05142022 – John 13. 31-35
If you are in a liturgical church, your heart and your mind races back in time to HOLY WEEK.
You are reminded of SPY WEDNESDAY and MAUNDY THURSDAY.
You remember “that commandment to love” from there…John’s gospel.
Now, during the Season of Easter we are being reminded of it again, LEST WE FORGET. Because, it is easy enough for us to do. We NEED all the reminders we can get!
Love is one of those words that is bandied about and tossed around willy-nilly to describe our feelings about practically everything…all kinds of stuff!
I love MY CAR. I really love my NEW PHONE. I loved that MOVIE. I love my new HAIRCUT. I love that ONE COMMERCIAL on TV that always makes me smile. I loved your POST on Facebook, the other day.
The problem is that we use it freely to describe “THIINGS” and “PLACES” but when it comes to PEOPLE it is NOT that often that we even USE or SAY, the word.
A guy was driving down the “stadium freeway” one morning in rush hour traffic and he noticed THE CAR in front of him starting to weave back and forth.
Trying to pass it, he got EVEN WITH IT and looked over to see a woman APPLYING her MAKE-UP with one hand and trying to steer with the other.
He was shocked. ANGERED actually. He thought, ‘How dare she put others at risk with her carelessness. She should just stick to PAYING ATTENTION to the road!
About that time, she veered toward his car and he got SO SHOOK UP that he DROPPED HIS CELL PHONE INTO HIS CUP OF COFFEE.
Boy was he mad AT HER. You should have heard WHAT HE SAID under his breath. We love STUFF. BUT people-NOT SO MUCH!
For the record, that is NOT what JESUS TAUGHT!
He specifically said, “Love one another!”
In 1 CORINTHIANS 10:24, it says, Nobody should seek HIS OWN GOOD, but rather, the GOOD of OTHERS.’
NOT ONLY should we always be thinking OF OTHERS in a positive way, if possible, we should always be ACTING, on the BEHALF OF OTHERS.
1 PETER 4:8 tells us, ‘Above all, love each other DEEPLY, because love covers a WHOLE multitude of sins.’
A couple had a marriage that SEEMED to be getting worse with each passing day.
The wife FINALLYsaw a lawyer and said she wanted a divorce.
But she told the lawyer that since her husband had hurt her SO MANY TIMES, she wanted to really STICK IT TO HIM and make him HURT “REALLY BAD” before she divorced him.
The lawyer, told her to go home and start PRETENDING to love him.
He told her to do things for him as if she WERE “totally in love with him.”
He said if she did this for THREE MONTHS, he would let down his guard and then she could SPRING THE DIVORCE on him and he would be TOTALLY DEVASTATED.
So, the lady TOOK HIS ADVICE and went home and for three months she did everything she could to convince HER HUSBAND that SHE LOVED HIM.
Three months later, she called the attorney. He asked if she STILL WANTED the divorce and she said that she didn’t, because she had fallen MADLY IN LOVE with HER HUSBAND all over again.
Love each other DEEPLY, it covers a WHOLE multitude of sins.
Love IS NOT like mildew; it will not grow if it is left UNUSED.
The more we USE IT – THE STRONGER it grows.
IF you have ever been around a neo-natal unit, you will notice what they tell the parents and other relatives of these tiny babies who are “PREEMIES OR OTHERWISE VERY SICK” and are hooked up with every kind of CONCEIVABLE tube possible.
They tell these people to “visit daily” and “regularly.”
They tell the families to TOUCH the babies’ arms and abdomens and legs with THEIR FINGERTIPS. The families are also told to SOFTLY and GENTLY say, “I LOVE YOU” to those babies who are fighting for their lives.
It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to voice the words ‘I love you’ to a helpless LITTLE BABY without FEELING THOSE WORDS DEEP INSIDE. And the more you FEEL the love in your heart FOR THEM, the more the baby will FEEL that in your SOFT GENTLE TOUCH.
We are called to “love one another,” we ARE NOT called “to love our stuff.”
Shouldn’t “the real emphasis” be on PEOPLE and NOT on OBJECTS?
Something tells me, Jesus would say, “YES!”
So, when’s the last time you ACTUALLY said those words to another human being? You gotta do it, while there is still time.
Amen.