Captain Kate

But why?

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

But why?

“by all this humankind will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

But why? Was and if I am honest still is one of my favourite games. ",Why is the sky blue?" "Why is a circle round?"  and my favourite as a child was  “Why do I have to eat vegetables?" and as those of you who know about the 5 portions a day conflict that still goes on in Emily and I’s home, I still ask that question as an adult.

The "why?" game can be so much fun. You a question, ‘they give you an answer, and you ask "why?" to the answer, they answer again, you ask "why?" again, ad nauseam, ad infinitum. That game can go on for ever! Which is not so good if you are the one answering the questions.

But as monotonous as the ‘why’ game can be, it is good. "Why?" is a good question and an important question. It's how we learn. As adults we often wonder "why?" about a lot of things, but do not often ask because we think it is only a child's question. And as an adult we do not feel that we should be asking questions, but rather we feel we must have all the answers.

But one of the greatest things we can tell people in response to questions for which we have no answers is simply, "I don't know." To be an adult, does not mean that we have to know everything or even act as if we know everything. We need to give ourselves grace and accept that even as adults we don't always have the answers.

When my god daughters S and P, were staying with me a few years ago, right about the time of S's ‘why game’ phase, she came up to me and said, "P's being mean to me. She's calling me names."

Tired and frustrated at the end of a long day of fun! mud and tantrums, I looked at the nine-year-old S and said, "S, just be nice." I was not prepared for her response. I often heard some crazy responses from those children, but this one came as a big surprise. I said, "S, just be nice." And she said, "Why?" Not "Why should I? This is what she's done to me..." Just, "Why?"

Usually when children ask "why?", if we don't know the answer, we make up something in order to avoid looking foolish. But that day when I asked S to just be nice and she responded with "Why?" I would like to have had something to say. But I was silenced. I honestly wasn't sure what to say. I had grown up in the church and been taught all my life that we should love one another, but I never thought about asking "why" we should love one another. I just assumed you should. And that's what I was really asking S to do - to love, to be nice, to show kindness.

Why should we love? It may seem obvious to some. But for S and for me sometimes, it was not and is not obvious.
Many of us have been through the pain of broken relationships. And those of us who have lost someone close to us; know how much love can hurt. And maybe you're asking the same question that S did: Why love? Why care? Why even be nice?

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

So, are we to love just because Jesus says so? Well, that would be the parental response. Parents tell a child to do something. They want to know why. And the parent says, "Because I said so." That is perhaps not the best way to teach our children about what is good for them.

And though we are called to obedience to the words of Jesus, I think we can ask why. If Christ commands us to live a certain way, I believe there's a reason for it.

 So, why when Jesus was asked to give the greatest commandment, one that would sum up the law and the prophets, why did he say love?

Jesus said, "Even as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples." We love so that the world may know we are followers of Jesus.

As Christians we are to love because love shows that Christ is in our lives.

Some may be tempted to think that Jesus made it easy on us. I mean, he could have laid it on hard by saying we had to fast twice a week, come to church five times a week, pray twenty hours a week, and give fifty percent of everything we own. Compared to that--we think, "Love--well that's easy."

But you are well aware that Jesus did not make it easy for us with his command to love. When someone has hurt us or hurt someone we love, love feels almost impossible. There are times when fasting twice a week, coming to church five times a week, giving fifty percent of what we own, even eating 5 portions of vegetables a day, would be much easier than loving someone who has hurt us.

The way of legalism, of turning the Christian life into a list of do's and don'ts, is much easier than the way of love. To be concerned only with our personal religious life or the personal moral lives of others is much easier than Jesus' way of reaching out into the pain and heartache of other's lives and giving ourselves as Christ gave himself.

It is our simple ordinary love for others, not our morality, not our beliefs, that identifies us as a disciple of Christ. By love, Jesus said, “all will know that you are my disciples.”  A disciple is simply a follower of the way of Jesus, and his way is the way of love.

His is the way of finding those who are lost and broken and loving them back to life again. Love is what we are to be about.

But how can we teach the world to love? Even if you're not a Christian, why is love still a necessity?

For one, we must love because love heals where hatred tears apart.

There is already too much hatred and cruelty in our world. People's lives have been shattered and broken by hatred. Hatred and hateful talk tears apart communities and relationships. During Doctor Who last week, the Doctor started mixing up chemicals to make a potion to save a sick man, the doctor gave a passionate speech about hatred having created one genocide that day already and he would not stand by and watch another. It was all very dramatic! Meanwhile back in the real world, 24 hours later I found myself here praying with you, and you and you, for action in Darfur, to save people where hatred and genocide has torn apart lives.

Love has a way of healing the broken places in our lives and in our world. Love has a healing power like nothing else. If we want to make the world a better place, a safer place, a kinder, gentler place, it will have to be done with love. We love those whom no one else loves. We love those who are outcasts of society. We love those who have nowhere else to turn and need a friend. Our world needs people who will genuinely love other people and not judge them for who they are or for what they've done. So many people are in pain; so many are broken. Hatred only increases the pain; love heals the brokenness. Think about Jesus who and how did he love?

It is the small things that Jesus did that serve as guideposts for us who desire to love as he loved.  He not only washed the feet of his disciples, he also spoke freely with social outcasts like the Samaritan woman.  He shared meals with saints and sinners and common folks like you and me.  He took children on his knee and blessed them.  He wept for his friend who had died before calling him out from the tomb.  He was not afraid to touch the lepers nor speak words of hope to the oppressive Roman soldiers. Even as they were driving nails into his hands and feet, Jesus continued to express love in small acts.  He prayed for those who were crucifying him.  He found a way to care for his mother after his death.

Secondly we should love because everyone needs to know that they are loved by someone.

Think for a moment of a person or persons in your life who've surrounded you with love at any time. Can you imagine not ever having known that love? There are many who have never known what it is like to be truly loved. Some may even be here today.There are those who grow up never knowing love and spend their lives searching for love and acceptance and intimacy.

As a soldier I have seen acts of such love in the most strange places. I saw such acts of love by soldiers who professed to be non-religious. Every time they stood guard over a refugee camp or ensured that rations got up the route to those who were being ethnically cleansed then they were providing a service of 'love one another.

"And that to me was very faith-enhancing and faith-building - that in the midst of this inhumanity you're watching a big, hard soldier with tattoos all the way up his arms so he looks like he could rip your head off and eat it for breakfast, holding a little girl and sobbing with her because they've just found the bodies of her parents and knowing that soldier would now die himself to protect her if the situation arose."

Even here in this country and this city, people are searching for a church that will love them. We live in a world full of people who do not know love, who have no idea that there is a God who loves them for who they are. All they've seen are preachers in the media or in their home churches pronouncing condemnation, who speak about the love of God for all people, through clenched teeth. But we must love. We must love; because people are destroying themselves searching for someone, anyone who will love them and accept them.

Finally we must love because without love we die.

Scripture teaches us that the one who does not love abides in death. The same is true for the one who never receives love. Life without love is a living hell. It brings death to the very core of our being. We simply cannot go on without love.

If I were back standing before my god daughter and could respond to her question of why we should be nice, why we should love, I wouldn't give her a sermon, but I would tell her in the clearest possible way, that meanness and hatred only bring pain into people's lives and that we all need to feel loved. And love is expressed in even the smallest acts of kindness. Here at MCC Newcastle such acts may include, the phone call from a friend at church because they missed you, a card from the welcome team, a home made cake at ‘Tea With Dorothy’, a thank you email for organising a social event or the friend sitting on your doorstep waiting for you when you get home from work just to have a quick cup of tea with you because you looked a bit down!

Much to the horror of my parents I have several tattoos in fact my mother is an expert at the ‘why’ game, every time she sees them… “Why dear, Why must you Katie?” Why, Oh Why? One of the ones on my back is written in latin, and it is a quote from the film ‘Moulin Rouge’, Translated it reads. “The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.”

Let us pray (powerpoint change)
Who will you love this week? Who will you let love you this week?

For those of us called by the church, acts of love and kindness claim us as Christ's own. Love shows that Christ is in our lives.. Love heals where hatred tears apart. Everyone needs to know that they are loved by someone. We love because without love we die. And we are Easter people, loving people, loving the world back to life again.

Who will you love this week? Who will you let love you this week?

Amen.