle shaped like a greyhound. Life is filled with challenges and adversity. Fear is inevitable, as is pain, and eventually death. The problem is that our world and our education remains focused exclusively on external.
Materialistic values. We’re not concerned enough with our inner values. Those grow up with this kind of education, live in a materialistic life, and eventually the whole society becomes materialistic. But this culture is not sufficient to tackle our human problems. The real problem is here.
And the archbishop tapped his chest and he said, “It’s here. It’s here. And it’s here.” The Dalai Lama continued, “Mind and heart, materialistic values cannot give us peace of mind. So we really need to focus on our inner values and our true humanity. Only this way, we can have peace of mind and more peace in our world. A lot of the problems we are facing are our own creation. Like war, violence. Unlike a natural disaster, these problems are created by humans ourselves. I feel there is a big contradiction,” the Dalai Lama continued. “There are seven billion human beings and nobody wants to have problems or suffering, but there are many problems and much suffering most of our own creation. Why?” He was speaking now directly to the archbishop who was nodding in agreement.
Something is lacking. As one of the seven billion human beings, I believe everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world. We must look within. I address the next question to the Archbishop: The joy that you’re talking about is not just a feeling. It’s not something that just comes and goes. It’s something much more profound. And it sounds like what you are saying is that joy is a way of approaching the world. It’s how we are made. We are wired to be compassionate. We’re wired to be compassionate. If we say that Christ is within us, if we say that, if we believe that Christ is within us
That, what is in here, must also come from here. Which must also draw us to one another. We talked before as we were reading this text. We talked about what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called Ubuntu. Ubuntu. The humanity in me draws recognizes that humanity in you, and I am made whole when you are made whole. I am made whole when you are made whole. That is who we are. That is what we are to strive to be. Deacon Wayne and I met this week and we talked about.
We’re sitting at the beginning of May, and the next six or seven months, especially in our American time period, we’re going to be challenged to dig deeper into that awareness of humanity and that compassion. And in that love that Jesus has put within us because of the Holy Spirit. I am not saying that it will be easy. We may get on there like keyboard warriors and we may speak our vitriol. I pray that we come back and we delete those comments when we can. We must.
Because we love Jesus, because we say that we love Jesus, and because we will come up to the table and we will partake of Jesus together, we must seek curiosity with our neighbor with whom we might disagree. Find that love, find that compassion, and we speak from a place of love. I am not saying it’s going to be easy because it’s not. In whatever side of the aisle that you were on, in whatever side of the political spectrum that you are on, we must come together.
And speak from that place of love. We may disagree, and that’s okay. It’s okay to disagree. But I come to you, my brothers and my sisters, because we share Christ. And because I will be made whole because you are made whole. We share our humanity in these next days, weeks, and months. May we constantly sit and rest in Christ, and that love that He gives us through His body and His blood every single day.
Amen.
revjaniekoch.org 