No one has greater love than this ...

Dear Friends:  Our Gospel reading for this Sunday, and the passage we will be considering during the morning message, is John 15:9-17.  At least chronologically, we are back before the Crucifixion, though just before it, and Jesus is telling His disciples some things they will need to know prior to His death and Resurrection.

 

The key verse in this passage is where Jesus says, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends".  This verse has been oft-quoted, and sometimes misunderstood.  It can truthfully be said of our military, fire, police, and rescue squads; this is what they do everyday.  However, in the 15th chapter of John, Jesus meant something a little different.

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Jesus is speaking of Himself here.  He is the one who is giving up His life for His friends!!  But here's the strange and wonderful fact about this verse -- we are His friends!  Three years with Jesus have taken the disciples from well-meaning but bumbling acquaintances to being "friends" with Jesus.  In the original Greek language, the word for "friend" here is phileo (from which we get the name "Philadelphia", the city of brotherly love).  The Gospel writer likes to interchange this word with another New Testament word for love, agape, which is a selfless and self-giving love. 

 

In short, Jesus died for us because He loves us, like friends love friends.  Imagine that, the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the Universe calls us His friends!!!  Talk about having friends in high places!  And if God is our friend, He is not going to leave us, no matter what!

 

Friendship with God also means that we have to share that friendship with others.  "I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last."  We are called to get out there, roll up our sleeves, and be a friend to the world.  The Church is the salt and light for the world.  We have to point the way to Jesus for a spiritually hungry and very violent world.  And we as individual Christians, in both small ways and great, are called to reach out to others as needed, to bear fruit, and to help others see Christ through what we say and what we do.

 

This is a big job, but this Sunday we're going to discuss it, and see what falls out.  I'll see you in Church on Sunday.

Philip the Evangelist

Dear friends:  We have focussed our attention for several months now on the Gospel readings and message, laying the foundations of the beliefs of the Anglican Christian.  Now I would like to branch out a little bit, to focus on one incident in the history of the Church, involving Philip the Evangelist.

 

The setting of the story is straightforward enough.  A high official in the Ethiopian royal court has made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Apparently, he is one of those "God-fearers" Paul talks about.  He admires the Jewish faith.  He is curious about God.  He is a true seeker.  But he cannot participate fully in Temple practices nor become a full-fledged Jew because he is a "eunuch."  Such people are looked down upon as being different.

 

Ironically, the same thing that allows him into the very presence and confidences of the Queen of Ethiopia prevents him from satisfying his thirst for God.  That is, until Philip came along.  Together they explored the Scripture, and with Philip's guidance, God converts the official.  He is baptized, and presumably takes his new-found faith to Ethiopia.  The Coptic Christian church is Ethiopia is one of the oldest in Christendom, so perhaps this official became quite the evangelist in his own right.

 

The fascinating thing about this passage is that the Holy Spirit directs everything that is going on here.  The Spirit sends Philip down the right road to meet the Ethiopian official, the Spirit opens the eyes of the official, and the Spirit directs Philip and the official down different but very God-inspired paths in life, as well as in geography.  What do you know -- God is in charge!!

 

This Sunday we want to talk about the role of the Spirit in our lives, and how the Spirit can guide us, empower us, and transform us.  Be there, or be square!!