Are You Jesus?

6th Sunday of Easter

John 15: 9-17

"Are You Jesus?"

9 ¶ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17 This I command you, to love one another. RSV

Grace and peace to you from our Lord ad SAviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

One of my favorite cartoon, characters is Charlie brown of the Peanuts family. He is for me the symbol of all human beings who face all the trials and trying circumstances of life. Charlie Brown is the one who knows what it is like to carry his own cross, to live in a world of brokenness. he know what failure is. He knows what trying and not succeeding, of hearing again and again the good news of the gospel from his friend Linus to see him through the rough times. I would like to share one of Charlie Brown’s adventures with Lucy as she pretends to be a psychiatrists and Charlie is coming to her for help.

"Charlie Brown is shown visiting Lucy who is at her psychiatric stand" offering her help for an nickel.

Charlie says, "I need help tel1 me a great truth. Tell me something about living that will help me."

Lucy asks, "Do you ever wake up at night and want a drink of water?

"Sure" responds Charlie Brown, "quite often.’

Lucy then says, "When you’re getting a drink of water in the dark, always rinse the glass because there might be a bug in it. Five cents, please

Charlie Brown walks away saying, Great truths are even more simple that I thought they were."

Charlie Brown didn’t find the great truth he was looking for to help him make sense out of the bewildering life he has to live.

But as we face life, as we face all the circumstances life has to offer us, Jesus tells us we are not alone in our struggles, he has.not left desolate, but he has heard our cries of "Help Wanted" and he has assured the disciples and us that we are loved by Him and the Father.

Two verses from our Gospel lesson speak about this love.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Jesus says that the Father has loved him and so then he loves us. We are loved by the Father and son and that gives us a solid footing for life.

A pastor tells us this story:

"Just out of reach from my window stenches a wire, which carries a heavy current of electricity for light and power. It is carefully insulated at every pole that support it and is carried well out of common reach. If I could lean out far enough to touch it, death would be swifter than the tiger’s leap or the serpent’s sting, as w swift as the lightning stroke.

Yet the doves light on it and take no harm. They fly from my window sill where I sometimes feed them, to preen and rest upon

it in safe content, and then fly off again to their search for food or nesting. The secret is that, when they touch the full-powered wire they touch nothing else. They give themselves wholly to it.

My danger would be that, while I touch the wire, I would also be touching the earth through the walls of my house, and the current would turn by body into a channel for escape.

But they rest wholly on the wire and experience neither dread nor danger. They are one with it and they are safe."