Love over Fear: Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

It’s nearly June,
which means the wedding season is almost upon us
and couples everywhere are preparing for their special day.
There are lots of things to get ready:
invitations, fittings for dresses and suits,
lodging for guests, planning the ceremony itself,
getting decorations for the reception, flowers,
checking off all the final details.

But as crazy and chaotic as it can be,
all that preparation is done out of love.

And once again we find love at the heart of today’s gospel.

Jesus is preparing for something, too, but not a wedding.
He is preparing to leave his disciples.
This isn’t just the season for weddings.
In the church it’s the season of the Ascension and Pentecost.
Next week we will commemorate Jesus’ Ascension into heaven,
so the readings chosen for this week are meant to prepare us for that.

The conversation in today’s gospel takes place at the last supper,
and Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples
for the fact that he will be leaving.

And has he prepares them,
his first words today are about love:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word.”

We have to be very careful about how we read this,
because it can be taken one of two ways.
One way leads to fear, the other way leads to life and love.

“Whoever loves me will keep my word.”
This is similar to something Jesus says a few verses earlier
in John’s gospel:
“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

The first way to take this
is to make the second part of the statement
a proof of the first part,
almost a threat.
Is Jesus raising a threatening finger and saying,
“Whoever loves me will keep my word”?
“If you love me then prove it by keeping my commandments.”

This is the same kind of thing
we might see young newlyweds say to each other in an argument:
“If you love me, then you will let me watch football this weekend.”
“If you love me, then you will let me buy this expensive whatever-it-is.”
“If you love me, then you will prove it in this way.”

Is this what Jesus means?
“Whoever loves me will prove it by keeping my word?”

This is a trap we can easily fall into,
and it causes us to live in anxiety about our relationship with Jesus.
Taken this way, Jesus’s words to his disciples become a threat,
a statement to inspire fear.
But there is a second way of taking it,
a way that leads to peace,
the peace that Jesus also talks about in today’s gospel.

The other way of taking it
is by understanding that the first part of the statement
makes the second part possible.

“Whoever loves me will [be able to] keep my word.”
“If you love me then [you will be able to] keep my commandments.”
It’s a statement of truth, it expresses the natural result of what happens
for those who love the Lord.
“When you love me this happens.”
Instead of a proof or a threat it becomes a support,
a source of strength, a comfort.

It also changes our focus.

This is similar to spouses who say,
“If you love me, then we can withstand any difficulty or challenge.”
“If you love me, then nothing can keep us apart.”

When we take Jesus’ statement this way,
it reorients us,
it puts our focus on the positive action
of loving Jesus,
rather than on fear,
the fear of worrying about whether we are keeping his word.

What Jesus is saying is that
loving the beloved enables us to keep his commandments.
Instead of a threat it becomes a promise.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word.”

And what is that word that we will be able to keep by loving Jesus?
It’s the one single command that Jesus gave his disciples:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”

Whoever loves Jesus will be able to love others.
That is a fact.
That is the deep truth.
Our love for Jesus enables us to love everyone.

Jesus is not about fear.
He is about love.
We see this clearly,
in today’s reading from Acts
where we see the two different approaches to keeping Jesus’ word.

First, we first have a group of Christians who are speaking in threats.
“Unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved.”
They read Jesus’ words with a pointing finger:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word.”
“To be saved you must be circumcised.”
It’s the same frame of mind.
And what does this do to the community?
It upsets them and disturbs their peace of mind.

In the gospel we have Jesus promising peace,
and here in Acts we have people without any mandate from the church
who are disrupting that peace.

The apostles and elders, on the other hand,
understand what Jesus was saying.
Their relationship with Jesus,
their love for Jesus enables them to keep his word
and welcome the Gentiles
in a way that does not place burdens on them,
in a way that gives them peace.

This was a major moment in the early church,
and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
love prevailed over fear.

We see this over and over in the first centuries of the church.
During the persecutions
there were Christians who did not have the courage or strength
to face martyrdom
and who gave in to the Romans and betrayed the faith.
What would we have done in their place?
I’m not sure.
After the persecutions ended
the question came up
of whether they should be allowed back into the faith community.
There was a group who said, “No, they betrayed the faith.”
It must have been very hard for the church to wrestle with that.
But ultimately, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
the love and mercy of Jesus prevailed,
and they were eventually allowed to rejoin the community.

Today’s scripture readings remind us
that everything begins with love for Jesus.
Jesus loves us first, and he invites us into relationship with him.
That relationship is so important,
that he leaves us with the Holy Spirit
to be our companion and guide.

The better we get to know Jesus,
the more time we spend with Jesus,
the stronger our love for him will grow,
and whoever loves him will keep his word,
will draw strength from that love
in order to love others.

The key to newlyweds loving each other,
the key to loving our spouses,
our children,
our neighbors,
our world,
is to first focus on loving Jesus.