6 Easter/Year B

May 9, 2021

Psalm 98; 1 John 5: 1-6; John 15: 9-17

OPENING PRAYER: Faithful God, make our hearts bold with love for one another. Pour out your Spirit upon all people, that we may live your justice and sing in praise the new song of your marvelous victory. Amen. (Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Today, we continue in the gospel of John with the passages that are part of what is commonly referred to as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse…he is offering assurance and words of wisdom for those who will be left behind after His death…he is offering them words of love and hope to carry within them, in the days that will follow …he leaves them with a commandment….to love one another, as he loved them….and to keep his commandments…by abiding in His love…

In last week’s sermon, I began with an invitation for us to think about how the good news of God’s abiding love, transforms our own life, and the lives of those entrusted to us, in our families and in our communities... We were invited to go a little deeper this past week to ponder these questions…to turn our thoughts and our hearts and our bodies to the center of all creation, where love first began…with the love of God for us, and for all of creation….and to stay there for a time… to abide in the love of God, to let God abide in you…to think about what our relationship with the Risen Christ looks like when we abide in God’s love…when we put Jesus and his love, in the center of all that we say and do…in this life, this gift of a new day which has been given to us…

I shared with you that there are no shortcuts to abiding in this love…that there are no shortcuts to building and strengthening our relationships with God and one another…we must make time for it, remain with it, sit with it, breath in it, have faith in it, believe in it, look for hope in it, and trust in it…

We must be intentional about choosing to abide in His Love…opening ourselves up to grow deeper in Love with God, and with one another….

Why? Why all this talk about love? Why take the time to abide in this love? What’s it all for?

In today’s gospel reading:

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.”

Why? Why all this talk about love? Why take the time to abide in this love? What’s it all for?

Joy…is what Jesus says…his joy in you, so that your joy may be complete…so that all those whom you share this love – that they too may know this complete joy…

For some Christians today, faith is the most important dimension of a disciple’s life. For others, love is the ultimate goal toward which any truly living faith will lead. But for John, there is yet another, even higher aim, for the sake of which faith and love abide. Jesus calls it “complete joy.” This is the “for what” of God’s love and deliverance, the “for what” of salvation, the “for what” of Jesus’ ministry and therefore the ministry of the church. For joy! Faith, yes - but faith for the sake of joy. Love, yes - but love for the sake of joy. (SALT)

Love, yes….but love for the sake of Joy…for you and for all of God’s beloved children..

Jesus said: “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.”

Love, yes…but love for the sake of Joy…

Following Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he has loved us….is love for the sake of joy…complete joy…for us and for all of God’s beloved children…

Love for the sake of joy…complete joy... might look something like this:

*When we can dream and hope for a world in which no person would go hungry because our love for one another would move us to respond to the hungry people in our communities by sharing our food and resources…this is love for the sake of joy for all God’s beloved children…

*When we can truly imagine and believe in the vision of a world in which violence is not an answer…because our love for one another would move us to advocate for peace, and non-violent solutions… this is love for the sake of joy for all God’s beloved children…

*When we can envision a world in which all people, all cultures, all races, all religions could share in all the gifts of this planet equitably and reciprocally, because our love for one another, would move us to work for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being…. this is love for the sake of joy for all God’s beloved children…

*When we would open our hearts wide, and lift up our voices, to rejoice in the gifts of the elders among us, and the gifts of children, of all ages, because our love for one another, would move us to seek and serve Christ in all persons… this is love for the sake of joy for all God’s beloved children…

Love for the sake of joy…complete joy… might look like this… when we will rejoice together as we envision an end to this COVID-19 pandemic, because our love for one another, in this time and in this place, would move us to get vaccinated, wear our mask, wash our hands, maintain our distance. Love our neighbor…. this is love for the sake of joy for all God’s beloved children…

Jesus has told us everything that we need to know about the love of God…He has told us everything about what it means to love God, love our neighbor, love one another, and all of creation…

He has told us all these things so that His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be complete…

Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”

I chose you, and I commission you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last: works of love for the sake of joy.”

Jesus said: “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another…”

Love one another, yes….but love one another, for the sake of joy…complete joy...for you and for all of God’s beloved children…

Rev Julie Platson, Rector

St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church

Sitka, AK

Hymn after sermon : #456 O Love of God, how strong and true

(Ali Hosford/soloist)

1 O Love of God, how strong and true,

eternal and yet ever new;

uncomprehended and unbought,

beyond all knowledge and all thought.

2 O wide-embracing, wondrous Love,

we read thee in the sky above;

we read thee in the earth below,

in seas that swell and streams that flow.

3 We read thee best in him who came

to bear for us the cross of shame,

sent by the Father from on high,

our life to live, our death to die.

4 We read thy power to bless and save

e’en in the darkness of the grave;

still more in resurrection light

we read the fullness of thy might.