A New Commandment – John  13:31-35

Over the centuries, faith communities have evolved.  Christian faith communities grew from small close-knit communities to become a recognized religion comprised of millions of faith communities that have divided into more branches, denominations and sects than I can even imagine.  As these faith communities grew, the need grew for leadership and structure – both physical and administrative.  New levels of leadership were developed and responsibilities and accountability was established for each. Of course, such change came with a need for funding and so the establishment of budgets and fundraising to manage the structures and pay for the people who would be required to devote their full time to managing these communities.

Over the last number of weeks, I have been working my way through a 10-volume series on the History of the Church.  It traces the evolution of the Christian church from its beginnings to the modern day – or at least to the post second world war time.  The work is now 40 years old.  But what has become clear is that too often the church in general became more concerned with building a kingdom to rival the political kingdoms around them.  There seemed to be a strong sense that the church and the faith could not survive unless they were able to become a power that could keep the secular kings and kingdoms in their place.

At the present time I have completed reading about the church through what was called the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. I have moved through the early Renaissance period and am coming to what has come to be known as the Reformation.  And while the history has told the story of great people of faith who lived their lives teaching the faith to others and seeking the kingdom of God, it has become clear that the overall leadership of the church remained focused on building a power base and amassing material wealth.  In fact, it appears that one of the impetuses for the Reformation was the very lack of willingness on the part of the leadership of the church to address critical issues of faith and practice that were being neglected. Servant leadership – such as was being practiced in monasteries and among faith communities that were deemed heretical – was sadly absent. Now this is not meant to be a condemnation of the church of that time but a statement of fact backed up by historical documentation.  But it is interesting to note that we still have not managed to free ourselves from the path of seeking to build our own kingdoms here on earth.

The words that Jesus spoke and the actions that Jesus did as recorded in John 13 speak to us not of a faith community seeking to build a kingdom able to compete for power and wealth against the rulers of the kingdoms and countries of this world but of a faith community focused on service, compassion and care. What began as a call to follow a way – a path in life – has grown to become something so physical that it needs to be fed and maintained and protected. Maintaining our buildings and our structures makes sense when they are seen as places where faith communities can gather.   They are to be places where believers can come together to share  a common life and be encouraged. They are to be places where others can be invited to come and be strengthened and renewed.  We need to remember the cautionary parable about the man who built more barns because he could afford it only to discover that his life here was over and he would not be around to enjoy the fruits of his labour. Jesus ever encouraged the disciples and others not to invest in things that time can take away but to be invested in riches that no moth or rust can touch.  A magnificent structure is just a shell unless there is real life being lived within its walls.

Perhaps it is time that Christianity become what it was truly intended to be – not a religion but a way of living – a lifestyle.  Richard Rohr – an American Franciscan priest and founder of the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati said that Christianity is a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. But we have made it into a religion and avoided the lifestyle change itself.  To believe that Jesus is one’s personal Saviour and Lord but act warlike, greedy, racist, selfish and vain is to miss the message that Jesus shared with the disciples.  He concludes by saying that the world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.

More than once, Jesus showed the disciples how they were supposed to live with one another. The example that they were given in John 13 is that of Jesus washing their feet.  In those days you would always be prepared to wash someone’s feet as they entered your house.  Of course, this would have been carried out by a servant – if you could afford it.  This was a practice of hospitality.  But the Master of the house would never be the one to perform such a service.  Yet here is Jesus, taking the role of the servant and washing the disciples’ feet.  And while people have latched on to this action of Jesus – even to the point of making it a part of the liturgy for Maundy Thursday in Holy Week – the real point of the action seems to have gotten lost.   The real point Jesus was making was that the disciples needed to see themselves as servants and not masters.  It was about being prepared to care for the other. Now Jesus was making a further point because he did not just speak about servants and masters, he spoke about messengers and the ones who send messengers.  The disciples were to understand that Jesus spoke not on his own authority or with his own agenda but with the authority and agenda of God. Jesus was sent not to speak his own message but the message of God. Jesus was not above God but was the messenger of God. Jesus may have been seen as the Master by the disciples but he was really the messenger, the servant of God who is the true Master of all.

But how can the disciples adopt or sustain such a model of life? They can do it if they are prepared to listen to and follow what Jesus calls a new commandment.  They knew to love God; they knew to love their neighbour as themselves; but now they were commanded to love one another as Jesus had loved each one of them – even the one who would betray him. And how are the disciples to be known in the world? It will not be by the size and grandeur of their buildings or by the size and magnificence of their music programme; it will be by the love that they show for one another.  Of all the things Jesus could have commanded them to follow this had to be the one they least expected but this was the key.  This command to love one another appears often in the Scriptures and it is repeated quite often in the letters of John.  Paul even mentions the need to love one another on numerous occasions.  And I know it gets so much attention because as simple as the commandment sounds, it is the most difficult of all to fulfil.  To close, I want us to think of our life with God as a three-legged stool.  To keep our life in balance as a Christian, we need all three legs to be attached and of equal length.  The first is our love for God expressed through a willingness to heed the words of God in mind, body and spirit. The second is our love for neighbour expressed through a willingness to see the needs around us and give as we have received that our neighbour may know that we care. The third is our love for one another expressed through our willingness to work together as one body of believers.

AMEN