Fruit That Will Last

Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Pascha / Easter (RCL – Year B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at HS, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

A very old man went out one day onto the land beside his house, and began planting fruit trees. A young man walked by.
“What are you doing?” the young man asked. “Planting fruit trees,” the old man replied. “But you will not see the fruit in your lifetime,” the young man said.
“The fruit that I have enjoyed in my lifetime,” the old man answered, “has been from trees that people before me planted. So to express my gratitude for them, I am planting trees to give fruit to those who come after me.” (Celtic Parables by Robert Van De Weyer, 1997, p.59.)

This brief parable expresses the kind of attitude that God has intended to dwell in all of those who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We love because he first loved us. Because we have received so freely, we give thanks and we can now give freely to others. This is the fruit of agape love.

We all know this to be true, but you and I as a community must wrestle with this question: how do we in reality love one another? What does love look like in action?

In our Gospel readings of these Great Fifty Days, we have been reading through our Lord’s “commencement address”: his long farewell address to his students, his friends who are preparing to “graduate” to the next level. Now it is the time for them to take what they have learned and to put it into practice in real life situations.

We know now that one of them failed right away. I think we tend to forget that Judas was there with the twelve. Judas had his feet washed by our Lord, and Judas listened to these amazing words.

When Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you”, he was speaking to Judas along with the others. And I want to suggest to you that Judas intended to love our Lord in return.

None of us on this earth can ever know what was transpiring in the mind of Judas during these last days with Christ, but there is no reason for us to think that he did not intend to love the Lord by his actions. Remember: he too had left everything to follow Christ. He too had walked with Christ for 3 years and had seen all of the marvels that he had done.

When they finally entered into Jerusalem, and as the tension mounted between Jesus and the powers-that-be, it seems that Judas was so eager to see our Lord justified, that he took matters into his own hands to force a confrontation with the rulers in Jerusalem. Then, all the people would see and know how powerful the Messiah really was! No one, not even Pilate, could stop Jesus. And the money that the Sadducees gave to Judas would be part of the new king’s treasury. He was King of Israel and he would force the Romans out!

It seems clear, however, that Judas never asked Jesus about this great plan of his. He never asked Jesus about his intentions for the future. In fact, it seems that Judas did not listen to what our Lord clearly stated about his impending death on the cross.

Listening is an act of love. Asking is an act of love. To not act, and to not listen – this is betrayal. This is the betrayal of Judas.

There is, in fact, a fine line between love and betrayal. This, I believe, is the message that Judas brings to us. There is a fine line between love and betrayal, and we can cross over that line easily if we fail to heed our Master’s teaching.

Love listens to the other, without the desired answer already in mind. When we think we know better than the other, when we push forward and act on the other’s behalf, when we force our solution onto the other, then we are not acting in love. Then we betray the other. Love asks, and love listens.

There is a legend that has been told about the apostle John. It is said that the apostle only preached one sermon. In the liturgy, when the time for the sermon came, he stood up and addressed the gathered community and said, “Beloved, love one another.” When the people asked the apostle why he continued to repeat this over and over again, he answered, “As soon as you begin to do it, then we can move on to other things!”

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” It is a simple and clear and direct message. It is the command of God. But it is not so simple to do, is it? In our day and time, I wonder how we really can love one another.

Life is so busy, and we are all so fragmented, and separated. How can we really spend time listening to one another? Do we here in this congregation – do we really love one another? But how can we love one another if we don’t even know each another, if we don’t have time for one another?

I’m not speaking here of loving the members of our family. That is to be expected. Not that loving anyone is easy. But in the family, it is easy to ascribe a measure of self-serving motivation to loving our family. For instance, I have learned that if I do not show my wife the appreciation that she needs, then my life will be lacking in certain things, such as clean clothes and a good dinner, and the possibility of a back massage at the end of the day will be out of the question. To love her is God’s commandment to me, but it is also a wise act of self-preservation.

Instead, I am asking about loving those who are not part of our flesh-and-blood family, but who are sisters and brothers with us in the Body of Christ. Jesus intends for his church to be a community that loves each other with a love that is deeper and more practically real than that which is known among any other human society. And so my question is this: do we embody this? Do we love each other in the body of Christ as Christ loved us?

It is a miracle of grace that the apostles were in fact able to bear fruit that has lasted. Even since her earliest days, the foul beasts of pride, greed and envy have reared their ugly heads among the members of Christ’s body. But our Lord appointed them to go and bear fruit that will last, and that is in fact what they have done. They received abundantly, and so they planted trees that continue to bear fruit even to this day. You and I are the fruit of the apostles. Thousand of years later, we continue to cherish the words of Scripture that they treasured; we continue to break bread together as they gathered at the Lord’s table; we continue to pray together as they prayed. And by the grace of God, we continue to try and love one another as our loving Master has loved us.

Because the task for this body of Christ today remains the same as it was then. To love one another with the agape love of God, and in this way to share with the world around us a glimpse into the new life that is possible through Jesus Christ.

May God give us grace to listen to each other and so to love one another as we have been loved. Amen.