Irvine United Congregational ChurchRev. Paul TellströmEaster 6B “That You May Love One Another”May 21, 2006
Hebrew Testament: Psalm 98 Gospel: John 15: 1-17 word count: 1,847
This has been a wonderful and short four weeks, and now comes the awkward moment. I have to go. We leave for Europe on Thursday, and I will be back long enough to be with you on Father’s Day before I leave for my last intensive in Chicago for the work I am doing towards my D. Min. in Preaching. Thank you for your welcome, for the work you did to prepare my office this weekend, and for your understanding how we needed to work the schedule out so that we could come early and be with you this month. I am leaving you well covered. Dave Lindsey will be here next week, and after that will be Mary Ellen Kilsby twice, Lorraine Fox, and Loletta Barrett. When I get back, I want to do a little dreaming with your leadership, and bring the congregation into a bit of planning for our future. I look forward to that, and to all that will come. Dr. William Willimon, the former Dean of Duke University Chapel, told a couple of stories that I want to share with you today. The first goes like this: The reporter was interviewing an old man, a grandfather, who was obviously still in intense grief over the shooting death of his teenaged grandson. The grandson had been shot by in a robbery of the family’s little neighborhood grocery store. “Do you want revenge on those who did this?” asked the reporter. “Would you like to shoot the person who shot your grandson?” The old man was astonished at the question. “No, that’s not possible,” said the grandfather. “I guess then that you don’t even know for sure who did this,” said the reporter. “No,” said the grandfather. “It’s not that. It’s that we are Christians. We are not permitted revenge.” Today’s scripture lesson is told from the point of view of the community of John. They are followers of who we are told might have been the beloved disciple. The gospel that grew from this community and their leader is strange and different. It has been called, “the spiritual gospel,” and its story and viewpoint moves down a slightly different road from Matthew, Mark and Luke. In all the gospels, though, we find a Jesus that speaks to us in parables and invites us to think of the answer ourselves. We find a Christ who makes mysterious claims such as the one we began with today, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.” We come across a Jesus who is either hinting at us, or else hitting us over the head with clarity. Most of the time, we need to put his whole community into a historical and social context in order to catch the nuances of what was being communicated. It is often not clear—except for instances like today’s. This one is clear—Jesus commands. There is no argument. Oftentimes, figuring out what the “Christian thing to do” in a situation is difficult. Life is full of twists and turns, and Christian ethics may suggest a number of possible responses. But not in today’s reading. Here Jesus simply, without options, commands us to love one another. And to be a follower of Jesus, progressive or otherwise, means that some things for us are not optional. Just as a person who is a member of the Sierra Club is not a person who sets forest fires, a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving does not host a fundraiser with an open bar. . As I did ecumenical work for an organization that constantly raised money and supplied food pantries, I became very impressed with the volunteers from our local Reformed temple. Not only did they host a food pantry, they subsidized one that was at a poorer Unitarian church. Not only did they raise money for Hope-Net, they sent many volunteers to work at our events and to sit on our board. One of our members, our former president, explained this way: “A Jew is obligated to volunteer and perform works of charity. It’s not optional.” Likewise, a follower of Jesus is someone who always tries to respond to other people as Jesus responded. We have publicly committed ourselves to do this. And Jesus has commanded us to love. Whether our obedience to this command will make the world a better place, or lead to deeper human understanding, or help to win friends and influence people, we have no way of knowing. We only know, in today’s scripture as well as in so many other places in the New Testament that this is clearly what Jesus commands us to do. But what does it mean to love one another? Clearly sometimes we have to exhibit a kind of “tough love,” while recognizing that we cannot countenance the violence, hate, revenge and the other means through which the world gets what it wants. These things simply cannot be allowed to flourish for people who are commanded to love. As Memorial Day comes around, I think about our former neighbors who had been struggling for years. Eric and Rosemary lived together in a condo that was brimming with once grand, now faded relics of another time. Eric was a little naďve, and Rosemary, it turns out, was becoming ill. Carl and I did little things for them that they just didn’t understand how to do on their own—explaining simple legalities, talking to lawyers, and helping them to straighten out their finances after they were swindled by con artists. Rosemary had to be institutionalized, and Eric struggled on his own to take care of her. He occasionally gave us a gift for our cabin—we have a couple of mounted antlers that he gave us that he said had come from Prince so-and-so’s hunting lodge—which we never believed. As I sat down to think on this scripture—that Jesus just out and out commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, I remembered Eric and Rosemary. One day, I found something called “Eric’s bio.” I remember Carl telling me that Eric had called him a long time ago because he wanted Carl to write out a record of what he called his “life story,” but when they sat down to do it, it was clear that what was being written was his obituary. I read about this older neighbor who called on us so frequently for help when they were confused. Eric was the last German Baron Von Westphalen. He wrote about how his family’s estates were forfeited after the war. But the first thing you read is that during WWII he served as a Lt. in the “Hermann Goering” Paratroop Battalion in Berlin. Both his father, a regimental Nazi commander on the Russian front and his older brother a naval officer, were killed at the end of the war in 1944, whereupon he inherited the title “Baron.” I realized who we had been helping, and it felt a little strange. How would it have felt had we known? Many of the people we remember on this Memorial Day were persecuted and killed—many of us in this room would have found ourselves in concentration camps for reasons of ethnicity, religious heritage, and sexuality because of the forces of Nazism. The gospel of John presents a Jesus commands people to love. He doesn’t make any other distinction. John Dominic Crossan, is an author who is probably familiar to many of you. In his books about Jesus, he shares his suspicion that the church has produced “Christs” that “mute, mitigate, or manage” the agenda of the true, historical Jesus, and yet he acknowledges that his own methods of understanding Jesus are limited. Crossan is honest enough to know that Jesus does not just want our admiration, or even our agreement. He wants obedience. Crossan imagines a conversation between himself and Jesus: “I’ve read your book, Dominic,” Jesus begins,” and it’s quite good. So you’re now ready to live by my vision and join me in my program?” “I don’t think I have the courage, Jesus, but I did describe it quite well, didn’t I, and the method was especially good, wasn’t it?” “Thank you, Dominic, for not falsifying the message to suite your own incapacity. That at least is something.” “Is it enough, Jesus?” “No, Dominic, it is not.” 1 Sometimes it’s hard to love your neighbor as yourself. I have reason today to even question the ethics of it, yet believing that it must still be the right thing to do. And so, I will let the Rev. William Willimon, who opened these words with a story, finish with a story of his own: “On my way out of the church later one afternoon, I was chagrined to see, coming towards the church down the walkway, a rather forlorn looking man with a small bag, obviously a wanderer, a vagabond, a drifter, coming toward the church seeking a handout. “This is what you get for having a church situated near a busy highway. These drifters drift through about twice a week, seeking a tank of gas for their trip, a meal, a gift -- preferably in cash -- for their journey to who knows where. They always have some sad story of woe to tell but the end is always the same -- can you spare about $25.00 in cash. “I sighed as I watched the man approach. It had been a long day. I had a meeting to return for that night and I was anxious to get home. I would meet him at the door, head him off, give him the only cash I had -- a mere $15.00 as I recall -- and then send him, and me, on our way. “‘What can I do for you?’ I asked with some annoyance in my voice. “‘I wondered if you might be able to help a fella’ on the way South,’ he said. ‘I was headed down to....’ “‘Yes, yes,’ I said. ‘Well, I’m in a bit of a rush. So here is all I have. A five and a ten. That’s all I’ve got.’ “The man took the money as I offered it. Looked at it. And without a word, he turned, and headed out toward the street. Then he stopped, and turned toward me as I locked the church door. ‘I guess you think I’m supposed to thank you, to be grateful,’ he said with a surprising tone of defiance. “‘Well,’ I said, ‘now that you mention it, a little gratitude wouldn’t hurt.’ “‘Well, I’m not going to thank you. You want to know why?’ he sneered. “‘Why?’ I asked. “‘Because you are a Christian. You don’t help me because you want to. You have to help me because he (now thrusting his finger up into the air) told you to help me!’ And then he left. “I stood there, stunned, angry. The nerve of these people! On my drive home it finally hit me. He was right.”2 And no matter what….here’s to his being right. AMEN
Sermon Resources: 1) The Historical Jesus: An Interview with John Dominic Crossan, The Christian Century, #108 (December 18-25, 1991), p. 1204. 2) William Willimon, Commanded to, May, 1997
Scripture for Sunday, May 21, 2006
Psalm 98
O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
John 15:1-17
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my 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. “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.”
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