May 12, 1996	The Community of God's Spirit	Acts 17:22-31

1 Peter 3:13-22

John 14:15-21

Today is "Mother's Day," otherwise known as "The Festival of the Christian Home." And, because our focus is upon the Christian Home, it is important that we take a serious look at what it means to be in Christian Community. And, indeed, that is what our scripture lessons for this morning are about.

Our gospel lesson for today starts out with these words of Jesus: "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Of course, all of us want to do what is right. But, the question is knowing Jesus' commands. What are they? Are they every command found in the Old and New Testaments – the Ten Commandments, and all the dietary and health rules found in the book of Leviticus? Are they the rules laid down by the early Christian church so that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians could get along with each other? In fact, I would dare to say that these rules and regulations – commandments, if you will – are not what Jesus was referring to when he said "If you love me, you will obey what I command." That's the problem when we read just little bits of the Bible at a time. We forget that there is a context to what we are reading. And the context is often very important.

What Jesus was referring to was something that he had said earlier, back in chapter 13, when he said: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you,

so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

As far as Jesus was concerned, this was the most important command that anyone could follow: To simply love one another. A person could follow all the Ten Commandments to a "t", but if they weren't loving one another, all their piety was for nothing. A person could follow all the dietary rules and regulations laid down in the book of Leviticus, but if they didn't have love for one another, all of their attempts to be perfect in the eyes of God would be useless.

We have something like that going on, today. Most Christians want to do what is right. And so we search the scriptures for guidelines for living and for success that we think may be important. And through our culture and religion we have adopted a sensibility of what is right, of what is proper, and acceptable. In other words, we've created a legalistic system of our own not much different from that of the people of Jesus' day.

The fact is that even as we celebrate Mother's Day and talk about a Festival of the Christian Home, many Christian Communities and Christian homes are in trouble, today. And it isn't for lack of following rules and regulations. The fact is that we have more rules and regulations than we can handle, these days. Rather, Christian Communities and Christian homes are in trouble, today, because we all to often lose sight of Jesus one commandment that really towers over them all: "Love one another."

The other day, while I was in the office at the church, the telephone rang. I picked up the phone and a lady said: "I would like to complain about the brochure that I found in my door about Vacation Bible School." I was somewhat startled at hearing her complaint, so I answered, "Oh?" and then I told her that I'd be happy to come and get it, if it had bothered her. She then proceeded to tell me that it was against the law for people to go through neighborhoods, putting things in people's doors. So, I told her, "Well, I guess we won't be able to do it, next year." And I thought it was too bad. Here our church is trying to do something nice for a neighborhood and for the children, for what used to be a Christian community. But now? Instead of being concerned about how to promote the love of Jesus, we have to be concerned about the law.

And, as a pastor for the past year, I have been struggling with how to get a sign out on M-50 that would point people to our church – just a little sign with the name of our church and an arrow – so that persons might discover the love of God in their lives by attending worship services in our church. But, I've been told that such a sign would be illegal – against the law. So, again, we are coerced into being more concerned about rules and regulations than we are about keeping the Command of Christ – love one another!

And yet Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Will we? Will we "love one another" even if it means breaking some of those other rules that we have come to believe are so important in our society and in our community? Can we obey Christ's command to love one another if we are always so concerned about looking good in the eyes of the world? Did you ever think that loving one another might actually involve such a struggle as this?

I was reading an article the other day about how a recent study showed that there are more civil lawsuits filed in the state of Massachusetts than in the nation of Japan. Since 1975 there has actually been a 1,000% increase in lawsuits and we spend about $30 billion a year suing each other.

The same article I was reading went on to say, "Many Christians carry a litigious attitude into their interpersonal relationships, especially toward other members in the local church. We too quickly take offense with a brother or sister, and divide the fellowship into competing sides. Conflict in the church body isn't necessarily evil," the article continued, "It just offers an opportunity for us to put Jesus' commandment into place: 'Love one another.' If we want love and acceptance and patience from others, whatever our views might be, how can we refuse such a thing for others?"

It is interesting that as Jesus told his disciples to obey his command, "Love one another," he also told them about the "Spirit of truth." The General Conference of the United Methodist Church just finished meeting about two weeks ago. There were a few interesting debates that took place. What was interesting to me was that there were those persons who in their debating based their opinions on appeals to scriptural rules and regulations. But, then, there were those who made based their arguments on what Jesus called the "Spirit of truth."

So, what is this "Spirit of truth?" If you remember, Jesus told his disciples to walk in "Spirit" and in "truth." What he meant, of course, was if your concern is loving one another, then in your decision making, in your lifestyle, in your choice of friends, how you treat people, who you exclude and who you include – all of that will be determined by love. Too often we search for data, for facts and figures that will help us make our decisions in life. We scour the scriptures for instructions on what is right or wrong, we anxiously search out the gurus on everything from child psychology to physics, we gather mountains of information to back our favorite opinion on something. But, all of that will be worthless. For more than anything else, our very being – our decisions – the paths we take – all of it must be centered on love. For it is in love that we come to the truth of God; for God, himself, is love.

Our lesson this morning from the book of Acts talks about how Paul went to the Areopagus, the religious center of the city of Athens. On his way there he noticed that there was a shrine that had been erected by the people to "The Unknown God." Evidently, the people of Athens wanted to make sure that there was a shrine for every god; that no god would be missed in their worship practices, hence the shrine to "The Unknown God." So, as Paul was meeting with these people at the Areopagus, he told them that this God who was unknown to them was none other the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who made the world and all that is in it. And Paul pointed out that this God was certainly not a god that was made of gold or silver or stone.

And, yet, how often do we strive to put God into a box and strive to put limits upon God's steadfast love and grace? The mystery of God is in the fact that we meet God in love. And we meet the very truth of God in love. And we meet life, itself, in love.

There is the story about how the great painter, Gustov Dore, was putting the final touches on the face of Christ in one of his paintings. As he worked, an admiring friend stepped quietly into the studio. She looked with bated breath upon the painting.

Dore sensed her presence and said graciously, "Pardon, madam, I did not know you were here."

She answered, "Monsieur Dore, you must love Him very much to be able to paint Him thus!"

"Love Him, madam?" exclaimed Dore, "I do love Him, but if I loved Him better I would paint Him better!"

Indeed, if we loved Christ better, we would serve Him better, and know him better, too.

Amen.