We Love For the Glory of God

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Two themes

Christ’s Glory - God and Jesus mutually glorifying in perichoretic union.

Our Loving Response - We are invited to love and model this same mutuality.

How will we handle betrayal?

Think about this, Judas has just left the table after very clearly being identified as the one who will betray Jesus. The wheels are in motion. Jesus says, “Do quickly what you are going to do.”

Can you think of a moment when you realized that time was running out? Maybe it was a moment of clarity when you realized that you needed to leave your job or retire. Maybe it was a moment when a loved one was given a terminal medical diagnosis. Maybe it was something more mundane, like you looked up at the scoreboard and realized there were only minutes or seconds left in the game. The time had come to act, to move, to engage with all that you had left before it was all over.

It makes me smile to think about this text as it is placed in the lectionary at this time in the school year. Time is almost up for our kids and teachers, the ones who have been at it all academic year. I remember back to Senior year of high school at this point, mid-May, only weeks left in this phase of adolescence.

With so little time left, the energy of each moment was heightened. There were last minute parties and hangouts with friends who were going to be going off to college in the fall, people you’d never see again. There were final homework assignments to work on together, the bittersweetness of one last group project, one last presentation, one last concert. All the work had come to something.

Of course, there were also the last minute professions of unrequited love. All that had bottled up for 4 years of high school tension bubbled to the surface in the form of Romeo and Juliet style overtures or heart on yourself confessions. There were the big blowups, the breakups, the “if you love it, you’ve gotta let it go” moments.

Time runs out. Things change. How do we handle this moment?

For Jesus, it is a moment of clarity. He turns to the disciples and says it plainly — God is glorified in all of this. This is what it has all been for, to bring glory to this moment. This is a lucid moment, a moment of great awakeness and awareness.

So how do we handle these moments?

For Jesus, for us, it is an invitation to honesty.

The high-schooler who finally confesses their love — they’ve figured something out about what it means to be human. Because in a moment like this, when its all about to change — there is a clarity that leads us to speaking what is true.

That’s what Jesus does, isn’t it? He says what’s true.

Through this all — the Son of Man, God in human form, is glorified. God is glorified. And God’s glory now passes on to those who have heard it — you, me, all of us, are getting glorified in this moment.

And from that place of glory, comes a final word. From that lucid moment, that moment of awakeness, comes a final instruction: Love one another.

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Jesus is aware that he’s about to be betrayed, about to be led to be beaten and nailed to a cross. So this lucid moment is a place for him to speak the words that have to count.

Perhaps he questions himself, “What is the thing I have to say here? What must be spoken, not missed, heard by these people one last time?”

On better weeks, I find myself longing for an answer to this question as I prepare to preach. I ask God, “what in this text must be heard, if nothing else?” If this were my last opportunity to share a word of hope and good news, what would this text instruct me to say?

Friends, whether you acknowledge it or not, we are standing at a point in history and in our particular story as a congregation that is calling us to pivot, to move, to take a step in a new direction. Our world is filled with chaos. (Have you noticed?) The systems of power and stability that have held us for so long are shifting, failing, crashing.

This is not only happening on a global or national or political level. It’s happening here, among us. We, as a congregation, stand on a the edge of our next chapter. Now, granted, I don’t perceive we are stepping out into chaos, but rather there’s a sense that many things are opening up for us as we gather as St. James Presbyterian, including how we reach out to our community, how we double-down on our mission of being a inclusive, affirmative congregation that seeks to make space for all people, old, young, female, male, trans, gay, straight, of all colors and shapes and sizes, left and right and in between. We stand at a turning point, not only in the calendar year, but in our life as a gathered congregation — we’re asking some existential questions about what it means to move into God’s work more fully going forward. How do we not simply stay where we are, as who we are, but how to we open wide our mission of caring for people in the name of Jesus even wider going forward?

When we face these kinds of questions, which are prompted by changing demographics within our community, the increase of new, young faces; the changes we have experienced on our staff and in our surrounding network of ministry partners — when we face these questions, it draws us to ask about what is essential.

You could look at being in this position of asking core questions like this: The world has changed. Perhaps you might even say the world has betrayed us, led us to a place of insecurity and fear of the future. So we ask a core question about who we are to be to make sure we stay on track: Who are we to be?

In the case of the disciples, think back to that heightened moment. Judas has just left and he’s off to betray. They had to be looking at each other thinking “What can we do to stop this? Who’s gonna act? How can we adapt to what’s happening here?

They are anxious. How could they not be?

Jesus, in his loving, amazingly generous way, recognizes this. And he speaks to the anxiety with calm and deliberate words.

For this anxious moment, Jesus brings peace.

Friends, the trials that we face, in our world, in our life together, in the growing pains of community: they are not a problem. They are not for us to worry about or try to change or push down and hide.

For this all, my anxious friends, Jesus tells us that God is being glorified. Christ is being glorified.

That moment when you knew it was all going to change — looking back, hasn’t that process that you went through, hasn’t it been a process of finding glory through the real stuff of life? The deathbed brought pain and it brought glory and beauty and peace too. Those final moments of a contest — didn’t that thing that rose up in you, that extra space that you were able to pull a few more great sprints or a strength from that you didn’t know you had — wasn’t that a thing of glory?!

Jesus shows his disciples that he goes to the cross to fulfill glory, to move into it through the pain and suffering. Glory expands and flourishes through the entrance into what is difficult.

And, like food for the journey, sustenance to get us through all that will be difficult: Jesus gives the instruction of love.

Love one another.

Let’s pause here.

Love one another.

Breathe there.

Love one another.

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The road ahead will not get easier.

Love one another.

We may face our last moments together.

Love one another.

We will encounter betrayal.

Love one another.

Our whole world might change.

Love one another.

We stand on the edge together. An edge that, we trust, will lead us out in God’s good unknown. We do not know all that will come our way as we venture out. We do trust that God is good and has been good and will continue to be good, so we tuck that in our pockets and hold that in our hearts and step out together. We trust that there will be hope and glory through it.

But how will we survive as we venture out into the struggles of our world together?

We will survive if we love one another.

All other things will fade away. But love will remain.

Here’s the direct and deliberate word I want to say today, the thing I know I must say if I say nothing else: We must love one another. As we have been shown love by Christ, in the blessing of our humanity, the forgiveness for our sins, the calling upon our lives: So we must love one another.

Look around you or picture in your mind: Who must you find a way to love? Who do you see? You MUST love them.

Without love for one another, we are lost. We are nothing. None of the other stuff matters. If you cannot find a way to turn to the person beside you in love, somehow, someway, then all will be lost. The betrayal has been made complete.

Jesus drives it home: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

I’m gonna drive this one in a little deeper, amp it up a little more, so that we hear this. So that it just doesn’t go in one ear, get processed as “Oh, yeah, that’s a nice thing, love…how quaint.” and go right out the other ear.

I’ll rely on Jesus for this: We will be known as disciples if we love one another. And then I’ll put it another way: If we love, we are among the ones who have found life.

The earliest disciples had a way they framed their movement, a teaching of the 12 so to speak. It said: There is a way of life and a way of death.

Here’s the kicker: If you cannot love, you are in the way of death. You are in death, dying. But, and, to love is to know life, to be in the flow, to have your soul awake. So, are you living alive? Or are you living death?

All are very, very, very welcome in the family of God. But if you will not love…you are not tracking. You are not being a disciple of Jesus. You’re not living.

Here’s the kicker: If I can’t find a way to love someone, this deeply questions whether I can be a disciple of Jesus. All are very, very, very welcome in the family of God. But if you will not love…you are not tracking. You are not being a disciple of Jesus.

If I can’t get over my stuff, my unlove of a person — then I think I’m missing it. They will know we are Christians by our love? All that is done out of the place of unlove or hatred or scorn — this is the way of death, living in decay, not in the way of the disciples of Jesus.

If I can’t get over my stuff, my unlove of a person — I think it calls into question whether we are a disciple of Jesus. I think I’m missing it. They will know we are Christians by our love? Well…I proclaim that all that is done in the name of Jesus that is done in hate — this is not that act of disciples of Jesus.

We must love one another. However difficult it is, however much it costs.

Amen and amen.

A quick qualification and aside and then I’ll close.

Loving does not mean giving in to abuse, to bigotry, the undermining presence of evil that we encounter all too often. To love one another does not mean lowering your guard or boundaries or making yourself vulnerable to greater harm.

To love the unlovable, the abuser, the predator, the wolf — this kind of love is tough, tenacious, strong, and surrounded by others of faith who will lovingly have our back. It looks like letting the hackles come up on your back and turn to them in strength that shows a loving new way to encounter, a loving way to be reasoned with, a loving way that says no more. Love shines light on darkness, exposes it and welcomes the brokenness of the one who carries it to be redeemed and restored.

Hear this: that love does not cover up sin, does not hide abuse or brokenness. Love speaks directly to the pain of these things and tears them apart, building up with healing something of beauty in their place.

Friends, this week marks something of the end of the season of Easter for us. Next week, we’ll gather together with other congregations in worship at Bellingham High School. The week after that, we have a guest with us to share about financial generosity and faithful stewardship. And then we’re into the season of Pentecost and the onset of summer.

So my closing words for this Easter season are this: Love one another.

We at St. James Presbyterian Church — we will answer this call to love. We will love with all that we’ve got. It will not be easy, it will not always bring smooth, peaceful waters. But we will commit to loving each other through it all and welcoming others into that love as well.

If you are not up for this, if you will not choose love — just know that it will become more and more difficult to abide here in that way. We will love you and call you to that loving orientation as well.

We will choose love. We will let love be our legacy. Love will be the thing that when it is all said and done, we will live from and die for. We will love for the Glory of God!

We Love For the Glory of God

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