LOVING ONE ANOTHER

My husband Tex and I have lived in or visited a lot of the country during our time together. It’s interesting to note how different driving customs are in different parts of the country. Take, for example, the observance of school zone speed reduction laws. In New York City, it seems that most school zones are posted 25 mph, and my experience is that most drivers don’t pay any more attention to these laws than they do to any other driving laws. That is, they pretty much ignore them. 

We lived in Las Vegas for several years and noticed that drivers there have such big wide streets to travel on, they typically drive on surface streets much like we drive on parkways on a good day. But, school zones in Las Vegas are posted at 15 mph, even – perhaps especially – by high schools. This is really is exasperatingly slow. And, what seems most puzzling is the fact that drivers there really do observe these limits.

Why? Are drivers in Las Vegas more worried about the lives of their kids than those here in New York? I really doubt that’s it. Here’s what I do think: In Las Vegas, the law enforcement folks actually enforce those impossibly slow 15 mph limits, while here in New York, there are fewer police writing traffic tickets than anywhere we’ve ever lived.

As we continue in our Resurrection journey, let’s think about today’s Gospel passage. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Loving Jesus is conditional; love is dependent upon action. If you don’t keep my commandments, you don’t love me.

That second great commandment is to ‘love one another.’ The reason for our traffic laws is to protect us and others. To keep all of us safe. That would be a part of loving others – love is action, not just feeling. In fact, we know someone loves us by and through his or her actions, not just by the fact that we hear it spoken. We know Jesus loves us because he will send a Paraclete to be with us always.

Sometimes we know we are loved without those words ever being spoken. Feeling Christ with us gives us knowledge of being loved without hearing words, doesn’t it? So, then, I wonder why it is that many of us who call ourselves Christians – at least at times – need this fear of punishment in order to drive safely.

This fear is sort of like the Hebrew vision of God – the One who will punish us if we mess up and don’t obey HisHer commandments; don’t put Him/Her above all else, all the time 

Jesus didn’t say to his disciples: ‘If you fear me, you will keep my commandments.’ Rather, he said: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ In other words, keeping God’s commandments is an essential component of loving God. Acting a certain way is necessary to being able to love God. Love God, love each other. If we don’t love each other, then, we don’t love God. That’s our Christ, bringing us something new. It’s the foundation of Christian ethics.  

And, it can be a scary one indeed. Although we are taught, and deep down we know, that God’s love is constant, eternal, still, we all know that there are minutes each day when we are probably not acting as Jesus would have us act. We wonder if we are truly loving as he would have us love. Certainly we know that we don’t love perfectly; sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we hurt someone unintentionally. Our marriage just doesn’t feel like it’s working. We seem to lose that bond that we once had with a close friend. No matter how hard we try to be a good parent, one child keeps a closeness that develops into rich friendship and love over time, while another one just grows away from us.

Then, perhaps drawing on our Hebrew Bible theological foundation, we wonder: does that mean that God won’t love us? No. No. Of course not. There is nothing we can do that can change God’s unconditional love for us.

I know – we know – that God certainly is strong enough to take care of us. It is perfectly reasonable to fear God. Interestingly, the word usually translated ‘fear’ is also the word for ‘awe’ in Hebrew. ‘Awe’ is sort of a combination of fear and reverence, admiration, wonder, and trust. We read in 1 John ch. 4 that ‘there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.’ We love imperfectly when we just fear God. If we only obey those traffic laws because we fear tickets, and fines, and possibly imprisonment, we aren’t really acting out of love for each other. If, though, we obey them because they’ re reminders of how to care about one other and keep each other as well as ourselves safe, then, we approach love for each other. When we encounter the idea of fearing God and we change that word ‘fear’ to ‘awe,’ we temper the absolute power of God with that knowledge that God is love.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. God helps us to love him or her. God helps us to act out of love. Here’s where that Advocate, that Paraclete, that Spirit of Truth comes in. God sent this Spirit reaching out to us, helping us to know God and God’s essence as love. This word John uses here, translated as Advocate or Paraclete, is also translated as Encourager, or Helper. The Greek word used here is only used by the community of John in our scripture, and so it is more difficult to understand what it really meant to them. It’s more than ‘helper’, though. It is, however, considered to mean what is called elsewhere the Holy Spirit. And, it is always with us, as God’s love is always with us. The ‘Spirit of Truth’, through whom we know the truth Jesus showed us. Always with us.

 I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. We are connected to God and each other in love. From today’s reading from Acts: ‘In him we live and move and have our being’. Interestingly, by the way, Luke here quotes a Greek poem addressing Zeus.

This pattern of love breaks down all the usual boundaries that happen when we don’t love. It’s a circular way of reasoning, and can be a perplexing way to look at things. But the bottom line is that we will never be alone. Because God is love, and we are commanded to love, in loving we will never be separate from God.

Lest this seems to be just a warm and fuzzy state of being, a mystical union with God, let’s think a bit more. If love is an emotion, it cannot be commanded. If, though, love is action, it can be. Jesus expects us to act always out of love. He told us that he would be in us through that Spirit of Truth. If Jesus is in us, and love is action, this Spirit is enabling us to act like Jesus acted. It’s hard to treat each other out of love. Jesus knew we’d need help. So, this enabler is with us, an active presence in us and in our communities, as we act. Helping us to keep this commandment that brings us to God.

I will not leave you orphaned. Personal words, reminding us of the closeness of parent and child. Given at this most personal time of farewell to those Jesus so loved. And, such a crucial part of our Resurrection journey.

I am still with you, through this Spirit of Love. Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid. I will be with you always. Helping, guiding, loving. Jesus the Christ is in me, and in you, leading us to God’s truth and teaching us how to be who God made us to be. There’s something mysterious about all this, much to ponder. But one thing is for sure. We are never alone. And we are never unloved. 

Thanks be to God.