Eastertide
April 23, 2016
Scripture Reading: John 13:31-35
Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ –John 13:33-35
Jesus address his disciples, including us, as little children, not just children. How many times do we have to repeat something to a preschooler before it is imprinted into their very being? I sat next to a young mother in a waiting room recently with I would guess, her 18-month old little girl. She was playing with her doll and every once in a while she would hug the doll closely and scream a little scream and giggled in pure delight. Each time her mother would gently say we need to be quiet here. The child soon got distracted by another activity and the screaming ended. I do not know whether the child stopped screaming because her mother asked her to or not, but I do know that every so gradually this child was learning how to deal with others.
In our scripture today Jesus is parenting his disciples. In how many ways and how many times had Jesus said basically this same thing to them? How many times do we need to hear it before we begin to live it? In Matthew 18:3 Jesus tells his disciples, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Children are learning sponges. It is amazing, really, how much information they can take in an apply in such a short amount of time, although it may not seem like a short amount of time to the parent. Adults on the other hand must learn from redundancy being taught the same thing over and over again and then it still may not stick.
The problem for adults in learning is a lack of trust. If something wasn’t what we had once been taught, it becomes suspect. Undoing such patterning takes some major motivation. The stories of Jesus and of God’s actions in the world are the source of building trust, but at some point we have to step out in faith and attempt in small ways to live the power of love.
Prayer: Don’t give up on us Lord. Keep whispering your love in our ears until through us the whole world knows your love. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.