Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Love

6th Sunday of Easter
May 21, 2017
John 14:15-21

            There’s something we have noticed watching Disney movies with our kids that didn’t stand out so much before, and that’s what we’ve taken to calling the Disney orphan phenomenon. Have you ever noticed how many main characters in Disney movies are orphans? Cinderella’s an orphan. Snow White’s an orphan. Bambi’s an orphan. Anna and Elsa are orphans. Lilo and her sister from Lilo and Stitch are orphans. Or, if not orphan, then at least one parent is gone or inexplicably missing, like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. There’s a few main characters that come from two parent households, like Mulan and Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, yet even in those stories, the bulk of their movie still does not involve their parents. I did a little research to find out why and there are two reasons given by Don Hahn, who was the producer of many of those movies I just mentioned.[1] First, he says that no parents or only one parent help move the story along in a 90 minute movie. These movies are about growing up and taking responsibility and it’s easier when the parents are out of the picture. The second reason is that Walt Disney’s mom died. Not when he was young, but just when he was reaching the height of his fame. Mickey Mouse, Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Snow White had just come out and he bought a house for his parents. The furnace leaked; his dad got sick, but his mom died. It sounds a little bit like Simba blaming himself for Mufasa’s death, right?
            It sounds a bit like how worried the disciples got when Jesus talked about leaving them. The whole time he’s with the disciples, he’s constantly hinting at the time when he won’t be with them. He’s only with them for a little while. You don’t fast when the bridegroom is with you, but after he leaves. This morning Jesus tells his disciples that if they love him, they will love each other as he loves them. He’s going to send them the Holy Spirit. And he’s not leaving them all alone, like orphans; he will be back. It’s more like parents leaving their kids to go to work for the day; they’ll be back at the end of the day. Jesus will be back. In the meantime, we’re to keep his commandment to love each other as he has loved us.
            Now, right there is the problem. We can love one another on our own, but we need a parent to guide us and show us the best way to do it. Otherwise, we are more prone to put conditions on our love or only love people who are like us. That’s why Jesus does NOT leave us on our own! He knows we need help. We need help loving each other in the same way Jesus loves us. That’s why Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. We’re going to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in two weeks on Pentecost Sunday, but we’ll do a preview now. The Holy Spirit is here to help us, to guide us, to remind us, to comfort us, to be our companion on the journey. Unlike so many Disney characters, we are not left on our own while we grow up and figure out responsibility. The Holy Spirit is always here with us. Nudging us, whispering to us, perhaps sometimes hitting us over the head like Rafiki whacks Simba. Or to use the example of another Disney movie, in the Disney Pixar production, Brave, Princess Merida turns her mom into a bear. Her mom is still around for the whole movie, but in the form of a bear. 

So, if you’re not feeling the help at first, then try again. And then try in a different way. Don’t get stuck in only one way of listening to God. I saw the Christian satire website, the Babylon Bee, this week has an article titled, “Man Sitting Literally Three Feet Away From Bible Asks God To Speak To Him.”[2] I think that’s called having something right in front of you and not seeing it. Have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Open the eyes of your heart, open the ears of your soul. The Holy Spirit is here. As Paul explained to the people of Athens in our Acts passage, “God isn’t far away from any of us. In God we live and move and having our being.”[3] And because God in the form of the Holy Spirit is here, we have a hope at loving each other the same way that Jesus loves each of us.[4]
            Jesus loves each of us by not making it about him. Love means it’s not about you. Loves means your focus is on the other person. You know there are some people who can make everything about them? Like saying, “Happy birthday to my favorite person!” It’s not “Happy birthday to you”; it’s “happy birthday to my…” It makes it back about me instead of the birthday person. Jesus kept the focus on the other person, though. “He loved them by giving, not by taking. He asked not that they serve him, but that they serve one another. He taught them how to love with his words. And he taught them how to love by his actions. He showed how to love by the way he lived. He showed how to love by the way he acted in the world and by the things that he did. He showed how to love by continually looking for ways to give himself to everyone else in the world. He showed how to love by giving of his very life for others.  And I’m not just talking about giving his life away on the cross. The cross was only the final act. Long before the cross, in all that he said and did, Jesus gave himself in love to almost everyone he met.”[5] Yes, almost everyone. When he sent out the 72 and gave them instructions about not taking anything with them, about healing those who were sick, he also said that if anyone didn’t welcome them, then to dust the sand off their feet and move on. Can’t give love to someone who doesn’t want it. However, the point is more that our efforts are on giving away love rather than focusing on ourselves seeking to be loved. We do a lot of striving to be loved and a lot of worrying about what if people don’t like us. It takes a mature person, someone from the end of a Disney movie, not the beginning, to say I’m done worrying about whether people will like me or get mad at me. I’m going to do what’s right. And what’s right is putting others first. Not at the detriment of yourself; I read recently a quote by the theologian Frederick Buechner, “Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wholeness. A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death.” You can’t love others if you don’t have any love to give. At the same time, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, pay mind to our life and theirs, our health and theirs, our wholeness and theirs. We are to love each other as Jesus loves us, giving away love freely to all who cross our path.
            Yes, that’s right. We are to love unconditionally. Not for what we might get out of it, not for our sake, not to use the other person, but to accept them how they are. Period. Warts and all. Differing opinions and all. Disagreements and all. That’s going to happen whenever you have more than one person. No two people are going to see eye to eye all the time. Good thing Jesus also says that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”[6] That Holy Spirit showing up, helping us to love each other so that we can move past the disagreements or work through them or work together in spite of them. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. That’s why we shouldn’t be left alone. That’s why we’re not left alone. The Holy Spirit helps us, or reminds us, to love all kinds of people, just like Jesus.
            Jesus gave himself in love to everyone he met. “He loved the poor, the oppressed, the outcasts, the sick and diseased, the mentally ill, the deformed, the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the dumb. He loved women and children. He loved those inside his faith community and those from outside it. He loved people from cultural and ethnic groups other than his own.”[7] Jesus loves the whole world. I saw a post on Facebook this week from another pastor that said, “Less sermons, more hugs.”  Let’s put less focus on telling each other what to do, less criticism, and more building up. Less judging, more hugs. More love. And after having said “less sermons,” it’s kinda hard to keep preaching. So, we’re going to move into a time of showing love to each other. Let’s take a few minutes to greet one another this morning.

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