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An unlimited
supply of new life
Reflections on the lessons for the Second Sunday of Eastertide
By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar
Isaiah 26:2-9,19 / Psalm 118:19-24
1 John 5:1-6 / John 20:19-31
I'm up for today's set of lessons for the thirteenth year in a row. I don't have anything new to say this year about Thomas and his doubt and how the disciples were acting when Jesus first appeared to them again. If you want to hear about Thomas, call me sometime after midnight, I can preach that sermon in my sleep. But today, I'm more interested in the other lessons, especially in the seldom-heard passage from the first letter of John.
If you hang around churches fairly often you won't be surprised to learn that the first letter of John is not really a letter addressed to any particular congregation -- more of a general-audience pamphlet -- and that it's not really written by anyone named John, either. But it does work kind of like an open letter. And it uses the same themes and vocabulary and contemporary events as the Gospel according to John -- written for an audience of people who were keenly interested in the apostle John but not actually by the "beloved disciple" himself. So -- obviously -- we have come to call this not-letter by not-John the Letter of John. Go figure.
Which is a good suggestion. Because when you do go figure it's not too hard to get a glimpse of what the gospel and all three letters of John are have been trying to get across for 2000 years. "The love of God is this: That you obey God's commandments. And, surprise, you will find that obeying those commandments is not burdensome." Go figure.
Go figure out what God's real commandments are. And what obedience can be like. And what it means to "believe" that Jesus is the "Son of God".
The word "commandment" often has a pretty negative sound to it. As if anything that is a commandment is inevitably something burdensome, as if anyone would rather be doing something else than obeying it. Almost anything else. That's probably a leftover from our childhoods, from those times when our parents commanded us to stop playing and go do our chores. And, worse, for some of us it could be an inheritance from parents who might have told us "If you really loved me you'd do what I tell you to do," using a child's desire to love as a trigger for guilt. A very bad, bad mistake for any parent to make.
I don't believe that's what God intends. I don't believe it. And John's letter doesn't believe it either. God's commandments may well have concrete outcomes. Give to the poor. Battle injustice. Tell people about God's goodness. People who obey God's commandments absolutely are found doing certain things day by day. But those activities are the result of following the real commandments; they're not commandments themselves.
Follow God's commandments -- act as though you really believe that what Jesus was talking about really does express the divine destiny of the human spirit -- and you will find that your life is transformed into a whole new thing. Your feet will be planted on higher ground. And you will not only be transformed, you will find that the transformed life is (far from being a burden) actually the easiest job you've ever had. Because, for once, what you're doing and what you want to do will have come together.
It doesn't happen all at once. But when your life has been transformed by the light of God's new commandments -- the ones Jesus talked about all the time -- you will lose interest in burdens and gradually get fascinated with opportunities for liberation. And it's all about obedience to Jesus' great commandment -- to love your God and your people and yourself just as hard as you can love.
Keep trying that and it just keeps getting easier to do. You will lose interest in things that turn you away from your new job. And you will do things you never thought someone like you could do. And you will -- despite all the odds -- keep looking for more and more ways to obey your orders to be a loving person instead of an anxious and resentful one.
That's a new life. And it's better than your old one. Even if your old one was once a new life -- it may be time to trade it in on a still newer one. There is, Easter tells us, an unlimited supply of new life for you. And, John writes in his letter, there are as many worlds to conquer -- out there, and within your heart -- as there are objects for your love and ways for you to love them.
-- Mark Lewis
Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org.
Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page.
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