Preacher: Jessie Houff

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6 & John 13:31-35

Date: May 15, 2022

“Where I am going you cannot come”. Harsh. I’m sure they thought, “Why?? Why can’t I come? Why do you have to leave, you’re right here! Harsh parenting, you can’t come with me. Instead, let me just leave you with one last instruction:

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

LOVE one another because I’m not going to be here to guide you. My physicality will no longer be available to you. The convenience of my human form will be gone.

What I love about this interaction is Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll always be with you!” NO. He said, “You can’t come, but here’s one last instruction for you to follow, the most important one”. God did not set us up for failure. 

Let’s have some fun with analogies: How many of you have ever been or are currently a teacher? If you ever had to leave the room, did you say, “Ok kids, I have to go away for a bit, but I’ll always be with you – *heart hands*” No, you probably said, “I’m leaving, but when I come back I’m gonna KNOW what y’all did while I was gone. So keep doing your work, don’t mess around, stay focused”. You gave instruction.

How many of you are or have been parents of young children? When you left the room, you probably didn’t say, “I’ll always be with you, even though I’m not here” No, you gave instruction of some kind. “Stay here”, “be nice to your sister”, “Where does this puzzle piece go?” Keep them focused so that when you’re gone they are maintained and don’t cause a ruckus perhaps.

Jesus isn’t saying, “I’ll always be with you” and then peace out. This is his last chance to give clear-cut, verbal, direct instruction human to human. This was his last moment with his people. 

Makes me think on how we spend our days, what we say to one another. in the most extreme case I think about folks who don’t know me, folks who I think would not like me. I think about people who might like my black and brown brothers and sisters and kindred. I think about people who hate, people who are in the news for really bad reasons. When I go to my brain and think about this last instruction of love, how can you do that with all these extreme cases in the world? How can you resort back to love when you know there’s so much hatred and violence? It’s hard to think about.

Should we spend our days criticizing, demonizing, shaming people on whatever side or whatever instance or situation you’re in, how can you approach each of these situations with a heart full of love instead of a heart full of hate? It’s hard.

Sometimes I’ll say I hate something, like cilantro. I hate it. I hate, and I use that word with very good intention, cilantro. I cannot eat it. It tastes like things that are inappropriate for me to say in a church building, but I hate it. Every once in a while Renada will say, “Do you really? Do you really hate? Hate is the exact polar opposite of love. If you love me,” she says, “If you love me, then you have to have to hate cilantro as much as you love me. Is that really how you feel?”

Then I think about it and I say, “No I guess not, I don’t hate cilantro, I just can’t stomach it. I suppose there’s a difference there. There’s a complete revulsion that opposite magnetic thing where you put the two ends of magnets together and they polarize apart.

Another funny analogy there, but I also think about the word hate as we use with other people. There are days when I have said I hate so and so, President 45 for example. Do I really hate, or do I just hate the actions? Do I hate stereotypes? Do I hate the realities that are in place? Hate is very strong, the complete opposite of love, which is what we are called to do everyday. 

I would imagine we see a lot of hate everyday, or at least we hear about it or we somebody say it. “I hate this” or, “I hate that.” I wonder what would happen if we took those words, those things, processed them in our ears and in our brains and in our hearts and thought, “What’s the polar opposite of this? The polar extreme opposite of this word? How can love be introduced in this situation? 

It is a simple answer that Jesus gives us, “love one another”. Obviously that’s not always easy, but it’s the answer. We don’t have to look very far. How many times is the word “LOVE” in the bible? 

Depending on the translation, multiple. I’m sorry, I didn’t count. I didn’t read through the whole bible, but I’m sure it’s been studied. Love. That is the greatest commandment of all.

I’m going to read this passage one more time. I’d like for you to listen to is as you listen to scripture. Whatever you need to feel in your body, whatever you need to do. Listen once again.

John 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “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.”

About 17 times a day, maybe twice that, Renada will ask me if I love. her. Every time I roll my eyes, “Yes”. “Why?” “Well, because this and because that and this is how I feel when I’m around you.” Sometimes it can feel like I have to answer this question to affirm that this is indeed real. I feel like Jesus does the same thing to make sure that we’re committed, to make sure we’re here, that we see him, that we’re listening and that we don’t just love Jesus but everyone that’s around us. Everything that’s around us, every flower, every squirrel, every and, every scary hairy spider, Love, love love, love.

Which brings us to our revelation scripture today. Revelation 21. In a similar fashion I’m going to read this again. See what perks up for you.

Revelation 21:1-6

A new heaven and a new earth. I am making everything new. In this Easter season, lent, the things that have led up to Easter and the things we’ve discussed since Easter, there is a lot of talk of what needs to be renewed, what needs to be refreshed. We did a lot of talk about inward thinking and what are the things that need to be revitalized. What are the things we’re mourning, what are the things we need to say goodbye to in order to accept a revitalization within ourselves?

I am making everything new. I’m not sure what that means, because we have this world today as we see it. We have the hills and the trees and the fields and the flowers and everything. It seems like it’s always there, and yet it’s new every spring. In this area of the world, in DC we experience more or less all four seasons. Right now we’re in the spring time when every blade of grass and every flower is sprung up again. 

It’s new, but not really, but also it still is. It can be a little confusing, so when I think of what is new, what can we bring in our lives that is new? What is something that’s dying to get out? Something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the idea of spirituality and all of us have a spirit and a desperate need to cling to God and to Jesus. What is the spirit we have?

Not thinking about the capital R word, Religion, but spirit. The connection we have with God. Who is here, here in our hearts. How can we connect to that and how can we make it new? What is new? How can we define that? That’s for y’all to define, to think about. 

What is new currently or what’s begging to be new, to be revitalized, to be refreshed, to be a little bit different from last year or yesterday or since this morning? What needs to be new in your life?

We’re gonna read it one more time. I ask you to reflect on this: What is new and what’s begging to be revived?

Revelation 21:1-6