Make yourselves at home in my love. John 15 Sermon

John 15   The Message

9-10 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.

11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.

16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.

I love reading this passage. I love lingering in it and feeling it linger in me. To sense the love of God, the Love that created and continues to create the universe, wrapping itself around me and soaking into my being. 

Take a moment to close your eyes and hear these words again and let them soak into your being: “ I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.”  “Make yourselves at home in my love.”

I brought my cat Sabastian home from the humane society in September.  He was and still is a skittish little thing. He was scared to death when I let him out of his carrier. He hid in the closet for a couple of days and then moved in under the bed. He still makes tracks under the bed when someone new comes around. 

I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to stay with us. But I knew it was going to work out when he curled up with me in my chair. He was finally making himself at home with me and my love for him. It wasn’t perfect yet, he still had some issues, but we were on our way.

That is what I picture when I hear “Make yourselves at home in my love.” Curl up with me, with the words I have left for you, and feel safe and loved and at peace, even when things aren't quite perfect.

Perhaps you are more of a dog person. How do you know that your dog has made you his/her home? My little dachshund, Holly, would settle in on my lap, rest her head on my chest, or curl up under my blanket.  She was at home with my love.

Can you envision yourself resting in God’s love as Jesus must have been able to? Curling up in the peace, the approval of God in moments of rest?

Yes I love reading and experiencing these words. But how does one preach something that speaks so well for itself? I mean what more can I possibly add?

  

I suppose I can remind us that it is through us that God pours out his love to others so that they too might learn to make their home in his love. How else will someone who is afraid and discarded, like my Sabastian was, feel the touch of God’s love? How else will God’s love clothe and feed someone who is hungry and cold but through your love for them? How else can someone, maybe even you, experience forgiveness except through the forgiveness that comes through the love of another, maybe even you? How else can someone know the radical acceptance of God except through your acceptance of them?

Those things can be hard to do. But the longer Sebastian makes his home in my love, the more certain he becomes of himself and the more willing to love others. He even stopped hissing at our other cat. Maybe it works the same for us. The more we spend time in God's love for us the quicker we are to love others. And maybe we will stop hissing at each other!

How do we do that? Jesus says I kept my Father’s commands and made my home in his love. I promise you, Sebastian does not keep my commands very well, but he has made his home anyway. When I hear those words from Jesus I immediately think about the 10 commandments. I think about all the rules I am supposed to follow. There is a problem with that. We can follow all those rules without ever truly loving. Obedience often comes from fear.

I have come to understand keeping God’s commandments as simply loving. Jesus left us with 2 commandments. Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. 

That is what I hear. Make your home in love. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Sometimes you will break the rules but you will know, even then, the love of God. Because home is a place where love is. Love is the place where home is.

Jesus calls us friends. And yes, friends put their lives on the line for one another. But what does that mean? Well its more than taking a bullet for your friend. Hopefully that never happens. But instead let's talk about being open and vulnerable. About letting others touch our hearts even when it could mean ours will be hurt. Maybe even sharing with another about how you make your home in God’s love.  They might laugh at you, but they laughed at Jesus too. You’d be in good company. Laying down our lives is about being vulnerable. To each other, to God, to all of creation. Sebastian makes himself vulnerable when he falls asleep on my lap, or when he doesn’t run and hide.

Make your home in God’s love. Get up in the morning feeling sheltered. Come back after a rough day feeling safe and at peace. When it feels like the relationship with God is showing some neglect, take time to clean it up and make it comfortable and shareable. Just like you would your home.

Sebastian was discarded and caged. He was depressed and afraid. I chose him. This might be your story as well. Whatever your circumstance, God chooses you to take home to his love and be with him.

Take time to curl up with God’s Word and God’s presence and make yourself at home with them.

And remember the root command: Love one another.