Fifth Sunday in Easter, Cycle C

John 13:33-35

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorif y him at once.” Whenever I read that passage, my first reaction is to say, “Huh?” I hear the words, but I don't really understand them. Yes, I know who the Son of Man is, and I even know to what Jesus is referring – his crucifixion and death. If he had just said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified” I wouldn't have a problem. Well, I guess I'd still have a little problem. You see, I'm not sure what “glorified” means. But I don't think I'm alone. Go look up the word “glory”, or even “glorify” and you will see what I mean. Or just think of how we use those words. “That movie glorifies violence”. Glory be to God! A woman's hair is her glory. When we won the game, we got the glory! I restored my car to its former glory!

I think the word “glory” refers to something that defines a person or thing, and to glorify means to show that. Obviously it means more, but let's start there. The Crucifixion and death of Jesus shows something about his very nature – tied in to his self-sacrificing love for us. And in that moment we get a glimpse of God Himself, because if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. But in response to Jesus' submission to the will of the Father, God will glorify him – raise him up to new life, and that will show God's power and love; and he will do it now, not at the end of time. So I think I can wrap my mind around the idea that to glorify in this context means to show something about God's power.

But then we read the next part of the gospel selection: “I give you a new commandment; Love one another.” Well, that part isn't new. The words may vary a bit, but all through the old testament you have that command. And it isn't even unique to Christianity or Judaism. But the part that is new follows: “As I have loved you, so you should love one another.” How does Jesus love his disciples? Enough to die for them. That is what Jesus sets for uis as a goal.

And finally, Jesus says, “This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” And that ties the first part to the second part.

When Jesus dies on the cross, we learn something of what God is like. God loves us enough to die for us. When Jesus is raised from the dead, we learn something more. God overcomes death for those who submit to His will. God will never be outdone in generosity, and he will not let his faithful ones remain in the grave. In those actions, God is shown forth, God is manifested, God is glorified.

And to the extend we love each other as Jesus loved us, God is shown forth, he is manifested, he is glorified.

And Jesus doesn't just want us to love one another, even to love each other enough to die for each other; he wants us to love each other so that the world will see God in the behavior of the followers of Jesus.

If you think about Islam – and I'm not changing the subject, really – I imagine to many of us the image of a masked terrorist chopping the head off of someone comes to mind. The muslims who interpret their religion in this way are manifesting something about their founder and their idea of God. But the muslims I know are not that different from me in their daily behavior; they work, they pray, they raise families, they want peace. But they aren't manifesting something about the founder of their religion or their idea of God by being ordinary citizens.

And we're not any different. Back when Christianity was spreading throughout the world, there were Christians who carried out Jesus' wishes; they were members of religious orders who were missionaries, founded hospitals and universities; cared for the poor, sacrificing themselves to advance the cause of Christ. And there were many of them. But there were many claiming to be Christians who came in armies that conquered and enslaved people. Depending on who got to you first, you might be very attracted to Christianity or perhaps it would leave a bad taste in your mouth and you would want nothing to do with it. Much of our modern world still bears the marks of these two forces.

Today we don't have very many people who publically dedicate their lives to showing the world how we are to love one another. We are all aware of the great decline in vocations to religious orders, and even those who are members are no longer easily distinguishable from every one else. And unfortunately, even our priests who go around in clerical collars don't always make those who see them think of love as Christ is speaking about. And maybe that's a good thing, because we can't leave loving one another up to specialists. If we want the world to know that we are Christ's disciples, then we have to show that we love each other as Christ loved us.

We will never convert the world by living normal quiet lives. We will never convert the world by embracing the values that the world treasures. The only way we will show Jesus in the world, the only way we will glorify God, is when we demonstrate that we have self-sacrificing love for each other.

Jesus lived and died to reveal something about how God is to the world. God raised Jesus from the dead to show the world something more about how God is. And Jesus calls us to continue to reveal him and His father to the world – by showing that same kind of love to the world, a love that is active, that gets results, that is self sacrificing, and shown through action, not just words. Only then will we begin to convert the world.