Easter 5 (John 13:31-35) “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Jesus loves everyone with a perfect unconditional universal love.

The love that Jesus embodies is the very nature of God. No human being can generate this love. All human beings can receive this love and share this love.

It is impossible to fulfill this teaching apart from a personal relationship with God the Father, through God the Son, by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

The love that Jesus commands is both incarnational and Trinitarian.

If you attempt to live the Christian ethic (as some would call the teachings of Jesus) apart from an ongoing active dynamic and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ you will fail. You will not only fail you will become frustrated, fearful, angry and discouraged.

What makes divine love possible is divine love.

Moses teaches that God created humanity in His image. The prophets and apostles clarify for us that the image of God is love. Jesus is the personal presence of love in the human community.

God designed human beings by the pattern of love for the purpose of love according to the plan of love.  That reality helps us to understand the broad underlying problem that confronts our species. And, that reality helps us to understand the solution God offers our species.

The means by which God addresses the interaction of the problem and the solution is personal. The Bible is the normative record of the process of divine love meeting human resistance to love. Over the course of time many people recorded in the books of the Bible their observations of how individuals, families, tribes and nations react to God, the universe and each other.

The Bible is a record of how people choose and expand broken relationships.

The pattern of human nature emerges in the record of these observations. The pattern that emerges is a pattern of separation. Separation produces pain. Pain distorts our reason, will and emotions to produce fear. Fear results in a series of defensive strategies the soul creates to protect itself and to justify itself in its choice to maintain separation.

What the Bible calls sin is one of many consequences of this process of pain- distortion- fear- defense and isolation.

As the problem is rooted in the distortion of love so the solution derives from the very origin and source of love.

That origin and source is God. The means by which God applies the solution is personal. Because it is personal it emerges in personal relationships.

The Primary relationship God offers is also the defining relationship of our species. It is our relationship with the Beloved Son of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

If there were a theme song to describe the human condition it would be something like: “looking for love in all the wrong places.”

God the Father designed our species and each of us by love, in love and for love. Our choice to separate from God results in the pain of separation from love. The original pattern is still present in the human soul. The pain of separation distorts our awareness of that pattern. In the pain of separation and the distortion that pain produces we are lost.

We are not just accidentally lost- we are willfully and spitefully lost. We cannot find our way back to love from the place of separation without help. That help is Jesus.

God finds us in Jesus in three very significant ways.

The first way is the incarnation. Jesus unites divinity with humanity so God can experience humanity and humanity can experience divinity.

The second way is the way of grace. Grace is the outpouring of unconditional infinite and eternal love. This is no vague intellectual category or metaphysical speculation. This is a real experience of divine favor in the ordinary events of our lives.

The third way is the way of personal transformation.  As we meet divine love in a personal relationship with Jesus we are transformed by divine love. Jesus is the perfect mirror to a soul lost in separation. He shows us where we are lost and in distortion. He shows us a path forward to be found. He sends the Holy Spirit to assist us in the way forward.

Divine love images divine truth. Divine truth shows us where pain and fear distort love.

The process of transformation emerges through a set of three basic relationships. The first of these is our relationship to God in Christ through worship. The second is our relationship with other people through service. The third is the relationship with the image of God we manifest from the depth of our souls through the process of observation, purification and transformation.

The reality of love is the quality of our relationships.

The threefold set of personal relationships is the key to fulfilling Jesus’ goal for our lives to love each other as he loves us.

 

Easter 4 (John 10:22-30) I have told you and you do not believe.

One of my mother’s favorite phrases was: if I have told you once I have told you a thousand times.

Our Heavenly sent prophets, saints and sages to humanity over the course of several thousand years. He gave them the call to worship which is the call to immerse our souls in infinite and eternal love. As at the beginning of our species so throughout the history of our species- people rejected the call to worship which is the call to a personal relationship with God in love.

The scriptures are a record of how people hear the call to love and instead choose wealth and power. People hear the call to a relationship and choose rules and regulations. People hear the invitation to be immersed in the infinite riches of the divine and instead ask: what is the minimum I must do to get the reward and avoid the punishment.

Dozens of prophets proclaimed the true word of God. Countless priests and rabbis taught the true word of God. If God told us once he told a thousand times. And, we never listened.

When natural disaster or war disturbed the rich and powerful they cried out to God for deliverance. They flocked to the Temple. They pledged repentance. They promised amendment of life. As soon as the disaster passed they forgot their pledge and promise. They abandoned the Temple. And, they abandoned God.

In the fullness of time, our Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son into the world to embody that love.

The evidence that Jesus is the love of God in human flesh is the works Jesus performs.

Jesus said: do not just believe me because of what I say. My works give substance to my words.

The works proceed from the place of God’s unconditional universal unmerited favor towards us. People then and people now choose not to think in that context. We choose to think in terms of minimum effort for maximum return. We think in categories of profit and loss, winners and losers.

The works proclaim the Real Presence of love. The works proclaim universal unconditional unmerited favor.

This truth, this grace, was incomprehensible to the religious people of Jesus’ time. It is equally incomprehensible to the religious and secular people of our time.

The great truth of Jesus is the Great Mystery of Jesus. Jesus is the active and personal presence of Grace to each of us and for each of us. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God inviting all of us and each of us into personal relationship with himself.

As then, so now- people (especially religious people) ask: what’s in it for me? What is my reward? How does this affect my bottom line? They miss the reality of Jesus because they do not value or desire who Jesus is. They see Jesus as a means to an end. Jesus is the beginning and the end.

Jesus is God. In his summary statement about why the religious leaders fail to understand his words and works he very simply states: The Father and I are One.

Jesus just doesn’t offer one opinion about God. Jesus does not just offer one way to think about God. Jesus does not just found one religion among many.

Jesus is God.

And that is why so many people then and now cannot and will not understand the words or works of Jesus. Despite the many times people pray for things and rewards and victory- they really don’t expect that God will answer those prayers by coming to them in person. They, we, want the result but not the Real Presence.

The plan of God is not expressed in categories of rewards and punishments, of wealth and power. The plan of God is to enter into a personal relationship with each of us in Jesus Christ. Jesus just doesn’t offer salvation as a reward for belief. He is salvation.

Today Jesus reminds us: I have told you that the Father and I are one. Do you believe this?

 

 

Easter 3 (John 21:1-19) Do you love me?

God is love.

God has many attributes. These attributes include all knowledge (omniscience) all power (omnipotence) present everywhere in space and time (omnipresence) and many others.

The Son of God surrendered all of those attributes when he came to earth and became a particular man, Jesus; at a particular place, Bethlehem; at a particular time, the first century. What the Son could not surrender was love.

The Son of God does not have love as an attribute. He is love.

The beloved apostle John wrote: God is love. He who loves is born of God. By this do we know that we are of God- that we love one another.

The confusion most if not all people experience when they hear these words is in the definition of love and the human experience of love.

Even in the first century most people experienced love in terms of sentiment and indulgence. The great gift of the Greek language in the first century is the clear and precise use of specific words to define four levels of love.

During the three years of Jesus’ public ministry most of those who followed Jesus, his disciples, experienced the first level of love. That is the level of sentiment and indulgence. It is love as infatuation. It is a very one dimensional, narrow and short lived form of love that asks the question: what’s in it for me? It also states a demand: make me happy.

When Peter vehemently asserted that he would never betray Jesus and would die for him before he would deny him- Peter was reacting from this first level of love. This is clear from Peter’s reaction when he did indeed betray Jesus and run away as Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Peter, and the others, had been infatuated with the idea that Jesus would form a new world order within the categories of politics and religion. They expected Jesus to reward them with positions of power and dominance. When Jesus did not give them what they wanted they abandoned him.

Only a few hours after the police arrested Jesus, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus. His motive was fear. Fear subverts and destroys the ordinary forms of love- especially that first level from which Peter made his pledge of loyalty and then his adamant denial.

After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days leading the disciples into a process of healing and maturation. He accomplished this by helping them experience the very essence of infinite and eternal love. He did this by giving them his time and attention. He did this by inviting them into a personal relationship with himself.

When Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? He uses the word for the highest form of love human beings can imagine. The word is agape. It means steadfast holy unconditional universal sacrificial love. It is who God is. It is who Jesus as the Son of God is.

Peter, to his credit, knows he is nowhere near that experience of divine love. He is growing into the next level of love. That level is friendship. It is also sometimes described as brotherly love. That form of love asks the question: what can we accomplish together?

Twice Jesus asks Peter- do you love me with infinite and eternal divine love? Twice Peter replies: I’m your friend. I now experience the second level of love- brotherly love. Let’s talk about what we can accomplish together.

At the third question Jesus accepts Peter for where he is. In the third question Jesus uses the word for friendship. It is a question Peter can understand and answer: yes.

Jesus met Peter where he was. Jesus accepted Peter where he was. And, Jesus revealed to Peter the meaning and purpose of his life. That meaning and purpose is agape. Jesus let Peter know he had much growth and maturation to look forward to. But, for that moment- Peter was indeed growing beyond self-indulgent sentimentality into friendship.

At that level of love, Peter wants to do something. Jesus tells him what he can do: feed my sheep. The command functions within the context of the love Peter can accept and experience. At the level of infatuation alone Peter would have heard the command to provide bread for the poor. And, that is indeed part of the command.

In the next level of love Peter is willing to accept, he also hears the command in a spiritual sense. Feed the lost sheep of the house of Israel with the bread of God’s word. It is the word spoken by Moses and the Prophets as recorded in the Bible. It is the teaching Jesus declared. And, it is the Good News that Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God in human flesh who offers all people everywhere reunification with the Father and transformation in the Holy Spirit.

It is in fact the Great Commission. It is evangelism. And, it is the first step in a long journey for Peter, the apostles, and the Church.

There were two more levels of love for Peter to accept and experience. The third level is loyalty. It is the form of love that states: to hear is to obey. Peter did not experience that level of love until he understood that Jesus is the universal Lord of Life for all people everywhere. At that level, Peter experienced the unconditional love of Jesus for humanity. At that level, Peter took the risk to enter into the wider world of the Roman Empire and share the Good News with all sorts and conditions of people.

The fourth level of love is agape. It is the form of love that prays: Thy will be done. Peter did not experience this level until he chose to return to Rome to comfort the persecuted Christians and in the process experience his own crucifixion. It is at that level that Peter enters into the Real Presence of the divine. In that place nothing is impossible and the soul is so immersed in the love of God that it begins to experience eternal life here and now regardless of the external circumstances of existence.

The lesson for us is to hear the same question and to enter into the same process.

Jesus asks all of us, each of us: do you love me? Do you love me unconditionally? Where are you in your growth and maturation in love?

Be honest as Peter was honest.

Jesus will meet you at whatever level of love you currently experience. He will give you the assignments appropriate to that level of love. And, he will assist you to grow into the next level and the next until you enter into the Real Presence of agape.

When you begin to experience agape you begin to experience eternal life here and now. Eternal life is Jesus Christ.

God is love. Jesus is that love in human flesh. Jesus asked Peter and he asks us: how are you prepared to experience love today?

 

 

 

Easter 2 (John 20:19-31) Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.

The greatest obstacle to faith is not doubt. The greatest obstacle to faith is belief. Doubt is simply one step on the journey to faith. Belief can be the detour on that journey that leads to pride and despair.

Moses and the prophets comment on this strange phenomenon. They observe that human beings have a tendency to form beliefs based in fear, self-will and pride.

Thomas believed that dead was dead. The dead do not rise. This is not an unreasonable belief. It is grounded in millennia of human experience and observation. It also ignores the clear and explicit revelation of God to Moses and the Prophets that death is not the final word for humanity.

In the books of Job, Ezekiel and Maccabees God promises that He will overcome death. The divine promise to humanity is resurrection. Resurrection is a new body, a perfect body, on a renewed Earth.

Through pride humanity chose to separate from God. In Genesis we read that the choice to separate came from the desire to be just like God. Sadly, when human beings look a God we see power and knowledge. These are just two of the many attributes of God. The reality of God’s nature is love.

Separation precedes sin. Sin is one consequence of separation. Separation from God initiates a process in the individual soul and in the common life of our species. The end result of that process is death. What keeps humanity on the path towards death is pride.

Separation from God proceeds from pride (hubris). Thomas not only believed dead was dead he announced his refusal to accept any eye witness testimony to the contrary. Pride forms the soul to assert the individual will to power that makes individual demands.

Thomas demanded proof. He would not accept evidence that he himself had not personally experienced and verified. He demanded that he should examine and touch the nail prints and scars from the crucifixion. He feared the other apostles had been deceived. He would not change his inherited beliefs without proof to his satisfaction and standards.

Jesus gave him that proof. As an apostle, Thomas needed to move beyond belief into faith. As an ambassador for Christ, Thomas and the others would face opposition, persecution and execution. Thomas would take the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus to India. There, people who rejected this Good News would kill Thomas.

Jesus gave Thomas that extra level of proof that Thomas demanded. Jesus also comments: Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.

The call to salvation is the call to reunification. The call to reunification is the call to faith. The call to faith is the invitation to enter into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

It is the personal relationship that infuses a new life into our souls. It is the personal relationship that produces the new way of living. The operating principle is love. Love invites a choice. Love never demands submission to Law or belief. Love invites a choice to enter into a relationship.

It is through our relationship with Christ that we begin to transform sin back into its original virtue. It is through our relationship with Christ that we begin to transform belief into faith.

The process starts at a moment in time. It continues forever. It is a process of yielding fear to Jesus so that he may transform fear into faith by love.

It is a process of yielding our pride to Jesus so that he may transform pride into humility through love.

It is a process of surrendering our self-will (the will to power) to Jesus in the prayer Jesus most frequently prayed: Thy will be done.

The application of faith comes from worship, the sacraments, prayer, Bible study and memorization, service to others.

As with virtually all of the disciples, Thomas was stuck in belief. He believed that dead was dead. He believed salvation was submission to the Law. He believed in the categories of the righteous and unrighteous, of rewards and punishments. Jesus helped him overcome these beliefs. And, Jesus said there is a better way. There is a blessed way.

The better way and the blessed way is the way that is open to us. It is the way of faith. It is the way of a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.