First Presbyterian Church Marianna, Florida Sunday, May 6, 2007 Sermon by Huw Christopher, Pastor Scripture Readings: Acts 11:1-18 John 13:31-35 Sermon Title: “Sharing the Victory of Jesus Through Our Love for One Another” Sermon Text: John 13:34-35: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. As you have the opportunity I would like to invite each of you to ask some of the members of our Youth Group to share with you some of their recent experiences about which I heard last Wednesday evening when I met briefly with them. The previous Wednesday night Mary Skipper our Youth Group leader had invited each of them to design his or her own T-Shirt which would show in a personal way that he or she was a Christian. She then invited them to wear them to school the next day, and to invite other people who were Christians to sign them. The group this past Wednesday night shared the number of signatures they had had on their shirts, some of them filling the whole back of the shirt. This project had arisen because someone had mentioned to Mary Skipper that she had young people in her youth group who attended Marianna High School, but that her young people did not think that there were any other Christians there. I am not sure how many other people here this morning would have the courage of our young people to wear a T-Shirt proclaiming our faith in Jesus Christ and to invite other people at our place of work, or on the streets of Marianna, or on the golf course, or at a civic club to sign it if they were Christians. Yet regardless of whether or not we proclaim it on our T-shirts or by what we wear it is clear from our Scripture readings this morning that being a Christian does take courage in this world. Jesus does not just invite us but commands us to love one another as he has loved us so that everyone may know that we are his disciples. According to John Jesus spoke these words to his disciples just a few hours before he was to show very clearly what his love for them and for all people would mean as he died on the cross. As we think about why Jesus was put to death one of the main reasons we have to say is because he had the courage to proclaim in his words and by his actions that God loves all people. He used a hated Samaritan as an example of the love that other people should have for one another. He sat down and ate meals with tax-collectors and sinners and other people whom the religious leaders of his day felt were outside the pale of God’s love. All of his words and all of his actions were seeking to show to people as we remembered in our call to confession that it is the desire of God that all people, male and female, of every race and people, might live as one community. Yet despite what people may have done to Jesus because of what he said and what he had done we are here today to celebrate the victory of Jesus. The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead is God’s glorious affirmation that what he had said and what he had done was indeed God’s will. God in Jesus Christ was seeking to call men and women back to that one community of love which had been broken by human sinfulness. He was seeking to enable people to know as our anthem reminded us that “in Christ there is no east or west, In him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” The experience of Peter and the defense he had to give of his own actions in welcoming Gentiles into the Christian Church reminds us that even for those who first shared that victory of Jesus it was not easy to accept and to affirm all that Jesus was seeking to do. Indeed without that vision speaking to him of God’s love for all people and the clear signs of the work of the Holy Spirit we have to wonder whether Peter would have been ready and courageous enough to do what he did in moving beyond the people of Israel to welcome Gentiles as members of the community of faith in Jesus Christ. The reaction to Jesus and the reaction to Peter remind us that down through the centuries to proclaim and to show forth the love of God for all people has not been easy. It takes courage to affirm that God loves all people, especially people we do not even like, and find it hard to love. The courage that Jesus needed, the courage that Peter needed is still the courage that is needed for people to be obedient to that new commandment to love other people as Jesus has loved us. It takes courage and strength to show to this broken and divided world that one community of love that God desires for all people to know and to experience. We come as guests invited to this table that here we might experience in small measure that one community of love as we celebrate and affirm the love that knows no limit and no end that God has shown for each one of us here and for the whole world in Jesus Christ. We come also that through the assurance of such love we might find the courage to show to people that we are Christians, whether it be by wearing T- shirts proclaiming our faith, or through our love for one another. We seek to show our love for other people whereby they might know we are Christians by our love because we want all people to share in that victory of Jesus as we pray and work that that one community God originally intended might become a reality once again. Let us continue to express our desire to fulfill that new commandment of Jesus and seek the courage to live as that new community of God’s love as we join together in the hymn, “We are One in the Spirit, We are One in the Lord, and as we pray that all unity may one day be restored, and that people will come to know we are Christians by our love.” Hymn of Affirmation Scholtes “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” 1