To Love for the Glory of God

a sermon prepared for St. Andrew 's Episcopal Church, Ada, Virginia, May 2, 2010
5th Sunday of Easter, Lectionary Year C: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” Glory, glory, glory, there is an awful lot of glory happening here! Some form of the word glorify is used five times in just two short sentences.

But all that glorifying seems just a bit misplaced to me. Think about it: the setting is the Last Supper, and Judas has just left to go betray Jesus. One of Jesus’ closest companions has just left to betray him. And instead of speaking of sorrow or disappointment that one so close should stoop so low, instead of that, Jesus speaks of how he has been glorified. His torture and death lie before him in a few short hours, and instead of recriminations Jesus speaks of glory.

Glory. Really? Now? In the face of betrayal? The disciples don’t yet realize that Judas has left to complete his betrayal, but they do know that one of their number will betray Jesus. They know, because Jesus just told them so in the paragraph of Scripture that comes before our gospel reading this morning. “One of you will betray me….” Jesus tells them, “…It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread.” Jesus knows who will betray him. Yet in the face of betrayal he speaks of glory.

Now, just to make sure we’re all on the same page here, let’s clarify what we’re talking about when we speak of “glory”. It has several shades of meaning that include: praise, honor, and distinction given by common consent; a source of honor, fame, or acclamation; a state of splendor or magnificence; or adoring praise and worship. I don’t know about you, but betrayal by a friend or companion is not generally the sort of thing I think of as a source of glory, a source of honor, a state of magnificence. It seems that Jesus was confused, if betrayal inspires him to speak of glory. But I’ll come back to that again a little later.

Next, from the glory of betrayal, Jesus moves on to instruct his disciples to love one another as he loved them. Jesus loved his disciples but one of them turned on him and betrayed him anyway. And what will Jesus get in exchange for his loving care of his disciples? Betrayal. Desertion. Torture. Persecution, mocking and jeering from the crowds. And all this followed by a hideously painful death on the cross. That sounds like the polar opposite of glory to me.

And yet it is love that Jesus calls us to. To love in the same way that he himself loved us. Love that led to death… Thankfully, we are not called to do anything quite so difficult as what Jesus did. Jesus died for the sins of the entire world for our sake, once for all. Just once. So there is nothing quite that difficult for us to do, because Jesus already did the hardest part. And thankfully, we live in a part of the world where we don’t generally need to risk our lives to share our faith or love our neighbor, although not everyone is so lucky.

But even if we don’t need to risk our lives, loving others is still difficult. And Jesus’ command to us to love one another raises two main questions. Who are we to love? And what does it mean to love? Even the early disciples had trouble answering these questions. And these were people who saw and remembered Jesus death and resurrection, or who heard the gospel from others who had seen Jesus death and resurrection!

Our reading from Acts tells of how the Jewish believers criticized Peter for eating with uncircumcised men, with Gentile believers. You see, there was a conflict in the early Christian church. There was a group of Jewish Christians who believed that Gentiles must become Jews first, and be circumcised and live by Jewish law, in order to follow Jesus. This group still observed the dietary rules of Jewish custom, which made some foods okay to eat, and others not okay or unclean. To eat unclean food, or to eat with unclean people, would make one unclean.

But these Jewish Christians forgot that Jesus himself ate with sinners and tax collectors, people who were unrighteous and most likely unclean. And what were they thinking, when they judged it okay to refuse to eat with others who also claimed to be following Christ? How did that demonstrate loving behavior?

These Jewish Christians sound a lot like Pharisees! They are concerned with following the rules, and not so much concerned with loving their neighbors. In fact, they probably didn’t consider Gentile believers to even be their neighbors.

Even Christians can behave like Pharisees, and the religion of Pharisees is all about “me”. I follow rules so I can be righteous. I do these things so I can get to heaven. Others must follow rules so I can look good. Others follow rules so I can feel good about how I measure up. The religion of the Pharisee is all about what “I” do, not about what Jesus did. The religion of the Pharisee is driven primarily by love of self, not by love of God.

The sort of love that Jesus urges us to, however, is not about ourselves, but about God and about others. Authentic love is all about the beloved, and not at all about self. Just listen to these words about love from the well-known passage in first Corinthians Chapter 13. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”

Jesus did all these things for the sake of his people. And when you consider his crucifixion and death, he most especially “bore all things”, and “endured all things.” And why? Why did Jesus bear all things and endure all things? Did he do this for his own sake? Was Jesus personally glorified as he was crucified and died? Did he find praise or honor or splendor for himself? No! He was reviled and mocked.

So why? Why did he do it? Jesus endured crucifixion and death for love of God the Father. He endured suffering and death so that the Father would receive glory; so that the Father would receive praise and honor and fame and magnificence.…

Let’s look back at the “glory” passage at the beginning of our gospel again. “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” Do you see that Jesus is glorified because God is glorified? And look how God glorifies Jesus because Jesus first glorifies God. It sounds a bit confusing, but the bottom line is this: there would be no glory for Jesus if God were not also glorified.

Think about it: there is nothing inherently glorious about suffering and dying. There is nothing inherently glorious about being wrongly accused. Praise, and honor, and distinction – glory – only accrue when things are done for love of God. Actions are glorious and worthy of praise only when done with a heart for the beloved.

And with that in mind, let’s remember Jesus instruction: “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” So how does Jesus love us? Jesus loves us because he loves the Father. If we are to love like Jesus, then we also must love others because we love the Father.

As soon as I do something for my own reasons and not for love of God, then that action no longer glorifies God. If I do something for my reasons, then I do that thing to glorify me, to bring praise, honor, and distinction to myself. And what I do for my glory does not glorify God - even if it happens to benefit others in the process.

For example, how many politicians have we seen who say they are promoting this cause or that legislation for the sake of others, but who really just seek their own advancement? And how many church leaders work in their churches for the sake of self-glorification rather than God’s glorification? How many businesses do good works merely to improve their image… and their market share?

And closer to home, how many of us help the poor and needy only because of the opinion of others - only so that others will think well of us? How many of our “good works” are actually motivated by love of God, and not by self-interest, or self-righteousness, or rule-bound Pharisaical Christianity? That is a question that we should each ponder in our hearts: what are we doing for our own sakes, and what are we doing for no other reason than that we love God? Would our answers show us to be loving the way Jesus loves?

And that thought will bring us back to the question I left dangling earlier – that Jesus seems confused, if personal betrayal by Judas inspires him to speak of glory. Betrayal and glory are clearly not related, right? Well, in this case, WRONG! In this case, betrayal leads to glory, because Jesus is submitting to betrayal out of love for the Father. And his submission to suffering and death – even death on a cross – is the means of saving us all. Jesus selfless act that saves us, brings glory to the Father because it was done for the Father’s sake. And that is how Jesus loves… and how we also are to love.

God reaches out to us in love, so that we, in turn, can reach out to others in love.

And to God be the Glory!