I’m thinking today about the one bottom line Jesus Christ left us with, and what it would mean if our churches today actually practiced it.
Today’s Bible readings come in the context of what church calendars mark as the date of the Feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle. Matthias is mentioned in only one brief passage in the book of Acts (1:15-26) as the person chosen by Jesus’ disciples after his crucifixion to replace Judas, Jesus’ betrayer.
Matthias was chosen by lot after the disciples prayed for guidance as to who would be most suited for that solemn role of membership in the core of Jesus’ ministry. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a Christian leader, and what the church is called to be.
The Gospel reading is John 15, especially verse 1 and verses 6-16. When I think about what churches should be, one guide is these words of Jesus:
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15: 9-12
A lot has been written lately about why people, especially younger people, are no longer attending churches. It is definitely not because their hunger for love is less. But a big reason, I believe, is that churches are seen more as dispensers of judgment, criticism, and tribal exclusivism than they are sources of love.
Imagine what would happen if churches and pastors lived by what Jesus said is “my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” In fact, imagine an entire world in which Christ’s love for us—so strong and so profound that he endured the fatal path of excruciating pain and humiliation on the cross—was the model for how we regarded and treated each other.
I believe that the church exists to be the incubator of that global community of love. It begins with the simple commandment that we lead not with judging or looking down on people who are different from us, but with love—the same love that God shows us each day we are alive.