Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2009
The Gospel: John 15:9-17
Sermon: "Abide in My Love"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Gospel: Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No 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 do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."
John 15:9-17
Abide in My Love May 17, 2009
Our Gospel lessons for the last few weeks, throughout the Easter season, have been from what is called Jesus’ Farewell Discourse—basically a long lecture that Jesus gave his disciples before he was crucified. He was preparing them for the time when he would no longer be with them physically—packing lots and lots of teaching into a few chapters of our Bible. It is a beautiful piece of Scripture and as relevant to us as it was to Jesus’ first disciples. What was to them a new reality (Jesus’ resurrected and returned to heaven) has been our reality all along.
Jesus was teaching his disciples so that when he was no longer actually there with them, they would not be left adrift. This final discourse is one of the timeless tools that Jesus gave his disciples (which includes us) to live a post-resurrection pre-rapture world.
These passages have such power and such depth that every time I read them I am struck by something new. This time, what has struck me is:
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.
Abide in my love.
Abide is such an old fashioned word. I can’t remember the last time I heard it used outside church circles and crossword puzzles. My great-grandmother used to occasionally say that she “couldn’t abide” something but she’s been gone a very long time now and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else use it in conversation.
It’s a complex word—abide. What does it mean to abide in Jesus’ love? That’s a question worth asking since abiding in Jesus’ love is our way to live in the world without being dominated or overcome by it.
To me, to abide in Jesus’ love is to live in it; to surround ourselves with it; to bask and revel in it; to have the opportunity to be both gently wrapped in it and to dance in it with rejoicing. To abide in Jesus’ love is to let it be our armor and our security blanket. To abide in Jesus’ love is to let it be where we seek rest and peace as well as refreshment and renewal. To abide in Jesus’ love is to know it as the solid and unchanging base of our lives in a very transitory and changing world.
To abide in Jesus’ love is to live mindfully, always aware that we are loved by Jesus’ as much as he is loved by God the Father. Think how loved that is. God could not love Jesus anymore than he does—and Jesus loves us just as much. To abide in Jesus’ love is to remind ourselves over and over and over again, as many times a day as necessary, that Jesus loves us—always and forever. I think that old children’s song JESUS LOVES ME gets it right: Jesus loves me when I’m good, when I do the things I should; Jesus loves me when I’m bad, though it makes him very sad. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.
Yes, Jesus loves us. To abide in his love is to know that love, always.
Jesus does tell us though, that abiding in his love is more than mindfulness and assurance; he also says: If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. And then he reminds us of his principle commandment: love one another as I have loved you.
When we hear the word commandment we tend to think about rules and burdens; about demands and requirements but this commandment is not a burdensome one, but is rather as joyous opportunity. Love demanded or required is not true love; only love that is generously shared is real love, the love that Jesus gives and asks for.
And that is how we abide in his love, by joyously sharing the love that he has already given us. It’s not drudgery—it is a privilege. And just as Jesus loves us all the time, so we love one another all the time. It’s a process, a way of life, not a quantifiable result. As we abide in Jesus’ love by wrapping ourselves in it, we also share it with others, and that’s how we manage to live in our sometimes painful and often difficult world. Christ’s love, received and shared, is what gets us through; it is what makes sense of most things and lets us live with what doesn’t make sense. The love of Christ, received and shared, makes life not just bearable but joyful; not just manageable but exhilarating, not just alright, but extraordinary.
And have no doubt that Jesus’ loves you. As he said to his first disciples, so he says to us: You did not choose me but I chose you.
We are his chosen—we’re the ones he picked; we’re the ones he wants, whether we choose him back or not. Jesus chose us to love and to share that love with others. He chose us to abide in his love, with all that that means.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, he says. Abide in my love.