John 13:34
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
John 14:23-29
If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—and live right with him! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Companion, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
“You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.
“I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. Jesus here is speaking to his followers as one who has the right to command them. He isn’t giving them a hint. He’s not suggesting they might want to think about this. No. I give you a commandment. Love one another.
This basic sentence is the heart of all Jesus’ teachings, and yet he spends the bulk of his time with us explaining and reiterating this simple phrase. Love one another. And in today’s reading he goes so far as to promise that when he is gone, the Spirit will be with them (and us) always, continuing to help us grasp this simple command.
The words are simple. The sentence is well constructed and easy to grasp, so why do we not do a better job at understanding it?
There is a snarky meme floating around facebook – it has a lot of variations, each as snarky as the next. It shows a painting of Jesus teaching – with him sitting on a pile of rocks and his followers gathered at his feet. Overlaid on the picture are words Jesus is speaking: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. And then there are questions being thrown at Jesus by his listeners: But – what if they’re gay? What if they’re from another country? What if they call God by a different name? What if they’re homeless bums and just want to live off my money? The various versions all have different questions, but all in the same vein. And they all have an implied pause, and then Jesus says, OK. Let’s try this again.
The “joke” here works because we all recognize it’s truth. The world would be a very different place if we spent as much time just accepting what Jesus says and acting on it, instead of trying to legitimize our own preferred exception when Jesus isn’t having any exceptions at all.
The Spirit promised here is that breath, that spark that lifts all being from inanimate clay into living being – at the moment of creation and here with us at this very moment. We are not “once-and-done’ creatures. We are being created every moment of our lives – given more, added to, being expanded, growing – never finished.
The Spirit – friend, teacher, advocate, guide, companion – this spirit is God’s own self living within us, guiding us, teaching us, shaping us. God knows that we have an attention problem. That we will always try to twist our understanding of God's will to a place that gives us the most comfort. And so we have God's own Spirit within us, guiding us, reminding us, and nudging us in the right direction. How often do we notice? How often do we listen to that voice speaking within us?
I am an introvert, always have been. I’ve spent a lot of my life being talked over, being unheard because others were too busy talking themselves. It was all very frustrating. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this, even the extroverts among us – that feeling of trying to tell someone something and just being ignored as if we weren’t even in the room.
Have you ever noticed how often in the gospels Jesus appears to experience this same thing? So many times scripture tells us he taught his disciples and they appeared to listen but later came back with some twisted version that only showed they weren’t really listening to him, but only listening to the version in their head – the one they wanted to hear. I wonder if Jesus got as frustrated as we often do.
This is the Spirit’s job in today’s story – to help us hear what is really taught instead of the version with all the exceptions that we want in there. Our task is to listen – not to our own chattering heads but to what Jesus and the Spirit are teaching us. Then, and only then, we will have that complete peace Jesus promises.
We are not abandoned and left to figure it out on our own. The Spirit is with us – if we will only listen – helping us see the right way, the right answers – even helping us ask the right questions.
Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. It’s really not so hard if we just pay attention.
This basic sentence is the heart of all Jesus’ teachings, and yet he spends the bulk of his time with us explaining and reiterating this simple phrase. Love one another. And in today’s reading he goes so far as to promise that when he is gone, the Spirit will be with them (and us) always, continuing to help us grasp this simple command.
The words are simple. The sentence is well constructed and easy to grasp, so why do we not do a better job at understanding it?
There is a snarky meme floating around facebook – it has a lot of variations, each as snarky as the next. It shows a painting of Jesus teaching – with him sitting on a pile of rocks and his followers gathered at his feet. Overlaid on the picture are words Jesus is speaking: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. And then there are questions being thrown at Jesus by his listeners: But – what if they’re gay? What if they’re from another country? What if they call God by a different name? What if they’re homeless bums and just want to live off my money? The various versions all have different questions, but all in the same vein. And they all have an implied pause, and then Jesus says, OK. Let’s try this again.
The “joke” here works because we all recognize it’s truth. The world would be a very different place if we spent as much time just accepting what Jesus says and acting on it, instead of trying to legitimize our own preferred exception when Jesus isn’t having any exceptions at all.
The Spirit promised here is that breath, that spark that lifts all being from inanimate clay into living being – at the moment of creation and here with us at this very moment. We are not “once-and-done’ creatures. We are being created every moment of our lives – given more, added to, being expanded, growing – never finished.
The Spirit – friend, teacher, advocate, guide, companion – this spirit is God’s own self living within us, guiding us, teaching us, shaping us. God knows that we have an attention problem. That we will always try to twist our understanding of God's will to a place that gives us the most comfort. And so we have God's own Spirit within us, guiding us, reminding us, and nudging us in the right direction. How often do we notice? How often do we listen to that voice speaking within us?
I am an introvert, always have been. I’ve spent a lot of my life being talked over, being unheard because others were too busy talking themselves. It was all very frustrating. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this, even the extroverts among us – that feeling of trying to tell someone something and just being ignored as if we weren’t even in the room.
Have you ever noticed how often in the gospels Jesus appears to experience this same thing? So many times scripture tells us he taught his disciples and they appeared to listen but later came back with some twisted version that only showed they weren’t really listening to him, but only listening to the version in their head – the one they wanted to hear. I wonder if Jesus got as frustrated as we often do.
This is the Spirit’s job in today’s story – to help us hear what is really taught instead of the version with all the exceptions that we want in there. Our task is to listen – not to our own chattering heads but to what Jesus and the Spirit are teaching us. Then, and only then, we will have that complete peace Jesus promises.
We are not abandoned and left to figure it out on our own. The Spirit is with us – if we will only listen – helping us see the right way, the right answers – even helping us ask the right questions.
Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. It’s really not so hard if we just pay attention.
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