John 13:31-35
I came across a news story last week
about a woman who was found living in a car in the Target parking lot. You
might wonder if that’s really even news. There are so many homeless people in
our country, so many of them living in cars – and some of these may not even
consider themselves homeless because at least they are not sleeping in the
bushes. At least they have a car and the car is their home. Yet we know it is a
far from adequate home.
It was reported in the local
newspaper, where it was considered to be newsworthy. Perhaps because it
happened in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. King of Prussia is a fairly affluent
suburban community outside Philadelphia. It has a very low rate of poverty.
Life is generally pretty good. The shopping is excellent – King of Prussia is
best known for its giant mall.
At any rate, perhaps it was news
because it was in King of Prussia. I don’t imagine things like that are seen
very often in King of Prussia. The staff at the Target store were asked by
reporters if they knew she was out there in their parking lot, apparently
living there. They said, yes, they knew. They chose not to respond – neither
calling the police nor reaching out to help. Target remained neutral.
The fact that her car was a silver
Mercedes might also have contributed to the newsworthiness of the story. She
wasn’t parked out there in a beat-up old Chevy or a Ford van. This was a pretty
nice car. One that many people would like to have if they could afford it. Yet,
here was this woman, apparently homeless, with a really nice car. Well, it was
a 12-year-old nice car, to be fair. But this still creates some cognitive
dissonance for us – it doesn’t fit the stereotype of poverty we have in our
heads. And we are not sure what to think of this situation.
This is the kind of real-life problem
we tend to encounter when we are trying to figure out how to obey Jesus’ new
commandment: to love one another just as he has loved us.
I give you a new commandment, that you
love one another, just as I have loved you.
There was actually nothing new about
love when he said that. Love was not a new concept at that time. The theology
of God’s love had been around for quite a long time. The exhortations to love
God and love one another were clearly outlined in the law of Israel. The books
of Leviticus and Deuteronomy include the commandments to love God, love the
neighbor, even love the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt,
God says.
The idea of love is nothing new. But
Jesus presents it as a new thing, and he seems to want his disciples to feel
this command with a new spirit, a new energy, a new commitment. At this moment,
Jesus is calling upon them to love with a new urgency in a new way. He is,
after all, doing a new thing.
The story we hear today is taking us
back to the days before Easter. Back to the place we were a few weeks ago, before
he was arrested, before he was crucified. It takes us back to that upper room
with Jesus and his disciples sharing a Passover meal before he is arrested.
This is where we are at this moment:
The bread has been blessed and broken.
Jesus and his disciples all reclined at the table together, relaxed, feasting.
And suddenly Jesus says, “One of you will betray me.” They all looked at one
another, not sure what to think. Jesus casually picks up the bread, he speaks
again, saying, “The one to whom I give this piece of bread, he is the one.” He
dips the bread into the wine and hands it to Judas. Judas takes the bread, eats
it. Jesus says to him, “Go, do what you have to do,” and Judas immediately
leaves.
None of the others, at this point, have
a clue. The words about betrayal are disturbing, certainly, but nothing is yet
clear to them. As Jesus continues, when Judas had gone out, he now speaks of
glory, and love. It will only be in retrospect, after quite some time has
passed, that anyone understands what he was saying here: that as I prepare to
die I leave you this legacy of love. Love one another and they will know you
are my disciples.
Love one another. And, just as we have
done with many of Jesus’ most challenging words, we have zealously overanalyzed
these words for the purpose of finding our way out of them. Surely he didn’t
really mean to love everybody. Without qualification or stipulation? That
doesn’t sound right.
To love someone, really love them – in
action, not just in theory – is hard and sometimes confusing. We don’t know how
to love all the others in the world. How do you love someone who is choosing to
live in a Mercedes Benz in the Target parking lot? I mean, is the woman in that
car included? And if so, what does that love look like?
The car was spotted by a woman on her
way into the store. She looked at the woman in the driver’s seat of the
Mercedes and instantly labeled her. A hoarder, she thought. The car was clearly
packed with stuff. But she didn’t just let it go; she contacted a friend who
was a social worker and together they approached the woman in the car.
They were afraid. They didn’t know how
the woman in the car would react to them. Would she be violent? They didn’t
know, but they knocked on the window anyway.
How do you speak to someone who has
parked her car with all her worldly belongings in the Target parking lot? A
woman who, from the smell of it, seems to have been cooped up with her two dogs
in this car for a long time? What do you say?
They said, “Can we talk to you?” she
said yes. They asked, “Are you living in your car?” She said, yes, for about
two years now. They said, we’d like to help you. Do you want help? She said
yes. Her name was Lynn.
And they learned the story about how Lynn
had gone from enjoying a solid middle-class professional life to her current
existence. Her fall had been dramatic and heartbreaking. After a series of
losses, betrayals, and health crises, she found herself left with nothing but
her car and her dogs.
It turned out that these two women had
mutual acquaintances with Lynn, a professional network of friends. So they
began reaching out to others and soon a network was woven together to help Lynn
get out of her car and back in a home. People cleaned out and repaired her car,
others helped Lynn and her dogs get cleaned and groomed, others gathered
together clothing, others prepared meals for her and got her a hotel room while
they sought permanent housing. They created a safety net for her and made sure
that she would have some security.
The fact that two years went by before
someone stepped up and loved Lynn enough to get her out of her car causes me to
realize how far we fall short of Jesus’ new commandment. This new thing he is
doing feels new to us each time we hear it, because it seems hard for us to
believe that this is what he is asking us to do.
Love one another just as I have loved
you. Love one another, and if you do, then everyone will know you are my
disciples. In this love, they will see God’s glory. Christ’s glory. And his
glory is to weave love through the brokenness of this world that killed him.
Indeed, as John writes in his
Revelation, God is doing a new thing, God is making all things new. The home of
God is among mortals, those who are mourning and crying and suffering pain of
body, mind, and soul. God does not forsake the suffering in this world. On the
contrary, it is God’s desire to be right in the midst of it – wiping away every
tear, relieving all suffering, making all things new.
The newspaper columnist David Brooks
writes frequently about the fabric of our society and how essential it is to
weave a strong fabric. Much of the common cause that used to hold us together
has been lost in recent decades, and it is easy to see the negative effects of
that loss. What he is advocating for isn’t anything new; it’s actually
something old. It’s just that when we lose it, we realize anew how much we need
it, how much we need one another. Sometimes people can’t take care of
themselves. Sometimes, we can’t pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and carry
on. Sometimes we really, truly need one another. And when we do need one
another, that is when we are closest to God. Because this is what God is: God
is community. God is care for one another. God is love.
And the world will know us as
Christians – if we love one another. What a wonderful world this would be.
Photo: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
No comments:
Post a Comment