Changed By Love
Posted on Apr 17, 2014 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us.Amen
When I left here this past Sunday, after our morning of celebrating Palm Sunday, I left here with a feeling of excitement and joy. I left expecting this to be a very special and holy week. But so much changed for me, and for so many in this community just 30 minutes after I arrived home. On a day when Christians all over the world began the celebration of the holiest week in the church calendar and when Jews were preparing to begin their celebration of Passover, a 72 year-old man filled with hate for Jews, and African Americans and other people who are different from him, Frazier Cross, killed three innocent people. Some of us knew the people he killed. These were people who all loved Christ and were faith-filled people and people who wanted to live. Frazier Cross has lived his life based on hate and he deserves to be punished, but truth be told, how we respond to his hate will determine whether or not such hatred can and will continue.
As we heard this past Sunday, Jesus practiced his faith daily and it lead him to the cross, and his ultimate death, a death that was born out of similar ignorance and hatred than that of Frazier Cross. Jesus was despised because he was different. He did not conform to the world. He did not follow the rules that the religious leaders and political leaders had established, but instead of doing as others said he should do, he conformed to God’s rules and God’s ways of living.
As the story is told, on that night before he would be killed because of ignorance and hatred, he modeled for his disciples, and all the disciples that would follow, including all of us, how he desired us to respond to this world when the world takes action based on hatred, ignorance, bigotry, racism, and any other act of violence.
On that fate-filled night, Jesus began by showing his disciples how they were to act, by doing something no master should have had to do. Shortly after they gathered for their meal, he began to kneel before them and he washed their feet. The one they called Lord, the one they would all deny in just a few short hours, knelt down and offered an incredible act of love. He washed their feet.
And as if that was not enough, after the had done that, he told them how he wanted them to respond to this world. This world that would not only soon kill him, but eventually would kill each of them. He said to them, I want you to love this world. I want you to love it, as I have loved you. It is as if he was saying to them, “When you see me get arrested, love. When you see me being mocked and beaten, love. When you see me crucified, love. Do not respond with violence.” Violence Jesus will tell them as he is being arrested will only bring more violence.
So, why did Jesus command his disciples to respond to this violent world with love? Because when we love as Jesus loved, the world will change. On that first Good Friday, when Jesus was placed upon that cross, he responded with the greatest act of love a human being could offer his killers, he asked for them to be forgiven, because as he said, they do not know what they are doing. The world changed that day, because Jesus responded to hatred, he responded to the ignorance, he responded to the violence with love. The world was changed that day by love and tonight Jesus commands us to love as he has loved.
Love changes us. Love helps us to see each other and all of creation as God sees all of creation. God sees value in each of us and God values each of the gifts given to us and when we use our gifts to respond to this world with love then we are participants in bringing about the change that this world so desperately needs. Through the love of Christ, we can bring about God’s mission to reconcile the world.
In a world that seems to be falling apart; in a world that seems to not know how to change, Jesus says, the answer is love. Love, the greatest of all gifts, will change the world; not war, not the killing those who are different from us, or who despise us, or hurt us. No, love is the only way we can, and will bring about this change.
Now, please understand, I am not saying that Frazier Cross should not be punished. In fact, just the opposite, out of love for this world Cross must be punished, but, we have a legal system that can handle that. Our job now is to ask the loving questions that need to be asked. The question of gun control is already being raised and the debate once again is being waged. But for me, that is not the primary question we should be asking. No, the ultimate question we should be asking is the question Kathy asked at our staff meeting this week. What happened in this person’s life that caused such hatred? When we can begin to honestly seek the answers to this question and then out of love seek to change those situations that create such hatred, then God’s dream of shalom will begin.
In just a few moments, you will be invited to come to the table where you will receive another act of love. Yes, as Jesus prepared to leave his disciples, he gave them one more act that was meant to remind them that love is the only thing that can change this world, and so he offered his very body and blood, the ultimate sacrifice that changed this world forever. As you come forward this evening I pray that with each step, you remember that you, too, are loved, for in this meal, you are reminded that God forgives you and loves you. In fact, he loves each of you so much that he has granted that forgiveness that he prayed for on the cross.
So tonight, as we gather now to receive the ultimate meal of forgiveness and love, I pray that each of you finds it in your hearts to respond to this with love, because it is love that will bring about the changes this world so desperately needs.
You know this evening, we have seven youth, who have spent the last three Tuesday evenings learning about Holy Communion and tonight they will receive their first taste of the bread and the wine, and in learning what this meal is all about, they learned the most important thing they need to know about God and tonight I will end with their help in reminding us what that is. So kids, will you please stand up, come up here with me and together, let’s tell these fine folks what they need to remember as they leave here tonight.
God Loves Us!
Yes, and because God loves us, we are called to love the world, even a broken, hate-filled world. For through Christ’s love we are changed and when we offer that love to the world, the world, too, will change. Praise be to God! Amen.