Easter 5 – C

May 2, 2010

The Rev. Dorian McGlannan

On June 24, 1995 at Ellis Park in the city of Johannesburg, the South African rugby team the Springboks, in an unprecedented pumping of flesh, beat the New Zealand All Blacks, reportedly the best rugby team in the world. The build-up to the game was as anxiety ridden as any event could be because more rested on the outcome of this game than any casual rugby fan could imagine.   That South Africa won the world cup that year had more political ramifications than impact on the world of sports although this historic event did make it into the sports pages of the international community.    The political ramifications had to do with the authentic birthing into reality the South African slogan “One team, one country.”

In the days of apartheid, South African blacks hated the Springboks because they represented the worst of apartheid.  The Afrikaners, the white oppressors, who had ruled South Africa with an iron fist for a couple of centuries, loved the Springboks and the rugby they played.  Just as some have said that ice hockey is the national religion of Canada, many have also said that rugby is the national religion of South Africa.  So how did this game become a good thing in the life of most South Africans?  How did a sport that historically divided the races of South Africa become a uniting force?  It was basically the work of one man, Nelson Mandela. 

When Nelson Mandela was released after spending 27 years in prison, he could have emerged spitting fire, whipping up the hatred of black South Africa.  He could have emerged with a force of vengeance that would have thrown South Africa into endless years of violence.  But instead he came onto the political scene with more love than one could ever have imagined coming from someone who spent the better part of his adult life in prison.  He emerged onto the political landscape of a badly scared South Africa with a desire for peace.  This whole story is told in John Carlin’s book Playing the Enemy and the companion movie “Invictus” which will soon be released on DVD.  No question about it, it is a magnificent story.

During his time in prison and as soon as he was out, Mandela was determined to melt the hearts of his enemies and indeed he did.   From the prison guards on Robben Island where he lived for much of his imprisonment, to members of the South African version of the Klu Klux Klan  all the way to the top in the person of President P.W. Botha.  In the words of the author of Playing the Enemy: “Few could withstand Mandela’s charm offensive.”

This, my friends, is what the love commandment is all about.  In today’s reading from the gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  In our vestry Bible study this past week, one of our more Biblically minded members asked: “So what’s new about this commandment? After all, it is the second of the commandments Moses brought down with him from Mt. Sinai.”  I have not been able to find a good answer to this question except to say that clearly Jesus was once again placing this commandment as the most important idea he could leave with his disciples. In this particular reading, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified but it could just as well have been placed near the time of the ascension because in either case, Jesus was no longer going to be physically present. How on earth would the disciples be able to survive without him, how would they be able to manage without Jesus’ daily interpretations of life and his wise guidance?   They would survive by being loving.   Notice that Jesus is describing this as a commandment.  Now I don’t know about you but the average person certainly does not buy into the idea of being commanded to love.  Even in an arranged marriage, the families who do the arranging do not command the couple to love each other.  They just hope through their wisdom that they have come up with a good match that will benefit the lives of all involved, that the couple will grow in love for each other.  But Jesus commands his disciples to love.  He sees love as a discipline, a way of keeping the world in harmony, a way of working for the common good.  This does not mean that this kind of love is fake or that people who practice this kind of love are pretending.  As in the case of Nelson Mandela, no one ever accused him of being a hypocrite or even a crafty politician.  What those around him did see was a highly disciplined man who was determined to bring peace to his country though love.

In 1992, there was a story on NPR about a Jewish couple who lived in Lincoln, Nebraska who were being badly harassed by a member of the Klu Klux Klan.  They considered leaving Lincoln but then they decided to love him until he stopped.  It is a remarkable story as it turned out that the man from the Klan was handicapped and quite ill.  Over a number of visits and time spent together, they got to know each other from a human perspective and, incredibly enough, when Harry’s health started to decline to where he could no longer live on his own, he moved in with this Jewish couple where he stayed until death came to take him.

In her best-selling book Queen Beas and WannaBees, author Rosalind Wiseman writes about the incredibly pervasive phenomenon of meanness among middle school girls.  But she doesn’t tell the girls to ignore the mean behavior but to actively address it by telling their tauntor how it feels.  In other words take an active role in trying to get this kind of behavior to stop. It is a response of love and reason.

The love commandment, which Jesus leaves with his disciples, is no passive mushy piece of advice such as found in a British agony column.  This kind of love requires as much discipline as that of a soldier because it is a life and death battle for bringing peace to this world.  It requires thinking ahead and not being reactive.  Mandela spent many hours in prison practicing how he would respond to a whole range of situations and people who might come into his world once he was released.  What would happen if we actually practiced the love commandment on our own before we met up with those whom we find it difficult to love?

Unlike the spontaneous nature of romantic love, this kind Christian love, often described as agape, is as different from being bit by the love bug as you can imagine. In the Greek, there are two words: eros and agape.  In our limited English there is just the one so we have to work a bit harder to get at what Jesus is saying.   But once we infuse our bodies with agape, the kind of love Jesus puts to a commandment, our lives will change and the circle of love will increase and grow through all whose lives we touch.