They Will Know You by Your Love
by YVETTE MOORE*
Scripture focus
“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.” These are Jesus’ parting words to the disciples found in John 13: 34-35.
Meditation
Keith Caldwell grew up in John Henry Hale public housing development across the street from the United Methodist Women-supported Bethlehem Community Center in Nashville. Last summer, Mr. Caldwell, coordinator of the Nashville Peace and Justice Center, was a resource person for a study group at United Methodist Women’s National Seminar at the Scarritt-Bennett Center, also in Nashville.
Mr. Caldwell and 10 siblings played sports and had safe fun under the watchful eyes of caring adults at Bethlehem Community Center. He was part of Nashville’s early days of school busing and remembers ladies lined up outside the school with steaming trays of food, serving breakfast to students as they got off the bus because the school said it couldn’t afford to provide that meal.
“I learned later that the Rev. Janet Wolf and her dad were leaders of that campaign,” he told me after one of the Bible studies led by Ms. Wolf at National Seminar. “I was in third grade. That breakfast meant so much to me. I remember being hungry.”
As a young adult, Mr. Caldwell attended Tennessee State University before answering God’s call and enrolling in a local Bible college. There, Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35 spoke to him anew.
“’They’ll know you by your love,’” he said, recalling his epiphany. “I don’t tell you that I’m a Christian; you tell me.”
Mr. Caldwell entered the school believing he was called to the pulpit, but discovered his call to work for justice. He still speaks with passion when sharing how his understanding of God’s call was refined in classes where he learned the Hebrew word for justice, sedek, also means righteousness, and read a speech in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explained, “justice corrects everything that rebels against love.”
And that’s what National Seminar was about: love. Except for the command to love enemies, which can easily be ignored by not acknowledging we have any enemies (my personal favorite) or focusing on just how awful our enemies are, Jesus’ teachings on love are not usually classified with the hard sayings of Christ. To hear some tell it, love is the easy, wimpy part of the Gospel. It’s easy enough to love family, friends and people within our social circles – but what about the others?
National Seminar prepared United Methodist Women members to love neighbors who may be outside our immediate circles, neighbors pushed to the margins of society – immigrants, homeless people, low-wage workers and their families, people of other faiths, students who don’t look like the children in our blood families. National Seminar pushed United Methodist Women members to see how connected our lives – and our salvation – really are to others’ lives.
In John 15:10-11 Jesus said, “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 that your joy may be complete.”
Joy, Christ’s ironic joy, is my lasting impression from National Seminar. The issues United Methodist Women members addressed at National Seminar were difficult and lacked simple, easy to achieve solutions. Honestly, confronting many of the injustices tackled at National Seminar was painful, and could have been depressing and debilitating. But we received joy instead. Joy, hope, excitement and a sense of strength permeated National Seminar worship, Bible study, issue study groups and community-based actions. We had joy in the midst of all that sorrow, as promised.
At the end of the day, Jesus’ words are true: love is the identifying characteristic of Christ’s followers. Walking in that love is not easy or wimpy, but comes with a joy that can only be experienced as we struggle to be faithful to Christ’s command – and glimpse the kingdom of God among us in the process.
*Yvette Moore is an executive secretary for communications for the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.
Date posted : Jan. 02, 2008