Love One Another

 

A Sermon for First Baptist Church of Austin

May 15, 2022

Graduate Recognition Sunday

John 13:31-35

"Psalm 148"by Alyse Radenovic

Love One Another

In 1993, the funniest, most quirky and yet extremely memorable movie was released, right in the middle of my childhood. Known for its elaborate plot, extensive makeup and prosthetics budget, and an assembly of A-list actors, it became the second-highest-grossing film of that year, only behind Jurassic Park.   Released in theaters a month shy of my 10^th birthday, somehow I was permitted to see this PG-13 rated movie, most likely because my sister and I begged and pleaded with our parents in the middle of a Blockbuster to let us rent it. 

 

For all of you under 25, Blockbuster was a place where you walked into a brick and mortar store full of VHS-es as far as the eyes could see and paid $4.99 to take one home for the night to watch and promptly return the next day in order to avoid hefty late fees. We didn’t have access to every single movie ever made at our fingertips like you do now.  We had to actually DRIVE to a store to pick one out.  And you’d better get there early on a Friday night or all the good movies would have been rented already and you’d be forced to rent something like Encino Man, Look Who’s Talking Now, or Coneheads. And I’m sorry but I don’t have the energy to explain what a VHS is right now…

 

This hilarious classic movie of the 1990s is a story about a divorced parent who would stop at nothing to be near his children, so he disguises himself as a middle-aged British nanny and fools his ex-wife into hiring him to care for his own kids. This elaborate scheme requires him to spend hours dressing to play the part, including an extensive prosthetics and makeup routine.  Everything is going well-ish for the family with their new nanny. The kids seem to be adjusting.  But it wouldn’t be true comedic gold without the most cringeworthy scene in the entire movie. 

 

When the family and new boyfriend and the “nanny” end up being at the same restaurant at the same time, different tables, the truth comes out that the nanny isn’t who she says she is when her prosthetic face starts to come unraveled, exposing the real face behind the mask.  But the look of shock and betrayal on the faces of his family is far from funny.  It’s awkward, and painful, and heartbreaking.  This woman had become a staple in the lives of this family, picking the kids up from school, preparing meals, and some light housework.  She was their confidant, someone they trusted. This moment at the dinner table is one these kids will never forget, because she wasn’t who they thought she was.  She broke their trust and betrayed them. 

 

The dinner table seems to be a place of drama in lots of families. I can think of many other movies where something shocking or dramatic happens to alter the course of a family’s life forever. Maybe it’s happened at your own family table, where a bomb of truth was dropped in the laps of each member present.  A divorce announced. A scandal breaks. A mistake brought to light. A sorrow shared. Lives changed and uprooted before you even got to dessert. 

 

Maybe movie writers take their cues from Jesus when incorporating plot altering content into the family meal time. So many times in the Bible, Jesus uses the meal to shock and awe the people around him.  We see him eating with tax collectors and sinners- you know, those people that everyone hates and shuns. He eats in the homes of lepers and women and freshly-risen-from-the-dead people. 

 

The bible tells us just a few verses before our scripture reading today that Jesus is having a meal with his dearest friends- his disciples- whom he has specifically chosen to journey alongside in his earthly ministry. They are basically his family, those special people who have traveled with him and cared for him while he did the work he was called to do.  So they’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of each person for years. Reclining on couches or cushions on the floor to eat their meal, Jesus drops a bombshell of truth in the middle of their comfortability to announce that someone in the room will betray him. 

 

The disciples are used to Jesus doing shocking things, because they’ve seen him do some crazy cool things, but this seems to take the cake. Shock and disbelief fill the room, the confusion and heartbreak, a palpable sense of tension. No one wants to be the one to betray Jesus, their rabbi, their lord! Luke’s gospel says they argue among each other about who could be the one Jesus is talking about. That’s just so human-like: always wanting to point the finger at someone else, never wanting to admit blame.  I mean, it does make for a very dramatic movie scene, if you think about it.

 

Despite the confusion and notes of betrayal hanging in the air, Jesus moves on from one bombshell to another to spell out his last will and testament for his followers. Jesus is essentially on his death bed, headed for the cross, and is taking the opportunity to spell out exactly what his family is supposed to do after he’s gone and how they are to cope with his absence. 

 

…and for all the times Jesus speaks in parables and stories and mysterious words, I appreciate that Jesus gets right to the point and makes it as clear as he can. 

 

He says, “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”- John 13:34-35.  

 

Now, I said, “Jesus makes it clear.” I did not say, “Jesus makes it easy.” There’s really nothing easy about loving each other if you do it the way Jesus loved. G.K Chesterton once wrote that "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult and left untried."  There’s a reason for this…..

 

Jesus’ love is messy and gross. It’s found in the murky waters of foot washing as an act of service, hospitality, and welcome. It’s in the sweat that soaks your t-shirt in the hot humidity as you carry boxes of books away from an aging church member’s home to move them to a new and safer place to live. It’s in the soiled clothes of a sick neighbor suffering from cancer that you remove and help change them out of in order to bring them dignity in dying.  

 

It’s agreeing to be a youth camp sponsor and staying up late talking to teenagers at youth camp, all the while eating food that your elderly body cannot tolerate anymore and you know you will suffer the negative side effects in the morning, all because you know this generation of students is suffering from anxiety, depression and loneliness in record numbers. You stay up late to talk despite your exhaustion because you know listening to their story has a bigger impact than any sermon you could preach.  

When we love others the way Jesus loves us, we get our hands dirty in service to someone else. WE get uncomfortable.  We do the hard work.  We put our comfort last. It’s always intimate and always vulnerable, sometimes smelly and sometimes uncomfortable. Jesus’ love requires that we put someone else’s needs ahead of our own, not to be taken advantage of, but to be a visible and tangible presence of God in the world.  

In 1996, Keshia Thomas was only 18 years old. She was attending an anti-racism rally in her home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The crowd became violent when they tried to chase out a KKK supporter from the mix. Mob mentality began to take over and all of a sudden, many from the group began kicking and hitting the white man wearing a confederate flag t-shirt. Keshia threw herself on top of him to shield him from the blows. She put herself at risk to protect a person that would likely not have done the same for her. 

 

When asked why she would do such a thing, she mentioned her own religious beliefs influenced her decision to help the man, and that she had been a victim of violence in the past.  She said, “I knew what it was like to be hurt. The many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me.” She was confident that standing up to stop violence would break the cycle of hurt people hurting people. Her bravery to act out against hatred and violence changed the lives of many people who saw her sacrifice her safety to show love for another human. She loved like Jesus. Jesus’ love is bravery in action. 

 

This love has the power to inspire and change lives. Jesus’ love in action can build bridges between communities who have little respect for one another. When we love like Jesus loves, sacrificing our comfort for what is right, what is just and what is kind, we take a needle to our broken and fractured communities and begin to stitch them back together one thread at a time. Keshia knew this power of love in action and she demonstrated the life-changing power of love over hate.  

 

When banded together in unity, motivated by Jesus’ love for all, the people that make up the church can make such a huge impact on the world around them. So, are we the kind of church that has turned our eyes inward to exist primarily for the good of its own members? Or are we a church that has our eyes pointed externally, to a world full of division, hatred, pain, and injustice, working to serve the community in which we exist in order to bring about the kingdom of God? Because Jesus’ love leaves no one behind, no matter the color of your skin, your sexual orientation or gender identity, your politics,  or your socioeconomic status. 

 

Jesus’ love is the unifier that does not distinguish between sinner or saint, but sees all in the same light of equality. Whether we like it or not, we are all in the same boat together, bumping shoulders in the turbulent waters of life, and most of the time, it feels like we are in the middle of a hurricane, the violent waves throwing our bodies around like my daughter’s favorite stuffie in the washing machine. 

 

Why would we want to destroy our boat’s capacity to float by poking holes in the hull with the spears of racism or sexism, or hatred by allowing water to seep in and capsizing our life boat? Loving like Jesus loved is our way to plug the holes that seek to drown us. 

 

“But there are so many holes! So many things that seek to drown us!” 

 

I know that’s what you’re thinking.  It’s hard to look at the damage we’ve done to our ship and wonder if it’s even possible to float again. Is our ship beyond repair? The optimist in me says, no, it’s not beyond repair, because time and time again we hear stories of Jesus’ love permeating the darkness, mending hearts, building bridges of love and friendship in unexpected places.  Living a life of love for others as Jesus loves us is our epoxy to the holes in our ship, keeping us afloat.

 

And as we are busy filling the world with love, patching the holes that we’ve caused, we have to be reminded the Jesus’ love sustains us in all our times mess and muck. Just look at the disciples in this gospel story. Whilewe know the end of this story-that love is more powerful than death, the disciples are living this in real time, moving from a regular evening dinner into a whirlwind of confusion as Jesus is announcing a betrayal, then saying he is leaving them but they can’t come with. Imagine the panic as the person you’ve relied on for three years says they are up and leaving you? Well, maybe you have experienced this in relationships, in death, in life’s disappointments. 

 

The disciples are yearning for a way to hold on to Jesus in this moment.  They aren’t looking for a pep talk, some clichéd quote to emborder onto a wall hanging. They need real assurance that there is something bigger happening than just the confusion and anxiety of the previous moment.  Jesus knows the pain of loss so his command to love others as he did is how the disciples will be able to connect to him after he is no longer present. They will be able to remember the love they felt from Jesus when he was on earth and then be able to pass that love to others.  This is how they will be sustained when the really hard parts of life begin to close in on them. They just have to think back to how it felt to be loved by Jesus. 

 

When someone really important in our life dies, we often take on little rituals in order to remember them in our grief. It could be as simple as a yearly visit to a gravesite, or a family vacation to their favorite place to hike. It can be shared meals and laugher or wearing a piece of their jewelry on your finger. Those rituals we have in place allow us to sense their presence from the grave, to remember the things that made them mean the most to us.  Remembering the love they had for us keeps us going in our grief over their loss.

 

In exactly this same way, modern Christ-followers who have never actually met Jesus in the flesh can feel that connection to the resurrected Christ when they love others. It brings clarity to what we say when we gather around the table- Do this in remembrance of me, doesn’t it?  We do this to remember Christ’s love for us. 

 

May we remember the impact, the power, the life that Jesus’s love brings us and may we reflect that love onto everyone we meet knowing that THIS is how we can feel the transforming power of love. Want to feel Jesus’s love? Then show it to another. What to feel the comfort of being loved? Be love to someone else.

 

Amen.