They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love
11/19/14 
Debra P. Given
"They will know we are Christians by our love." So goes the song sung by American Christians in the 1960Ўs and '70's. But for an outsider looking in, it may not always seem like Christians love each other. Years ago the Presbyterian Church divided over the issue of slavery. Now everyone agrees that slavery is wrong. But we still disagree about many other issues including abortion, gay rights, and health care, not to mention theological issues such as how to interpret the Bible and the nature of Christ. Do we have to agree with each other to love each other?
In John 13:31-35 Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another. He said, "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." But this was no sentimental love. Jesus was not telling people to "be nice," or have warm feelings toward everyone. These were Jesus' parting words to his disciples before he was arrested and killed. He spoke them during the Last Supper, right after Judas left the group to betray Jesus, and right before Jesus predicted that Peter also would deny him. In the middle of those two encounters of betrayal and denial, Jesus said, "Love one another." Love even someone like Peter, one of your closest friends, who breaks his promise to you and denies that he ever knew you. Love even someone like Judas, who would share a meal with you, and the same night carry out a plot to kill you. Did Jesus really mean we should love people like that? "Just as I have loved you, (all of you), so you also should love one another." How did Jesus love his disciples? This was a small intimate group, and IЎm sure Jesus had loving feelings for his disciples. They had left everything to follow him, and they went through so much together. But they also drove Jesus crazy at times. They never quite understood what he was about, and in the end they all deserted him. Still, he wanted what was best for them in GodЎs kingdom, and he laid down his life for it. JesusЎ love did not depend on his disciplesЎ appeal or their worthiness. It was based on GodЎs love, which Jesus carried in him, and passed on to them.
And so our love is rooted in ChristЎs love for us. We carry it in our hearts, and show it in our desire for the other personЎs good, regardless of their value to us. I think of the responders at the Boston Marathon, who tore down metal barriers to get to the injured, who put out fires in peopleЎs clothing with their hands, and took off their shirts to make tourniquets, all for people they had never even met before. I think of the doctors who worked to save Dzhokhar TsarnaevЎs life, even though he committed horrible crimes. You donЎt have to agree with someone to love them. You donЎt have to approve of what they do. But you do have to treat them as fellow human beings whom God loves.
Now to be honest, in this passage from John, Jesus was only speaking to his disciples. He wasnЎt telling them to love the world. God loves the world (3:16). And he wasnЎt telling them to love their enemies. He said that at a different time and place (Matt. 5:43-47). Now he just wanted them to love each other. ThatЎs basic. Be a loving community.
But if it was hard to love a small group of disciples, how hard is it to love a growing and diverse church? ItЎs easy in theory, but do we really love each other? Or do we just care for the people who are like us and do what we want them to do?
In the book of Acts, the community of faith grew and expanded beyond the small group of JesusЎ disciples and friends to include thousands of strangers from all over the world. As the message kept spreading, people from different cultures and language groups were added to the mix. In Acts chapters 10 and 11, God revealed to Peter something completely new about who belonged in the community of faith. People had been criticizing Peter because they had heard he was eating with Gentiles. Peter and all the early followers of Jesus were Jewish, and like all practicing Jews they had strict rules about what they could eat and who they could eat it with. They werenЎt even supposed to enter into the home of a Gentile, or drink from a cup that a Gentile had used.
But Peter had a dream where God showed him all sorts of unclean animals, birds and reptiles, and told him to kill and eat them. And while he was dreaming, a Roman official named Cornelius also saw a vision where he was told to invite Peter to his house and listen to what he had to say. Cornelius was a Gentile, one of those people Peter did not associate with. But Peter followed the leading of the spirit and went to Cornelius, who had gathered together his relatives and close friends for the occasion. While Peter was speaking to them they were filled with the Holy Spirit. So Peter baptized them all and stayed with them for several days. And when you stay with someone, you eat their food. Then he went back to Jerusalem to defend what he had just done.
This was a new beginning for the church. It was a highly controversial change, but eventually their understanding of who belonged in the community of faith was expanded. It was not just people who shared the same language and culture and values. Christianity was breaking free of a single cultural identity to include new people from different communities. Roman society divided people by class, ethnicity and sex. But the early church was known to include all sorts of people, from women and slaves, to Roman officials, Jews, and Greeks, all worshipping together. For Christians, it was no longer enough just to love your natural friends, people who were like you. God challenged Peter to expand his world, to think beyond the rules and values he was raised with and be open to new people. So God wants us to open our hearts and expand our circle of love and care.
The Church of All Nations in Minneapolis is one of the few Christian congregations in the United States that has no ethnic majority. The last time I heard, it was 37% euro-American, 32% Asian, 20% American black, and 11% Hispanic or other. Their pastor, the Rev. Jin S. Kim, says they can all work together because they donЎt pretend they are all the same deep down. And they all admit that they have some kind of prejudice in them. When you can talk about these things openly and really listen, you can teach each other to better understand and care for each other.
Of course itЎs much easier for people in a Christian community to be from the same culture, speak the same language, and share the same values and theological convictions. But you miss something spiritually when you just love those who are like you. When people have so much in common it is easy to confuse GodЎs spirit with the spirit of our own culture or particular church. Our way of thinking and doing is not necessarily GodЎs way. God does not require that we follow a certain order of worship, or use a certain style of music. And as faithful as we may believe our Christian practice to be, God does not endorse one particular Christian life-style or practice. These days many Christians will demonize or belittle those who disagree with them. But as long as someone is taking a thoughtful position, we owe them our respect as brothers and sisters in faith. When we disagree, we need to make an extra effort to listen, and to speak with respect.
The prophet Isaiah says (55:8-9) ЎFor my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.Ў Sometimes we need people with a different perspective to help us step out of our own comfortable environment and understand God in new ways. When we can love many different kinds of people, it broadens our ability to know and love God.
The Church of All Nations challenges their members to spend half of their time with people who are like themselves, people of the same age group or ethnic background, people they naturally gravitate toward. But the other half of the time, people are supposed to spend time with those who are different from them, to prevent cliques from getting too strong, keep the communication flowing, and care for all members.
Recently I heard someone compare a multicultural congregation to a choir. When different kinds of people come together, and each group sings their part well, you get amazing harmonies and sound. Still, each group has to practice separately to learn their part well. Otherwise, they will be overpowered by the other voices, lose track of their part and end up singing in unison. ItЎs normal, healthy and needed, to relax with people you naturally connect with, and to strengthen your part, your own sense of identity. But you also need to spend time with people who are different, to add challenge and energy into the life of the church.
For some Christians, the time to practice their part is in a mono-cultural church, where they solidify their sense of Christian identity. They then have to make harmony by going outside their own congregation. Multicultural churches can sing in harmony with their own members. Still, they have to make sure that no one part dominates, and that is not always easy.
How do you divide your time? Do you have enough time with Christians you can relax with? Do you spend enough time with Christians who challenge you?
There will always be other Christians we have trouble relating to, whether inside or outside our home church. And IЎm not just talking about people from different language or ethnic groups, or people we have deep social, political or theological disagreements with. There may be people who have a different style from you, or people you are wary of because they seem strange to you. If you are neat and find it easy to stay on top of details, you may have trouble relating to someone who is sloppy or disorganized. You may find it hard to relate to someone from a different educational or economic background. You may find it hard to relate with someone who struggles with mental illness. As we love all different kinds of people, we expand our understanding of God and GodЎs ways.
Who is God calling you to love? May we all rise to the challenge, and show the world we are Christians by our love..