Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
John 15:12-13
12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
My father had surgery a few Decembers back. He had colon cancer and his surgeon went in to remove whatever needed to come out. I walked into his room as he was wheeled in from recovery. He had a very attentive, fairly young nurse and in an attempt to see how he was coming out of the anesthesia she said, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" Barely able to get any words out, he whispered something. The nurse asked again, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" This time, a little better, "It's Pearl Harbor Day." She said again, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" This time, much clearer, "It's Pearl Harbor Day." She had a look on her face that made it clear that she thought he was still a bit loopy. But no, in fact, it was December 7th, Pearl Harbor day.
That nurse hadn’t been alive on December 7th, 1941, either had I. I know the date from history books, but I don’t know the date like my dad knows the date.
It makes me wonder, how old I will be before someone mentions September 11th and some young person will ask, what is September 11th?
September 11, 2001 has become an integral part of the collective conscious of the American people. But, not just because of the terrible images of that day, not just because of the anger or sadness it stirs within us. For many of us, it is marked within us as a day that pointed to the possibility of how, even in the midst of the worst of all evil, we could become the best of who we could possibly be.
Just like, for my father and the generations that surround his, December 7th will always be Pearl Harbor Day, September 11th will always be 9-11. Some have suggested that we stop dwelling on it, but I don’t think that is possible, or even the right thing to do. It is more about considering what we do to remember and give thanks each year.
My father has served 56 years as a volunteer firefighter in my hometown of Eden, New York. Eden is one of those little towns where the volunteer firefighters are the only firefighters. You have to go pretty far to find a professional firefighter.
My father’s father was once the chief of Eden Volunteer Fire Company. His father was a firefighter too. So by all means, I should have been a firefighter. Instead I became a disc jockey. That was actually a lot of fun, but sort of a strange profession. I got to move a lot.
It is amazing I ever became a pastor. Some of you may know that I never went to church as a child or even as a young adult. You want to know what is worse, I never was taught the Ten Commandments, I never memorized one single Bible verse. I didn’t even know the words to “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” When I started coming to church, I felt almost embarrassed. I thought I could never learn enough to catch up.
However, the more I learned, the more I realized how much I already knew. I realized that what the Bible tells about loving our neighbor as ourselves, trying to model the generous, love that God has for us. I realize that it is not about just following the rules, but truly embracing God’s gift to us. I realized I already knew that stuff. And I didn’t learn it by listening to someone tell me. I learned it by watching.
Eden, New York, where I grew up is a really small town. We had about 5000 residents. Especially in the winter, when it was cold, furnaces would malfunction, chimneys would clog, sparks would get in the wrong place and fires would start. In a small town like mine it used to be a loud whistle would blow to let the volunteer firemen know that something was wrong. These days they have pagers. It didn’t matter if he was eating dinner, watching his favorite show, or in the middle of well-deserved night sleep. If that whistle blew or that pager went off, he was dressed, down the stairs, in the car, down the street, and in the front seat of a fire truck before the noise ever work me up. Never once did he stop to ask, whose house is it? What do they look like? How much money do they make?
This is a job that he has done for 56 years, and he has never been paid for it. He used to be a schoolteacher by profession, a volunteer firemen the rest of the time. I didn’t learn about God through memorization, I learned through example. When I felt called to ministry, I actually had a head start at understanding the clear message of the gospel, a message of love that surpasses rules and judgment. I learned this just by watching a true witness of God’s love.
You might not look at a firefighter and immediately think love. That probably means you have never been trapped in a burning building and seen one coming your way or watched one enter a burning house to save a irreplaceable family air loom or your pet.
Some people don’t think of the love of God looking at an armed police officer. But I do, because I remember vacationing with my family in Boston as a small boy and choking on something I ate. There we were in a strange place and my parents couldn’t get my throat cleared and I couldn’t breath and a police officer came along and saved my life.
You might not think of God’s amazing love when you think of an Emergency Medical Technician, unless you have ever seen one rush into your home to save the life of someone you love.
God’s love isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a nurse, until one holds your hand on the way into surgery and reminds you that she won’t leave your side.
If you ever met my wife’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Marvin Cressman, the love of God would not be the first thing that came to mind. He sort of looks like a grumpy old man. But that man sat over my wife for eight hours certain to never flinch until every last bit of her brain tumor was gone.
Last week, as we considered the disaster left behind by hurricane Katrina, I spoke of to call of the Gospel that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Today, let’s take that a step further.
12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Jesus tells his disciples not just to love each other as they wished to be loved, but to love each other like Jesus had loved them. He was asking his disciples to love one another reflecting the very love of God. I said last week that loving one another as ourselves was pretty hard. Well this is even deeper.
The gospels are full of Jesus not just telling us how to love, but, through example, showing us. The first chapter of Mark’s gospel shows us Jesus as healer:
From Mark, Chapter 1:
40A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
A leper, in Jesus time was someone not to be associated with, especially not touched. God’s love touches those who others won’t even touch and brings healing.
Mark, Chapter 5:
35While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.
God’s love takes the time to go to the room of one that others thought was beyond saving.
All through the gospels, Jesus physically saves, physically heals, brings peace and tells us.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
And then to show the limitlessness of that love, while everyone else was running away, climbs up on a cross and gives his live for his friends.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Dave was gonna meet his wife at a coffee shop in Brooklyn,
When he heard the alarm sing out.
911, he was running up stairs that he never got back down.
Down, down.
He was an everyday angel, earnin’ his wings,
Trying to save people who are just like you and me.
Angel, living out love.
The kind of people we could use a lot more of.
An everyday angel, everyday angel.
Everyday angel, everyday angel.[1]
I am always amazed how these men walk into fires, when the rest of us run from them.
Rudolph Giuliani
Mayor of New York
As a pastor, I learn a lot from firemen and nurses and police officers. Like I learned from my father by watching, I continue to watch how they love us. In the wake of the latest disaster our country has encountered their stories convict me of the shallowness of my own commitment to love. I read some days from a little book called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. In its ancient words (it was written in the 1400s) I find inspiration to be more loving, more patient, more graceful, less interested in me and more interested in others, more like Christ. Sometimes though, I learn more about being like Christ, by watching others.
We haven’t even begun to hear the story of the doctors and nurses who stayed behind in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi risking their lives to stay with their patients.
While most everyone was trying to get out of New Orleans, police and firemen were asking when they could get in to help.
Last week, I was driving home from the office in the hot, sticky afternoon, windows up, AC on full. I get to the intersection at five-points and I see a fire truck on each corner and firefighters standing along the edge of the road with boots and buckets in their hands. Firefighters, the people we count on to be our first line of care when we are hurt, in an accident, when our house is on fire or flooded, when catastrophe strikes, and here they are, during their down time, standing in the blazing sun trying to do more to help.[2]
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
The people who stand on the front lines to protect, serve and heal us are the ultimate witness to the love of God. This is true whether they are Christians or not. This is true whether they believe in God they way we do or not. We can learn a lot about how to be Christians by just watching them do what they do everyday.
I think this is how we should start remembering and honoring the memory of 9.11, by considering the witnesses that surround us, watching them, and then considering what more we can do to love one another and reflect that gracious, unconditional love God has for us. Amen
