May 9, 2021 Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 15:9, 12-15, 17  (The Message)

9 "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love…12 This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you.  13 This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. 14 You are my friends when you do the things I command you. 15 I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father… 17 "But remember the root command: Love one another.

 

Jesus calls his disciples (and us) to be imaginative lovers.  We have been appointed to love, be it easy or hard; simple or extreme.

The four Chaplains on the Dorchester are an extreme example of love.

We may not be called upon for such acts of love but we are called to love, and that means to be there when we are needed and to not give up on one another.

Frederick Buechner puts it his way:

“Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most

powerless.  It is the most powerful because it alone can

conquer that final and most impregnable stronghold which

is the human heart.  It is the most powerless because it

can do nothing except by consent.  To say that love is 

God is romantic idealism.  To say that God is love is either

the last straw or the ultimate truth.  In the Christian sense,

love is not primarily an emotion but an act of will.  When 

Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to

love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy

emotional feeling.  You can as well produce a cozy emotional

feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze.  On the 

contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense

of being willing to work for their well-being even if it

means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, ...”                                                (Listening To Your Life, p.242) 

“…he is telling us to love our neighbors 

in the sense of being willing to work for 

their well-being even if it means sacrificing 

our own well-being to that end.”

      Frederick Buechner

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to love as I have been loved;

even if it means I can’t hide behind my “rights”, but have to consider the well being of others, even those I don’t like.”