“If you love me you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15
I received a note from Dr. Stirling on Friday afternoon. He had arrived safely in Indianapolis and wanted to let us know of the promotions being done for the services that he is involved in this morning before the Indy 500. Attached to the e.mail was a picture. There he was in the pits, smiling, a ball cap on his head, big yellow sound mufflers around his ears, and a pit pass around his neck. He looked like he was in his element. The cap he was wearing had “INDYCAR MINISTRY” printed on the front of it. It was like a sign that here was a man that loves his cars, here was someone who loves Indy racing, and here was someone involved in ministry at the big race.
This is not the only time that I have seen Andrew with a cap on. Many of you will know that Andrew also loves a football team (and that’s real football, by the way – you know, the game you play with your feet) called Manchester United. Andrew and I became fast-friends over Manchester United many years ago, and when United played one of their summer games in Toronto three years ago, we just had to go. We arrived at the stadium two hours early so that we could watch the warm up and have a bit of supper and as we got out of the car, Andrew put his Manchester United cap on. Not wanting me to be left out, he pulled an extra one out of his bag, and there we were with these signs on our heads, announcing to the world that we were Manchester United fans. Almost everyone there, 46,000 of them, wore a sign. 40,000 were wearing red hats or scarfs or shirts. They were Manchester United fans, so many of them, it was like a home game for ManYoo. Only 6,000 were wearing the green and white of Glasgow Celtic. Everyone had a sign. You knew where their loyalties lay. We were in a section of the Rogers Centre that was a sea of red. I felt sorry for the two green and white, Celtic fans sitting right in front of us. When Celtic came out on the field, surrounded as they were, they had to be much more demure with their celebrations.
In life we encounter signs everywhere. They tell us what sport we like, what team we support, or what is important to us. A ring, for instance, is a kind of sign. Rings worn on the third finger of the left hand are a sign that a person is married. A specialty ring may let us know that someone belongs to the masonic lodge, has won the Stanley Cup, or in my case with the Claddagh – that I am Irish. Sometimes a sign can tell us what religion a person is. Many today are wearing crosses or crucifixes around their necks – although those things have ceased to be definitive as a sign – it’s difficult to know in our culture whether a cross means that a person is a Christian or it’s a mere fashion statement. But, signs are everywhere and as I read our text for this morning, I couldn’t help but think that Jesus was giving us a sure sign of Christian faith. “If you love me,” he says, “you will keep my commandments.”
“If you love me,” says Jesus. Love is a word that is used in so many ways in our society. It can be used in an emotive sense to reveal a feeling. I heard someone say the other day that they loved Phar-rell Williams’ new song, “Happy.” It’s a great catchy, repetitive song:
Because I’m happy … Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy … Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy … Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I’m happy … Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do
Many people will say that they love a song or a film and love can be a warm feeling toward something. Love can also be romantic and people talk of falling in love. I remember one of the first few movies that I went to see with my high school friends, the film, Love Story, with Ryan O’Neill and Ali MacGraw. We were all about 14 years old and the girls had picked this one, of course, but it really was a great story of a couple meeting at university, forming a deep bond, dealing with parental attitudes about their relationship, yet remaining true to their love. But, then, tragedy struck and there was an ultimate sadness to Love Story as Ali MacGraw became ill and passed away. It brought many a tear to the eyes of movie-goers. Love is often associated with romance and not every romance ends happily-ever-after.
But love can also be something even deeper, and more concrete. A couple in the congregation recently asked if I had seen the film, Frozen. Not having young children around these days, I admitted that I had not seen it, so they gave me a copy. There’s an aspect of the story line in Frozen that reveals a deep, deep love that is incredible between two sisters. It is the story of two princesses, sisters, Elsa and Anna. The older sister, Elsa, has cryokinetic powers and can turn things into ice and snow. But Elsa cannot always control the powers and one day she hurts Anna, zapping her in the heart. Anna’s whole body begins to freeze, slowly. Her friend, Kristoff, takes her to the Troll king, who knows about these things and the Troll king tells them that Anna’s frozen heart can only be thawed by an act of true love. I cannot get into the whole story, but in a scene near the end of the film, Elsa is attacked by the evil, Hans, who wanted to rule the kingdom. In what was potentially her last breath, Anna sees the attack and, as she is about to be totally frozen, she jumps between the two and stops Hans. Elsa was saved. It was an act of sacrifice; but the sacrifice was also the act of true love, an act of love that undid the spell and began to thaw Anna’s heart. Anna was restored and, of course, they all lived happily-ever-after. Love can be so much more than loving a song, or falling in love, great as they may be, love can be deep and can result in very concrete actions, even sacrificing oneself for another person.
I think the range of love for God that we see in the church and in the New Testament is similar to what we experience in the rest of life. In the Church, we sometimes see an emotive love as individuals sing hymns and songs to God. If you’ve ever gone to Revival Meetings in years gone by, or Billy Graham Crusade, one of the favourite hymns they would sing was a hymn with the lines, “O, how I love Jesus. O, how I love Jesus. O, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.” And people would sing that hymn from the depth of their hearts; there was an emotion, a feeling of love for God.
Love for God is also, sometimes, seen in great devotion to God. Like falling in love, some people have given themselves over to God. In the Catholic and Anglo-catholic traditions, there are various orders associated with monasteries and convents where individuals have gone to spend their lives in devotion. In our part of the Protestant tradition, there are no orders but individuals sometimes enter into times of devotion and retreats that reveal love for God and deep searches into the mysteries of God.
When we think of what Jesus says about love, however, Jesus takes things another step. When Jesus speaks of love it isn’t so much an emotion or feeling, it is an act. He makes love a concrete act and says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” … It is so interesting that a number of these readings from the post-Easter lectionary have to do with how we live out an Easter faith. A few weeks ago, 1 Peter 1 called us to holiness, “Be holy for I am holy,” said the Lord, and we talked about that. Now we’re hearing, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
“My commandments,” what are those? Generally, we associate commandments with the Torah in the Bible, the word of God that the beautiful Psalm 119 describes as “A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path (Ps.119:105).” Narrowly defined, Torah is the first five books of our Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It contains lots of history and narratives about God interacting with people as well as commandments. The 10 commandments are in there. There is something we call the holiness code, and countless other commands related to the worship of God.
Many of us tend to forget commandments, these days, when it comes to Christianity. We focus on grace and the love of God. We like that, yet, Jesus says in Matthew 5, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them (Mt. 5:17ff.).” Jesus even went further. He radicalized Torah. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” and says “but whoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever calls his brother a fool shall be liable to the hell of fire (Mt.5:21ff.).” He takes the next commandment on adultery and says that even looking at a woman lustfully is committing adultery in your heart (Mt.5:27ff.). He talks about love and says, “love your neighbour? Anyone can love their neighbour but you, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt.5:43ff.).”” What Jesus does is radicalize the law; then, he plays that out in his own life.
In our passage this morning Jesus talks to the disciples just before he goes to face the cross. Remember one of the dearest passages in this Gospel, 3:16; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.” As Jesus speaks he is about to demonstrate the depth of God’s love, he is moving towards the cross, Jesus loves us even unto death. And on the way there, he says to all those who would be his disciples, “love: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Wow!
So simple, yet so difficult. So simple, yet so demanding. “How are we doing? How is the church doing? How are God’s people in Toronto doing with this? How are you doing? How am I doing? It’s like a sign of true Christian faith, keeping the commandments is a sign that we love God; “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Some people today question whether the church is really being the church. Some suggest that there was a time when the church stood for something but no longer. They think that we are just part of the culture, no different, no defining values, no moral edge. Again, sociologist, Reginald Bibby, has done broad studies of Christian lifestyles in North America. He questioned people on 72 different issues and lifestyle choices and found that in 68 of the 72 categories, there was no appreciable difference between how Christians lived vis-à-vis how people lived who had no religious affiliation. In a couple of our midweek programmes, we have discussed the word, “sin,” for instance. More than one person has asked, “What has happened to sin?” Why has it changed? They have noted that what was considered “sin” 30 or 40 or 50 years ago is no longer sin; and the question came up, “Why?” “Isn’t sin always, sin?” “Why does it change?”
I wondered if what we’ve experienced in the church is a little bit like a pendulum. Perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the Victorian era and the first half of the 20th century. Perhaps, the church’s piety had gone too far and we had become legalistic rather than loving. Then we hit the 1960s and everyone wanted to cast off the silliness and burdens of life, including pietism. In the church, love and grace began to be talked about more and more, and the pendulum swung the other way. I have wondered, however, if it has swung too far, to the point that we may have forgotten that Jesus does have some ideals for us and that how we live and act is important to God. Perhaps, the pendulum has reached that point, however, when some of us are waking up and saying, “Hey, there’s a disconnect now between how Christians view the world and are living and the words of Christ. Perhaps, we are beginning to wake up to the fact that we need to come back and find that centre where love and grace and Christian values meet.
A good friend of mine, Dr. John Patrick and his wife, Sally, travel each summer to central Africa where they help locals in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi with nutrition. John used to teach medicine at the University of Ottawa and wanted to use his talents to help people in need. While there, however, John and Sally, who are strong Christians, also seek to bring the word of God into everything that they do and in the late 80s and early 90s were well aware of the mission work that the Free Methodist Church had in Rwanda and Burundi. The extent of its work there was staggering and there were several hundred thousand Free Methodists in Rwanda and Burundi, more than twice as many in the birthplace of the denomination in North America. The church was so successful that the bishop of the church would be invited, from time to time, to presidential functions. John spoke to me one day about the Christianity in those countries and I will never forget his words. He said, “David, I pray for the African people, for the Christianity there is a mile wide and an inch deep.” He went on to talk about how there was belief but it hadn’t really been integrated, it hadn’t affected how people lived. And then there was that horrible genocide between April and July of 1994. Around one million died and the Church in Rwanda collapsed. I’m sure there were Christians there who lived above that terrible fray, but there were also those whose faith was an “inch-deep,” who were caught up in the struggle. Living without deep Christian values can lead to terrible things and separate us from Christ.
A few years ago, Dallas Willard wrote a book entitled, The Great Omission. You may have heard of the phrase, “the great commission,” which relates to Jesus’ last words in the Gospel of Matthew, “Go ye into all the world and make disciples … (Mt.28:19).” Willard says that the church has been reasonably good at time of going into the world with the gospel, but they have often neglected a key part of that passage, “and make disciples.” This is The Great Omission, and if we quote the whole passage in Matthew it is interesting in light of our passage today, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Remember, Jesus’ words through John, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Jesus has given us direction. He calls us to a radical faith. He calls us to live radical lives of love grounded in his commandments / his word. I wonder sometimes if we have forgotten? Have we become so good at reducing Christianity to God’s love and grace that we’ve forgotten post-grace responsibility and that Jesus espoused many values too? So I would challenge us all this morning, to re-engage the whole word of God. Take a look at 1 Peter, take a look at 1 John, take a look at Colossians, the Gospels and others books and see if God and God’s will for us is more complex than we have been letting on. The real sign of our faith may not be in what we think or believe, or what we wear; the real sign may be in how we live.