Sixth Sunday of Easter/Rogation Sunday
Isaiah 45:11–13, 18–25
Psalm 33
I John 4:7–21
John 15:9–17
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he 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.”
Today is the last Sunday before Ascension. The risen Jesus – who appears and disappears from locked rooms at will, who shows us his scars and asks for a bite to eat – has walked with us for six weeks. Soon, he ascends for his enthronement at the right hand of the Father. He assures us that he’ll send the Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide us and comfort us.
As we prepare for Ascension, we once again hear his pre-crucifixion farewell in our Gospel portion. He reiterates to us the word from Maundy Thursday: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
What is love? Love is a multifaceted idea, concept, action. Greek has four separate words for love, Japanese three. So what are Jesus and John talking about?
I asked my best friend to define love. She defined it as “care and loyalty.”
In the Church, we’ve learned that love is a verb. Care, practical care, is a concrete expression of love. Because Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that caring for the poor, sick, and oppressed is caring for him, we know to physically care for people, even our enemies.
But my friend hit another aspect of love I don’t hear too much about. Loyalty. Sometimes we use the words “commitment” and “faithfulness.” They are good words, but let us contemplate “loyalty” today.
In our epistle reading, John is exhorting a congregation in strife. Some people have left the congregation. The fight is, in part, a theological one: who is Jesus and what does the answer have to do with us? Is Christ just a spiritual being or idea that immediately makes us sinless, prosperous, like God now that we have the Holy Spirit? Have we arrived? Is it time to thank Christ and live the good life? Or does the life and death of the suffering servant Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, charge us with some responsibilities?
John’s exhortations in his letter are building on Jesus’ Maundy Thursday sermon recorded in the Gospel of John: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
How has Jesus loved us? He died for us. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus said that. So why does Jesus lay down his life for us? Why has Jesus loved us in this way? Why has God loved us in this way? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Again, we see HOW God has loved us – he sent the Son. WHY does he love us? John in the epistle tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:9).
Great! What is love? Loyalty. Love is loyalty.
I’m going to teach you a Hebrew word. They tell us not to do this in seminary, but I love Hebrew and this is an important word. The word is khesed. For those of us who grew up with the King James translation, khesed is reflected in the word “loving-kindness.” It’s translated as “faithfulness” or “righteousness” or “mercy” in other places. The best translation, according to a very learned professor, is “covenant-faithfulness.” But recently a friend pointed me to another way to think about khesed: loyal love. God’s character is to show khesed, to show loyal love. God continually shows Israel – and us – khesed.
God is lovingly loyal to his creation, to humanity especially. How do we know? Because he spares Adam and Eve even though they committed a capital offense. He spares Noah and his family when all the world devolves into violence. He spares the arrogant nations at Babel by scattering them instead of wiping them out. In loving loyalty to the nations, God chooses Abraham. In loving loyalty to Abraham, God promises David an everlasting dynasty. In loving loyalty to David, God visits Mary. In loving loyalty to the Son, God raises Jesus from the dead. Our God is loyal. And he’s called us to be loyal to him and to each other.
And we’re not. There are lots of examples from church history of how Christians have mistreated and even killed other Christians. But I share a very current story out of Florida that defines love growing cold. At a Florida church, some members voiced concern about how money was being spent. A considerable-sized group pressed the church and pastor to explain some financial decisions. A couple of weeks ago, the church trustees expelled 200 members, those members asking questions. Just kicked them out. Where is the loyalty here? Where is the love?
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples,” Jesus says, “if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). How much are we failing here? But we’re all saved by grace, right? Jesus will give us a pass.
“Whoever does not love does not know God.” Ouch! Jesus warns us that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” If we fail to be lovingly loyal to one another, we risk hearing Jesus say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matt 7:21-23).
“ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” OR, said another way: In this is loyalty, not that we were loyal to God but that he was loyal to us and sent his Son.
Despite our sin, God is loyal to us. That is forgiveness. Forgiveness is being more loyal to the one who wronged you than to the offense.
I’m focusing on loyalty to tease out an aspect of love we don’t talk about enough. The other facets of love – like affection, kindness, care, warm fuzzies – are important. But warm fuzzies without loyalty is mere infatuation. On the other side, love is not mere duty. I know duty. I’m a dutiful person. Duty can be dry and lonely. Loyalty grows out of relationship and is an expression of love.
What John is saying to us, what Jesus has commanded us is to be loyal as God has been loyal to us. God values us above the offenses we cause him. That’s loyalty. He made a great sacrifice to undo our sinfulness. That’s loyalty.
And in return for his loyalty, he asks us to be loyal to each other. Let’s hear again part of our epistle reading with a slight modification:
Beloved, let us be loyal to one another because loyalty is from God; everyone who is loyal is born of God and knows God. Whoever is not loyal does not know God, for God is loyalty. God’s loyalty was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is loyalty, not that we were loyal to God but that he was loyal to us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God has shown us so much loyalty, we also ought to be loyal to one another. No one has ever seen God; if we are loyal to one another, God lives in us, and his loyalty is perfected in us.
There are a lot of things that demand our loyalty: work, our favorite sports teams, our nation. Our chief loyalty is to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Again, in a paraphrase, Jesus says if “you are loyal to me, you will keep my commandments.” His parting commandment was ‘be loyal to one another.’
How can we love the world if we struggle to love one another? How can we love our enemies, if we cannot show loyalty to each other?
When I say each other, I don’t just mean the people in this congregation. I mean to the Catholics down the street, and the Orthodox, and the charismatic non-denoms that sing the same chorus for 10 minutes.
How about that guy down the road with the “wrong” political signs in his yard? And the young people wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts. I’m talking about Christians here. We will never agree on everything, but we must loyally love one another. We must value those Christians different than us and be willing to sacrifice for them, following Jesus’ example. It can start with simply giving our neighbors the benefit of the doubt that they are not crazy or heretics. Loving loyalty can be daring to give dialogue a chance. That’s a huge counter-cultural risk these days, to have a conversation – not a Facebook flame war – with someone you don’t agree with.
We serve the lovingly loyal God. He calls us to emulate his khesed, to show enduring loving-kindness to those around us, especially those in the family of faith, those near and far, to both sinners and victims. This may sound like an impossible task in our sinful, selfish world. Take heart, the Holy Spirit is coming and is now here to transform our lonely, selfish hearts into the likeness of the compassionate, loyal heart of Jesus of Nazareth.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, Master Carpenter of Nazareth, on the Cross through wood and nails you wrought our full salvation: Wield well your tools in this, your workshop, that we who come to you rough-hewn may be fashioned into a truer beauty by your hand; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, world without end. Amen.