Life is full of conundrums; Why does Hawaii have an interstate highway?, Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?, Is there really such a thing as “Jumbo Shrimp?”. But faith, too, has its own conundrums. How can dying bring Life?, how do we receive by giving?, and how can leaders be servants?
As I prepared my sermon for Sunday, May 13, I ran into my own conundrum with the scripture text. Jesus has just commanded us to love one another in John 15. And then he follows up with these words “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Really? Only then? And if we do not keep your commandments, we are no longer your friends? So, unconditional love is not so unconditional after all? That’s the conundrum.
So here is how I resolved this puzzle in my own mind: Jesus really wants us to love one another. When we don’t, he is perhaps disappointed. When we continue to “don’t” I think it breaks his heart. And when the pattern of our lives is selecting whom we love, and whom we don’t love, and whom we hate, I think Jesus wonders “What don’t you get about ‘Love one another as I have loved you’?” And the net result is NOT that he doesn’t abide with us, but we’re choosing to not abide with him.
Walter Saunders was a junior high classmate of mine. In the vernacular of 1965, we would say he was a “special student.” In today’s tongue, “he rides the short bus to school.” Walter was ignored by most of us, and worse; he was ridiculed. He was, I think, friendless. I thought of Walter recently and my heart sank. I was embarrassed and ashamed of my recollection of how I treated this young boy. I think of what a difference I could have made by befriending him, but I never did.
So, the conundrum I place directly in your face today is this: Whom do you choose not to love…and why?…and would your reason make sense to Jesus if he asked you to explain it?
Peace
Steve