Sermon – 8th Sunday after Pentecost – "The Basis For Our Life Together" – John 15:12-14 – 7/30/06
July 31st, 2006Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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I. Jesus Gives His Life For His Friends Eight year old Johnny was told by his doctor that he could save his younger sister's life by giving her some of his blood. Mary, his 6 year old sister was near death, a victim of blood disease from which the boy had made a marvelous recovery two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a blood transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the illness. Since the two children had the same blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
So the doctor asked, "Johnny, would like to give your blood for Mary?"
Johnny hesitated for a moment. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he said, "Sure, Doc, I'll give my blood for my sister." Soon the two children were wheeled into the operating room – Mary, pale and thin; Johnny a picture of health. Neither spoke as his blood siphoned into her, but when their eyes met, Johnny smiled at his sister. The ordeal was almost over when Johnny's brave little voice broke the silence, "Say, Doc, when do I die?"
It was only then that the doctor realized what the moment of hesitation, the trembling of the lip, had meant earlier. Johnny actually thought that in giving his blood to his sister he was giving up his life! And in that brief moment, he had made his great decision!
Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). There on the cross, Jesus gave His lifeblood so that we would not die but live. Our disease was not at all rare – in fact it was universal – for all have sinned and all are terminal the bible says. Jesus’ blood is the only type that can save us for only He has recovered from death and risen to life. And now His precious blood gives us dying men and women life. And He transfuses His blood into our dieing bodies in the mystery of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. So that every time we recall our Baptism and receive Communion – it’s like getting a transfusion that lifts us up from our death bed to live another day another week. And being the humans that we are, we need to be reminded of our baptism and come to Holy Communion as often as we can – because we daily sin much.
There were those in Jesus day who rejected His friendship because, they said, he was friends with sinners. (Matthew 11:19). And that’s precisely right! What they meant as an accusation has become our confession and the basis for our hope. The God of heaven took on human flesh and bones with a beating heart and blood running through his veins to be a friend to sinners – just like you and me – that we would not die but live.
II. Love One Another A. What shall our response be? But now we are forced to ask ourselves this question. What kind of life will we live now that we have been raised from the dead? What will be my response to my good Friend Jesus – who laid down His life for me and saved me death and hell?
And now we come to what we must learn from our text this morning. We had to say what we have said so far because it is the foundation upon which all that we will say rests. The whole of the Christian’s life is to be understood as our response to the love that God has shown to us in Jesus Christ.
This can be a very difficult concept for many to grasp because there are many people who spend their whole life trying to win approval from others. Children may sometimes feel that no matter how hard they try, they just can’t win the acceptance of mom and dad. Many marriages are on shaky ground because either the husband or the wife are never sure if the other really loves them and so they do all they can to win the love of the other. Lonely men and women want to know what they must do to win someone’s friendship. Employees can never seem to do enough to please the boss no matter how hard they work. What incredibly heavy burdens these are that weigh us down and drain the joy out of life.
The Christian life is not like that – it is just the opposite. We are not trying to get God to love us – God has declared His love for us from the cross and now we want to respond to His love for us. We are not trying to earn God’s favor – God has declared that He is pleased with us by the all-availing sacrifice of Christ crucified – and now we want to know how to say thank you for His favor. We are not trying to make friends with God – He has declared, “I call you my friends…” Now we want to know what it means to be a friend of God.
This is just what Jesus meant when He spoke about lifting the heavy burdens that we bear from us and giving us His yoke which is light and easy. The Christian life is a free and joyful response to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
B. “Commandments” and “If’s” Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you… You are my friends if you do what I command.”
Whenever we hear Jesus say, “this is my commandment” or use that little word “if” it always give us fits. We have a hard time believing that His love and acceptance and friendship is by grace alone – pure gift – upfront – even while we were undeserving and far away. And as long as we doubt His grace, His commandments and “ifs” will always give us fits because it puts us right back under that yoke of slavery to the law – that we know so well.
But if we believe that His love and acceptance and friendship is by grace alone – pure gift – upfront – even while we were undeserving and far away, then His commandments and “ifs” are simply the most natural and normal response there is.
Say for example, you were having a walk in the park one day when you came across a young couple sitting side by side on a park bench. He has his arm around her shoulder. She has her hand on his knee. They’re whispering into each others ear and smiling and they kiss each other in between whispers. Say you walked over to this couple and said something like, “you know, if you’re going to act like that then you’re required to love one another.” Now the couple can make one of two responses to your intrusion on their romance. They could say, “the reason we’re acting like this is because each of us is trying get the other to love us.” Or they could say, “the reason we’re acting like this is because we love one another.” You see how one is pure work and nothing but a little physical pleasure and the other is pure joy that springs naturally from true love.
That is the way it is for us when Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you… You are my friends if you do what I command.” He’s not setting the conditions for the giving of His love. He’s setting the response to the giving of His love.
C. Love One Another And the response is this – “Love one another as I have loved you.” It’s the perfect answer to the perfect dilemma – “what do you give a God whose got everything?” You love His friends as He has loved you. God doesn’t need your love – but God’s friends do.
We must remember that these words are spoken by Jesus to His disciples in the Upper Room on the night when He was betrayed. He has already read His last will and testament to them. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you are to love one another. (John 13:34-35). Within the next 24 hours, He would demonstrate His friendship by laying down His life for His friends on the cross.
John was one of those disciples in that upper room who heard these words. He writes His gospel so you may hear Jesus’ words too. They’re meant as much for you as they were for the 12. When John writes letters to the congregations, he simply passes on what he has received. “Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God… In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:7,10-11).
D. Our Life Together Not to mix a metaphor but I suspect that all this “one another” talk may be a bit hard for us to swallow. We cherish our privacy and we’ve carefully isolated ourselves from “one another.” Our homes have become our hide out where we escape from “one another.” We don’t even know who are neighbors are let alone love “one another.” Now with the computer and e-mail, chat rooms, instant messengers, we don’t even have to speak to “one another” anymore. And all of this has had it’s effect on our life of faith. I can’t count how many times I’ve had someone tell me that they don’t need to belong to a church – they can practice their faith on their own just fine.
So here is yet another way that the Christian life is counter-cultural. It goes against the grain. It’s lived with “one another” and never on our own. The Christian life is “communitarian,” never “unitarian.” If we’re going to respond to the grace of God in Jesus Christ by loving “one another,” then we must be in a community where there are “one anothers” to love. So, where do you find that kind of community? I thought you’d never ask.
The Christian community is never more concrete and specific than it is in the local congregation. You may be a Christian through Holy Baptism and call yourself a Lutheran or Catholic or Methodist or Baptist by preference – but you don’t live your life in Christ there. It’s like the person who wanted to become a vegetarian and who starved to death because he couldn’t find any vegetables to eat. All he could find was tomatoes, beans and all that zucchini.
The local congregation is where the Christian community is located. This Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Waterville Maine is where “one anothers” may be found and you among them. This is where the transfusion of Christ’s life giving blood actually takes place in Word and Sacrament, in Sunday School and Bible Study. Here is where the dead are raised to life and a Christian community is formed out of those who now share the same blood type as Christ Himself and with “one another.” A community formed by Christ so completely that He calls it His own body – His flesh covering it, His bones supporting it, His heart beating in it, His blood flowing through it.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Related Entries:
» Sermon – 9th Sunday after Pentecost – "The Nature Of Our Life Together" – John 15:12-17 – 8/6/06» "Fruit of the Spirit" – 9 Sermons
» Sermon Index – Lutheran – LCMS
» Sermon – Easter 7 – "One With Jesus" – John 17:20-26 – 5/20/07
» Sermon – 3rd Pentecost – "The Righteousness Of God" – Romans 3:21-28 – 6/1/08
» Sermon – Pentecost 6 – "Predestination" – Ephesians 1:3-14
