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Beloving Community Acts 10:44 – 48; John 15:9 – 17 Two more long-lasting television shows have completed their runs. In the past week both West Wing and Will and Grace aired their last episodes. They can be added to some of the epic TV drama and sit-coms that had at their very core the concept of friendship. West Wing was one of my all-time favorites. A favorite not just because of its political persuasion and not just because of the leadership skills that were demonstrated in the characters but primarily because of the friendships built into and sustaining the team. Viewers were drawn into the ups and downs and delicacies of the work of building trust. Further, viewers were drawn into the developing assurance of persons' gifts as they contributed to the operation of a powerful organization. I was told one time that, as a minister, it would be very difficult for me to have friends. It gets confusing and ethical lines are often crossed when pastors make friends with parishioners, I was told. And there was a portion of my life I believed that and in which I did not have friends. But I have told you before that years ago in a one month period my husband had open heart surgery and a heart attack, my baby began his six-year trek with seizures and the house next door burned to the ground. I realized then that I not only needed friends but I had them, and was merely afraid of developing, nurturing and caring for those friendships. In the ensuing years I have learned that friendship is hard work. The joy, the benefits, the necessities for a rich and full life with others, however, are worth the work and effort. Jesus claims we are his friends, and our Gospel passage today illuminates his concepts about that friendship. Much as we like to use the phrase ‘unconditional love’ especially when it comes to God (or to parenting) Jesus turns that one around. He attaches major strings to the friendship he has with disciples and followers. “You are my friends, IF — IF you do what I command.” Try that as you make a new friend. You can be my friend, IF you do what I tell you to do. That is not even close to what I have experienced with friendship...so we are going to have to dig deeper to understand what Jesus (our master teacher and educator) is really teaching...and how in the world we are going to be able to keep his friendship. As usual, Jesus doesn't base his ideas on anything other than what he has already learned from God. Jesus' gift to us is what he has first received as gift from God. As we celebrate education today and honor those actively involved in the educational process we know that good teachers must have ‘knowledge’ — a storehouse of understanding that they are to pass on. They also bring experience to bear. How well those two mix is a major determinant for the success of a teacher. Jesus was no different. He had knowledge about God and experience with God. Jesus told his disciples that God first loved him — Jesus. That act of loving allowed Jesus to live within the state of God's love. God's act of loving opened the possibility of a certain kind of existence for Jesus. This is crucial to the understanding of our faith. God's action came first. Jesus' responsibility for living within that state of love was simply to keep God’s commandment of loving all of us. When we receive and acknowledge the gift of love from God and Jesus, we, too, only have one responsibility, one commandment to live by — to love each other. The theory seems simple. The practice gets to be more difficult. This 'choosing to keep the commandment' has important ramifications. Jesus did not say — nor does he ever say — that we can do anything to get God NOT to love us. Our choosing not to keep this commandment does not change God's action of love toward us. The benefits of dwelling in God’s love are always available — we merely have to choose to access them. That choice is the string, the heavy condition that Jesus is placing upon us. Again, as Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he indicated there had been a shift in their relationship. No longer do I call you servants, he said, but now I have chosen you to be my friends. These disciples hadn't done anything spectacular to move up in their status with Jesus. They certainly had not performed well enough to graduate — at this point — in the ministry. None of them had scored magna cum laude in theological school. They were still the bumbling, sometimes dense, sometimes almost-on-target trainees with whom he had started. But Jesus took this opportunity to assure them that he had chosen them; that he loved them; that he believed they were now able to enter this existence of God's love, because they now knew how to keep the commandment to love each other. Jesus did not love his first disciples because they were perfect. He did not love them because they did everything he asked. He did not love them because they quit exasperating him. He did not love them because they loved him. Jesus loved those first disciples because they were each children of God — individual creations with foibles, gifts and possibilities. He loved them so that they might know what it is to live in a state — and existence — of a life of love. He loved them because God loved him. Once they realized the beauty, the assurance, the quality of life within that existence, he knew they would not choose another. That possibility remains open to us. Jesus calls us to be his friends. We have been chosen already. There are no entrance fees, no exams to get in. And to stay in the only action we need to take is to love others the way we have first been loved. When we are able to remember that we were not perfect before we were loved; that we did not have to achieve anything before we were first loved; that we passed no exams, paid no entrance fees, developed no resumes; but were merely loved for the fallible, foibled, individual child we are — how freeing that will be for us to love others. When we remember that we did nothing to be drawn into God's love we then will be able to love others who have done nothing to make us like them. Most of us try hard to NOT show all of our imperfections. We know what those are, and so does God. And yet, God has chosen to love us. Remembering that, we are free to love others whether they are able to hide their imperfections or not! Within a room of a mere 100 people, when we realize that God loves each of us in the same proportion as the other; that there is not an overabundance of love for the one who is acting appropriately, or saying the right things, or singing the correct notes, or listening to the sermon the best, or eating the cookies in the most polite way; but that God is choosing to love each of us and wanting earnestly for us to abide in that state of love, THEN we can also choose to love each other in the same way. We begin in small circles — families. Then we practice in congregations. Then we move to neighborhoods. All so that this world of God's may be the beloving community that God so wants. How do we praise God? How do we truly sing the alleluias that claim the centrality of God's reign in this world? By accepting the gift of love and by extending it through our own choices of loving. It is when we get our head and heart around the truth that God loves us even though we think malicious thoughts, say nasty things in anger, don’t carry through on promises made, and selfishly protect our positions (just for a beginning list!) that we can love our children and partners who have the same (and perhaps different inadequacies) and then be able to continue adding circles of community. Beloving community — may we choose to accept our call as Jesus' friends. May we truly love one another as God loves us. SW |
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