John 13:34-35 is the lectionary text this week, but since we're doing a series on Acts, I won't get a chance to expand on this very valuable analogy.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
If this short teaching from Jesus could be summed up in an image it would
be the basin and towel with which he had just washed his disciples’ feet. He had stooped and taken their feet in his
hands, cleaned the dust and dirt of the day from them and with care dried
them. And then he had instructed them to
go and do likewise. They are to make
themselves known as followers by acts of humble service and loving care.
It is by a love like this – humble, willing to serve, possibility
even willing to die – that should set the disciples of Jesus apart and make
them visibly marked as his followers.
As the parent of an 8-year-old I have
become very familiar with marks that set individuals apart. I’m talking about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the image on the flank of everypony
in Equestria: the cutie mark. Each pony is marked with an image that represents
their special gift. Often the gift and the cutiemark that it represents are way
each pony serves their community. The
pony who’s marked with butterflies loves and cares for animals and nature. The pony marked with apples farms and feeds
the town.
Cute though the marks – and the message – may be, the
series’ emphasis on relationships, welcoming strangers, second chances, making
friends out of enemies and discovering the way each one can contribute to the strength
of the community has been a great seed for conversation about those things. There has been much speculation in my
household about what each of us might have as a cutie mark if we were ponies. What one image sums up each of our special combinations of
gifts and interests in a tattoo-like mark?
As Jesus’ disciples we know that we do each have gifts which
we have been given by God. These are the
things we’re good and the things we love.
The things that work together with the gifts of others to build
community and show God’s love to the world.
The love by which Jesus loved his disciples and the world
is a powerful love. We are charged with
bearing that love in our lives now. Jesus passes his
very love onto us and we are branded. And
the way we put that mark on display is through the humility, service, care,
compassion and non-violent acts of just peace. Whatever each of our particular ‘cutie marks’
might be we are all marked and can be
identified as Jesus’ disciples by his love.
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Finally, because the
internet, these.
