We get it yet again – as if
we did not hear John’s words plenty during Holy Week and this Easter
season. Love, love, love. Today’s Gospel
is the final verses from the story of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet at the
Last Supper; which we read on Maundy Thurs. After the foot washing was
complete, Jesus commissions the disciples to love one another – a servant kind
of love.
A number of weeks ago, in a
reading from John’s Gospel, we heard Jesus ask Peter, Do you love me? The word in Greek used by Jesus for “love” is agape.
Peter, do you agape me? Agape is the love word that refers to a
selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love: a divine love that comes from
God – God is love – that kind of
love. It is about doing not feeling – Agape
is an act of the will.
Peter responded to Jesus with,
Yes, Lord, you know that I love you, using
the Greek word phileo, which refers more to a
brotherly/friendship type of love. Jesus
again asked Peter, Do you agape me? Peter responds, you know Lord that I phileo you.
The third time Jesus asks, Peter do you phileo me? Peter says
again, you know I phileo you.
Jesus is trying to stretch
Peter’s understanding of love, from that of brotherly love to agape love – a will
to love. To be the leader Peter is being called to be requires to live agape love; a love the disciples don’t
figure out until after Pentecost, until then love is phileo.
The disciples live in love one another, as in thinking of each
other in the disciple group.
It takes the experience of
Resurrection and the fifty days of that time to begin to understand, just as I have loved you, you also should
love one another. This is more than foot washing; this is laying down one’s
life for the world. This is the expectation of discipleship as the early church
grows -by this (by agape) everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have agape for one another.
Love is easy enough
right? I love my spouse, my mom, my
kids, friends, church. I love God. I love running, my new pair of shoes, a good
novel, art; a cup of warm coffee while sitting in a Muskoka chair; I love a
forest trail, a white sand beach, a road to unique little places; I love
NASCAR, the Ti-cats, the Steelers and the Packers. I love lots of people, places, and things.
Love is easy! Well, for the list above, love is easy --- but, the whole list is
about feeling. I feel something about
each item on the list.
This is not the kind of
love John continually has Jesus harping on about.
Love – agape – is the kind of love that relates to the will; a will that
produces action.
At the dean’s meeting I
attended last week, the worship leader created three devotions based on a
traditional tattoo symbol that combines an anchor, a cross, and a heart. The
symbol referred to as the “Faith-hope-love tattoo” has its origin with sailors
who would have the tattoo often on their inner forearm. At work, on the high
seas, in good weather and bad, the tattoo was a visible reminder (in view of
the wearer while working: when weighing anchor, trimming the hold, furling the
sails, or swabbing the deck); a reminder of whose hands one was in. God’s, one’s crewmates, one’s loved ones; the
people, places, and things that produce feelings of faith, hope, and love. Yet,
there is more than just a feeling.
Those who have worked as a
crew: on a ship, on an oil rig, in a tree planting group, hiking Mount Everest,
in military operations, fighting fires – when circumstances get rough,
dangerous, deadly; the tattoo is one that symbolizes agape kind of love. The kind
of love where the crew will fight for the survival of the whole team, even at
their own peril.
When serving in the New
Denmark parish, spring was the time of year for grass fires, turned into raging
forest fire season. Many of the younger men were volunteer firefighters. These young men for the most part were
congenial with each other. There were,
however, family spats and work place disagreements, that had some of the men
generally avoid and act cold towards each other. In some cases, they (and their families), sat
on opposite sides of the church from each other and didn’t do any project in
the community if the other was participating. But, when the men would find
themselves at a fire, or in the forest when the wind came up and changed the
direction of the blaze, when surrounded by smoke and flame; and great danger; agape love ruled. Regular every day
relationship did not matter. Your
feeling for a person did not matter. The
firefighters had trained to leave no one behind, to save lives, to protect
fellow crew members. Firefighters had
trained -they had practiced - to put themselves on the line for others;
not thinking of who the other might be.
The who didn’t matter. This is agape love.
Agape love is not so easy. It is about one’s
will.
We get these readings over
and over from John about love because we have a hard time getting it. Probably because we can’t just “get it,” we
need to practice.
Bishop Michael in his
sermon at the dean’s meeting, said that agape
love takes practice – and referred to my marathon training. Kimber just doesn’t wake up on marathon day
and run the race, she takes months to practice.
It takes time for our wills
to be formed, reformed, formed; and it never happens overnight without
practicing actions of agape love,
which means selfless acts, sacrificial acts, acts preformed unconditionally-
just because.
Consider the application of
agape love.
What is agape love in relation to how we respect
and honour Earth Day; not just on a day, but every day?
What actions do you will
yourself to do for the earth? Do you sacrifice time by sorting garbage? Do
you drive a smaller more fuel efficient car, or have no car at all? Do you live
with the inconvenience of spending more for organic, consuming less, and living
beneath your means? These are examples of agape.
What is agape in Lunenburg Co. where the people
are living in the reality of an influx of hundreds of Syrian refugees; refugees
who are neither white nor Christian?
What actions do you will
yourself to do for Syrian, or any other, refugee? Do you sacrifice time by sitting and listening
to their stories spoken in broken English? Do you sacrifice a couple of coffees
a week to have funds to give to sponsorship projects? Do you share your living space until
appropriate housing is found? Do you
learn a few lines of Arabic to welcome Moslem brothers and sisters? These are examples of agape.
What is agape in places where First Nations
communities are fighting for treaty rights, not kept by the powers that were or
are; where land is to be returned, payment to be made?
What actions do you will
yourself to do to make right relationships with First Nation people? Do you sacrifice time to go to a pow-wow, to
visit a band for a tour, to offer time at the Mi’kmaq Friendship center? Do you
become an advocate for treaty rights? Do
you return land? These are examples of agape.
What is agape in Châteauguay, Que. where the community has learned that the children
of Karla Homolka, a convicted criminal, are in the schools with their children
and living in their neighbourhood?
What actions do you will
yourself to do towards a convicted criminal? Do you sacrifice a sense of safety and
welcome Karla to participate in school events or sit on the parent advisory
committee? Do you let your children be
friends with her kids? Do you allow sleepovers, both ways? These are examples of agape.
Yes, once again Jesus
preaches, through the words of John’s gospel, a message we have much difficulty
with.
People
of Resurrection, do you agape me? And we respond, Jesus we phileo you.
Again Jesus asks, People of Resurrection, do you agape me? And
we respond, Jesus we phileo you.
Jesus changes his tone,
meeting us where we are: people of
Resurrection, do you phileo me?
It is our turn to respond.
We could say: yes we phileo you; or
we can set our wills and in an action of conviction begin practicing true
discipleship, responding; Jesus you know
that I agape you.
And Jesus replies: as I have loved you, you also should love
one another. Go feed my lambs. In agape, go be in relationship with the earth,
with refugees, with First Nation’s communities, with convicted criminals and
their families.
Go
--- Practice and Be agape in the world!
