John 15:9-17

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I 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. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

Reflection: Sacrifice Let's face it, there are some people who just simply seem unlovable. They are different for each person with maybe a few common threads. What is it in us that draws the proverbial line in the sand which categorizes the "us" and "them"? We are all guilty of it on some level or not. Maybe it stems from a deep experience of woundedness or an experience of deceit. Maybe violence or pain has visited a close family member and you have self-appointed yourself as the vindicator. It is so easy to do, so simple to slide into these roles. However, our text today flies in the face of these things and all the others that closely resemble them. I have seen love crash through barriers established and maintained for generations. I have seen the lack of love demolish beautiful people with beautiful lives. Jesus is calling us, in this, to love each other- no matter how hard, with regard of its reciprocity- just love. I have come to believe that love is the greatest single power in the world. Those who harness its power and incorporate into their lives live more peaceful than all the rest. They live empathy, walk justly, and courageously face anything God has through at them. Why then do we hold back? Fear? Bitterness? Woundedness? Embarassment? Infedelity? Uncertainty? Failures?