 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
— Jesus, John 13:34–35 Welcome to Thursday of Holy Week. This is where stuff gets real. Jesus’ iconic statement above is frequently quoted, but its location in the Gospels is often forgotten. It comes during what scholars call the “Farewell Discourse” in the Upper Room. Jesus is getting ready to leave his disciples after three years, and he explicitly shares what he wants them to focus on. Jesus doesn’t actually give many commands in the New Testament. He talks about them on numerous occasions, but this one is special. It’s his command, not just a command. But in the Upper Room, with tensions high during that Passover meal, this new command falls on deaf ears. Amazingly, the disciples interrupt Jesus four different times in the coming minutes, focused completely on the fact that he says he’s going away. And each time, Jesus redirects their attention once again toward his command to love. It’s hard to focus on love when everything around you feels like it’s falling apart, isn’t it? Like the disciples, we want answers! We want solutions! And Jesus says, whatever happens, you have my command. That’s why a command as simple as “love one another” has to be repeated over, and over, and over again. We usually change the subject. The tradition of remembering the call to love in the Upper Room on Thursday of Holy Week has been around since the very first Easter celebration. But about 800 years ago, today began to be called “Maundy Thursday.” Maundy is the Latin word for command — where we get our English word “mandate.” Maundy Thursday is a chance to remember that the mandate of Jesus is to love one another — and that love looks like service. Because on that night in the Upper Room, immediately before Jesus gives his command, we are told that he showed his disciples the completeness of his love. He grabbed a basin and towel and went through the ritual of washing their feet, taking on the role of a servant. The mandate is love, and the method is service. Love lays down its life. Love puts another’s needs before its own. Love serves in tangible, physical ways. When tensions are high and big questions linger — like they did on that first Maundy Thursday — the calling from Jesus could never be more clear. In the midst of the questions, in the midst of your fears, your frustrations, and your confusion… love each other. Serve each other. Prioritize the needs of those around you with compassion and humility. Make it tangible. Let the importance of the command sink in. Thankfully, several disciples would eventually see how central this value of Jesus was for God’s people. Years later, the disciple-turned-apostle John would famously write a letter to church leaders and restate Jesus’ command: Let us love one another, for love comes from God. In one chapter (1 John 4), John restates this command six times — almost as if to signify that if Jesus had to repeat it over and over to get through to him, he’ll need to do so even more for others. In one month, I’ll be sitting in the spot where John wrote those words near the end of his life, near Ephesus. I intend to take that space to hear them repeated in my own heart over and over again, until they become rooted even more deeply in me. Tonight, though, I’ll sit on pillows around some low tables and share a communion table, a basin, and a towel with others to remember the humility and service of Jesus. I hope it stirs me to fresh actions of love in all the places around me where love is absent. And I hope that you — in whatever way God is stirring you — can lean into the most significant mandate Jesus ever gave, on this special Thursday. Be empowered by the Holy Spirit this week to practice new love toward people and loving approaches to situations. Don’t change the subject every time Jesus brings it up. Love each other. Jesus, may everyone know that I am your disciple, by my love. Peace, Keith
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 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
-1 Thessalonians 5:11 I was walking back to my car from my daughter’s middle school soccer game last week. It was at her school, so there was a lot going on around us. One of the other events was the elementary school running club practicing laps around the building. I took notice because in just a few short years, I will probably be coaching many of them. I was struck by how small these kids looked. My goodness, they were so tiny! Having apparently left their coordination over with their backpacks, they sort of galloped/limped around the school on little toothpicks with feet. They stopped regularly because they were tired—or possibly because they just forgot what they were doing altogether. They finished their practice and put their backpacks on, meandering back to the pavilion for pickup. As they walked by, I remember thinking to myself, These little kids will learn and grow so much in the coming years. It's cool. Interestingly, I was walking past the school playground at the same time, where siblings had been hanging out on the swings to pass the time and pretending they were defending a castle as if their lives depended on it. So I’m walking by on one side, and the little running club kids are walking on the sidewalk on the other side. And one of the playground 5-year-olds points at them and yells, full of wonder, to no one in particular: “LOOK! The big kids are going bye-bye!” I love it when kids just randomly state normal stuff that they’re seeing, for no reason. But it was the “big kids” wording that caught my ear. I smiled. Those are not big kids, my dude. Those are 4th graders wearing backpacks that weigh more than they do. But my response was incorrect. Those absolutely were big kids. To the playgrounders, they were independent, capable, tall, and they had their own cool backpacks. They had years of lived experience that a 5-year-old could only dream of. They had seen things. They were allowed to walk alone across the parking lot. And to the running club kids, the middle school soccer players were big. And to the middle schoolers, high schoolers are confident and mature. And to the high schoolers, college students have arrived. That’s how it works, isn’t it? Each one of us is in that continuum of influence, and it goes far beyond age. You are the “big kid” to someone. Maybe you’ve walked through a difficult divorce and are finally thriving on the other side of it. There’s someone watching you saying, “I don’t know if I’ll ever heal like that.” Perhaps you’re struggling in your faith, and you see someone whose faith seems deep and steady, and the love of Jesus tangibly emerges from them. They’re a big kid for you in that moment. Maybe you moved into the region years ago, and a new friend at church is just trying to get settled in after a work transition. That's an opportunity to be a big sister or a big brother. Or, maybe you’re reading this as a teenager and you have a little sibling. Literally, you’re the big kid. It’s often been said that “we all could use a Paul and a Timothy” in our lives. We all need those who can offer encouragement to us from their growth and life experience, and we all need to be looking around to see how we can be an encouragement to others who might be earlier in the journey in one way or another. I could look across my church and find in every single person something I can learn from their life experience—and hopefully, somewhere that I could be an encouragement to them (in genuine humility, not arrogance). It doesn't matter how weak or small you may feel when you look at some people who look "bigger" to you. We all have big-kid-power that can influence people for good. As followers of Jesus, let’s understand the power that we have if we extend our hands to those we can encourage. And let’s never lose the humility to notice that God’s encouragement is available in all sorts of ways from people around us who have hard-earned wisdom through their own faith and life experiences. Jesus, help me see where my own experiences and faith journey can be an encouragement to someone else today. Peace, Keith  Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
-Philippians 2:3-4 I had the privilege of officiating a wedding several weeks ago of a former member grad student in our church community. It was a wonderful celebration; a coming together of two unique and wonderful families, who both brought such richness into this celebration. Long after the ceremony was over and the wedding feast had been served, the music was blaring and (mostly younger) folks flooded the dance floor to express their joy. But it was a little later in the night when a moment caught my eye. The young bride was every bit of a party dancer. Free and spunky, she loved expressing her joy without reservation: arms up, singing along, laughing with bright eyes. The groom's mother was full of her own joy, without question. But her way of expressing it was absolutely not on the dance floor jumping to "Cotton-Eyed Joe." But at one point their eyes met. The young bride had a huge smile on the dance floor and motioned an invitation to her new mother-in-law. And though it was not her normal style of expression, there was hardly a moment's hesitation before she rose from the chair and headed out to meet her new daughter in the middle of the crowd, with a big smile and willingness to join into the dance. That little moment was a living image of the healing power of God's kingdom. This is a reality where people come toward each other. It's a place where there is a willingness to enter into someone else's interests before their own. It's a world where comfort zones are not as important as sharing joy together, however that may look. That small moment of jiving there on the dance floor, new daughter and new mother learning to be family in a new way-- that's a glimpse of God's kingdom. That day, even after officiating the ceremony and speaking about that very thing, I needed to see a physical reminder of how much joy there is in coming toward one another. We talk a lot about how divided the world is. But this intense division has long-reaching impacts beyond ideological differences. It can cause us to withdraw in all areas, from everyone and everything. It can cause us to have less energy to lay aside our own interests for the interests of others. It can make us hesitant to enter into anyone's reality because relationships feel like they might be full of all sorts of landmines. And most of us are already tired. Maybe it's just better to keep to ourselves. One in the chair. One on the dance floor. But Jesus refuses to let us live that way. Real community means really sharing. Sharing experiences, sharing meals, sharing stories, and sharing our full selves. That sometimes means we won't look particularly impressive. It means we might have to listen to stories we can't easily relate to or participate in activities that don’t come most naturally to us, for the sake of connection. But every time we do that, we heal the world just a little bit of the disease of isolation and loneliness. Every time we actually look to another's interests, we make space for the work of Jesus in us, and through us. Where can you move toward another today? Jesus, open doors for new connection and new understanding with others today. Peace, Keith |
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