Love One Another (John 13:31-35) I love weddings, don t you? The bride is dressed to the nines along with the bridesmaids, and the groom and his men look pretty neat also. They ve gathered to finally do it, to get married. Now we have readings in the Episcopal Church that you can choose from. Among all the readings is one that I call the wedding reading because I ve heard it at all the weddings I ve either conducted or been to. What is it? (See if congregation knows.) (1 Cor. 13:4-8) Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. It s a wonderful tribute to love. It makes you feel all warm inside, right? It lightens the day. That s what today s gospel is all about, Jesus command to his disciples and to us to love one another. Mariann Babnis Page 1 5/9/2016
I thought in the interest of this sermon I d look up what the computer had to say about love. Initially in the Google board it had: love quotes, sayings, songs, poems, love see momma jump, quotes for him, quotes for her. There were 1 billion, 340 million Google lookups. In the first one on the list from Wikipedia reads: Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. [and] The English word "love" can have a variety of related but distinct meanings in different contexts. In the online dictionary between a noun, verb, idiom, etc. love had 28 references, the most popular was a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Well, that kind of works but is it everything about love. Is that what it means when I say: I love you? Or when you say you love me. Jesus commandment to his disciples was a new commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. Mariann Babnis Page 2 5/9/2016
It was a new commandment because the love in it derives from the incarnation. It is Jesus own because it marks the relationship between God and Jesus. The disciples are asked to participate in the love that marks that relationship by acts of love that join the believer to God. Keeping this commandment is the identifying mark of discipleship because it is the tangible sign of the disciples abiding in Jesus. It was a new commandment because Jesus called the people he was preaching to little children. This was a common form of address to a believing community. So Jesus already knew that the people he was with believed in him and knew what he was doing. They just did not know the death he would die. But he was preparing them to live beyond death into the new life of Jesus: love one another as I have loved you. It was a new commandment because Jesus love for the people around him has provided them with the model of how they are to relate to one another. It was as Jesus related to them. Could we act in the same way? Could we uphold the loving of one another as Jesus loved us? Mariann Babnis Page 3 5/9/2016
When I look around this church this morning I see a lot of people whom I am growing to love. I came here not knowing anyone and will grow with you through this Interim period. I will leave here sadly but with the expectation of doing this once again. I will love you as you will love me. Theologian Morris Niedenthal, a teacher and preacher at University of Chicago, says that Jesus accepted people just the way they were, but he never left people just the way they were because he loved them. Jesus always made them better. In this day, Jesus never accepts people just the way we are. Jesus loves us and makes us better. Love is the basis of life. We simply cannot get along without being loved and loving. We love other people and we love God and God loves us. God gives to us love in everything he gives us: a good job, a great house, a nice lifestyle. Even in the bad stuff such as a disease under which we must live or an economic hardship from which we cannot escape there is God s love. For love encourages such spiritual practices as being present, openness and wonder. Mariann Babnis Page 4 5/9/2016
So when you leave here today look at your surroundings, listen to the people God has put into your day, enjoy the experience because it is all brought to you by God s love through Jesus Christ. Amen. Mariann Babnis Page 5 5/9/2016