Acts 10:34–48, 1 John 5:1–8, John 15:9–17 Panzer Liturgical Chapel
And in those 2000 years, a lot has changed. Christian Theology – the study of God, Jesus, and the living of faith – has evolved, and in that time, we have gone from being a universal Church with a single focus of caring for one another to multiple denominations, too numerous to even count. In the military chapel community, we specialize in downplaying our denominational affiliations, if we even have them. Especially overseas, we realize that our unity comes not in emphasizing our differences, but in celebrating our common ground.
For many, church is just a place, not a way of life. But a life of faith is more than just a Sunday’s work. A life of faith is a life of discipleship, of making the choice daily to follow Christ and to serve him and the world in all we do.
Jesus spent his ministry teaching important lessons. Following Jesus wasn’t about memorizing scripture or learning the progression of theological thought. Life with Christ was imitating the actions of Christ. It meant welcoming people that others rejected. It meant learning to see good in what the world judged as bad. It meant being willing to put the needs of others ahead of your own needs, even if it meant leaving your own life behind.
When I read the passages for today, I realized there were some things I especially wanted to make sure we remember.
*YOU ARE CHOSEN, AND SO IS EVERYONE ELSE: In school, it’s natural to pick sides. We tend to hang out with people who are like us, who share our interests, people we like spending time with. But it’s easy for those relationships to become exclusive – to cut off others to maintain the status quo. When that happens, we stop believing that Jesus chooses everyone. Today’s gospel lesson teaches us that friendship with one another is everything. God loved Jesus – Jesus loves us – therefore, we are called to live in and live out that love.
As we read through the gospel, we see Jesus chose people from all different walks of life. He didn’t expect them to biblical scholars or teachers. He invited everyone who heard him teach to do the hardest and easiest thing - follow him. He asked them to watch the way he honored God and treated others and to do the same themselves. In today’s lesson from John 15, we hear Jesus telling his disciples, just before his abandonment and death, that friendship with him is one of the most important gifts ever given. This friendship is defined by more than just feeling good about being a part of the Jesus crowd. Friendship with Jesus means acting and living in a particular, peculiar way.
Remember this: Jesus chose you. He chooses you today. He will choose you tomorrow. And he asks that we respond to his calling … that we say yes to living a life of faith and trading mere happiness for joy… for completeness… for being a friend to him and friends to everyone Jesus has love.
*YOU ARE CALLED TO LOVE: The writer of 1 John reminds us this whole life of faith is about love -- loving God -- loving one another. It’s about obedience in a way that is not a burden but is life-giving and life-changing. It’s easy to think about what kind of life Jesus has called us to live and think that we are giving up something in the process. But in reality, whatever we give up makes more room for God, more room for loving him, more room for serving him.
Both last and this week, we have heard Jesus instruct us to abide in him. Now “abide” is not a word we use a lot these days, so I looked up the definition. The one I found most helpful was “to remain, continue, or stay.” It’s easy to walk away from the faith. People turn their backs on the church and on Jesus because of disappointment, anger, and sadness. We get distracted from the main thing Jesus taught. Day after day, we are pulled in many directions, but by holding fast to Christ, we can have the kind of life that we are promised.
Is this easy? No, it is not. In fact, we can’t do it by ourselves. Through the power of the promised Holy Spirit, and the relationships we build with one another, we put into practice the most important lessons that Jesus taught his disciples. In those moments, the world is transformed into the one that God created for us. It’s easy to think that this is an impossible feat, but I love being proved wrong when I hear stories of how strangers will work together for the good of others without expecting anything in return.
Maybe you hear the story about a man who shoveled the walks of his elderly neighbors. One day, he woke to 3 feet of new snow, and knew it was too much for him to do alone. So, he tweeted out a time and location where he would be on the next day and asked 10 people to help out. 120 people were waiting when he got there, so they shoveled out the whole neighborhood, and then went out to lunch. Invigorated by the experience, many of them turned up the next day to spread their snow-shoveling gift into nearby neighborhoods.[i]
Or maybe you heard this one: On a bridge in northern Detroit, a man looked down at the midnight traffic on Interstate 696 and considered the fall, twenty feet down. The police came, blocked off traffic, and negotiators started trying to talk him down. While they waited, a semi-trailer driver talked police into letting him drive past the barricade and pulled up directly beneath the man. A second rig joined, then another and another, until there were 13 trucks, covering both sides of the 10-lane highway – a safety net to break the man’s fall should he decide to jump.
It took about four hours, but eventually, the man, who thought no one cared, had people escorting him off the bridge and to a hospital. Police opened the road and the 13 rigs and their drivers went on their way.[ii] These drivers didn’t know the man. The time spent waiting likely kept them from getting to their next checkpoint or delivery on time. But there was an understanding that if they could do anything to keep this man safe, that was the most important thing. When one of the truckers was asked about why they helped, he replied that they were determined to see that the man got out of there any way but down… he was not going to die today if they could keep it from happening.
In the late 1860s, before Mother's Day was an official holiday in the U.S., Methodist woman Ann Jarvis started mothering clubs that served poor and sick mothers and their children. Later Mothers' Friendship Day was founded to build peace after the Civil War ended. It was in 1908 that the first Mother’s Day celebration was held in a West Virginia church, and only six years later that it was recognized as a national observance by President Woodrow Wilson, intended as a recognition of the work of women and mothers in the efforts of peace, eradication of child labor, and to support the work of women in the economies of the world.
Sadly, commercialization followed right away, and the founding principles of the holiday are often lost today as we get caught up in gift-giving rather than lifting the invaluable contributions of women and mothers in the world. Like many other women who have no children, I have often been told that Mother’s Day is not a holiday for me… I beg to differ.
I never had any children of my own, but I don't feel like something is missing. I was 35 when I got married, and it took another six years for us to figure out if we were ready to have kids. By then, it just didn't happen, and after a lot of prayer and conversation, we decided that being a family of two was just right for us.
I realized that even though I am not a mother, it doesn’t always feel that way. I'm an overly-involved aunt, I've served four church communities, volunteered in seven local churches and four military chapels, and been a military spouse mentor for the last 26 years. Most days, it all feels like mothering... sometimes complete with poopy diapers and quarreling children.
God has called me to mother in different ways. No, I haven't carried a baby in my body, but I have celebrated the new life that comes to many families and I have wept with those whose idea of family was not realized as they expected. And in the joy and in the sorrow, I have kept a mother's heart.
I can be joyful when a preschooler asks, "Where are your kids?" I am happy with my answer, "I don't have any kids of my own... can I borrow you if I need one?" I can be confident in responding to those who express sadness that I never experienced motherhood with reassurance to them that God has fulfilled my need to mother in the lives of countless church, military, and ordinary friends who need someone to be present with them in their lives.
At our wedding, Shawn and I chose the hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" as our entrance hymn. My favorite verse has been changed in many other hymnals but in the United Methodist hymnal, the fourth verse is my favorite:
Praise to the Lord, who doth nourish thy life and restore thee, fitting thee well for the tasks that are ever before thee. Then to thy need God as a mother doth speed, spreading the wings of grace o'er thee...
Although these passages don’t always fall on Mother’s Day, I think they are a great reminder to all of us about the kind of love that parenting is – it’s about the kind of love that protects others over our own needs… it’s the greatest commandment on steroids… love your neighbor more than yourself.
The love to which God calls us is a love that is seen, lived out every day in the lives of moms and dads and kids and friends who live out their faith for everyone to see. Christian love is inclusive. The reading from Acts makes it perfectly clear – the Holy Spirit will come to all who will receive it and we are to love one another as sisters and brothers in faith.[iii]
Jesus talks about relationships, whether we call it friendship, mentorship, or parenthood – they all require action. It’s not enough to say that we are friends with each other or with him – we have to live that friendship in the things we say and do. This is almost always hard work, and sometimes it feels messy.[iv] But we still have to try. Jesus has spoken: We are called to abide in Christ and live out his love in every way we can.
So to everyone who lives out love in the world today – Happy Mothering Day!
Amen.
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan, May 2021
[i] Allison
Klein, “A Chicago Man asked for 10 Volunteers,” The Washington Post, Feb 12,
2018,
[ii] Avi
Selk, “A man nearly jumped off an overpass. 13 truckers made a safety net,” The
Washington Post, April 24, 2018.
[iii] Steve
Scott, “A Lasting Legacy of Love,” Holy Cross Lutheran Church and School
website, http://holycrosslutheran.net/sermons/a-lasting-legacy-of-love-john-15-9-17/
[iv] Melissa
Bane Sevier, “Friended,” Contemplative Viewfinder, May 5, 2015, https://melissabanesevier.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/friended/
Lovely! Thank you!
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