LOVING ONE ANOTHER The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year B)! May 13, 2012

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1 LOVING ONE ANOTHER The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year B)! May 13, 2012 This Sunday s Lessons Acts 10:44-48 Psalm 98 1 John 5:1-6 St. John 15:9-17 Pastor David J. Risendal drisendal@stplc.org facebook Dave Risendal Twitter: drisendal Saint Peter Lutheran Church 9300 East Belleview Avenue Greenwood Village, Colorado voice: 303/ fax: 303/ facebook Saint Peter Lutheran Church Prayer of the Day O God, you have prepared for those who love you joys beyond understanding. Pour into our hearts such love for you that, loving you above all things, we may obtain your promises, which exceed all we can desire; through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Christ is risen. R/ Christ is risen, indeed. Christ is risen. R/ Christ is risen, indeed. Christ is risen! R/ Christ is risen, indeed! Christ is risen, indeed. Amen. love one another sacrificial love of Christ for us, and through us Sermon How many of you enjoy poetry? Who are some of your favorite poets? How many of you enjoy comic books? What are your favorite comic book series? I don t know if poetry and comic books are at the exact opposite poles of the spectrum between fine literature and foolishness, but they are pretty close. Sadly, I am more likely to browse through a comic book than browse through a collection of classical poetry (even though I personally own a few collections of poetry, and no comic books ). The Gospel of John lies much closer to the fine literature pole of the spectrum. This is beautiful stuff. And there is often more packed into a paragraph from John than you ll find in entire chapters of other books. This week s Gospel lesson is no exception. These nine verses contain enough meaning to spawn dozens of sermons, each with a different focus. That s good news, of course, for those of us who are studying them in hopes of coming up with a sermon theme, but it s bad news for those of us

2 The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B (May 13, 2012)! 2 who hope to treat the entire passage in 12½ minutes. With that in mind I ll forsake the latter and pursue the former, by focusing on the twelfth and thirteenth verses this morning. In these two verses, Jesus commands us to have the same love for one another that he has for us. And he expands that by declaring that the greatest love is when someone is willing to lose life itself for the one they love. That is a helpful way to focus our attention on the faithful life; to focus in on what it means to live life in his name. It seems, at times, that it is a complicated business to live faithfully. At Saint Peter, we lift up five separate discipleship habits that we want people to adopt. We ask you to: Spend time, daily, with God through prayer and Bible reading. Worship weekly with God s people. Make time at least every month to serve the needs of the world around you. Give generously to support Christian ministry. And find an individual faith partner, or a small group, who can help you grow in faith. This is helpful encouragement, I think, and that s why we try to promote it here as regularly as we can; but it is a bit complicated, if we are expecting to weave all five of these habits throughout our lives. In Affirmation of Baptism, the service we used to welcome New Members last week, and the service that we ll use for our Catechism students next week, we invite them to think of their lives as a covenant between them and God; a covenant in which they ve made these promises: to live among God s faithful people. to hear the word of God and share in the Lord s supper. to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed. to serve all people, following the example of Jesus. and to strive for justice and peace in all the world. And if that s not enough, you could log on to where our denomination encourages us to become involved in discipleship. They define discipleship as: walking with Christ. living like Christ. and being sent by Christ, to love and serve others in the world. It all becomes just a bit overwhelming, doesn t it? Five Discipleship Habits. Five Baptismal Promises. Three Discipleship movements. It s starting to sound like I might need some good project management software to keep track of all these commitments I have as a Christian. In reality, though, each of these three ways of looking at the faithful life is an attempt to do nothing more than live into what Jesus describes in the twelfth and thirteenth verses of today s Gospel lesson. Jesus says: 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. He speaks these words to his disciples, as they gather for their very last meal together. He knows he is about to give his life for them. He knows they are about to betray, deny and abandon him. He knows they will never completely live up to the high calling of these two sentences. Yet he leaves them with these words as a vision as a sign of it will mean to live together in his name. In the midst of their brokenness in the midst of their failures and disappointments it is his sacrificial love that heals them; it is his sacrificial love that calls them forward. That s the calling we receive from Jesus, and that s the central purpose of the Christian church. Our calling is to proclaim the risen Christ in all we do. And we do that by practicing his sacrificial love with one another. Did you hear that? We practice his sacrificial love in order to proclaim his resurrection: proclaim it to others, and proclaim it to ourselves as well. Because by loving others in all their brokenness, we experience in a deep and powerful way the promise that we, too, are loved in all our brokenness.

3 The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B (May 13, 2012)! 3 That puts our efforts to love in an entirely different context, doesn t it? We don t love sacrificially in order to win God s approval. We don t love sacrificially in order to win others over to Christ. We don t love sacrificially in order to advance God s kingdom. Our loving is not what God needs it is first what we need. We need to hear that God loves the unlovable. We need to hear that God welcomes the unworthy. We need to hear that God forgives the unforgivable. We need to hear that. And it is only when we receive the fullness of that love, that we begin to be able to share it with others. So we practice this sacrificial love over and over again, praying that it will first take hold of our hearts, and then empower our ability to love others. It is then that it becomes God s love that loves through us. Despite our hesitancy. Despite our ineffectiveness. Despite our failures. God s love loves through us, and that is how people s lives are changed. That s what discipleship is all about: receiving God s love in order to share it. If you need a program, there are plenty that can suggest some specific ways to get at it. Our Five Habits of Discipleship is the best approach, of course (right?), and we re glad for the new beginnings that have taken place in people s lives because of it. But the essence of it all is not in completing a program. The essence of it has to do with love. God s love. God s sacrificial love. God s sacrificial love that turns our lives around, and sends us out with more love to share than we ever imagined possible. 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. In this morning s Gospel, we find the opportunity to be touched by the poetry of God s love. Moms, dads, siblings, in-laws, friends, colleagues, neighbors, strangers each of us is loved profoundly by God, just as we are, warts and all. Each of us graced by the one who loves us enough to die for us. Each of us shaped by this remarkable love of God. Each of us commissioned to share this love of God by loving and serving one another. My prayer today is that Saint Peter might be a community that is marked by this love. A community in which everyone is welcomed into God s love just as they are. And a community in which everyone is sent into God s world to be a reflection of Christ s love. May the presence of the risen Christ in the midst of our community make this happen. Amen. David J. Risendal, Pastor Gospel Lesson; English Text: 1 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 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. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one s life for one s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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. 16 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. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. 2 1 A list of Bible lessons for the coming weeks is available at 2 St. John 15:9-17, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America).

4 The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B (May 13, 2012)! 4 Gospel Lesson; Greek Text: 15:9 Καθὼς ἠγάπησεν µε ὁ πατήρ, καγὼ ὑµα ς ἠγάπησα µείνατε ἐν τῃ ἀγάπῃ τῃ ἐµῃ. 10 ἐὰν τὰς ἐντολάς µου τηρήσητε, µενει τε ἐν τῃ ἀγάπῃ µου, καθὼς ἐγὼ τὰς ἐντολὰς του πατρός µου τετήρηκα καὶ µένω αὐτου ἐν τῃ ἀγάπῃ. 11 Ταυ τα λελάληκα ὑµι ν ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐµὴ ἐν ὑµι ν ᾐ καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ὑµω ν πληρωθῃ. 12 Αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ ἐµή, ἵνα ἀγαπα τε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑµα ς. 13 µείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει, ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτου θῃ ὑπὲρ τω ν φίλων αὐτου. 14 ὑµει ς φίλοι µού ἐστε ἐὰν ποιη τε ἃ ἐγὼ ἐντέλλοµαι ὑµι ν. 15 οὐκέτι λέγω ὑµα ς δούλους, ὅτι ὁ δου λος οὐκ οἰ δεν τί ποιει αὐτου ὁ κύριος ὑµα ς δὲ εἴρηκα φίλους, ὅτι πάντα ἃ ἤκουσα παρὰ του πατρός µου ἐγνώρισα ὑµι ν. 16 οὐχ ὑµει ς µε ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάµην ὑµα ς καὶ ἔθηκα ὑµα ς ἵνα ὑµει ς ὑπάγητε καὶ καρπὸν φέρητε καὶ ὁ καρπὸς ὑµω ν µένῃ, ἵνα ὅ τι ἂν αἰτήσητε τὸν πατέρα ἐν τῳ ὀνόµατι µου δῳ ὑµι ν. 17 ταυ τα ἐντέλλοµαι ὑµι ν, ἵνα ἀγαπα τε ἀλλήλους. 3 First Lesson; English Text: 10:44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47 Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? 48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days. 4 First Lesson; Greek Text: 10:44 Ἔτι λαλοῦντος τοῦ Πέτρου τὰ ῥήµατα ταῦτα ἐπέπεσεν τὸ πνεῦµα τὸ ἅγιον ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας τὸν λόγον. 45 καὶ ἐξέστησαν οἱ ἐκ περιτοµῆς πιστοὶ ὅσοι συνῆλθαν τῷ Πέτρῳ, ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη ἡ δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύµατος ἐκκέχυται 46 ἤκουον γὰρ αὐτῶν λαλούντων γλώσσαις καὶ µεγαλυνόντων τὸν θεόν. τότε ἀπεκρίθη Πέτρος 47 µήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται κωλῦσαι τις τοῦ µὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτους, οἵτινες τὸ πνεῦµα τὸ ἅγιον ἔλαβον ὡς καὶ ἡµεῖς; 48 προσέταξεν δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ ὀνόµατι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ βαπτισθῆναι. τότε ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν ἐπιµεῖναι ἡµέρας τινάς. 5 Second Lesson; English Text: 5.1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. 6 Second Lesson; Greek Text: 5:1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννηµένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 2 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκοµεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶµεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶµεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶµεν. 3 αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶµεν, καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν. 4 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννηµένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσµον καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσµον, ἡ πίστις 3 St. John 15:9-17, The Greek New Testament, Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, ( 1983, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart). 4 Acts 10:44-48, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America). 5 1 John 5:1-6, The Greek New Testament, Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, ( 1983, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart). 6 1 John 5:1-6, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America).

5 The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B (May 13, 2012)! 5 ἡµῶν. 5 Τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσµον εἰ µὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ; 6 οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ ἐλθὼν δἰ ὕδατος καὶ αἵµατος, Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, οὐκ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι µόνον ἀλλ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι καὶ ἐν τῷ αἵµατι καὶ τὸ πνεῦµα ἐστιν τὸ µαρτυροῦν, ὅτι τὸ πνεῦµα ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια John 5:1-6, The Greek New Testament, Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, ( 1983, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart).