Recognition of people, places, and things is a fundamental prerequisite of successful living. We count on signs to guide us. Most of us take it for granted. We move through life in various speeds and count on our powers to recognize who and what is about us. It is so simple and pervasive that we hardly notice.
The obvious is with us and yet is it so obvious? Our talents of interpretation and, yes, our prejudices are sometimes awkwardly there for all to see. We can never be quite sure how others will recognize what we do. Quickly, we can come up with example after example calling forth human distinctiveness — even eccentricity.
Even in the close relationships of our families, there are those differences in the ways we see our environment. On most occasions, we can allow for major and perhaps contradictory opinions. Sometimes a teenager will shock us and we react in bewilderment.
Humans must make for fascinating observation by aliens in outer space — that is, those aliens some declare are real and even visit planet earth! Until we can, in fact, prove they exist, maybe we should confine our energies to what we do know for sure.
Jesus was going to his Father. He was to be with his children only somewhat longer and a new sign must come among them. How like Saint John's writings to call us "little children"! It is a beautiful way to say many things. Among them is our dependency. Truthfully, we relate to people both inside and outside our churches who can't fathom the need to be dependent. Their philosophy is to go full speed ahead in daily living and not count on any strength but what can be seen and measured. Their view is one of being fully adult and mostly mature. Dependence is not only guaranteed to make you eventually fail, it is a handle for weaklings.
Isn't it intriguing how we can become so professional and self-sufficient, that our dear Lord appears to bring failure upon us? Of course, not everyone would agree with that! Doesn't God want us to succeed? Well, we are now in some murky water. My experience is that God is apt to do anything to make us grow, but the intended growth includes even greater dependency upon him. Jesus goes to his Father and, in a mysterious way, we sense a dependency on his Father. To be sure, theologians have kept such a topic for ongoing debate. They get into matters of the Trinity and its precedence — if it has one! We need not be baffled because who said the human mind has unlimited capacity?
We can only envision the love the Father has for the Son and vice versa. Maybe a more honest comment is that we pretend, as best as we can. At this interval, we might want to inquire about the relevance of such exploring in light of our discipleship, which most assuredly maintains that we are to love one another. Yes, and candor must rule. You and I can move into those deep waters of gender relationships. For fathers and sons to love one another or for men to love one another may very well produce a situation having great appeal to a certain mind-set. Gender wars are all about us and some are brazenly insistent on proving preconceived male/male or female/female relationships to establish gay/lesbian credibility.
If you and I had the opportunity to return to our fathers, would we do so? Perhaps there is a hiatus and he is deceased. The relationship just never worked out. We wished that were not the case but it is and we don't know what to do about it! Many have known only their mothers as the spiritual strength and voice in the family. Dad is gone. While it is not good riddance — because who would want to say that about one's own father — many have their questions and it has to do with their fathers. Countless men and women have ambivalent feelings. The Father/Son relationship at the spiritual and eternal level interlocked in love is one thing. At the human level it can be a vast wasteland.
Jesus lays before them a new standard for all the world to see. There is a sure sign for all of us to lay our claims, as Christians, before others. It is to be above and beyond everything the world has to offer. You and I may still be at a point in our lives where we accept this new commandment as strictly an ideal. But is that what Christ had in mind? We can talk back in well-phrased rationalizations and indicate Jesus really did not mean what he said in the strictest sense. It is one of those teachings when we say, "He meant well," but the reality is quite different. Therefore, we only attempt to live up to this lofty pattern of living.
In the profane and mundane ways of the world, we are tempted to scale back the highest and best virtue yet known to humankind. We do not ignore it really. We do place it on a shelf no one can reasonably reach. It is just beyond our fingertips as we stand on our tiptoes. Do we like it that way? Well, yes, we do, except for those who understand that Christ does not command us to do something without giving us the strength to do so. Lest we forget, our blessed Lord is conveying his marvelous message to those already within the fold. Not to practice it "within" is not likely to carry much weight "without."
The question always seems to arise in regard to whether we are claiming too much or too little. Some say all things are possible with God and others maintain it is best to go easy and not embarrass oneself! Suppose, for example, you decide to show others your love for someone in your church who has, by all measurements downright and outright, mistreated you. You tell others about the unseemly situation and point to a future moment of reconciliation. The time arrives and the household of faith watches your every movement. You kneel before the person and ask for forgiveness and healing in the context of however he/she experiences the circumstances. The person responds by saying get up and forget about it!
Can we occasionally confuse loving one another, as Christ taught us, with our unspoken need to force someone into an unhealthy plight? In other words, perhaps our practice of Christ's love is truly geared toward showing up the person and establishing our righteousness? Some may exclaim that this is an awful thought! Well, be reminded that we are to be wise as serpents — according to the Lord — and that clear pointer may make us reevaluate our intended testimonial to illustrate his decree. Note the intensity the practice of Christianity can reach! We must count on the spiritual brilliance of the Holy Spirit to provide for us. It is sometimes in our own strength that we want to be and do things that can be hurtful.
Jesus sets the example for loving. His words are without complexity. Just as he has loved us, we are to love one another. We can even reduce this to commonsense teaching — in a sense — in any secular classroom in the country. He points out, "Look, I have done what I am commanding you to do." Isn't it great instruction? You bet it is and we are not left in the dark! Our Savior and Lord is so easy to follow, at times, that we can hardly believe it is him. His eternal brilliance can be lost in our wish that he was a distant lawgiver pronouncing theological dogmatic statements. May God be merciful! Lord Jesus, why do we expend time, energy, and intelligence to misunderstand you?
The everlasting benchmark of his love was and is shown in the crucifixion. He laid down, and continues to lay down, his life for his sheep and lambs. It is a sacrificial love, radiating throughout the universe. When the devils and demons of Satan unleash their godless fury in wars and pestilence, we cling to hope in the love shown us. When things are the darkest and all hell is breaking loose, there is the man on a cross praying that the culprits may be forgiven, for they know not what they do. But let us not be one-dimensional. When our affluence and spoiled ways call into question the authenticity of his love, he pleads on his cross for our renewal!
Why is it so hard to get Christians to accept and practice Jesus' example for living? We have been at it for twenty centuries. Many areas of the world, especially the United States and Europe, have promoted the Christian faith. In the USA, we have sought by both theory and practice to make it possible for his teaching to be implemented. True, we had our share of denominational wars and the testing of the church/state relationship. Nevertheless, we must admit that regardless of what measuring device we use, we have fallen woefully short. Maybe it is just too obvious. Maybe we have had it too easy and suspect things will run just as smoothly whether we take our Lord's summons to heart or kick it under the rug for now.
Those of us who seek to be the best we can be wonder about our children and grandchildren. What one characteristic of our lives can we leave with them to enhance their lives? We know the answer is the love of Jesus Christ. Our timidity gets in the way and our lack of depth spirituality exposes us. Our gift is real love and it is evidenced in the example perpetually set before us in the holy scriptures and is given life by the Holy Spirit. Some of us are so good to our grandchildren. To ask from us is to grant almost instantaneously their request. Do we spoil them? Most of us know that answer. Just maybe they catch more of the love of Christ in us than we know.
Jesus gives us our trademark. If we have his love for one another, everyone will know we are his disciples. That is our trademark. It isn't the great preachers of yesteryear and today. It isn't memorizing the creeds. It isn't giving our money to our churches in record numbers. It isn't putting up concrete memorials, so we will be properly remembered and appreciated. Again, we are driven to admit that it is a way of life filled with love for one another, especially within the household of faith. Our Lord's love practiced in the churches always has a way of moving beyond the walls, so the world can experience our trademark.
When we begin to grow old, we sense the Lord is still pleading for us to love one another, so the world will know we are his disciples, and it seems to become more preciously piercing. It is his way of letting us know he has not given up on his children. The message is the same. We cannot alter it and he refuses to grant an abridgement. The Christ of the ages keeps right on insisting in loving firmness. Long after we are gone, it will be the same. The forms that try to contain our religion will change and often succeed. The indispensable heart of the gospel — to love one another so others will know we are his followers — will absolutely not change.
Human proclivities, being what they are, would very much like to soften or even relegate the trademark to a secondary place. Why can't we just create categories and point to them as the legitimate way to know the power of our faith? For example, those who claim to be saved and sanctified are a category unto themselves where you can always see evidence of his supreme message. Perhaps we could maintain that if we receive the Holy Eucharist every day, we have arrived, and nothing else needs to be mentioned. This love thing, as Jesus puts it, is not only a pesky and feisty command; it is written in indelible ink and refuses to be silenced by the most destructive computer virus!
Once we understand and fully accept that we have a living faith, we are on the way to coming to terms with our Lord's teaching. Saint Paul aids us in the brilliantly written passage of the way of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. He interprets, like no one else, his crucified Lord's divine indoctrination. When we are tempted to move the prime message of the ages for Christians over to the sidelines, we are blissfully beckoned to note the trademark that will just not go away. Try as we may, we are defeated by a stubborn and enduring command Christ says belongs to us. We object and evade at our own peril. It is a command we must obey so that others may know to whom we belong.
Both the Father and Son have been glorified. The earliest disciples of two thousand years ago belong to them as children. It is also just as true for you and me right now! A standard has been set in place to be permanent. The body of Christ will seek to practice it among themselves. The world will observe and survey. We hope and pray that our act of loving each other will be a divine program of salesmanship, leading to many conversions. Christ has set the example in stone and it shall neither be moved nor crushed by the forces of evil. Let the fury of hell be unleashed and witness his commandment, showing all its everlasting stability.
For centuries, the world has fixed a skeptical eye on the way it is to recognize his disciples. Sadly, his disciples have been wordy and vague about the reality of loving one another within the body of Christ. You and I have, far too often, sought a diversion or substitute for the actual working out of what he most certainly puts before us for implementation. Let's go watch baseball on television and deal with it some other time! Let's do a lot of Bible study in Psalm and Proverbs and lay aside our Master's lofty decree! Oh, we have our ways, don't we? Perhaps for a time we should remember that we are his "little children" and beg for help.
