Sermon by the rev'd. Pamela P Snare

The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 13,2001

On this fifth Sunday of Easter, we are given a gospel passage which takes us back to the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. Jesus has just finished washing the disciples’ feet – a gesture of humility and loving service which we commemorated and enacted on Maundy Thursday. Judas has left the Supper to inform the authorities where they can find Jesus to arrest him. It seems a bit confusing in Easter Season to be going back to the night before Jesus was crucified.

Today’s reading is part of what is known as Jesus’ farewell discourse to his followers, and it includes chapters 13 through 17 of John’s gospel. John places this discourse in the context of the Last Supper. Jesus knows that his death is imminent, and he is preparing his followers for the time when he will no longer be with them, physically. He is preparing them for his departure.

These are his final instructions – a kind of last will and testament – before he leaves them in order to be with them in a new and different way. The intimacy with which he speaks to them is striking, like a father leaving his children, and wanting them to remember what is most important in their lives, and in how they are to live:

"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."

Jesus has shown the disciples what kind of love he means by washing their feet. It was a task normally reserved to slaves. A menial and ordinary act of service. Yet, he who is God, does not shirk from assuming the position of a slave at the feet of his followers. Shortly, he will show them the depth and breadth of his love by laying down his life. A selfless act of sacrifice. Jesus’ mission has been one of showing God’s love for humanity in acts of healing, and acts of sacrificial service. He has been motivated and sustained in his ministry by and through his close relationship with his Father.

The disciples are to carry on his mission and his ministry after he leaves. They are to make God’s love known to humanity by practicing among themselves the love he has shown for them. Their love for each other is the sign to the world of Jesus’ love, and through Jesus, the Father’s love for humanity – for the world.

Christians loving each other as Christ has loved us manifests, shows forth to the world, the permanent presence of the Risen Christ in our midst. The world, by seeing the mutual love Christians practice toward each other, is to see and know the Risen Christ and his love. "By this everyone will know that you are my followers – if you have love for one another."

Certainly, this is not news to us. But it is something of which we need continually to be reminded, because it is the place at which the Church has most often failed.

It is also helpful for us to be reminded of what Jesus’ love, Christian charity is. It is not a feeling or a sentiment. Feelings and sentiment s are ephemeral, passing, transitory. They come and they go. Our hearts are not always disposed to feel loving. But we can still act in ways that show love even when we do not feel it.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, defined Christian charity as "the set of the will for the eternal good of another." Christian charity shows itself in concrete acts of self-giving, self-sacrifice, and service for the good, the well being of others.

The early Christians showed their love for each other in such practical, concrete ways. Christians in other areas took up a collection for the poor church in Jerusalem. Widows and orphans were provided for –fed and clothed- out of the offerings of other church members. Those Christians who were wealthy and had large homes provided the space for early Christian communities to gather for worship. Their love for each other was shown in their willingness to share resources- financial and material- and in their willingness to show hospitality toward each other.

Christian charity was shown among the apostles in their disagreements with each other. One of the biggest issues for the early church was whether to admit Gentiles to the faith without first becoming Jews. The book of Acts traces that debate, which was the cause for the first council of the church at Jerusalem. The disagreement caused tempers to flare, and Paul is reported to have opposed Peter to his face on the issue. Yet, through prayerful listening to each other, and the patient seeking of God’s guidance, and the willingness to change in view of discerning God’s movement and action in the matter, the apostles were able to come to a common decision without rancor, recrimination, or ill will, and to move forward in accepting Gentiles into the church. Looking back from the perspective of 20 centuries of church history, it is difficult for us to appreciate how remarkable it was that the church did not splinter over this issue and simply dissolve into a myriad of warring factions.

We are given this gospel of mutual love – Jesus’ new commandment – during the Easter season in order to be reminded (like the first disciples) of what is most important in our lives as the Body of Christ and of how we are to live with each other. The implication of today’s gospel is that our willingness and ability to practice charity toward each other is both the evidence of the presence of Christ among us and the means through which others are drawn to Christ.

Our common life together and our witness in the community is either enhanced or damaged by how well or how poorly we embrace and practice this commandment of mutual love.

Practically, it means that we are willing to care for each other in concrete ways – financially and materially as well as emotionally and spiritually. It means that when new people walk through our doors, we welcome them as if they were Christ himself. It means that in our community, we seek to alleviate situations of poverty and need. Not simply by giving our material resources, although that is part of it, but by giving ourselves in relationship – by getting to know and respect and honor those who are different from us in both culture and background. Mutual charity is personal. It is known and embodied and practiced person to person – human being to human being.

Mutual charity does not mean that we are all of the same opinion or see things exactly the same way. There are and will be disagreements among us. But the practice of mutual charity means that when there are disagreements, we do not act like children and simply pick up our marbles and go home. We talk. And we talk honestly without allowing our anger and our passions to rule us. And we listen. We listen to each other, seeking to know and understand each other. We listen to each other, seeking to discern God’s intention and desire, not necessarily our own. We listen with an openness to the fact that we may have something to learn, and that God may be challenging us to change and to grow. We may not resolve the disagreement, but we are willing to be kind and respectful of each other, and not allow rancor, recriminations or ill will to debase us or to debase our common life together.

Let me be clear. I do not have a particular issue or situation in mind here at Christ Church. We need to remind ourselves of the nature and demands of charity however, because it is most often a place of failure in the church. Not just locally, but regionally, nationally and universally. Mutual charity is most important in our life together because it mirrors and imitates the life of the Godhead – the charity that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the life of God himself.

Mutual charity is a tall order. And as I said earlier, it is the place where the Church most often has failed. It requires self-giving and self-sacrifice in ways that we are not naturally inclined and to people toward whom we may not be naturally inclined. It requires in openness to choosing God’s will which may not necessarily be our own, and an openness to change and to growth. It requires forbearance and longsuffering. It is not easy, but it is the surest sign of the presence of the Risen Christ among us, and it is the most compelling witness for drawing others to Christ.

May we keep the commandment of mutual charity as the center and guiding principle of our life at Christ Church, for our health and salvation. And not for us only, but for the health and salvation of this community and the world.

The Rev’d Pamela P. Snare is Curate at Christ Church, Covington.

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