| May 13, 2001 Acts 14:21-27 + Revelation 21.1-5 + John 13:31-35 |
| John speaks of glocy in the little section of today’s gospel lifted from the Farewell discourse, and he leaves us to make sense of what follows. It’s not difficult to figure out how glocy works or where it comes from, the problem is simply that we see so little of it when the Gospel puts it before us so clearly |
| Sacrifice is the issue. The greatest glocy in life comes from sacrifice. You can’t have one without the other We see this often enough to know that it’s true, and we don’t see it often enough to know that we’ve got a challenge here ifwe ever hope for glocy In war time, it’s the people who don’t come home, the wounded or the dead who get the big glocy In terms of public service, it’s those who make some real, personal sacrifice who get the glocy The doctor or lawyer who makes a fortune never has glocy, but those who give their lives for healing and the easing of human pain are the ones we remember.The teachers who did more than their contract required, who shared in parenting, loving, and nurturing are the ones we remember, at least it so for me. |
| The most simple lesson of histocy is that those who have made the big sacrifices are the ones who remembered and get the glocy. This world quickly forgets the successful in life, but never the sacrificial. This is what we learn from John 13, a lesson on glocy. |
| What Jesus proposes to those who would follow him is that they might have a share in this glocy that is there between God and Jesus. What Jesus proposes to those who would follow him is that they might come to this glory by taking a share in his sacrifice. Now I find it fascinating that John doesn’t want to tell us about glory while Judas is there. Did you notice that first line: “When Judas had left them, Jesus said…” It’s as though, Judas, who makes no sacrifice, gets no glocy. The only interest Judas had was thirty pieces of silver, money He wasn’t going to be around for the sacrifice. So, no glocy for him. |
| It was the obedience of Jesus that brought glory to the Father There is only one way in which anyone ever shows that they love, admire, and trust a leader, and that is by obedience. The only way achild honors its parent, in other words, gives that parent glory, is by obedience. Jesus gave the ultimate honor and gloiy to God because He gave to God the supreme obedience, the obedience which obeyed even to the cross. |
| Those of us here who hold to the hope of a share in the gloiy of Christ Jesus must get it right – must understand that we’re not going to be swept into that gloiy in the shadows of someone else’s sacrifice. The suffering of Jesus Christ did not remove one bit of suffering in this life. It only afflrmed that suffering will not overcome those who are obedient to God. |
| We get the commandment today, and have the choice to obey or not. Those who choose love will be choosing sacrifice, and the greater the love, the greater the sacrifice; the greater the sacrifice, the greater the gloiy So it is in this world where God chooses to reveal himself through a suffering servant as a God who glorifies with life those who choose obedience. What more perfect day could we have in this countiy to reflect upon this truth and profound mystery of our faith than on Mother’s Day as we honor and give gloiy to our mothers living and to the memory of our mothers who have died. You think about yours. I think about mine. From her and the man who was her partner in life and in love, I learned to understand this Gospel and the truth that there is no gloiy without sacrifice, and that when understood in that way, sacrifice was no matter for complaint or bitterness, but rather and opportunity to love more deeply and more profoundly Obedient to that example, we in turn seek the same gloiy that has come to Jesus by our service, sacrifice, and love of one another That’s what Jesus came to say sitting at that table after Judas had left. |