Easter 5 2013

Easter 5 2013

If you’ll remember back to Holy Week, and Maundy Thursday, you know that we just had today’s Gospel reading. This story of Jesus giving this New Commandment—in fact, we get the name Maundy from the Latin term for Law or Commandment. So, now you have something with which to “wow” your friends.

But we might wonder why, 5 Sundays into the Easter Season, we’re hearing this passage again. While I wish I could tell you why the drafters of the Lectionary designed it this way, I can’t. However, what I would say is that it’s always a good thing to hear again. It’s good to be reminded that Jesus takes this “love” business seriously enough to make it a Commandment. And considering how difficult love really is; I suppose it’s also good to remember that there are times we can still choose to love mostly just because Jesus told us to…

And maybe this is okay. Because I think admitting how tough it can be to love means that we’re willing to take it seriously ourselves. I think it intimates that in wanting to get it right, we recognize our own limits to our ability to love.

After all, love is pretty complex. While it is patient and kind; while it believes all things and hopes in all things—it also expects us to embody all of these virtues whenever we try to love.

If this weren’t enough, love also requires action. Because our identity as Christians is evidenced in the way we love; and our work as the Body of Christ means that we are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world—we can argue that love is an active thing.

However, actively engaging the Church and the world in love, I suppose, is part of why it is so difficult. Loving places us at tasks that require that we recognize ourselves, as well as try our best to see others as loveable. And if you’ve ever known any difficult people in your own lives, you know that there are times when our ability to love is nothing less than divine intervention… All the same, in calling us to action, love calls us to participation in the life of the world.

Here again we find another layer of complexity, because we can see that love calls us to relationship in our participation.

After all, love doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We cannot “love” in isolation—because it is a matter of participation in the lives of others. It’s a commitment and a responsibility.

So there is very little about love that is static, and certainly nothing about it that is simple or easy. Because even if we’re only aware of a portion of what love asks of us, we know that it still requires a lot.

But y’know, the interesting thing is that there are lot of realities in life and faith that people refuse to avoid just because they’re hard. In fact, if we did avoid difficult things, there’s a very good chance that we would never grow or thrive as individuals… More often than not, it is by our ability to meet challenges and face down difficult things that defines us…and I think the Church is no different.

Because as we consider what the call to love means, we know that it demands that we commit our whole selves to its work.

We know that love will stretch us and force us beyond our comfort zones. We know love asks us to see ourselves and others just a little more truly, and love anyway. We also know that love calls us from complacency to a place of action.

Responding to the commandment to love means moving beyond casual engagement in the life of the Church, and living into this vision that Jesus has of us undeniably embodying what it means to be a follower of his by taking our work in the Church seriously.

 And honestly, even if it is hard—who cares? Because what love also calls us to is a faithful community of people who will never let us fall down. Love, while it calls us to bold action, also promises to never leave us abandoned to do all of the hard work of loving by ourselves. More importantly, acting in love with others reminds us that we ourselves are loved. And as the beloved children of God, how can we help but share in love and its work? Because after all, love is what the Church is about and hopefully we’re about being the Church.