SERMON TITLE: "Just As I Have Loved You"

Preached by the Rev. John Lee on May 6, 2007 at DPUC

SCRIPTURE READING: John 13:31-35

13:31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.

13:32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.“

           Reader: The Gospel of the Risen Christ.

           All: Praise to you, O Christ

"Just As I Have Loved You"

One summer, I had a ten days trip to Japan. My brother-in-law who was the Korean diplomat in Japan invited me to visit him. In Japan, I realized that there were so many Shinto shrines. When I visited the shines, I saw many sheets of special paper and little wooden panels on which people wrote good wishes. Newly married people wrote their wishes for a happy life, someone who was childless wished for a child, others wished for promotion in their work places.

On the weekend, my brother-in-law took me on a city bus tour of Tokyo. The guide looked like he was well into his retirement age. The guide was so pleasant and knowledgeable, and he was gentle and humorous. One of his jokes was that Japanese people are Shinto believers when they are alive and when they die, they become Buddhists. It is true that Japanese people need Shinto shrines where they can wish for many things for their well being, and they wish to go to the Buddhist Nirvana, the world of eternal peace, when they die.

My brother-in-law explained me that the tour guide must be an executive officer of a big company. I thought that was possible but I asked him how he knew that. He said by the tour guide’s words and actions, he could tell. After my brother-in-law’s 30 years of life experience as a foreign diplomat of Korea, and having met with many business people, he had his way of being able to tell who they are.

Now I have a question to you. “How does one identify a Christian?” Can other people know that we are Christians? If so, how? I am so glad when someone asks me if I am a minister. Perhaps, some of you have experience similar to this.

Today’s question to us is: “How does one identify us as a Christian?” In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus gives us an answer. Jesus teaches the disciples to “love one another.” But “love one another” is not a new commandment. When he taught “love your neighbour”, Jesus added, “as yourself.” Now we have a new commandment with Jesus’ addition of “as I have loved you.” Through many stories in the Bible, we can tell that Jesus was concerned very much about love. In his conversation with Peter, Jesus asked him “Do you love me with God’s love?”. And the third time he used different language and asked, “Do you love me with love like friendship?”

Now he is giving a new commandment of love, “To love each other, as I have loved you.”

In his new commandment, the key is “As I have loved you.” If we do not know Jesus’ way of love, we cannot live out this commandment. If we do not understand fully of Jesus’ way of thinking and acting, we cannot live out this commandment. Jesus’ way of LOVE which he showed through his life is “empting himself for others and emptying himself for God’s will, not his will.” And we can understand this clearly when he prayed at Gethsemane, “not my will, but thy will be done.” This prayer can be said when the Spirit of God is with someone, and this prayer is the confessing a person who does self-emptying for God’s will to be done.

How can we pray this prayer? First, we need to empty ourselves. But the crucial thing is that with out help of the Holy Spirit, we cannot empty ourselves as Jesus did. Emptying ourselves means inviting God’s way in our lives. It means leaving some room in our hearts for God’s way to be done. When we do this, we can pray, “not my will, but thy will be done.” We also remember the prayer that Jesus taught us. In this prayer, Jesus prays, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Jesus’ concern in his life was about the kingdom of God, and living his life for God’s will to be done on earth.

“God’s will be done on earth” can be realized in our lives when we love each other as Jesus loved his disciples and as he loves us. And finally Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading,

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  This is what Jesus still wants us to do. “If you have love for one another with my love, with the way I have loved you, with the obedience to God, then people in the world will know that you are my disciples.” In other words, when we love with the love of Jesus Christ, we are real Christians.

This is the same meaning as “if we do not have the love of Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with Jesus Christ, with the Church of Jesus Christ.” Jesus said that his followers can be identified by their love. Not by their clothes, not by their bumper stickers, not by what part of town they live in, but by their love. I want to read again our lesson today, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  It is amazing that so many Christians miss what is absolutely central to our faith.  We are those called to love the world for which Christ died.  I want to share a story of visitors to our church.

One day a mother who had two children came to our church and asked a financial help. Another occasion, a man who moved into the city came to church for some aid. Some people tell me to check them if their stories are real before you give out, but it is obvious that they are in need. When they ask for hundreds of dollars, I say we cannot help. But when they ask for small money, I give them. Since we do not have a benevolent fund, we do it spontaneously. What I do as my normal practice is when I have money in my pocket I give and sometimes I talk to some of the church members who does generous giving for those in need. What I hear from them is, “Some day when I get better, I will come to this church.” Then I say, “You may come even now. We are here to be with people like you.” Invitation to Jesus Christ is not by the words of mouth only. The main thing is our act, the act of love, the act of the love of Jesus Christ. Another learning through this love action is that helping others is helping ourselves. Love your neighbour means love ourselves. It is because we are all children of God and we are one body. We do not see the link between you and me. But we are connected with invisible thread. We are bound with invisible rope as one body. When we go out to the world and minister to the least and the lowest in Jesus’ name, we don’t do it to save their souls, but to save our own.

When we love each other in this our community, the community of love and care, as Jesus did, it is the first step for salvation. People know that we are Christian, the disciples of Christ, by our action, by our caring, by our love, by our smile, by our blessing for peace.

On this fifth Sunday of Easter, the risen Jesus comes to us and says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”Jesus is saying to us, “Love others, as I have loved you.”

“Love others, as I have loved you.” This is the blessing for us to have a new life of the risen Christ. This is the blessing for peace on earth. This is the blessing for joy deep in our hearts. This is the blessing for Christ’s healing Spirit in me and in us. In this Spirit, we will affirm that God is with us always. Through this Spirit, we will then hear the voice of God, “You are my beloved. With you I am well pleased.” Thanks be to God.

May this love of Jesus Christ fill our hearts, fill this church and the world. Amen.

 This site is prepared by the Rev. John Young-Jung Lee,

a minister of The United Church of Canada

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Acknowledgement:

Web planning team: Marion Current, Hannah Lee

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 Art design team: Raymond NamKi Jung, Johnny Jong Hyun Jeong

Updated May 6, 2007