The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John.

At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:31-35)

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“I give you a new commandment, to love one another.”

“Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples.”

The question that arises from today’s Gospel story for me, is, “ Do people really know that we are disciples by the way we love each other?”

Because they sure know when we don’t.

When I was a member of  St. Luke’s in Burlington, the church came to an arrangement with the city of Burlington to allow the city the use of some church land for a city parking lot, provided that St. Luke’s parishioners could park there free.

To facilitate this, the church handed out stickers for parishioners to display on their windshields, with the St. Luke’s coat of arms.

Some time later  my son Jeff came home and told us about something that happened at the Pioneer gas station where he worked after school.

He said a lady pulled in, was very curt, and very rude, and even swore at him.

Then he told me…… and you guessed it…. she had a St. Luke’s sticker on her windshield.

She may have displayed the sticker but she certainly didn’t display  the kind of love that Jesus commanded of his disciples.

Did she?  

I don’t think that she got it.

I can’t think of anyone I have known in the churches I have served, who  would behave like that.

That person was really only going through the motions – of being a Christian – attending church.  I would hate to think  she attended the church – went through “the motions” –  merely to get that sticker.

I don’t think we are here just to go through the motions.

But  I think it is easy to slip into that mode of Christianity.

It can happen without thinking about it.

So how would you know?   

Ask yourself,  “Am I living a life of faith?”

I don’t mean do you have faith in God?  I am sure you do.

But does your life exhibit the signs of your being a follower of Jesus – other than coming to church on a Sunday?

Some people think coming to church every Sunday is a big chore, but believe me, coming to church is the easiest thing we are called to do as Christians.  

Living a Godly life can be tough.

Fact is you can’t live a godly life without God.

Funnily enough a lot of Christians don’t know that.

They know God is around somewhere. He’s there somewhere. But He is not up front.  Not in your face.

You see, for you and me, acknowledging God every day in all that we do, is intrinsic to being Christian.

Because you can’t live a godly life without God.

If you can’t be bothered to get out of bed on a Sunday morning.

If you find yourself swearing more, lying more, being angry more, deceiving more, loving people less, then you should acknowledge a real need for God in your life.

If you have children and you want to help them grow up into God-fearing, well balanced, happy and fulfilled adults, then you really need to acknowledge a need for God in your life, and model it. 

Because if you don’t live your faith then you can’t expect your kids to do so.

But really, there is no compulsion to be a Christian. 

It used to be, maybe a hundred years ago,  that you couldn’t get a job unless you went to church regularly. And sometimes even that wasn’t good enough if you happened to go to a different church than the person interviewing you.

But no more.

You can be what you want to be.

You can be an atheist, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Methodist, a Roman Catholic, a Satanist, a New Lifer, a vegan, an earth lover, a crystal gazer, or even an Anglican. 

But whatever you choose to be, you should be prepared to live it.  

As they say: You have to talk the talk, and walk the walk. 

Jesus said, I give you a new commandment.

Now the original Greek  for ‘new commandment’ is more correctly translated as “a new way”

A new way of walking, and a new way of talking.

Jesus exhibited a new way of walking and of talking.

He loved people, and especially his disciples, selflessly.

If we  act in a certain way –  a way that looks impressive,  that shows us in a good light, but which  brings us a reward of some kind, then what we did  cannot be described as selfless.

I wonder sometimes about those people who give a large sum of money to a hospital, or school, and agree to have their name is attached.

Jesus’ love was unconditional. 

Jesus’ love was also one of understanding.

Jesus knew his friends. He had lived with them for a long time. He knew their strengths and their weaknesses.

And loved them nevertheless.

But the leader of his small band of men would deny him. They would all  forsake him in his hour of need.

At the end they were cowardly.

But not only did Jesus  forgive them, he still entrusted them to take his message to the whole world.

Jesus’ love was sacrificial.

When you love sacrificially, there is nothing that you will not do for those you love. No demand is too great. No need too challenging.

Some years ago, a friend of mine brought his girl friend to the house for dinner. She was quite lovely, and I could not understand how some guy had not taken her as his wife before then.. 

I asked her, ‘ How come you have never married?”

She said, ” I have been busy during the last ten years looking after my mother who because of illness, needed me.

“I fed her, bathed her and dressed her every day, and undressed her and prepared her for bed every evening.

” I was her nurse, her friend, her every day companion.”

I said, “That’s some sacrifice. How did you manage it?”

She just said,” She was my mother!”

She was my mother.

There is that sort of sacrifice, one that comes from familial love, where  someone sacrifices their own life, their own time, their own well-being for another.

Then there is the sort of sacrifice that comes instantly. It comes automatically. It is there when called for instantaneously. 

Sadly there have been a number of shootings in schools in America. One such happened a few years ago, at a Stem School in Highland Ranch Colorado.

A young man went into a classroom with a gun and began shooting.

A student by the name of Kendrick Castillo tackled him, and was shot and killed in doing so, but what he did  gave the other students the opportunity to escape.

Kendrick was the second student  in one week, who lay down his life in an heroic act of bravery in order to stop further bloodshed.

Earlier, at UNC Charlotte, senior Ryan Howell “took the assailant off his feet,” as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerry Putney revealed in a press conference.  He  saved his friends, but died doing it.

These two young men, without even thinking,  lay down their lives for their friends.

It shows clearly the values they held.

Thankfully, living sacrificially doesn’t always have to be that deadly..

According to popular culture, we often think that love brings happiness, but as we have seen, it sometimes brings a cross. 

The young woman I mentioned earlier, saw the cross her mother had to carry, and without question, leaned in and helped her carry it.

When you think about it, rules of religion, rituals, traditional beliefs, the seasonal worship we follow, are all fine, never mind the name of your religion, but nothing matters more then living, how you say, “Christly.”

Jesus has shown us how to do that.

Amen.