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The Sixth Sunday Of Easter
O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man's understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards thee, that we, loving thee in all things and above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Sixth Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): John 15:9-17
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 15:9-17
✛
From Slavery to Friendship
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If you find the old cobbled High Street of Hull in East Yorkshire (the city where Father John Andrew and I were born) you will find a beautiful old seventeenth century house where William Wilberforce, one of the principal movers for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire was born. When I was a boy, the house had become a museum. Among the many artefacts from the slave-trade, some extraordinarily cruel in nature, there was a drawing that Wilberforce, Clarkson and others used to show the barbarity of the transportation of slaves. It was a drawing of a slave ship with hundreds of slaves packed in the hold like cargo, shackled, and unable to move. The image haunted me as boy as it must have haunted those early abolitionists such as John Wesley who sometimes risked his life preaching against the practice.
Slavery in the many forms that it has been experienced in the past and, sadly, still experienced in the world today remains inhumane and robs individuals and sometimes whole groups of people of their freedom and their dignity; human trafficking and child labor are just two examples.
Our own Diocese of New York has declared 2018 to be a year of lamentation for its own historical involvement in slavery in the United States. Through music and the arts, literature and film, discussion and spiritual exercises, from school students to the very elderly, the Diocese is attempting to raise awareness. On May 17, in the Cathedral of St John the Divine, there will be a liturgy which will reflect on the past and the present and, in particular, focus on the ministry of Martin Luther King Jr, remembering the 50th anniversary of his assassination.
And that takes me to the heart of our Gospel reading today. Jesus is talking about his commandment of love – a love that will restore broken relationships. In New Testament Greek, there are different words for different kinds of love so, what is new about the love that Jesus is speaking about? What difference will his love make? Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” The love that Jesus shares is the same love that is intimately shared between Jesus and his Father. The incarnation brings the love of the Father directly to the center of all human relationships. This love is completely and utterly unselfish and all-embracing – breaking down barriers of division and prejudice.
And what does Jesus use as an example of the difference that kind of love makes? “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…” But the ancient Greek texts do not use the word servant, they use the word ‘slave’. It seems odd that Jesus might say ‘I do not call you slaves.’ But, then again, we are not talking about a ‘Downton Abbey’ kind of relationship here. A slave does not know what his master is doing because a slave is in an imperfect relationship with his or her master and, by necessity, with his or her neighbour. A slave has had his or her freedom taken away. And Jesus is saying that God does not treat us like slaves, even though we deserve to be treated as such because, through sin, we have marred his image in us. This is the incredible new commandment that Jesus gives his disciples; that this love – God’s love as expressed in the life of Jesus Christ – will not only change the relationships that human beings have with one another but the relationship that they have with God himself. From the First Letter of John, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1).
The quality of the love that is shared between the Father and the Son is perfect love – the love that the Father pours out towards the Son and the Son, in turn, returns to the Father so perfectly. How significant that Paul tells us that the first fruit of a life in the Spirit is love! The love that we share emanates not from the human heart but from the Trinity which is perfect relational love.
And Jesus goes on to reveal the depth of his love: “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.” Jesus came to restore the perfect relationship between humanity and the Creator and he did so by opening wide his arms of love upon the cross. His death on the cross becomes a source of forgiving love – not appeasing an angry God who treats us like slaves but a means by which the Love of the Father is poured generously into his creation and makes us his friends. Remember that wonderful definition that our dear late sister Libby Clark used to use? – ‘Grace,’ she used to say, ‘is God’s riches at Christ’s expense.’ Christ’s new commandment is a new kind of love; self-sacrificial love, an example that he gives to you and to me and that will set us free from worldly expectations of imbalance of power; a love that will affect our own relationships with our heavenly Father and, therefore, with one another.
And if we attempt to truly abide in that love of Jesus, what will be the result? Joy! Joy is the consequence of abiding in this new commandment of love. And not just joy for a moment, Jesus describes the joy as full or complete. This complete joy, again, is not like the human emotion which can so often be cheapened or short-lived. Jesus says that if we abide in his love, we will be so attuned to the Father that, filled with his Spirit we will have perfect love and complete joy.
The irony of this way of living is that it will be costly. Following the example of the Lord in humble service and sacrificial offering; in challenging injustice and inequality in our own neighbourhood. It is the love that inspired William Wilberforce and John Wesley. It is the love that inspired Martin Luther King Jr. It is the love that inspired a former vestry of this church to place the words ‘our mission is to worship, love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ’ outside the doors of our church on Fifth Avenue. My dear friends, if we are all open to abiding in the love of Jesus, then the joy emanating from this church will be so palpable it will be hard to resist.
Next week, a number of our friends will be confirmed and received into the fellowship of our Church; what a wonderful Gospel reading to hear the Sunday before such a liturgy: “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last,” says the Lord. In the collect earlier in this service we prayed “Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire.” Yes, complete joy.
Let me end with words of Bishop Charles Brent, found in our own prayer book, which takes the Gospel reading we have heard into prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.
