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May 31 - Pentecost Sunday

5/31/2020

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5/31/2020        Hymn 512       Come gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove
It’s Pentecost today, the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This hymn asks the Spirit to enter and direct our lives: not only to comfort us but to change our behavior and make us more Christ-like.   Written in the 18th century, the text was adapted and altered for many different hymnals; our version was settled in the 19th century, when the tune was also written.
--Donna Wessel Walker

Come gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove, 
with light and comfort from above.
Thou be our guardian, thou our guide; 
o’er every thought and step preside.

The light of truth to us display, 
and make us know and choose thy way.
Plant holy fear in every heart, 
that we from thou may not depart.

Lead us the Christ, the living way, 
nor let us from his precepts stray.
Lead us to holiness: 
the road that we must take to dwell with God.

Lead us to heaven, 
that we may share fullness of joy for ever there.
Lead us to God, our final rest, 
to be with him for ever blest.

  • Simon Browne (1680-1732), alt.

The Collect
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson

Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

The Response

Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Benedic, anima mea
25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
26 Yonder is the great and wide sea
with its living things too many to number, *
creatures both small and great.
27 There move the ships,
and there is that Leviathan, *
which you have made for the sport of it.
28 All of them look to you *
to give them their food in due season.
29 You give it to them; they gather it; *
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
30 You hide your face, and they are terrified; *
you take away their breath,
and they die and return to their dust.
31 You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; *
and so you renew the face of the earth.
32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; *
may the Lord rejoice in all his works.
33 He looks at the earth and it trembles; *
he touches the mountains and they smoke.
34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; *
I will praise my God while I have my being.
35 May these words of mine please him; *
I will rejoice in the Lord.
37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. *
Hallelujah!

The New Testament

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

The Gospel
John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”


Optional parts of the readings are set off in square brackets.
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
From The Lectionary Page: http://lectionarypage.net

Reflections from Pastor Autio

 If you browse through our hymnal or virtually any other book of Christian music, I think you will find that the primary vision of the Holy Spirit is rather different than what we have here in this text!  The themes of gentle breezes and the subtle coming of the spirit of God is certainly at odds with the description of the violent wind pictured in the first paragraphs!  The overwhelming picture is one of rushing loud winds, fire, prophecy and a confusing polyglot babble about the deeds of God!
     There is a swirl of movement from private rooms out of public view to a scene of the disciples in middle of the public square.  A verbal avalanche of images pours over and out of the room in which the disciples have until now been gathered. The Spirit and the people of God are on the move and loose in the world!
     Two things are suggested by the story we consider today. First of all, the community to which the Holy Spirit is given is diverse.  It is diverse in ethnicity, nationality and in language.  It is a community gathered by God for the sake of the world.  The picture is one of a multifaceted community beloved by God. Despite the differences it is also a community unified in purpose.  Such is the body of Christ we are called to be part of.
     The second thing which stands out is the connection with creation. The granting of the Holy Spirit helps us recall the image of the presiding of this Spirit over the first creation of all things.    It is the same Spirit which moved over the deep in the beginning which now appears in Jerusalem. Creation is now being renewed and recommissioned.
       In the beginning humans were called to be more than mere occupants of God’s Earth.  We were created for a twofold purpose: to love one another and to care for what God has made.  What happened that a second invitation to be what we were intended to be needed to be announced?
         First, we have largely failed in our call found in Genesis to be caretakers of the earth God created and bestowed upon us.
     Secondly, we have failed to love and care for each other as God’s beloved people.
     Here and now in this account from Acts, humankind is once again invited to participate with God in the care and tending of not only each other but also of God’s good creation. 
 
     We find ourselves largely gathered in isolated rooms by the Covid pandemic.    And while this pandemic is not of God, it is an opportunity for us to be bold in our proclamation of the mighty acts of God in new ways and to many more people than we every believed possible.     
      We may not be able go out together in our current circumstances but are discovering that is possible to be with and for people in many ways.  We can call, write letters, use all the modern forms of communication at our disposal to reach out to people.  We can advocate for clean air and water.  We can help pay for necessary supplies for those in dire need.  We can care for each other in many and varied ways!
 
     The spirit called the disciples to leave their safe and isolated room to move out into the world with boldness.  The Spirit gave them tools to do this work: language and courage.  It called them to move into the world with boldness.  They were given a new life of purpose and meaning.
     The first disciples were given this life in a powerful and dramatic way: with fire and wind.  The Sprit gives us this life in the waters of Baptism.  Perhaps this is where our image of the serene spirt brushing our faces with a gentle breeze comes from. Regardless of how the gift of Holy Spirit was given, the call is to be a rush of wind in the world God created.
 
   .   What does that life look like and what does it involve?    It is life of boldness, speaking against oppression, injustice and persecution.  It is a life which involves speaking the truth to power. It means caring for God’s creation and all of God’s people as well.  It means seeing people not only in our own neighborhoods and congregations as those needing and of being worthy of God’s love and care, but also those in refugee camps, detention centers and other places where the weak and powerless are discarded.  We can be and are called to be, signs of the life-giving Spirit of God for and throughout the entire world. That is both disturbing and reassuring!
     May the Holy Spirit Guide and empower you to be a blessing to the world and to all people you may meet.
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May 24

5/24/2020

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5/24/2020        WLP 778        We all are one in mission
In the Gospel lesson this morning we hear Jesus’ prayer for our unity with him, the Father, and each other.  This contemporary hymn reminds us that our unity is the basis for all our service and mission. Its author, Howard M. “Rusty” Edwards III, is a Lutheran pastor in Georgia who has connections to both Michigan and the Episcopal Church: he is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and studied and taught at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.
--Donna Wessel Walker
​
 Seventh Sunday of Easter
  • Acts 1:6-14
  • 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
  • John 17:1-11
  • Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36​

The Collect
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The First Lesson
Acts 1:6-14
When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

The Response
Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36   
Exsurgat Deus

1 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; *
let those who hate him flee before him.
2 Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away; *
as the wax melts at the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; *
let them also be merry and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his Name;
exalt him who rides upon the heavens; *
YAHWEH is his Name, rejoice before him!
5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, *
God in his holy habitation!
6 God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom; *
but the rebels shall live in dry places.
7 O God, when you went forth before your people, *
when you marched through the wilderness,
8 The earth shook, and the skies poured down rain,
at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, *
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You sent a gracious rain, O God, upon your inheritance; *
you refreshed the land when it was weary.
10 Your people found their home in it; *
in your goodness, O God, you have made provision for the poor.
33 Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; *
sing praises to the Lord.
34 He rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; *
he sends forth his voice, his mighty voice.
35 Ascribe power to God; *
his majesty is over Israel;
his strength is in the skies.
36 How wonderful is God in his holy places! *
the God of Israel giving strength and power to his people!
Blessed be God!

The Epistle
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel
​John 17:1-11
Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Optional parts of the readings are set off in square brackets.
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
Reflections from Pastor Autio

Well it is late in Easter; it is the seventh Sunday and as I write this it is also the feast of the Ascension of our Lord.  Jesus has gone to the Father and the question both we and the Disciples have is “now what?”  The Acts reading gives us some guidance and it can be summed up this way: The Holy Spirit will come, we will be witnesses and “Don’t stand around cloud gazing.” God sends the Spirit to strengthen us and enable us to witness to God’s actions in the world for the world.  We are further called to be active in our witness rather than passive in living out our faith.  We are called to ponder two questions by the texts for this Sunday. The first is why Jesus came and to consider deeply what it is that we are called to witness to.
    
The answer to that question is this: Jesus came to us because we cannot come to him.  Jesus came to where we are in order to get our attention up close and personal. He came to call our names and teach us by his life and interactions with humanity what God wishes for us.  God came in human form to call us home.  Dennis Covington describes it like this:

​“Most of the children in my neighborhood are called home for suppers by their mothers.  They open the backdoors; wipe their hands on their aprons and yell, “Willie!” or “Joe!” or “Ray!”  Either that or they use a bell, bolted to the doorframe and loud enough to start the dogs barking in backyards all along the street.  But I was always called home by my father, and he didn’t do it in the customary way.  He walked down the alley all the way to the lake.  If I was close, I could hear his shoes on the gravel before he came into sight.  If I was far, I would see him across the surface of the water, emerging out of shadows and into the gray light.  He would stand with his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker while he looked for me.  This is how he got me to come home.  He always came to the place where I was before he called my name.”
(Dennis Covington, SALVATION ON SAND MOUNTAIN, 1995)
 
     In all that he did, his interactions with ordinary folks, politicians and religious authorities and in his death and resurrection and his ascension, he called us to come home. In Jesus God reached out to us in love where we are. God called us to come home to God in the voice of a loving human being we could hear and respond to.  Ok: Second question: Now what?
    
     A pastor once saw a signpost in front of a church which read:
             
                            Jesus Loves You.  Donations Accepted
 
God in Christ came to us in the life of Jesus to call us home, to let us know we are loved beyond any measure with we could imagine.  As the sign says. Jesus love you.  No price to be paid.  We can’t earn what God gives. 
 
    Donations to the cause will be welcome, however. We are called to tell story of God’s love for the world to the world.  Our witness is our response to the invitation so graciously given to us.

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May 17

5/17/2020

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Hymn 516  
    Come down, O Love divine

In the Gospel lesson today Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with his disciples for comfort, strength, and mission. This fervently personal hymn expresses the yearning of a soul drawn to God, seeking the Spirit. Originally Italian, it was translated by R. F. Littledale in the 19th century.  Ralph Vaughan Williams named the tune “Down Ampney” for the Gloucestershire village where he was born.
--Donna Wessel Walker

1 Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardor glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

2 O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

3 And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till Love create a place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 17:22-31
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
Psalm 66:7-18

The Collect

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson

Acts 17:22-31
Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

The Response

Psalm 66:7-18
Jubilate Deo
7 Bless our God, you peoples; *
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
8 Who holds our souls in life, *
and will not allow our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us; *
you have tried us just as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare; *
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water; *
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
12 I will enter your house with burnt-offerings
and will pay you my vows, *
which I promised with my lips
and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts
with the smoke of rams; *
I will give you oxen and goats.
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, *
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
15 I called out to him with my mouth, *
and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had found evil in my heart, *
the Lord would not have heard me;
17 But in truth God has heard me; *
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, *
nor withheld his love from me.

The Epistle

1 Peter 3:13-22
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

The Gospel

John 14:15-21
Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
 
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
From The Lectionary Page: http://lectionarypage.net

Reflections from Pastor Autio on The Gospel Reading

We are called to be a community of a particular sort with a distinctive brand or identity which clearly shows the world around us just who we are.  

The mark, the identifier, of this community is love.  What a simple thing to say and what a difficult thing to do and achieve!  This quote may give us some insight into why this is:
GK Chesterfield said; “In one place in the Bible, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. In another place he tells us to love our enemies. This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.”
Of course, we are not talking about a warm fuzzy feeling focused on one person in hopes that that feeling will be returned so that we can live happily ever after.   Jesus is inviting us into something very different.  He calls us to a life of AGAPE.  This is self-giving, sacrificial love which seeks nothing for itself but instead seeks only to aid and help the other. Love is hard; especially when we are invited by Jesus to love people we don’t really like.

The heart of the matter is his: Loving people you like is difficult enough; how can Jesus’ order us, command us to love even those we don’t like?  In order for this conundrum to be overcome we need to tease out the Gospel in this text.  We need to be able to hear the good news being announced to us.


There are two clues in the reading which point us the grace found here.  The first is this:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”.
We hear these words as law, as a rule, as a command to be obeyed, as a work to be achieved.
 We hear:
“If you want to prove to the world and to God that you love me, then you will have to show it by loving one another.”
That’s what we hear; but Jesus gave us a word of gospel, not law; a word of promise, not judgement.  
“If you love me you will keep my commandments,” This is a statement of gospel truth.  It points toward the reality of a relationship that allows us to love our neighbors, the ones we like and the ones we don’t’ because we are loved by Jesus.  
The point is that the ability to love people is not something we achieve on our own.   It is a gift of God received in our relationship of love with the Christ.
Christ gives love for which we have done nothing to earn and nurtures us so that we are able to love in the same why in which God loves: freely and unself-centeredly.


The Second Key is found in verse 16:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth . . .”  We are not alone in God’s mission to love the world, Jesus promises to be with us, to encourage us, to teach us and to lead us in how to love our friends and enemies. Thus, in the midst of the curious turns and rough spots of life, the Holy Spirit is with us enabling us to answer the call to love one another purely.  
To sum it all up: Agape, self-sacrificing love, fulfills the demands of the law.  Our actions, the response to this is a reflection and result of this fulfillment.  The children of God are infused with the Holy Spirit and to be the body of Christ in the world around us.  We are never on our own or alone, Christ is always with us.

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