"The Gift of Love" a sermon for 6 Easter A (5/10/26)

 

Jesus reminds me of a teacher just before finals.  Jesus is trying hard to remind His friends of what is important.  What they’ll need to know for after Jesus is gone.  This is not the first time that Maundy Thursday evening that Jesus has reminded them of the importance of love.  Earlier, just after washing their feet, Jesus says:

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another.  In the same way I loved you, you love one another.  This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

(John 13:34-35; MSG)

 

Now, after supper in an extended teaching moment, Jesus tells His friends: “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. . . The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me” (vs. 15, 21).  This begs the question of what Jesus means.  Just what are Jesus’ commandments?

In Mark chapter 12 , we read the two great commandments are to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves (vs. 28-34).  In other words, Jesus is saying that the world will know His followers through their love for the world.  A love which reflects God’s love for the world (John 3:16)

The world will know Jesus’ true followers by how they feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  Jesus’ followers will be known by how they treat others with compassion and respect.  The world will know Jesus’ followers by their selfless giving of their time, talent, and treasures.  Jesus’ followers will be known by how they work for justice and peace.

What Jesus gives His friends, and us, is nothing new.  Jesus is referencing the Hebrew Scriptures.  Deuteronomy 6:4 tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.  To love God with every fiber of our being.  Leviticus 19:18 tells us to love our neighbors as we love our selves.

In loving God whole-heartedly, we’d keep the first four of the Ten Commandments.  If God is first and foremost in our hearts, then the rest automatically follow.  We would not make false idols.  We’d honor God’s name in thought, word, and deed.  We would take time to honor God and rest on the Sabbath.

In loving our neighbor as ourselves, we’d keep the final six of the Ten Commandment.  We would not lie, cheat, or commit adultery.  We’d not desire or steal what is not ours.  We would not murder another human being or do anything else that causes harm to a beloved child of God.

Recently an individual was attacked by a group of teens in downtown Binghamton.  The victim later died from the injuries he sustained.  Such acts are not consistent with a love of God or neighbor.  Such acts of violence are deplorable.  As a community, as a country, we can and should decry such atrocities.

Jesus calls His friends and followers to a different path.  His friends and followers include you and me here today.  We are called to what former Presiding Bishop Curry calls the “Way of Love.”  The path of love is not easy.  However, love has the power to transform not only us but the world around us as well.

As Hal Hopson reminds us in his hymn, a paraphrase of I Corinthians 13:

1 Though I may speak with bravest fire,

and have the gift of all inspire,

and have not love, my words are vain,

as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2 Though I may give all I possess,

and striving so my love profess,

but not be given by love within,

the profit soon turns strangely thin.

3 Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,

our spirits long to be made whole.

Let inward love guide every deed;

by this we worship, and are freed.