Acts 10:44-48 Psalm 98 1 John 5:1-12 John 15:9-17
People are often surprised to hear I’ve never seen any of the original Star Wars trilogy, nor the Lord of the Rings trilogy, despite their roaring box office success. And maybe there were certain lessons I should’ve learned in them and maybe the gaping holes in my education will present themselves at some later point, in a pub quiz no doubt, but this morning we have the third part in a trilogy that I am much more familiar with; The Holy Trilogy.
For a trilogy to be good, each part needs to stand alone, and be complete, and there also needs to be an overarching sense that each one complements and completes what has gone before it. So, let’s see what this Holy Trilogy has for us.
Two weeks ago, we had Good Shepherd Sunday, and we were challenged, to lay down our lives for our Shepherd. More than that, to be prepared to lay down our life for others too. It is a tough call, but the call of the disciple is to give up all we have, lay it all down and follow the voice of God wherever God is leading. Very clear, very simple – not easy, but very simple.
Last week, episode two, we were told time after time that we must abide in Christ – I am the vine, my father is the vine grower, you are the branches, abide in me. Stay put, keep close, abide, keep growing and fruit will come. God will do all that is required; we just abide. Again, super clear, not easy – especially for those of us who would love to muster up a bumper crop of fruit – but very simple.
So, we approach the third part in this Holy Trilogy with parts one and two in mind – we need to lay down our lives, for Christ and for others, and we need to keep close to him so that God can do whatever is needed in us and through us. And what comes next?
Simply this, just three words; love one another.
Abide in my love, love one another as I have loved you, love one another. That’s it. Give up all we have. Stay close to Jesus, always. And love one another.
And if there were no other words written, or movies made, this would be enough. This is it. So simple. One theologian describes it exactly that way when he writes, ‘‘this new commandment – [to love one another] – is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, and profound enough that the most mature of believers are repeatedly embarrassed by how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practise’.
Love one another, as I have loved you Jesus says. Love one another, He says. And then he really stresses the point because he says it over and over. It’s like He’s saying love one another, and then love them a bit more, and then, when you think it’s not possible to love them more, love them even more.
Love until it hurts, and then keep on loving.
Love, outrageously and indiscriminately.
Love, even when the world tells you to hate.
Love especially when the world tells you to hate.
Love when you are hurting, love when they are hurting.
Love one another as I have loved you…
And how had Jesus loved His disciples?
He loved them when they were loveable and when they were unlovable.
He loved them in calling, empowering, teaching and training them.
He loved through healing, feeding the hungry and welcoming the outcasts.
He loved the sinners and the untouchables.
He loved all people; Jews and Gentiles, men, women and children, those who were sick, paralysed, possessed with demons.
He even loved the dead…and loved them back to life.
He loved while he was put to death, and through death and into new life…and then commanded His disciples to do the same.
And He continues to give the same command to each one of His disciples down the generations, including us. Love one another as I have loved you; so simple that even a toddler can memorise and appreciate and yet profoundly and embarrassingly poorly practised.
Jesus’ trilogy for living is that simple – be willing to lay down your life for this Jesus movement, keep close to Christ and love others. And yet we get it so wrong, don’t we – way too often.
Here we are in May.
May is domestic violence awareness month. Last weekend, the front page of our Sunday paper was a photo of a beautiful young mum, with the headline, ‘another woman is dead’. Thirty-year-old Erica Hay from Warnbro died in an arson attack, along with three of her children. The fire is believed to have been started by her partner. Erica is the 27th woman, in Australia, to be murdered by an intimate partner in 2024. With this trajectory, this year’s death toll for victims of family and domestic violence will be higher than last years, which was higher than the year before. And women in Anglican church communities are at least as likely, if not more so, to be victims of violence in the home at the hands of their partner.
And we are the people who are charged with this simple command: love one another. We are failing. We need to love one another way better.
Loving one another does not look like coercive control, physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse. Loving one another looks like being bold enough to ask if someone is ok, or asking how they got the bruise. Loving one another is sacrificial and brave. It is fierce and dangerous. Loving one another as Christ loved us means we might even risk being killed for it.
Jesus’ Holy Trilogy is so simple, so clear, and it needs to be the basis of our beliefs AND our behaviour. Lay down your life, stay close to Christ and love one another. May we believe this is the best way to live. And may our behaviour reflect it too. Always. Love one another. Amen.
Holy Adventures 