More Abiding
I preached today for the first time in a while. Covered at the local nursing home. Today's Gospel was a good, peaceful one. Sure there can always be challenges presented from any Gospel lesson- at least there should be. But sometimes it's good just to sit back and allow the love of God to fill us.

I think that's particularly true when we lead worship in a nursing home setting. This is a time and place for comfort and hope. This is a time and place to remember what it means to abide in Jesus. So, here's my outline notes, an expository style based on the different verses:

John 15:9-17

• 9: Now remain in my love.

The word translated love- AGAPE (total, self-giving, unselfish love) -is found nine times in these verses- and not at all in the first 8 verses of this chapter. It’s at the heart of what Jesus is saying.

• 10a: If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,

If you love you will stay in Jesus’ love. It’s not a reward for obeying his commands, rather it is in the act of loving – just as Jesus loved – that we come into Jesus’ love and are surrounded by it.

• 10b: just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

To abide or remain means:
A) not to depart
a) to continue to be present
b) to be held, kept, continually
Jesus knows what he is talking about- he is living it at that very moment. He is not speaking from theory, he is speaking from experience.

• 11: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

He wants it this way. HIS joy WANTS to be in us so that we may be made whole- complete.

• 12: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Philip Yancy (What's So Amazing about Grace?) writes about this:

Not long ago I received in the mail a postcard from a friend that had on it only six words, "I am the one Jesus loves." I smiled when I saw the return address, for my strange friend excels at these pious slogans. When I called him, though, he told me the slogan came from the author and speaker Brennan Manning. At a seminar, Manning referred to Jesus' closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, identified in the Gospels as "the one Jesus loved." Manning said, "If John were to be asked, 'What is your primary identity in life?' he would not reply, 'I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,' but rather, 'I am the one Jesus loves.'"

What would it mean, I ask myself, if I too came to the place where I saw my primary identity in life as "the one Jesus loves"? How differently would I view myself at the end of a day?

Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?

Brennan Manning tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking tour of a rural parish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest says to the man, "You must be very close to God." The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, "Yes, he's very fond of me." [pp. 68-69]

I believe that if nothing else, every parishioner in our congregations should leave the worship services having heard: 'I am someone Jesus loves.'"

This section thanks to Brian Stoffregen

• 13: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

That’s what he’s doing. That’s what love- agape- means!

• 15: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

We are NOT his servants but his friends. Did you catch that?

It’s worth repeating over and over again to ourselves:

We are NOT his servants. We are his friends. Yes, we serve people in His Name. We find ways to serve him, but not as a butler or maid. We are friends, and therefore we serve!

• 17: This is my command: Love each other.

Free, no strings attached love. It’s called grace.