Generative Love. Promises, Promises Ruth 1:1-18. John 13: Rev. Jeffrey V. O Grady. April 24, Rev. Jeffrey V. O Grady.

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1 Generative Love Promises, Promises Ruth 1:1-18 John 13:31-35 By By Rev. Jeffrey V. O Grady April 24, 2016 Rev. Jeffrey V. O Grady Pastor January 14, 2007 San Marino Community Church 1750 Virginia Road San Marino, CA (626) San Marino Community Fax: (626) Church Virginia smcc@smccpby.com Road San Marino, CA (626) Fax: (626) smcc@smccpby.com All rights reserved. These sermon manuscripts are intended for personal use only and may not be republished or used in any way without the permission of the author.

2 April 24, 2016 To the extent possible, effort has been made to Generative preserve the quality Love of the spoken word in this Rev. written Jeffrey adaptation. V. O Grady, Pastor A few weeks ago, the front page of the Wall Street Journal displayed a picture of Pope Francis during Holy Week. He was engaged in a ritual that is not uncommon during that significant week in the Christian calendar. He was washing the feet of some of the poor. I believe they were actually some of the refugees who have been pouring into Europe from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. It was Jesus who inaugurated such a ritual during Holy Week. Jesus at the end of his life, while celebrating the Passover, took a basin and towel, and washed the feet of the disciples. This is the setting for this new commandment today: to love one another. It is immediately following the Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and encouraged them to love one another because that is how they will be identified as his disciples -- by their love for one another and others. The Pope was literally following the instructions of Jesus, So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another s feet. This is the time in the story when things of vital importance come into sharp focus. At the end of his life, Jesus gives a new commandment. Now the abstract ideas he has been teaching are defined. We often recall this at our Maundy Thursday worship service where we re-enact the Last Supper and receive the elements of communion ourselves. The first thing I notice about this text is that it is really not a new commandment. It is within the Jewish Law, found in Leviticus. It has been known for centuries. It is a principal found in the writings of Greek philosophers such as Socrates. What s really new? And new in what way? The cynic might say, Well, it s new in that it s rarely been tried! Do you remember Senator Sam Irvine? He remarked once about the famous Watergate conspirators, These gentlemen have such a high regard for truth that they use it very sparingly. When it comes to love the same may be said of us. 2

3 Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like it to love others. The difference now is that he is demonstrating what love looks like. It is not an abstract ideal to be pursued, it is real and tangible. It requires putting aside our pretensions and humbling ourselves enough to actually serve one another. To understand the setting, we have to get out of our minds the famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting of the Last Supper, with everyone sitting on the same side of the table. Da Vinci was a great artist but a weak theologian. When I look at that picture I imagine Jesus saying, Alright. Everyone who wants to be in the picture move to this side of the table. That s not how they sat at table. They lounged around a low (probably U-shaped) table reclining on one elbow with legs and feet sticking out diagonally from the table. The second misconception in the painting is the angelic look of the disciples as they gaze at Jesus. Luke tells us they came into the room arguing over who was the greatest among them. I love the honesty of the Bible. The disciples were having a fight maybe they over who was going to sit where at the Last Supper. James and John probably started it with their desire to sit on the right and the left of Jesus in the kingdom. Nothing like a little power to get the brain tracking in the wrong direction! Still, they were privileged to participate in the greatest meal ever, and they squabbled over who would sit where. It s so real. It reminds me of a wedding I was at not long ago. One of the guests was so upset about where she was seated. She couldn t believe her friend had placed her at a table near the back and so far from the dance floor and the head table. Do you know if you put ten chickens, any ten, in a pen together and spread a little chicken feed that pretty quickly you ll see an amazing phenomenon. In a matter of minutes, the chickens (previously strangers) will vie for a hierarchy based on dominance, or in everyday language, they ll establish a pecking order. Instinctively, they will determine through a series of skirmishes, who the number one chicken will be. Then number two, then three... all the way down to the number ten chicken. And there s a lot at stake in the dance for dominance. Chicken number ten has a pretty miserable life. Pecked but with no one to peck! 3

4 Funny that the most miserable people I know worry about their titles, their rank, their position. And the happiest people I know are those who don t spend a lot of time worrying about their position, their order, or their authority. They focus on something greater. As the disciples were arguing over position, Jesus takes a towel and basin then demonstrates with crystal clarity that greatness comes in learning to love and serve one another. And not some generalized principal of love for all humankind, but that you must love those you were just arguing with when you came in the door. Let me ask you a question: Who have you been thinking about who has offended you in some way this week? Who are you in an argument with now? It might be a family member, or a colleague at work, or someone at school. It might be a neighbor or a member at church. It might be friend who either by what they did or didn t do, has caused some offense to you. Instead of reacting naturally can you act in love towards them? Can you seek what is in their best interest despite how you may be feeling? A man accidently backed into a car in the parking lot of a shopping mall. He got out of his car, took paper and pencil and wrote a note: People are watching me and thinking I m writing my name and address and insurance company. I m the one who smashed your car but I m not writing anything. Good luck! And then he put it under the windshield wiper. Because that kind of thing happens all the time, we have a dilemma. We need each other but we re afraid to trust each other. People do not gamble their lives or stake their souls on abstract theories of truth or systems of theology, as important as those may be. Great love is different! People will stake everything on a great love. They will sacrifice everything for the possibility of a great love. And divine love has changed more lives than anything else. The Apostle John lived for it and by it, and so did Paul and Mary and Martha. Love is the heart of the Gospel, at the center of our faith. In this life we have three lasting qualities faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of them is love. 1 1 I Corinthians 13:13, JB Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English for Schools, New Revised Edition 4

5 Non-believers sometimes understand this even better than Christians. Bertrand Russell, a well-known agnostic in the twentieth century, startled many on the occasion of his 80th birthday when he declared, The root of the matter is a very simple and old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it, for fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean please forgive me for mentioning it is love, Christian love. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide in action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty... although you may not find happiness, you will never know the despair of those whose life is aimless and void of purpose. 2 Christian love provides a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage and protection from despair and aimless, purposeless living. We re not talking here about a love merely wanting some good things for others. Love goes beyond that! It involves being willing to give up something yourself or to give yourself in order that others may have the good you intend. Real love never stops short at desires; it is always willing to go the length of sacrifice. Too many of us are boxed-up, hoarding for ourselves, as though we were keeping something for a great occasion that never comes. On the cross of Christ the Lord made a choice to invest in the world with the stimulus of love. There is no greater power! It brings healing and resolve, overcomes enmity and strife. It is the highest expression of Christian faith because when we love we share the very nature of God. Like iron that has felt the power of a magnet, and becomes a magnet itself the heart touched by God s love in Christ loves others. We live in a world of cause and effect. Like billiard balls on a pool table, we bounce around running into one another and getting hurt and angry in the process. We feel slighted by others, disrespected, and we feel like retaliating, getting revenge for the hurt we ve experienced. But Jesus says there is a better way to live than by cause and effect. We can stop the cycle of violence, and slow the cycle of poverty, and diminish the cycle of abuse, by absorbing some of the shock and hurt and returning love instead. 2 Weatherhead, Leslie D., That Immortal Sea, p.23. 5

6 Maybe what was really new about this commandment is that Jesus actually incarnated this love. He did not merely spew empty platitudes. He said, Love as I have loved you! Others may teach about love but nobody loved like Jesus. His was and is a generative love it brings something new into existence, even and especially in the most hopeless of situations. Love one another as I have loved you for by this you will be known as my disciples, as belonging to me. We all know that penicillin is a very effective anti-biotic that can treat a host of infections. But it is no good at all until it gets into your blood stream, into you. The same is true of God s love in Christ. Until it gets into you, it is useless. Amen 6