[This is a condensed version of  my two sermons for Easter 5 and Easter 6 (May 2 and May 9) and appears  in our June Crown under the title, “Love One Another”. – Michael]

I grew up in the 70s, and I have to say that there was this particular four-letter word I remember thinking I had heard way too much. Overused, even commercialized, it had been turned into cliche, deprived of nearly all real meaning. That word, unfortunately, was ‘love.’ Yes, I know that the generation before had meant well, starting back in the 60s and all that, but after a few years of constant use, well, many people my age were cringing whenever we saw it on a poster or heard it in a soft drink commercial. Then to top it off, the diminutive form ’luv’ got slathered all over yearbook pages and small Chevy trucks.

OK, I’ll (try to) turn off the curmudgeon switch now.

But still, I think that in our culture, we have trivial­ized and sentimentalized love to such a degree that it is sometimes difficult to talk about it in a meaningful way. Too often it is a passing thing, something we acknowledge one moment and change our minds about the next. We are used to hearing this criticism about the way we think about romance, but it is true in other respects as well. Do we really know what it means, or how important it is?

In the weeks after Easter Sunday, we have a ‘two-track’ set of readings: the Acts reading, which continues the narrative of what happens to the disciples of Jesus after the Resurrection, and the Gospel of John, in which Jesus, in effect, tells the disciples ‘what comes next,’ even though from a narrative standpoint, it is a speech that he is giving to them at the Last Supper. In both series, one of the chief questions is, “OK, the resurrection happened, now what?” For the disciples, and for us, it is the great issue; Jesus has been here, we’ve been given the good news, and now what are we going to do?

In the Gospel a couple of weeks ago (Easter 5, year C), Jesus says three things which at first seem unrelated. First, that the “Son of Man has been glorified...” and second that “...I am with you only a little longer..” and third “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” These things seem at first unconnected, but they are not. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is glorified by the Cross. The powers of the time, the Romans and the Jewish leadership have tried, not just to get rid of Jesus, but to crush and humiliate him, to prove that he is powerless. But he has, in turn, exposed them as ultimately powerless, their efforts futile. They cannot obliterate Jesus and what he represents. And what he represents is the ultimate power of love.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” he says. “Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.” This is not a sentimental love or a passing affection. This is aligning with what the Gospel of John has identified as the force behind creation: “In the beginning was the Word...” The creation itself is an act of love, which is expressed again in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The affirmation of love is the affirmation that building up is greater than destroying, that creation is more powerful than destruction, and that love is more potent than death. Power, as we so often understand it - the power to destroy, to manipulate, to humiliate, to intimidate - may seem in the short term to win. But in the end, in the long run, it is the power of creativity, compassion, community, and - yes - love, which is real and enduring.

“Love one another” is a ‘commandment,’ but not in the way we usually understand the word. “Love one another” is not a duty, or a task to perform; it is a way of life, something to take into ourselves and make part of who we are, something that becomes part of our own desires, something that can work within us and transform us. And transformed in that way, we can in turn contribute to transforming the world, in whatever capacity is appropriate to us. When Jesus later says “Those who love me keep my word,” he is not so much saying ‘if you love me, do this,’ as ‘when you love me, you will do it.’

The disciples in the Book of Acts are wrestling with this. They are attempting to carry on the work of Jesus; but first, they are attempting to take to heart Jesus’ words and example. Paul is, in many ways, still the man he was before his conversion: talented, determined, and passionate. But after his conversion, he is also a man transformed, filled with new purpose, meaning, and direction. Filled with the love of Christ, he now continues Christ’s work.

We, of course, are called to do the same: to become disciples and to grow and redirect our lives according to God’s purposes. Thus transformed, we work to transform our community, and these communities then work to transform the world. The purpose of the church is nothing other than this. At least, that is how it is supposed to work. Too often, in our culture, the church is regarded as merely a place to find individual salvation, or on the other extreme, as a kind of social service agency. But it is more than either of these things.

Our community, All Saints, has a part in all this. The purpose of our community is not to grow or perpetuate itself for its own sake. Our purpose is to be a place where people can spiritually grow and take their part in Jesus’ task of building up the Kingdom of God. Paradoxically, being such a community and serving this purpose is the surest way for our church to grow and thrive. Spiritual growth leads us to taking up Jesus’ task of building up the Kingdom of God. They are not separate things, but part of the same thing.

We all have a part to play in this. None of us is too young or too old, too important or not important enough to have a place in this. The power of love is not so immediate or so blatant as those things which we usually think of as ‘powerful.’ A single compassionate act, or a few words of wisdom or kindness, may have an impact far greater than we can know or even imagine. Likewise, our seemingly little church on Sutterville Road has a role to play: becoming a place transformed by God’s love will lead us to places we do not even know of yet. It is like a great adventure, and there isn’t anything cliché about it at all.