Easter 6b
Shelagh Balfour

Psalm 98, John 15:9-17

This past Christmas, one of my gifts was a book called Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness.1 It’s been an enjoyable read, and I’ve learned some interesting things. The thesis of the book is that tangible changes in our environment can create intangible feelings of joy and that joy can have long term effects on our overall wellbeing.

For example, according to the author, vibrant colour brings joy to people and that joy creates energy. My favourite quote from the book is: “beige is …….yellow with all the joy sucked out”. Abundance is also a source of joy. By abundance, the author doesn’t mean amassing more of something than one needs. It’s more like rich environments with abundant sensory elements.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the picture on the front of the bulletin.

 

Potluch detail

This is one small section of a mural painted on the wall of a food co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can see the colour and abundance here.

 

Potluck

Now take a look at the whole mural while I tell you a bit about its story. The artist, David Flechter, created this mural within a multicultural area of Cambridge and with the help of that community. He worked with middle school students to develop ideas of what should be on the mural. A variety of volunteers from the community helped paint and provided paints. Many of their faces are in the mural. A quote in a recent study says: This 25-year-old, 22-foot-tall, and 100-foot-wide mural spanning the side of a building, with photo realistic depictions of not only people and food, but culture and acceptance, continues to capture the spirit of the area.2

Vibrant colour and abundance to represent a vibrant, multicultural community. A community that breaks bread together. This is surely a picture of joy.

 Psalm 98 is a psalm of joy in abundance, this time the abundant faithfulness of God. It celebrates God’s sovereignty over all creation, and calls out not just to Israel, but to all people in all lands, to sing and shout in praise to God. In fact, all of creation is called to join in the celebration.

Shout with joy to the Lord, all you lands; says the psalm. 
    lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
    and let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord.


In the psalm, joy is found both in the abundant variety of God’s creation and in relationship with God. It is rich in joyful images of song and music making because God is merciful and faithful to God’s people, and because everything God is and does is worthy of praise. This is an exuberant form of joy and a great lead in to today’s gospel.

This reading from John continues directly from what we heard last week, building on and expanding the theme of abiding in Jesus and bearing good fruit. It brings in additional themes of love and joy that weave in and out of these chapters of John that contain Jesus’s final instruction to his disciples.

In the verses read last week, Jesus told his disciples to abide in him as he abides in them. In doing so, they will be enabled to bear good fruit. Now, as he continues, he elaborates on that by saying not just ‘abide in me’ but ‘abide in my love: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. And then he adds, I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

To “Abide” is “to remain stable or fixed in a state” or to “continue in a place”. Jesus said, If you keep my commandments, you will abide (remain stable in) in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. This stable abiding in God’s love has enabled Jesus to fulfil the task that was appointed to him. And, as he prepares to leave them, he asks the same of his disciples. The task that is appointed is to love one another as he has loved them.

I want to emphasise that this is not suggesting a transactional relationship. Jesus is not saying that, if we are diligent in keeping his commandments he will graciously allow us to experience his love for us. He has already told his disciples that it is only if we abide in him that we will be able to do any good at all because without him we can do nothing. Humbling, but true. So, to keep his commandments and to abide in his love both require that he already abides in us, something he reinforces when he says You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.

So what does this mean and what does it have to do with joy? Jesus said: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. God’s love flows from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the disciples, and, after Jesus death and resurrection, from the disciples into the world. This is a self-giving love, a love that is ready to sacrifice for the good of another. This is a turning outward from ourselves to love others as our Lord Jesus loves us.

This is a challenging gospel to preach to a highly individualistic culture. It is a challenge to live when we once again face an intensifying pandemic and hear people respond with blame and with defiance of public health orders. It is a challenge to live when we continue to hear of racially motivated killings across North America. And yet, Jesus says we can and must do this if we abide in his love.

When Jesus commands us to love one another as he loves us, he is not asking us to share warm, fuzzy feelings with one another, or give lip service to concerns like racial justice. Last week in her sermon, Donna reminded us of what we know, that actively striving to fulfil our baptismal promises is the way in which we produce the good fruit of abiding in Jesus. It is in tangible actions for and with others that we love others. It is in making sacrifices to help heal God’s creation, or to ensure others can eat or have a safe place to live, or stay well.

In his book The Day the Revolution Began, N.T. Wright provides a fresh look at the meaning and significance of Jesus’s crucifixion. In Jesus’s death on the cross, Wright says, we are restored to what we were meant to be from the beginning of creation; image-bearers of God. God’s love flows from the Father to the Son, from the Son to his disciples, and from the disciples into the world. We are restored to God’s original calling for us to bear the divine image in the world, to steward Creation on God’s behalf, including loving one another as God loves us. And in returning to our true selves, our joy is complete and we become joy-bearers for the world.

According to Karoline Lewis, who is a Professor of Biblical Preaching, ‘joy’ and ‘grace’ share the same root word in Greek. With that in mind she says,” Joy may very well be a feeling of grace, the emotion of grace, even the response to grace. Joy is that indescribable sense when you find yourself experiencing abundant grace. In other words, amidst [the challenges of life], joy is not an answer. It’s an affirmation.” Joy is an affirmation of Gods’ grace when we feel overwhelmed by events around us. It’s the security of God’s strength behind us as we fulfil our calling to love one another. It’s the hope that comes from knowing that even when we cannot see the path we’re on, still we abide in Jesus’ love just as he abides in the Father’s love.

In the Potluck mural, with all its vibrant colour and its abundance, I believe we see an image of God’s abundant grace and love and the joy it calls out of us. As we battle our weariness in these challenging times, may we draw strength from the knowledge of God’s abiding love; may we find joy in God’s abundant grace, may we shout for joy at God’s mercy and faithfulness, and may we be joy-bearers for the world. Amen.

 

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness  by Ingred Fetell Lee; Hachette Book Group

The Multi-Layered City: Exploring Central Square, Cambridge; A project by the students in the Urban Worlds (Anthropology 158) class at Brandeis University.