Sermon Tone Analysis

class=MsoNormal>May the words of my mouth and the mediations of all our hearts be acceptable in your Sight, our Lord and Saviour, Amen 

Today, of course, is Mother’s day and as I heard it humorously put – the 4th holiest day of the year

            Christmas – Good Friday – Easter … and then Mother’s day

 

Consider the wisdom of our gospel passage from */a/* possible mother’s perspective:

 

/If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love/

            ‘Do what I say… if know what’s best for you’

 

For those with more than one child – /“This is my commandment, that you love one another”/

 ‘I am ordering you to stop fighting’

 

/“You did not choose me but I chose you.”/

I have heard the comedian Bill Cosby’s make this statement that his mom had sometimes made when young Bill was getting a little out of hand – /“You did not choose me but I chose you.”/

‘I brought you into this world and I can take you out’

 

/“Appointed you to go and bear fruit”/

            ‘Go to school – make your mother proud’

 

/“Fruit that will last”/

Any one that have opened a snack bag on Monday morning when there has been fruit left over the weekend … would welcome fruit that will last

 

All joking aside, the message that we have today is filled with messages of deep love

            Messages that we can understand a mother would proudly to make

                        Messages and advice that convey an intimate desire for the best for one’s children

                                    Messages spoken by Jesus, but spoken of a parental love

 

The final verse in our reading today concludes with the following

 

/“I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another”/

 

You may have noticed that my sermon is titled “Love and obedience”

            That may seem to be a strange coupling of words.

You may think that Love is supposed to be free, natural, unbinding, released from the confines of worldly pressures

You may have this understanding that when someone is in Love that they do silly things, that they throw off their normal inhibitions and “Let Love rule”

You may have been to a wedding reception or some other gathering, in which someone that you know to be normally a wall-flower is out on the dance floor – cutting rug, living it up, maybe even making a fool of himself (yes it is usually a him) and there beside him is his new girl-friend and it all quickly becomes clear – “oh no wonder… he’s in love”

 

This is the effects of love, right!

Loves releases us from the pressures of the norms of life and calls us to a higher goal to tolerate what we would normally not…

Well Brothers and sisters in Christ – This is not the Love of the bible, this is not the love that Christ taught and modelled for us – we are not given the message of a foolish – throw your cares away - love

And although “tolerance” or “Political correctness” is the language of the culture – they are not biblical language – certainly not the full language of love

            The Love that we are taught from scripture – is not less – but so much more!

In the New Testament, as you ‘may or may not’ know was originally written in the common written language of the land, which was Greek.

The Old Testament was primarily in Hebrew, but the New Testament was in Greek.

In Greek there are three main words that are used for what we have simply translated as ‘Love’

            Each of the three words describe slightly different attributes of a complex word

                              There is: “eros” which is erotic or romantic love.

“philos” or brotherly or sisterly love for friends

And finally “agape” which has been translated as “charitable love.”

Now our culture is moved and motivated – if the marketers are correct - by eros love

“sex sells” – and one has to look no further that any number of billboards, TV commercials, newspaper ads and on and on… the message is simple and the message is very present

                        Thankfully, however, it is the worldly message and not the prime word of God

 

The word that Jesus uses is different – Jesus speaks of “agape love” – the implications are far more wide ranging – “agape” love is like grace, a free gift for others which is undeserved or unearned or unmerited.

It is a free gift for those in need

Agape was a little used word of the time

However, Jesus and the first Christians sought to FIND language to express their new experience of God’s grace – to express love beyond the simple physical understanding

A “*fresh minting*” of a previously little-used word

Now this passage of scripture is sometimes selected for wedding services – selected, I would imagine because it speaks of the long serving aspect of love – Abiding love

And that is so important and we will get to it more of that later

But it is also appropriate for weddings because it reflects the beginning of marriage life, the “fresh minting” of two people

Two people previously solely individuals are minted in a new unique way

                        The word has taken on a uniquely new and Christian sense to it

A sense of family belongingness which transcends the previous sense of the word

It is the type of love that binds

 

This lesson on language is important, not for the wordsmiths out there, but so that we can gain a greater understanding of what Jesus is trying to communicate.

Communicate at a crucial moment of his life.

Our passage today is from what has become known as the “upper room discourses”

This is part of a large section in John’s gospel account, where we hear of Jesus’ instructions and teaching on his final night – the night before He was to die a brutal death on the cross

 

Jesus has shared his life with his closest friends for three years up to this point

* They have witnessed His unworldly beginning of His adult ministry, when he was baptised by John in the Jordan – when a dove descended on him and voice from Heaven declared that “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased”

* They witnessed the miracle at the wedding at Cana – where He turned water in wine

* And yes there was probably some guy there dancing silly for his new love

* They have been with Him when he returned home to Nazareth and claimed incredible claims and enraged /His hometown/ so much that they wanted to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff

* A select few were there for the incredible Transfiguration, in which they were visited by Moses and the Elijah (representing the law and prophets) and heard again the voice from heaven

* They were there for the feeding of the 5000

* They were there for the countless healing miracles

* For Lazarus, when Jesus brought His friend back from the dead

* The countless teaching times, where Jesus shared a new yoke with a burden that is light

* The countless acts of mercy, grace and truth - So many that John records this last sentence of his Gospel account

/“//There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written”/ (John 21:25)

 

And today, we have in our service a moment from the last night before the cross

                  Jesus is pouring our His final instruction prior to a death that He knew was awaiting Him

 

And it is a message of Love….

Change that it is a *Command* to Love

 

No longer is Jesus presenting them with a message that they need to work at to understand

There is no parable here – no story – with a message – or principal underpinning it

                  No Jesus has left nothing to chance, in this, His last night of instruction with them

 

/This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

N//o one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father/ (John 15:12-15)

 

Unpacking what is being said here – reveals some very vital, dramatic and transformative lessons

            The first that can not be ignored is that we are commanded to Love

                        The word ‘command’ comes up 5 times in only 8 verses and the word love 9 times

 

Sometimes the words of Jesus are obtuse, difficult to understand, demanding contextualization and explanation.

Here the case is different.

Here He straightforwardly commands.

Here Jesus simply, without options, commands us to love one another….

There may be certain worldly situations, and with a worldly response, we can chose a certain course of action because it “Make sense,” or which can simply be justified by stating, “everyone else is doing it.”

But Christians are those who, through baptism, have signed on…

Have publicly committed themselves, have promised…

to */obey/* Jesus… And Jesus has commanded us to love….

The world has many ways in which people can influence others, ways in which power can be exerted – methods can include the use of hate, violence, revenge, war, manipulation

And the other means through which the world gets what it wants,

These are not options for Jesus’ people, people who are commanded to love.[1]

Jesus’ command to Love would have been counter-cultural – then as it is today

In this passage from St. John, We hear a challenging message and it is focused on a new way, a new imperative to understand Love

 

On the surface, the first reading of the passage, could easily seems to be a simple message of Love

A heart-warming message whereby Jesus restates the “new commandment” to love one another and abide in that love

 

But when you look at the wording a little deeper there is no soft-pedaling around it