Love one another as I have loved you

One day, a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast to her brunette hair. She looked at her mother and asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?" Her mother replied "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then asked, "Mum, how come all of grandma's hairs are white?"
We all know that sometimes love can be a very painful thing – it doesn’t mean that we would ever swap it or prefer not to have it, but it can be difficult. In the part of John’s gospel (13:31-35) that we just heard Jesus issues a new commandment, ‘Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.’
In a sense it wasn’t a new command at all – it went right back to the scriptures we know as the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18), but what was different was that first part of it – it was no longer just love your neighbour as yourselves, but ‘as I have loved you, love one another’.
Jesus’ command to love was even deeper – he would show how much he loved people by willingly accepting the pain and humiliation of the cross. That is the love he was commanding his disciples to show – and make no mistake he wasn’t urging them or encouraging them to love – he was commanding it !
And that love could be painful at times – those early followers of Jesus would have to face persecution and constant threats to their lives. They would have to face abuse and hatred, and they were to love those who sought to hurt them. Love would be painful for them, but love was still to be their goal in everything.
And I want to think of a couple of things this morning about love which remind us of the need to follow that command of Jesus today.
The first is taken from the gospel reading. Jesus tells the disciples that how they love one another will be the mark that distinguishes them as disciples of Jesus. There’s not time to get into detail about different issues over which Christians can sometimes be divided. There are a few prominent recent examples, and the fact is that divisions will always happen between people – it’s part of our nature, but how we handle division is very important.
I think rugby is often a good analogy of life !..... In some ways ! But occasionally on a rugby field people fall out – and sometimes it can even get quite heated, but at the end one of the things that rugby prides itself on is the fact that players shake hands and go and have a drink together.
It’s not always true but it’s a good image to have – in the church I’m not suggesting that people come to blows and then go for a drink, but people can disagree and walk away as friends. Sometimes, and the papers will never show this because its not as much fun, people need to disagree – if someone feels strongly about something, it doesn’t mean that they hate each other when they talk to someone who doesn’t agree.
As a church we need to be aware that people want us to fail at times. News of a split church is much more fun for some people, than news of a church united but genuinely debating difficult issues. Once again, we’re reminded of the need to remember there are 5 gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and us – and most people won’t read the first 4.
When Jesus says love is a distinguishing mark of a Christian he is challenging his followers to work at love and to practice love even when it’s hard.
And there will be times when it is hard – in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (11:1-18) we read something of the debate that was going on in the early church between Jews and Gentiles and about who could become Christians. These were great challenges at the time – but the Holy Spirit had intervened to persuade people that the gospel was for all – and today equality remains a big issue in the church, and one that needs to be discussed – and people need to express opinions but they need to do it with love, and they need to show clearly they are doing it with love.
And so the mark of a Christian is how we love and the standard we are to aim at is to love as Jesus loves. No limits, no barriers… No choice, it is a command.
Secondly – love makes life better. Victor Hugo wrote, ‘The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.’ And there is plenty of research from all kinds of groups and people that say the same thing. We feel better if we know we are loved and if we love others.
One of the speakers at Spring Harvest was a man called Patrick Regan who runs a youth project called XLP in London working with gangs and other difficult groups of young people – and one of the common problems he encounters when he talks to some of these troubled youngsters is that they don’t feel love. Their backgrounds are often dreadful. And one of the initial tasks of XLP is to show these people that someone cares about them. Someone cares if they’ve got no safe home environment, someone cares if they feel they’ve got nothing better to do that cause trouble, someone cares whether they work at school or get a job, someone cares….
Someone once said that it’s easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbour, but the sort of love that makes life better isn’t theoretical love – it is real love. It is personal. And when we talk of Jesus we sometimes make the mistake of talking of someone who has magical powers and can do things we can never achieve… And whilst that is so true in some ways when Jesus came to live amongst us, he came as a man facing the challenges we all face, in fact much greater challenges…
He faced people who persecuted and mocked him, people who wanted to hurt him, friends who betrayed him – he probably even knew people who irritated him ! Jesus loved through it all, and continues to love – not in a theoretical way, but in a way that showed people they were loved.
What changed the life of Levi, who became Matthew and a great disciple of Jesus – it was the fact that Jesus ignored Levi’s occupation as a tax collector, someone considered corrupt at the time, and said ‘Follow Me’ ! What about Zacchaeus (Luke 19) – another tax collector shunned by many – Jesus said, ‘I’m coming to your house for tea’ and Zacchaeus’ life was changed. And it wasn’t just tax collectors in case you’re getting the wrong signal ! What about Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman (John 4) – he shouldn’t have been talking to a Samaritan, let alone a Samaritan woman ! But he did… And then there was the woman about to be stoned for adultery – Jesus stepped in and stopped the stoning, and refused to condemn her – would her life have ever been the same again – I don’ think so…
And the list can go on and on – and it’s not just people from the bible – in the centuries that have followed people’s lives have been changed by people living out the gospel message to love. Love is not a theory but a practice that means sometimes getting our hands dirty.  
Maybe some of you have come to know the gospel message through the extraordinary love of someone – and I’m sure you’ve exhibited something of the gospel as you have loved others…
The church and Christians individually have often got a bad press in recent times – it is not fair sometimes, but often its caused by silly divisions and expressions which can be picked up and twisted. I heard someone recently ask the question, ‘How has the church become associated with being against so many things when God is so clearly ‘for’ people ?’
In Luke’s gospel (6:37-38), Jesus says, ‘Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you’ – and I like this bit that follows, ‘a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.’
God provides abundantly for us. St Augustine said, ‘God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.’ Incredible words…, and the reality is even greater than the words !  – God will take care of judging and so on – what he asks of us is love – love for him, love for ourselves and as much love for other people as he shows us...
In our other reading from the Book of Revelation (21:1-6) we had the great vision of the new Jerusalem, a place of no pain or suffering, no mourning… a place where we live close to God always – it’s a vision of the future, but a vision of what can be now when people truly love each other, and know God’s love for them…
Billy Graham, the great American evangelist, sometimes uses the phrase, ‘I’ve read the last page of the bible. It’s all going to turn out all right !’
We can trust in God, because he has shown his trust in us and his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… May we trust him.., know his love in our own lives and share that love wherever we are. AMEN