Sunday May
19th 2019 5th Sunday of Easter (Cycle
C)
Agape
The tie in
between today’s readings: The Glory of Love
If I
had to explain glory, I would say it is the possession of something that’s
worthwhile. Glory comes in many forms. We can see it in beauty. We find it in a
person’s noble character. We celebrate it in top athletics or great
achievements in fields of endeavor. In this world, we recognize glory with
awards, crowns, and power. We are so enamored with glory we will pay scads of
money for a famous artifact or stop and beg to be able to take a selfie with a
star. Love in a way, is a connection to glory. Be it looks, likes, or loot, we
join to another because we see something valuable in them. It is even more so
with the love we have for our children because, in them, we see ourselves.
That’s why it’s so hard to love the unfortunate of face or function among us...no
glory. So glory attracts love; human love that is. Who do you love when you are
God and your glory fills the universe? There’s no one that impresses you and
there’s nothing you need. Where does your love and glory plug in? Apparently,
when you’re God, you do the totally unheard of thing and love the unlovely. You
love your enemies, even a fallen mankind. It’s a special love only the Almighty
has. It’s called agape love and God offers it to us.
In
today’s gospel reading, John 12:31-35, it’s the Last Supper and Jesus is
starting the final push in operation, “For God So Loved the World”. He talks
about the Son and the Father glorifying each other by His crucifixion. Then He
bewilders the disciples even more when out of the blue He throws a “new” commandment
at them: “Love one another as I have loved you.” The command to love your
neighbor is not new (Leviticus 19:18). What makes it new is how we are to love: as Jesus
loves. It’s a new application of the glory-love connection. We are to love the
unlovable as God in Jesus loves us. When we become born again, God fills us
with His Holy Spirit of love just as a hand fills a glove. The glove is the
covering. The strength is in the hand. This new commandment is a genuine
manifestation of God’s love through our lives, not a man’s weak compliance to a
divine directive as in the Old Testament. God in us can show His love through
us and people around us will glorify God by us. Let your light shine before men
so that they can see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven
(Matthew 5:16). In God’s case, then love generates glory. This agape love from
another dimension is beyond new. It’s revolutionary! It can be ours by faith in
Christ.
Where
does this new agape love take you? Well, if you’re Paul and Barnabas in Act
14:21-27, it takes you to cities along the eastern Mediterranean Sea to spread
the gospel. What do you get for this agape love? Tribulations! Hardly sounds
fair, but that’s what loving your enemies is all about isn’t it? Paul told it
straight to the newly formed churches in Asia Minor: ”Through many tribulations
we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). You have to see tribulations as
the fire that tempers the steel of your character. By it, you grow the fruit of
God’s Spirit in your life and become more like Jesus. Love made Jesus take up
His cross. Let us not neglect ours, because looking forward in faith, we can
see that after the cross there is glory.
Psalm
145 and Revelation 21, our last two readings, show us the love-glory dynamic.
Psalm 145 starts with God’s love toward us by acknowledging His grace, mercy
goodness, and loving kindness. We accept God’s love proposal and take Jesus as
our Lord and Savior. In doing that, we take the new nature of God in our lives.
We love as Jesus loves and endure the trials that the church, the bride of
Christ, must face. We can do this because in Revelation 21 God wipes away every
tear, ends death, stops crying, banishes pain, and turns mourning into
gladness. We become inhabitants of the eternal new heaven and new earth. Where
we, as the sons of God, will shine like the stars forever (Daniel 12:3). That’s
glory my friend.
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