The Guinness Book of World Records keeps records of just about. everything you can imagine including the length of the longest sermon ever

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1 The Reverend Deon K. Johnson Preached at St. Paul s Episcopal, Brighton MI May 6, 2007 John 13:31-35 At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 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.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." The Guinness Book of World Records keeps records of just about everything you can imagine including the length of the longest sermon ever preached. So my trivia question for you is this how long was the world s longest sermon ever preached? The world s longest sermon ever preached was 60 hours and 31 minutes, by a Unitarian preacher. Compared to that my sermons don t even come close to being long I mean a 60 and one half hours? But there is another world record. What was the shortest sermon ever preached? It was by Rev. John Albrecht, an Episcopal priest, from Lake Orion, Michigan, and he gave the world s shortest sermon ever given on record. He uttered one word, Love, and sat down. That was it. Nothing more. One of his parishioners said it was the best sermon he ever gave. Short and simple. James the brother of our Lord was famous in his time for his sermons. He was sought after by Christian communities through out the early church. Near and far people wanted to hear from James because he was Jesus brother, their hope was that peals of divine wisdom would be imparted by Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 1

2 James as he traveled around the East. On his first sermon James stood before the assembly and said Little children, love one another and sat back done. At his second sermon little children, love one another. At his third sermon little children, love one another. On and on it went for many months. After a while a few of those assembled finally mustered the courage to confront him. Philip finally said to him James, you are a great and gifted man, filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. But why do you always preach the same sermon over and over again? James lifted his greyed head and simply said to him when you all figure out how to live that one, I ll move on to something else. Little Children, love one another. In today s gospel Jesus says: A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you. Seems rather simple; sounds pretty easy to do but yet it is a near impossible task that Jesus has set before those who would follow him. What exactly is love? How do you define it? How do you know you ve given it or received it? Love one another as I have loved you easy for Jesus to say, great commandment to impart, sounds like something that should framed and hung by a door. But what does it mean for us? What does it mean to love as Christ loved in our 21st century enlightenment and technological advance? Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 2

3 Well love isn t exactly easy to define. Defining love is like trying to capture the waves of the ocean in a fishing net in the middle of a storm. Shakespeare wrote one hundred and fifty sonnets trying to capture the feeling of love and yet one hundred and fifty sonnets later he still couldn t define it. There are some things in our life, in our Christian journey that are so mysterious and so big that you simply cannot capture them in words, and that is the way with love. Love is so big, so mysterious that you cannot capture it in words, but when you see it, you know it. If I asked you how you knew your spouse or your family loved you it would be impossible to do. No amount of words could recreate the feeling of being loved. But yet something as simple as a kiss, a smile, a warm hug, a flower offered can all convey to us that we are loved. Love is what brought us here. It is the same way with God. We are each one of us every day of our lives surrounded by love. We are all givers and receivers of love every moment of our lives, the problem is that most of the time we tend not to see it. To experience love, to receive and to give love, is to have the Spirit of Christ s love inside of you. In those times and places where you say, I will forgive you no matter what. I will love you no matter what. I will care for you no Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 3

4 matter what. I will be with you no matter what. Those are our Big acts of love. And then there are the random acts of love by God; a sunset, the coming of spring, the gift of each other, Jesus. Acts of that that remind us no matter who we are we are all loved; that we are each one of us a precious child of God and hold a place in the Divine heart. But Jesus holds out to us a new kind of love. Jesus invites us to go beyond the circle of those who love us, to open doors that we have closed against others; to remove the blinders that we wonder through life sometimes with. Jesus invitation to love one another as I have loved you means that we must have our eyes open to a love that we might otherwise over look; that the poor in the world belong to our family; that those who live in despair might be saved by our care for them; that small insignificant me can make a difference in a world seemingly bent on destruction and division. As Christians sometimes we are anything but the embodiment of love. We sometimes forget Jesus commandment to love one another. This past week a lady called the church wanting to know if we would have a problem if they were married here at St. Paul s. She was apprehensive because she called several churches in the area and they all refused to marry her Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 4

5 because she and her fiancé already had a child. I am always proud to be called Christian when we can invite those are rejected to a place at the table. She may never call back, she may never darken the door of a church, but she knows in no uncertain terms that love in Christ dwells in this place. A famous theologian once said you can only love God as much as you love the person you like the least. Bears repeating. Jesus does indeed give us a new commandment, possibly the hardest commandment of all but our journey into the heart of God and with each other is about the embodiment of Love. By this everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another. One of the songs I had to learn growing up [and I am sure some of you may know it] went like this: We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love They will know we are Christians by our love Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 5

6 Love. Simple. Short. Near impossible. But Jesus leads us in the way along the journey. We may not always live the word of Love but God in Christ calls us to the doing. Let it be our prayer that the whole world may see and know that we are indeed Christians by our love. Little children, love one another. Amen. Lectionary Year C Easter V Page 6