Revelation 21:1-6 ; John 13:31-35
I came across a news story last week about a woman who was found living in a car in the Target parking lot. You might wonder if that’s really even news. There are so many homeless people in our country, so many of them living in cars – and some of these may not even consider themselves homeless because at least they are not sleeping in the bushes. At least they have a car and the car is their home. Yet we know it is a far from adequate home.
It was reported in the local newspaper, where it was considered to be newsworthy. Perhaps because it happened in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. King of Prussia is a fairly affluent suburban community outside Philadelphia. It has a very low rate of poverty. Life is generally pretty good. The shopping is excellent – King of Prussia is best known for its giant mall.
At any rate, perhaps it was news because it was in King of Prussia. I don’t imagine things like that are seen very often in King of Prussia. The staff at the Target store were asked by reporters if they knew she was out there in their parking lot, apparently living there. They said, yes, they knew. They chose not to respond – neither calling the police nor reaching out to help. Target remained neutral.
The fact that her car was a silver Mercedes might also have contributed to the newsworthiness of the story. She wasn’t parked out there in a beat-up old Chevy or a Ford van. This was a pretty nice car. One that many people would like to have if they could afford it. Yet, here was this woman, apparently homeless, with a really nice car. Well, it was a 12-year-old nice car, to be fair. But this still creates some cognitive dissonance for us – it doesn’t fit the stereotype of poverty we have in our heads. And we are not sure what to think of this situation.
This is the kind of real-life problem we tend to encounter when we are trying to figure out how to obey Jesus’ new commandment: to love one another just as he has loved us.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
There was actually nothing new about love when he said that. Love was not a new concept at that time. The theology of God’s love had been around for quite a long time. The exhortations to love God and love one another were clearly outlined in the law of Israel. The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy include the commandments to love God, love the neighbor, even love the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt, God says.
The idea of love is nothing new. But Jesus presents it as a new thing, and he seems to want his disciples to feel this command with a new spirit, a new energy, a new commitment. At this moment, Jesus is calling upon them to love with a new urgency in a new way. He is, after all, doing a new thing.
The story we hear today is taking us back to the days before Easter. Back to the place we were a few weeks ago, before he was arrested, before he was crucified. It takes us back to that upper room with Jesus and his disciples sharing a Passover meal before he is arrested. This is where we are at this moment:
The bread has been blessed and broken. Jesus and his disciples all reclined at the table together, relaxed, feasting. And suddenly Jesus says, “One of you will betray me.” They all looked at one another, not sure what to think. Jesus casually picks up the bread, he speaks again, saying, “The one to whom I give this piece of bread, he is the one.” He dips the bread into the wine and hands it to Judas. Judas takes the bread, eats it. Jesus says to him, “Go, do what you have to do,” and Judas immediately leaves.
None of the others, at this point, have a clue. The words about betrayal are disturbing, certainly, but nothing is yet clear to them. As Jesus continues, when Judas had gone out, he now speaks of glory, and love. It will only be in retrospect, after quite some time has passed, that anyone understands what he was saying here: that as I prepare to die I leave you this legacy of love. Love one another and they will know you are my disciples.
Love one another. And, just as we have done with many of Jesus’ most challenging words, we have zealously overanalyzed these words for the purpose of finding our way out of them. Surely he didn’t really mean to love everybody. Without qualification or stipulation? That doesn’t sound right.
To love someone, really love them – in action, not just in theory – is hard and sometimes confusing. We don’t know how to love all the others in the world. How do you love someone who is choosing to live in a Mercedes Benz in the Target parking lot? I mean, is the woman in that car included? And if so, what does that love look like?
The car was spotted by a woman on her way into the store. She looked at the woman in the driver’s seat of the Mercedes and instantly labeled her. A hoarder, she thought. The car was clearly packed with stuff. But she didn’t just let it go; she contacted a friend who was a social worker and together they approached the woman in the car.
They were afraid. They didn’t know how the woman in the car would react to them. Would she be violent? They didn’t know, but they knocked on the window anyway.
How do you speak to someone who has parked her car with all her worldly belongings in the Target parking lot? A woman who, from the smell of it, seems to have been cooped up with her two dogs in this car for a long time? What do you say?
They said, “Can we talk to you?” she said yes. They asked, “Are you living in your car?” She said, yes, for about two years now. They said, we’d like to help you. Do you want help? She said yes. Her name was Lynn.
And they learned the story about how Lynn had gone from enjoying a solid middle-class professional life to her current existence. Her fall had been dramatic and heartbreaking. After a series of losses, betrayals, and health crises, she found herself left with nothing but her car and her dogs.
It turned out that these two women had mutual acquaintances with Lynn, a professional network of friends. So they began reaching out to others and soon a network was woven together to help Lynn get out of her car and back in a home. People cleaned out and repaired her car, others helped Lynn and her dogs get cleaned and groomed, others gathered together clothing, others prepared meals for her and got her a hotel room while they sought permanent housing. They created a safety net for her and made sure that she would have some security.
The fact that two years went by before someone stepped up and loved Lynn enough to get her out of her car causes me to realize how far we fall short of Jesus’ new commandment. This new thing he is doing feels new to us each time we hear it, because it seems hard for us to believe that this is what he is asking us to do.
Love one another just as I have loved you. Love one another, and if you do, then everyone will know you are my disciples. In this love, they will see God’s glory. Christ’s glory. And his glory is to weave love through the brokenness of this world that killed him.
Indeed, as John writes in his Revelation, God is doing a new thing, God is making all things new. The home of God is among mortals, those who are mourning and crying and suffering pain of body, mind, and soul. God does not forsake the suffering in this world. On the contrary, it is God’s desire to be right in the midst of it – wiping away every tear, relieving all suffering, making all things new.
The newspaper columnist David Brooks writes frequently about the fabric of our society and how essential it is to weave a strong fabric. Much of the common cause that used to hold us together has been lost in recent decades, and it is easy to see the negative effects of that loss. What he is advocating for isn’t anything new; it’s actually something old. It’s just that when we lose it, we realize anew how much we need it, how much we need one another. Sometimes people can’t take care of themselves. Sometimes, we can’t pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and carry on. Sometimes we really, truly need one another. And when we do need one another, that is when we are closest to God. Because this is what God is: God is community. God is care for one another. God is love.
And the world will know us as Christians – if we love one another. What a wonderful world this would be.
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Photo: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
