John 14:15-21

17 May 2020, Sixth Sunday of Easter

The Rev. Todd R. Goddard, Pastor

Rush United Methodist Church

 

John 14:15-21

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

 

Prayer.

 

When I’m in the driver’s seat

I like to be as productive as possible.

I listen to podcasts.

Podcasts are recorded audio shows

Produced by people from all walks of life.

 

Listening to podcasts is how I stay up to date on topics of interest:

Technology,

Scientific research,

Economics and public policy,

Military aviation,

Religion and theology,

And, yes, even politics.

 

One of my favorite podcasts

Comes from the category of economics and public policy:

“Freakonomics”.

 

“Freakonomics” began as a non-fiction book described as:

“A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.”

I highly recommend the book “Freakonomics” and listening to the weekly podcasts.

 

In a recent episode, the show host, Steven Dubner,

Interviewed Seth Stephens-Davidowitz,

Who does extensive, in-depth research about

Human behavior from big data behind internet searches.

 

Internet searches reveals a lot.

For example:

 

Stephen J. DUBNER: Here’s a question: how many men are gay?

Seth STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: About 5 percent.

 

DUBNER: Does advertising work?

STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: Yes.

 

DUBNER: Why was American Pharoah a great racehorse?

STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: Big left ventricle.

 

DUBNER: Is the media biased?

STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: Yeah, it gives you what you want to read.

 

DUBNER: Are Freudian slips real?

STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: No.

 

DUBNER: Who cheats on their taxes?

STEPHENS-DAVIDOWITZ: Everybody who knows how to cheat.

(http://freakonomics.com/podcast/)

 

One of his most startling conclusions

Is that people lie.

People lie a lot.

He reports:

“People just are in such a habit of lying in their day-to-day life,

People lie to their partners or their kids or their parents,

That these behaviors carry over to surveys.”

Surveys cannot be trusted.

But the data behind internet searches can.

 

Lying is a problem.

Based on my own behavior and experience,

I intuitively thought that lying was a bigger problem than is publicly acknowledged.

Stephens-Davidowitz research confirms my beliefs.

 

Rarely have I spoken about this

Because I know I represent bits and pieces of data points,

And doing so amounts to a public confession.

 

Like the rest of us,

I have no defense.

Repentance is the only lifeline I cling to,

Vowing to do better day by day.

 

Lying, of course, is a violation of the Ten Commandments

Handed down by God to his subject, Moses,

Speaking “face-to-face at the mountain, out of the fire.”

– Deuteronomy 5:4

The eighth commandment reads

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

– Exodus 20:16

 

It sits right there between thou shall not steal,

And neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

 

Bearing false witness,

Dishonesty,

Lying,

Is a violation of one of God’s laws.

We might deny don’t do it,

But big data suggests otherwise.

 

…

 

Our Gospel lesson for today begins with Jesus

Teaching his disciples,

And by extension, teaching us today, that

 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

– John 14:15

 

Did you just feel the chill run down your spine?

 

“Well of course we love Jesus!

Why else would we be gathered around the computer or TV screen in worship?”

Besides, “just who are you, Pastor Todd, to suggest otherwise?”

(I am nobody, no one exceptional,

Other than a simple parish pastor

Calling my flock to abide in Jesus Christ)

 

Frankly, in the past

I had not considered the revolutionary nature of

Jesus’ farewell discourse, in general,

Or this aspect of it, in specific:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

I was content to leave these vital words of Jesus

To be confined to the funeral liturgy,

Where most of us pastors prefer to keep them safely tucked away.

 

However, this 14^th chapter of the Gospel of John

Invites us to consider more deeply

The role of commandments and law,

Of love and responsibility,

In the lives of the faithful.

 

When it comes to God’s commandments in the Bible,

An easy way to describe them is like this:

 

There are the Father’s commandments

And there are Jesus’ commandments.

 

…

 

Our maternal and paternal Father,

who created all things,

Commanded Adam not to eat of the apple.

Adam ate it anyways,

Ushering sin into the world.

 

To cleanse the world,

God sent the flood and spared Noah and his family,

Leaving the rainbow as a sign of a covenant between God and humankind

That God will never destroy humankind again.

 

Divine destruction is out;

Removed from the menu;

Taken off the table.

God loved all children and didn’t want to see them destroyed.

God was all about making a new plan.

 

To establish Lordship of all,

God made covenant with Abram,

Who the Lord renamed, Abraham,

Promising him, in short,

“I will be your God and you shall be my everlasting people.”

– see Genesis 17:5b-8

God even promised to set aside land just for Abraham’s offspring.

It’s a sweet deal.

 

Yet, our ancestors, Abraham’s offspring

Were a grumbling, backsliding sort of rascals.

Divine destruction was off the table,

(remember Noah and the rainbow?)

Instead, the Lord gave laws to Moses

To give to the people,

That all might live in peace,

Share in a just society,

And live in love and fidelity with God.

 

 

The Ten Commandments

Are deeply rooted in our Creator’s love

And desire for our best possible outcome.

 

Yes, there are many other commandments in the Old Testament.

But, let me be crystal clear:

These “lesser commandments” are priestly extrapolations

Of God’s original;

Written, edited, refined, and established over later generations.

 

You thought following the original ten was hard?

Add in an additional 611 laws.

Go with the genuine;

Stick with the original ten!

 

…

 

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus said.

 

Then, there are commands that Jesus compliments

With His Father’s original ten.

Pay close attention to these, for they are directly from the Gospels.

Weigh the commandments of Jesus carefully.

Follow the words of Jesus

As a direct command

From God’s lips to our ears.

 

First. Love the Lord, your God.

– Matthew 22:37

BOOM!

Any explanation needed?

Love God

With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Simply love God.

 

Two. Love one another.

– John 13:34

BOOM!

Not just your favorites or a selected few.
Love everyone; including your enemies.

Any explanation needed?

Love all neighbors because

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

– John 13:35

Love neighbors.

Simply love.

 

Three. As often as you eat and drink together,

Do so in the memory of Jesus.

– 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Holy Communion reminds us that Jesus

Sacrificed his life,

Gave his body and blood for us,

That we might proclaim his death, resurrection, and return.

That self-sacrifice

Is a gift of love.

Eat. Drink. Love.

Simply love.

 

Four. Make disciples of all the nations and teach every disciple everything Jesus taught.

– Matthew 28:19-20

Lead people to Jesus.

Teach people everything about Jesus.

Educate everyone about the words and actions of Jesus.

Breed new disciples of Jesus like rabbits breeding bunnies.

Crawl into the Gospels like a scientist in search of a cure, and

Don’t come out until mortal life gives way to eternal life.

Love is not an idea.

Love is Jesus.

Jesus is love.

 

…

 

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

 

Do you see a common motive developing here?

Can you see a common theme?

 

John reminds us about God’s love

In the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus:

“For God so love the world that he gave his only Son,

So that everyone who believes in him may not perish

But may have eternal life.”

– John 3:16

 

God’s punishment, drowning, death, and destruction

Is so Old Testament,

The Book of Genesis is never to be repeated again.

 

The Gospel’s lens is redirected with Jesus.

It is focused on a loving God loving the world,

Leading the world to love one another,

Seeking love in return.

 

The light of the Gospel shines on Jesus,

The Son of God,

Given as a gift,

Forgiving sins,

Calling all to believe and follow,

Rescuing all from sin and death,

Liberating all into eternal life.

Jesus is a gift of love.

Simply love.

 

…

 

If it were merely about adherence to God’s commandments

Both the Father’s and the Son’s,

Every one of us fail the righteousness test.

Remember, we all lie?

(Let’s not even think about starting a tally of our sins)

 

The former way to be made righteous

Was to be ceremoniously cleaned

and to make your animal sacrifice at the altar.

But, God is clear as a bell,

Speaking through the prophets Isaiah and Amos

Saying that the Lord has tired of our sacrifices.

God doesn’t want them.

Like corroded batteries,

They don’t work anymore.

 

It is the Apostle Paul who wraps up our Gospel for us this morning,

In his letter to the church in Rome.

 

Paul writes:

“But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ.”

– Romans 3:21-23

 

Good behavior has been replaced by Jesus Christ

As the only means of righteousness possible.

Jesus is our righteousness.

He makes our failures right.

He corrects our wrong turns and poor choices.

By his blood,

We are made clean.

 

Righteousness under the law leads to death.

We can never achieve perfection,

And the former ways of righteousness

Just don’t do it for God anymore.

 

God has given us a better way forward.

God has given us Jesus.

 

Jesus is a gift of love.

Simply love.

His love is a sign of the grace

God gives to us

Each and every day.

If you abide in God’s love, then you live in God’s grace.

 

Grace is a gift from Jesus that leads to life.

 

…

 

I think about this a lot

As I consider the trajectory of the Church, in general,

And the United Methodist church, in particular.

 

We are a people organized by the efforts of John Wesley,

An English Anglican Rector from the 17-hundreds who spearheaded

An evangelical revival in England and the American colonies.

 

In the past 300 years,

We have developed a unique Wesleyan culture.

We are Christians who have a great history of leading with grace.

Recognizing God’s love through Jesus Christ

Is the only way any of us can become

Redeemed, perfected, or made righteous.

 

We can trust in ourselves, and fail.

Or we can place our trust in Jesus Christ,

And be made righteous.

 

A church anchored by moral adherence,

Is relegated to the rusting junkyard of decline and demise.

But a church anchored by faith

In the grace of God through Jesus Christ,

Is one that places love front and center.

A church anchored by faith

Is one that is filled with life!

Spirit filled life!

Life eternal!

 

Love becomes our common motive.

Love is our DNA.

And there is nothing of this world

That can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ;

God’s gift of righteousness

To you and me.

 

Beloved, friends and neighbors.

Continue to lead with grace.

Love.

Simply love.

And leave the rest up to God.

Amen.