The Greatest Commandment
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
28 April 2024
The Rev. Robert J. Kossler
The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition, p. 1 Jn. 4:7)
Good morning, my friends, and welcome to anyone who might be visiting us.
As you can see from our bulletin, today is a combined service, a practice that is not common in our diocese. Most churches cancel their earlier service when having an all-church meeting, like an annual meeting. However, we are different. We choose to bring our earlier and later communities together. I am impressed that you recognize the importance of regular community gatherings, a commitment that goes beyond a few times a year. This focus on one community is a cornerstone for a healthy church. Our focus today celebrates the one body, one church, and acknowledges each of us individually.
Before I joined, the Bishop’s Committee decided to join the Vital+Thriving program sponsored by our diocese. In a nutshell, V+T asks,
How do congregations adapt and flourish in trying times? How do we unlock our capacity to build beloved community? How do we discern God’s promised and intended future? Vital+Thriving is designed to help you explore these questions with your congregation. (Welcome to Vital+Thriving!, 2011-2024)
This multifaceted program focuses on listening, reflecting, and discerning our distinctive story: Who are we? Where are we now? And where do we see ourselves in the coming years? To that end, we will gather after our service and create Holy Innocent’s timeline. This exercise aims to highlight our history – the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens – what was special and unique, along with what might be familiar to other church communities. We intend to create a map filled with the many voices that make us a community. We hope to have a timeline that reflects our many successes, some of our challenges, and where we struggled. It is vital that we capture as many voices as we can during this time.
I structured a portion of our church service today to get us ready for this vital work. Since I started as your interim vicar, many suggested that our community needs to heal from some of the difficulties of the last year or so. It is essential to acknowledge that fact. You have gone through a lot with your vicar of many years retiring, excitement with hiring a new vicar, and then suffering loss when he abruptly left. Of course, we need to acknowledge the losses, but we must also recognize that we have the means to move forward.
My guess is most of you are familiar with Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who wrote “Man’s Search for Meaning.” He later wrote a postscript titled “The Case for Tragic Optimism.” What could he mean by that? How could that subject help us?
Frankl understood tragic optimism to mean that we can remain optimistic despite what he calls the tragic triad: pain, guilt, and death. (Frankl, 1984)In its place, he talks about the triad of optimism (sic): hope, faith, and love! How can we turn “life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive?” We may be unable to change our history, and the hurts we experienced, but we can choose our attitude.
After the Creed, we will join in the Prayers of the People. I added a section – a Communal Offering of Prayers – with the intent that each of us write a personal prayer on the slip of paper you found in the pews. It could be a note of thanks or a request for help. You could pray for a friend or relative or seek healing for yourself. The intent is to strengthen our hopes, our faith, and our love for family, friends, and the community. We will then head out through the doors, where we will burn these prayers as an offering to God. The prayers are private, but the intention is communal.
Frankl’s triad of optimism includes love as a critical element. And, of course, today’s first reading is all about love! Most biblical enthusiasts would say that Chapter 13 in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is one of the definitive explorations of love. But did you notice how many times the author of the First Letter of John mentions love? He mentions it 27 times in just 15 verses! “Let us love one another, because love is from God.” “Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” “If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
When I was at the Church of the Epiphany, a couple started attending our services. After a few weeks, I asked them why they decided to come to our church and one of the parents told me they wanted to take their children somewhere where people “treat each other nice!” I don’t think I ever heard that sentiment in all my years as a churchgoer. People often say they come to church for the music or the liturgy. Some come because friends invited them, and others are looking for community. But coming to church to learn how to “treat each other nice” was a sentiment I will never forget. How we treat each other reflects who we are and what we believe.
We are a people of faith. We emphasize our faith in our theology, in our liturgy, and in our music. But who we are genuinely comes out when we reflect on our practice, what we do, and how we do it. Jesus doesn’t tell us that we need to believe this theological concept or that. His theology is a lived practice, namely, to love God and to love each other. The author of our first reading sums it up.
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (p. 1 Jn:21)
Finally, I can’t help but think of a hymn I learned in middle school. The title is “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love,” written in 1966. It is like an earworm, and as I was drafting this sermon, the words kept bouncing around in my head. I won’t recite all the lyrics but will point out several that might inform the work we do after the service:
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord;
We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord;
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.
Chorus: And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land.
We Will work with each other, we will work side by side;
We will work with each other, we will work side by side;
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride.
All praise to the Father, from whom all things come;
And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son.
And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one. (Scholtes, 1966)
Words: 1966 F.E.L. Publications. Assigned 1991 Lorenz Publishing Company (Admin. by Lorenz
Corporation), Music: 1966 F.E.L. Publications. Assigned 1991 Lorenz Publishing Company
(Admin. by Lorenz Corporation)
I can’t think of a better hymn to have ringing in my ears as we continue in this interim time.
Amen.
Works Cited
Frankl, V. E. (1984). The Case for a Tragic Optimism. NY: Simon & Schuster.
New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition. (2021). Friendship Press.
Scholtes, P. (1966). They'l Know We Are Christians By Our Love. Retrieved from Word to Worship:
https://wordtoworship.com/song/14526
Welcome to Vital+Thriving! (2011-2024). Retrieved from Vital+Thriving Congregations: https://www.vitalthriving.org/about/