Click to hear this sermon sermon070513

"Johnny," said a teacher to one of her young pupils, "do you think you can explain to the class the difference between 'like' and 'love'?" "Well," said Johnny, "I like my parents... but I love Milk Duds."

"Follow the Leader" Cicero United Methodist Church May 13, 2007.

John 13: 31-36 Mother's Day Jack Keating

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Today is Mother's Day. It is a day to show our mothers that they are at least as important to us as our Milk Duds.

I must relate to you though, that one Mom had a most revealing experience on Mother's Day.

Her two children ordered her to stay in bed. She lay there looking forward to being brought her breakfast, as the inviting smell of bacon and eggs floated up from the kitchen. At last everything grew quiet and then finally, the kids invited her downstairs. She found them sitting at the kitchen table, each with a large plate full of eggs and bacon. "As a Mother's Day surprise," one explained, "We decided to cook our own breakfast."

That says an awful lot, doesn't it? Who in this world does more for us than our Mom? And who is taken for granted more than our Mom? So it is only right that we pause to devote a day each year in honor of those women who have devoted their lives to their family, to their church and most importantly to their children.

Would that it would be more than just a day...

Our gospel text today could easily be about being a good mother, but actually it is aimed at the whole Christian family. Jesus is looking to the cross. There he will glorify God by his perfect obedience to God's plan. Now he is calling his disciples to perfect obedience as well. But what is this perfect obedience to which he is calling them?

"A new commandment I give to you," says Jesus, "that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

So let me try today to make three points about this important passage

FIRST OF ALL I would hope that you would notice that love is not an option for followers of Jesus. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you..." Not a suggestion, not a recommendation. A commandment!

Why is it a commandment? It is a commandment, I think, because there is a part of every one that rebels against the idea of pure, unconditional love.

Despite the example that almost everyone of us received in the form of our Mother's love for us - there is a part of us that says such love is out of place in the world in which we live. There is a part of us that says - sure, love is great - up to a certain point ...

A man recently described his father to me this way - he told me that his father was a kind man - a generous man - a man who would do anything for his friends - but who could be exactly the opposite way if he didn't like you.

I thought how sad this description of this man was - and after hearing it, I was upset. I was upset for the son's sake - because I could tell that he knew that something wasn't quite right with his father - and I was upset for the father's sake- because he was already into his 70's and he hadn't yet learned what love is - I was upset for him - and lastly I was upset for all the people whose lives he had failed to touch for God - for all people who learned from him that they didn't matter - that they were unimportant.

I tell you about this man today because he is a perfect example of why Jesus commanded us to love one another - because without that command - and the particular nature of the command - that we love one another just as Jesus has loved us - many of us might end up thinking that it is good enough to love your family and friends and to hate, or despise, or simply ignore, everyone else.

But Jesus reminds us that it is not.

We are called to love others in the way that Christ loves us-

We are called to love our brothers and sisters in the way that mothers love their Children

We are called to love without condition - to care for - and to pray for others - regardless of their attitude towards us

- regardless of what they may or may not deserve

- regardless of whether or not they are related to us by blood, or by ties of affection or common interest.

If I was asked today to explain the difference between liking and loving - I would say it lies in attitude.

Attitude is what makes liking and loving different from one another.

The attitude of obedience - and the attitude of gratitude -

- obedience to Christ's commandment to love like he loves, to love even sinners

- and gratitude that we have the opportunity to love others in the same way that Christ loves us - that he has given us the opportunity to love

others without condition or qualification.

Jesus commands us - he orders us - to love one another - just as he loves us.

THE SECOND THING I want to lift up from today's gospel text is this: Our ability to love is derived from our relationship with Christ. "We love because he first loved us", says the Apostle John. We are able to love because he loves us.

I think understanding this is critical to our ability to live out the Christian life of love. It is critical to our ability to keep the only commandment that Jesus in fact gave to us.

My friends, love does not happen in a vacuum. Love is something that is passed from one person to another. This is one reason Christian parents, and particularly Christian mothers, are so important. A child who does not receive love, psychologists tell us, will not be able to give love. There will always be a void there - a terrible void that can never be filled. On the other hand, a child who has received the proper amount of nurturing as an infant and as a toddler will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their lives.

This is also true with regard to Christ's commandment about love.

If you try to keep Christ's commandment without first nurturing your relationship with him, you will be doomed to fail.

We draw our ability to love others in the way that Christ loves us from our connection to God. We get it from the love that Christ is able to pour out upon us when we are in relationship with him. Without that connection - without that love - our faith is simply an exercise in noble living. It has no real power to draw us out of ourselves and to center us in others.

"A new commandment I give to you," said Jesus, "that you love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

We can keep the commandment to love one another as Christ loves us - only is proportion to how we open ourselves to Christ and allow his love to enter our lives - and to empower our lives.

We open our lives to Christ when we pray to him - when we immerse ourselves in his word - and when we gather together with others who believe to worship him and to fellowship and to work together for him in the world.

THE THIRD THING I would like to help you see in today's text is that love is the Christian's primary witness to the world. Our husbands, our wives, our children, and our neighbors will know we are Christ's followers if we have love for them and for everyone we meet.

I speak now, for a minute to the men who are here today, specifically to the married men...

We are told by Christ - like all other disciples - to love others just as he has loved us - but we are also even more specifically told by God that we are to love our wives in the way Christ loves us, in the way that he loves the church and give himself for her...

Paul tells us in chapter five of his letter to the Ephesians that you are to take the same standard of love that Christ commanded his disciples to apply to everyone and you are to apply it to your own families to your own wives.

I think back to my own childhood and how my mother would say about my father - he is so charming and nice to everyone else when we go out, but he is so different when we get home."

And sometimes I recognize in this - and in myself - and in how so many men are one way in public and another way in private - in how so many men treat their bosses and their fellow workers and their clients or their customers better than they treat the mother of their children - and I recognize in these things that many of us really need to hear the special word God has given us about loving our wives as Christ loves us.

Think of it guys, as a Mother's Day challenge - think of it as a gift you might make to your spouse - as a gift you might make to the world.

We men really need to think about how Christ gave himself for us - how he served us

- how he bent down and washed the feet of his disciples

- how he gave his time - his energy - his attention - to them

- and how for them - for everyone - he endured without protest - without fighting back against false accusations - slander - and even injury until

death.

What do you do for your wife that other men don't do? What makes your love for her different from the love that non-Christian men show to their wives? How do you love her as Christ loves the church?

I read an article not too long ago about an antenna that was on the market for cellular telephones. It costs nineteen dollars. This antenna gives the appearance of the real thing, but it is fake. It's for people who can't afford a cellular telephone, but don't want their friends to know it. The amazing thing is that in its hey-day more than 200,000 people bought these fake antennas.

When I read that I thought about a survey done by a psychology professor many years ago. The purpose of the survey was to find out what people think of those people who wear eyeglasses.

It seems that shoppers in a mall were asked to look at pictures of men and women with and without glasses and rate them according to certain characteristics. The results to that survey were quite interesting. Men wearing glasses were considered to be more intelligent and more trustworthy than those without. In the rating of women for intelligence, however, glasses made no difference. But glasses did add an air of financial success to both sexes. Women with glasses were generally considered to be more competent than those without glasses. In fact, after the survey was completed, the professor bought himself a pair of fake eyeglass frames to wear at counseling sessions! He wanted to look competent too, I suppose.

There are a lot of fakes in this world my friends, but there are some things in life you cannot fake.

Love is one of them - it has defining characteristics - the characteristics of Christ - and it produces fruit that cannot be mistaken - a fruit that keeps on growing and spreading - and changing your family - changing your world - changing your life... as it produces love

And joy

And peace

And patience

And faithfulness

And gentleness

And self-control.

How do people know that you are disciples of Christ?

"By this they will know that you are my disciples," says Jesus, "if you have love for one another."