Making all things new

One of the curious things about Jesus’ new commandment he gives to the disciples is that it doesn’t really seem all that new. You can find that command, or versions of it, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s just really not that new. It sounds pretty old school and traditional.

But for some reason, it’s come to be known as a “new commandment”. Essentially, in the moments right after Judas leaves to betray him, Jesus reminds the disciples to love each other, no matter what, because that is the only way they can be identified as his disciples.

Now, we can say we love our enemies when it’s a more esoteric thing. We can say we are praying for Vladmir Putin and that God will turn his heart away from the pain that war is inflicting on the Ukraine. We can pray for a president or a governor, even if they aren’t on the same team as we are. We can love our enemies in a Christian way as long as it doesn’t hurt too much. It’s much trickier to think about how we are to love those who know where our vulnerabilities are and know how to exploit them.

Love one another. Wow; that isn’t just a groundbreaking commandment. It’s an incredibly difficult one to put into practice It’s almost as if Jesus is reminding them, “I still love Judas. Don’t forget what just happened here.” He washed Judas’ feet and broke bread with him, even though Jesus knew what Judas was going to do. He still loved Judas and welcomed him, even with all the greed and betrayal that was to come. It must have troubled Jesus deeply. It must have hurt. But he still loved Judas. Now we have to do the same. That’s how people will know we are disciples: if we love the Judas in our lives.

 All of Christianity distilled down to its essence; Love one another. 

What’s staggering about this commandment is how badly we’ve managed to botch it over the last two thousand years.  New Testament scholar D.A Carson stated, “This new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, and yet it is profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they put it into practice.”  We often think that being a “good” follower of Jesus is a complicated matter, full of nuance.

Yet when death comes knocking, and the Son of God has mere hours left to communicate his message, he doesn’t say, “Believe the right things.”  He doesn’t say, “Worship like this or attend a church like that.”  He doesn’t even say, “Read your Bible,” or “Pray every day,” or “Preach the Gospel to every living creature.”  He says, “Love one another.”  That’s it.

Jesus follows this new commandment with a comforting and slightly terrifying promise: “By this everyone will know.”  Meaning, love is the supreme test of a Christian.  Our love for each other is how the world will know who we are.

It’s through our love that we will embody Jesus, make Jesus relatable, possible, plausible, to this world.

I can’t speak for you, but this makes me a bit nervous. Jesus seems to be saying is that if we fail to love one another, the world won’t know what it needs to know about God, and the lack that knowledge leads to the falsehoods that break God’s heart.  You know the lines: that the whole Jesus thing is a sham.  That God is mean, angry, vindictive, determined only to shame and punish.  That the universe is a cold, meaningless place. 

That the Church is a flawed and hypocritical institution — not Christ’s living, breathing, healing body on earth.

Those deceptions make love feel inadequate in the face of all that negativity. It makes it seem that we are surrounded by Judases, when the worship of power may overcome the worship of the Creator.

But we are living in a “new creation” and we glorify God when we live into this commandment to love one another, even with all it’s challenges.

The minister and scholar James Stewart describes a painting hanging in a museum in Scotland—a picture of a king playing chess with the devil for his soul. The man, who has only a few pieces on the board, looks worried. Satan is smiling because he assumes he will soon checkmate the man. For years, it’s reported, that people came to the gallery and saw only hopelessness in that painting. Then one day a chess champion stood for hours looking at the chessboard. Finally, he announced: ‘It’s a lie. The king still has moves left.’”

God still gets to make his move. Using us, God is among mortals.

He dwells with us as our God; we are his people,

and God himself is with us;

he wipes every tear from our eyes.

How does this happen? How is God among us? When we show our love for others. Those we care about, those who challenge us, those who hate us.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."

That includes us.

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A sermon by the Rev. Frances Hlavacek, Deacon (May 15, 2022 - Easter 5C)

Here is a link to the bulletin for the Fifth Sunday of Easter at St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater

Here is a link to a video of the sermon.

Here is a link to a video of the  liturgy.