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Easter 6
May 25, 2003
Love One Another
Psalm 98
Isaiah 45:11-13, 18-19
Acts 10:44-48
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
“Unconditional love” became a popular phrase to describe God's love for us in the 70's. Was this “unconditional love” a precious characteristic of God or a way of saying that all human beings are essentially lovable? "Win-Win relationships" in the 80's fit with "I'm OK, You're OK." Implicit in these expressions is the idea that there is an underlying harmony among people, within people and between people and God.
The Scriptures don't support this idea very well. Neither does the world we experience. The passage from Isaiah is about winners and losers. It is about God reversing the positions of winners and losers, not eliminating the competition. In the story from Acts, gentile losers are turned into winners by the Holy Spirit. 1 John talks about conquering the world. Does that make the disciple a winner and the rest or the people in the world losers? In the gospel lesson, Jesus promises love to those who conquer their own willfulness: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love..." "You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:10, 14) The promise of love is conditioned by the disciple’s obedience and faithfulness.
It is one of the credos of humanism that human beings are innately good; they just get “dysfunctional” through exposure to other people. This begs the question, "Who invented dysfunctional?" (Scientology teaches that we got dysfunctional because of malevolent aliens that visited our planet aeons ago and implanted dysfunctional programs in our brains -- a science fiction version of the doctrine of original sin.) The Bible doesn't support the idea that human beings are innately good, maybe Psalm 8 a little. The Bible offers much more support for the proposition that goodness does not come naturally to human beings but can happen anyway with a lot of help from God.
Jesus commands the disciples to love one another. Why? Because he knows that they are not inclined to love one another? Something there is that has to be overcome inside us for us to be the friends of God. It can be overcome by God’s grace tutored by God’s commandments. What is that something to be overcome? Sin, of course. You know it, and I know it, but it won’t preach anymore because the word “sin” has been turned into “peccadillo,” and there is no retrieving it for most of our audience. So, let’s talk about being friends and enemies of God. The meaning of these words is still clear and vivid.
We are born enemies of God. That doesn’t mean infants are vicious. That doesn't mean God is our enemy. It means that infants think they are the center of the universe. A person will remain the enemy of God until he or she recognizes God to be the center of the universe, God’s natural place, and the person to be the obedient friend of God, our appropriate place. This is the foundation of any and all “win-win” relationships because anyone who defines himself or herself as the center of the universe has to make a loser of those who challenge that position.
So what’s the point?
Your audience is in mortal danger if they are not the friends of God. The danger is death in its broadest sense, and alienation from life is the symptom. (Not “I’m OK - You’re OK”, not “win-win”; not dysfunctional -- DEAD.) On the other hand, the friends of God have a champion in God against death (alienation from life). Witness the Old Testament Lesson and the Psalm. In order to become the friend of God one welcomes God’s transforming presence in the Holy Spirit and embraces the commandment to love. Witness the Gospel and Epistle Lessons. These Scriptures do not support the conclusion that the friends of God should seek out and destroy the enemies of God. That is God’s business. People who bomb abortion clinics misunderstand. The enemy is within ourselves and can’t be dealt with by destroying other people.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” (John 15:13) No greater honor can we have than to be offered friendship with God; therefore, let us take up the commandment to love with gratitude.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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