John 14: 23–29
|
|
Lord, may we hear your voice in the words spoken in your Name. Amen.
|
This morning Jesus gives us a deceptively simple command. He tells
us that if we love him we will keep his words. For his words, he
says, are also the words of the Father. And they – the
Father and the Son – will come and make their home with those who
keep their words. What a wonderful promise! What an
incredible offer! Father, Son and Holy Spirit are offering to
abide with us — if only we will keep their words.
|
|
But what does that mean? I suppose we could take those words
literally and simply memorize the Word of God. Certainly,
that’s what some people do. They memorize great chunks of
Scripture. Or they offer their children rewards if the children
can memorize Scripture verses. But I don’t think that’s
exactly what Jesus meant.
|
|
Another possibility comes from an ancient Jewish tradition. When
Moses told the children of Israel to bind the words of the Law to their
hearts, the Jews responded by writing the sacred words of Scripture on
small pieces of paper which they then folded into tiny metal
boxes. Then they bound those boxes with leather thongs onto their
foreheads and their wrists – so they would never forget
them. But I don’t think that mechanical approach is what
Jesus meant either.
|
This week, as I cast about for a good illustration of what Jesus meant,
I remembered a children’s book written by Robert Munsch called
Love You Forever. ¹ And on this Mothers Day, I think
it offers a pretty good illustration of what Jesus meant when he asked
us to keep his words. In the book a mother gently rocks her
newborn baby as she sings to him,
I’l love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be.
|
Well, the baby grows. And pretty soon he’s a
toddler. Now he’s into everything – pulling books off
shelves, pulling food out of the refrigerator, and putting anything he
can find into the toilet. But at night, when he is finally falling
asleep, his mother still sings to him,
I’l love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be.
|
Before she quite knows how it happened, that toddler has grown into a
nine year old – tracking dirt all over the house, refusing to take
baths, saying rude things to his grandmother. And then, suddenly,
he’s a teen–ager – wearing strange clothes and
listening to strange music with even stranger friends. Sometimes
his mother thinks she must be living at the zoo. But at night,
when he’s sound asleep, she still murmurs that old song to him
I’l love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be.
|
And finally he’s all grown up, living across town with a family
of his own. And one night his mother calls him. She tells him
something is wrong. She’s not feeling well. So he
drives across town to see her – and realizes that now it’s
his turn to care for her. And he knows just what to do. He
gathers her up and sings
I’l love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
My Mom you’ll be.
|
|
That night, when he returns to his own home he goes upstairs where his
baby daughter is sleeping and he sings to her. Well, you know what
he sings to her.
|
|
That, I think, is what Jesus meant when he asked us to keep his
words. He meant us to hear the love in his words, to cherish the
person who spoke them to us – and finally to pass them on to
somebody else – as the life–giving words they truly are.
|
So today, as we baptize Joshua Chatham Pate and Harrison Armistead
Buck, that’s exactly what we will do. We will repeat the
ancient words, the old stories that tell us how much God loves us and
who we are in his sight. And as we do, something of God himself
will be in those words – his love for us, his delight in us,
his plans for us and his tender care – not just for these babies,
about to be baptized, but for all of us sitting here in this
sanctuary. For we too are the children of God.
Whom He’ll love forever . . . and
like for always. For ever and ever His child you will be.
|
Amen.
|
|
¹ Robert Munsch Love You Forever (Buffalo, NY, A Firefly
Book, 1986)
|
