John 14:8-17
Do as I have commanded: love one another
This is Pentecost Sunday. The story of Pentecost is told in the book of Acts. There we read that people from many walks of life gathered in one room and it was suddenly filled with a mighty wind and people saw tongues of fire. It’s a very dramatic scene. Those Christians, the first followers of the Way of Jesus, were doing something radical. They were doing something new. The Apostle Paul describes what they were doing in this way: You are no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female,” let’s add, gay or straight or trans or black or white or brown or yellow or red. That does not mean that we ignore all these differences. We need to see each other as different. We are not all the same. The point is that we honor each other as a human being worthy of love–our love. We don’t have to always agree with each other. We don’t have to always like each other. I learned a great phrase last week– ”Manifest Dignity.” Every human being has dignity. And the early church organized around this principle ,and they looked for ways to share this good news with others in their communities. And they didn’t stop. They did not stop.
Now let me skip over to the Gospel of John and the lectionary reading there. It is a very different scene. There is no mighty wind, no tongues of fire. There is just Jesus and his followers. He is talking to them about his impending death which is sure to come soon. And he says to them, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” “Love one another.”
How can we not let our hearts be troubled these days. The deaths at Robb School in Texas, and the killings in Buffalo, and more gun deaths in Tennessee and we are just waiting to see where it happens next. How can our hearts not be troubled? Mass shootings make the front page, but most gun deaths are suicide. In 2020, 54 percent of gun deaths in the US were suicide. That year, 2020, for the first time in US history more people under the age of 19 died from gun violence than from car accidents. How can our hearts not be troubled?
I heard not long ago that there are more gun shows in the US than there are Starbucks.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, Jesus said, love one another. Jesus could not be any clearer. The antidote to violence and the fear it breeds is love. Redemptive violence may feel good for the moment, but only redemptive love can cast out fear. Only love can create life-sustaining communities. The greatest evil is the lack of love for our neighbor. The greatest good is to love our neighbor.
Amanda Gorman speaks to us today when she says, “Maybe everything hurts. Our hearts shadowed and strange. But only when everything hurts, may everything change.
We can be agents of change. Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
I want to invite you to be an agent of change this morning to join Sally and me and make the Sandy Hook pledge. You may not be ready to do this. You did not come to church this morning thinking you would be asked to consider this. You may want to take a copy of the pledge home and think about it. I want to give everyone space to say, “not today. This is not why I came to church.” But if you would like to sign, there are copies here on the communion table. I want to suggest that if you choose to sign it, please sign two copies–one to take home and one that can we send to the Wichita Eagle with a cover letter that says we the undersigned members and friends of Pine Valley Christian Church have signed the Sandy Hook Promise.
Here is the promise. It reads like this: “I promise to do all I can to protect children from gun violence by encouraging and supporting solutions that create safer, healthier homes, schools, and communities.”
If you so inclined, send a copy to our senators and to the governor and to your representative in the state legislature and to the mayor and every elected official you can think of and then invite friends and neighbors to join you.
The way ahead is clear. If you see something, say something, then organize to do something.
Joe Hill, a labor organizer, was sentenced to death for his troubles. Before he died, he was given a chance to say his last words. He told his friends, “Don’t agonize. Organize.” We can start today.