Sermon - April 27, 2008: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Pastor Heisley

If. Two letters that go to the heart of our theology, to the heart of our lives, to the heart of God’s love for us in Jesus the Christ. If. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If you really loved me you’d buy me a new car. If you really loved me you’d raise my allowance. If you really loved me you’d take out the garbage. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

What’s the difference between Jesus’ “if” and the multitude of “ifs” that we encounter when others are trying to manipulate us, to coerce us into doing what they want us to do, whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad? Maybe Paul, lately known as Saul, can help us understand. 

At the beginning of the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and his disciple Silas came to Thessalonica in northeastern Greece. As was Paul’s custom, he proceeded to make a scene. He went to the synagogue on each of three Sabbath days and argued with worshippers there about the scriptures. He argued and explained and proved to some, but not to all, that Jesus is the Messiah. He made many of them so angry that they went into the marketplaces and formed a mob by making alliances with ruffians, with the low lifes they found hanging out and looking for trouble. Paul became their trouble. And they set the city in an uproar. 

“If you love me…” It got so bad that there were arrests and finally Paul and Silas were sent off to another town under cover of darkness. They got there, to Beroea and went straight to the synagogue and began arguing with the teachers there. While these men were much more willing to listen, they were tracked down by the thugs from Thessalonica and Paul was sent away yet again. 

He went to Athens, a city full of happy, safe pagans. But Paul was so distressed by the idols that filled that place that he began preaching in the marketplace every day. The Epicureans and the Stoics said things like, “’What does this babbler want to say?’” He just didn’t make sense to them. They didn’t know the Hebrew background that was Paul’s background, that a promised that the Messiah would come from their midst. “If you love me…” you will babble? 

Then Paul decided to sweet talk them. “’Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’” Then Paul told them who God is, how Jesus had suffered and died and now lived for them, for even them. 

He sweet-talked them by saying “’He has given assurance to all by raising (Jesus) from the dead.’” The same Jesus whose story got Paul booted out of Jewish communities. The same Jesus that some believed died only for believing Jews. The same Jesus whose truth won Paul over on the Damascus rode. The same Jesus who said, “’If you love me, you will keep my commandments…I will not leave you orphaned…They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’” 

Keeping Jesus’ commandments, loving Jesus, is dynamic. It requires not only recognizing his power of sin and death, but also being willing to stand up for that love and to be given the boot for that love and to be ostracized for that love and to become new people for that love. It means that we are in relationship with One who does not leave us like orphans, but comes to us when we least expect him and when we most need him. 

If. If we love Jesus. If we keep his commandments. But “if” is a problematic word for Lutheran Christians. “If” seems to put at least some of the onus on us. It seems to say that we must share in the work of our redemption. The ancient teacher called Pelagius won the title “heretic” for teaching things like this. 

So how can Jesus say this “if?” At no point in today’s readings does Jesus say that he will love us, if only we will love him. Rather, he says that “if” we love HIM we will live like St. Paul, live by allowing the Holy Spirit to change us, to guide us, to shape our speech, to fill us with love for the world so that we might become agents of change, whether we find ourselves in Thessalonica or Athens or Minneapolis. 

I was at a meeting on Friday morning with a woman from Wittenberg, Germany. She spoke to a group of clergy and college professors as an emissary from the ELCA’s Institute in Wittenberg, where Blessed Martin Luther lived and worked. 

She told the story of growing up in Wittenberg under communist rule. She was baptized by a pastor who was a friend of the martyred pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and now it was time for her to be confirmed. The rest of her class at school refused. They would become members of the communist party on the day that she was blessed in the Castle Church, close by the tomb of Martin who lies in eternal rest under the pulpit there. 

“If you love me.” She said that she was always an outsider at school. But she went far in the education system and she got a good job in spite of stalwartly refusing to join the party. Now she works for the church, speaks for the church, travels for the church, loves the Lord Jesus by keeping his commandments. Her testimony is a profound one. 

“’If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’” I have been busy this week visiting many of you to talk about our capital appeal, “In Christ is our calling. In Christ may we grow.” And I hear that you are doing your very best to love Jesus, to listen to his commandments, to make this place more welcoming to those whose names the Holy Spirit is whispering, to those whose names we do not yet know. 

Our mutual challenge is to hear as clearly as possible the commandments that we seek to keep so that we might truly love the Lord who never relents in loving us. 

In particular, I want to say two things. First, many of you are planning to join me in giving sacrificially. Jesus does not say, “’If you love me, things will be easy.” But he does promise “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, (who) will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”’ 

The second thing I need to say is directed to those of you who have great means but are choosing to limit participation in the appeal. I don’t know who you are, but I’m sure you’re listening. The same Jesus whose Spirit protected St. Paul, Silas and all the others, during their times of challenge and truth telling, will protect you during your time of sacrificial giving. The same Spirit that gave Paul the dynamic power to preach in the pagan marketplace, surrounded by idols, does not speak the word “if” when it comes to loving you and leading you and encouraging you to participate in this community of faith’s mission of outreach, our mission of hope. 

I challenge you who are afraid to give sacrificially to simply love the Lord Jesus above all things. Later in the same scene from John’s gospel that I read earlier, Jesus says, “’Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.’” 

Today, at the end of this scene, he says these words to all of us. “If you love me…do not let your hearts be troubled.” Amen.

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