You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ (John 15:16-25 ESV)
Love one another… You were chosen by God and appointed to go and bear fruit so that you will love one another…
Have you always felt love in the gathering of worship known as the Church? There were times I have been in a place of worship where you could cut the tension with a knife, and it would have to be a sharp on to break through… There was snot much love in that place, and this has been more than once and in many places across the nation I have been to. I am sure if we are all honest, we have all experienced this…
Sometimes they will know we are Christians by our love is shown in the exact opposite… They know we must not be followers of Christ by our hate or disdain or tension we have with each other… Or is that really the world creeping in?
You see the world persecuted Jesus. Actually according to the gospel from which today’s lesson comes the World and the Jews persecuted Jesus. I know we could get into all kind of discussions on the involvement of the Jews and what that means. Let’s say it this way to get to the talking point. The world and the religious world persecuted Jesus… They saw that Jesus was teaching differently than the law they knew and was teaching so they were upset that he was leading people astray from their teachings. That that it was scriptural, but it was different than what they were teaching. So they got rid of him…
Have you ever been afraid to question the teachings of the church on a subject because you felt like God was telling you something different than what the church was saying? Have you ever been the only one that seems to think different on a passage of scripture than the rest of those gathered to study? We need to speak our minds and work through the tough questions. The Bible is not as straight forward as the church would want us to think it is. And that is OK, because God gave us each other to work through the questions, in line with our traditions and the scriptures… Not just believing something because that is what we are told we are suppose to think a passage means, or we believe this because we always have…
They hated Jesus, and they will hate you. If you are feeling the hate because what you are saying or feeling is different than the status quo, you might be in good company…
They hated Jesus, they will hate you…
aSacredRebel 