Our Lent and Easter journey has all been grounded in the truth found in the Gospel for Easter 5. In John 13:31-35 we hear Jesus tell his disciples, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 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.”
There is the hymn that says, “They’ll know we are Christians
by our love” (#429 in the hymnal). The author is Peter Scholtes who wrote it
while serving as parish priest at St. Brendan's, Chicago in the mid-60s. Sholtes
needed a song for the youth choir to use at a series of ecumenical, interracial
events. When he couldn't find one he liked; he wrote this one in a day.
The hymn begins with the reminder that, despite our
differences, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray
that our unity will one day be restored.” The words call us to “work with each
other…we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride [so] they'll
know we are Christians by our love.”
The prayer of the words of this hymn are as pertinent and
true now as they were 60 years ago in the heart of the Civil Rights movement. As
Jesus prayed for his disciples to love one another, we are called into
the lineage of those who have loved throughout the centuries.
The love of God that lives in each of us, through the power
of the Holy Spirit, is the true way that everyone recognizes that we are
Christians. Division and hatred have no room in a heart offered to God and open
to loving even the stranger and those with differing ideologies. Love stands
for the right and confronts evil, not with anger, but with love.
And that is the much harder route. In his book, Love is
the Way, Bishop Michael Curry gives concrete examples of living love. He
quotes Martin Buber who says, “Love is the responsibility for an I for a You.” Curry
urges us to treat one another as “thou’s” instead of “its”. From this
perspective, everyone is a neighbor deserving of our care.
Bishop Curry looks at “the dance of nonviolent change in the
church, country, and world” as learning to “stand and kneel at the same time.” He
means we are allowed to “stand in your own conviction,” even as we “kneel
before another’s anger” in acknowledgement of their right to their
interpretation and beliefs.
It may seem very difficult to live love in relation to those
we disagree with or fear. It cannot be done with our own strength. Jesus
promises the Holy Spirit and says God is glorified when we love one another.
Bishop Curry ends his book with encouragement. “So don’t give up on love.
Listen to it. Trust it. Give into it. Obey it.” Let the Love of God fill you
and spill out in song and action and life.
Think about the hardest part of ‘living love’ as you view a
rendition of Scholtes’ hymn.
