Easter 5 Year C

You Christians should watch your behavior while driving… You never know who might be watching you.

John 13:31-35

There’s an old story floating around out there. I know it’s old because I heard it at least 10 years before I received it many more times in forwarded E-mails. It goes something like this: 

A police officer pulls a driver over to the side of the road and asks for the driver’s license and registration.

What’s wrong officer? the driver asks. I didn’t run a red light, and I certainly wasn’t speeding.

No you weren’t, says the officer, but I saw you flashing a certain one-fingered salute as you swerved around the lady driving in the left lane, and I further observed you shouting at the driver who almost cut you off, and how you pounded your steering wheel and honked your horn in anger when traffic ground to a halt back there.

Is that a crime, officer? asked the driver.

Well, no, but when I saw the ‘Jesus loves you and so do I’ bumper sticker on the car, I assumed that this car had to be stolen.

Haven’t you ever wondered why otherwise perfectly nice and loving, church attending, community volunteering people of conscience, so often turn into vicious, blood thirsty animals the minute they put the key in the ignition?

Well, if you haven’t ever wondered that, I have, because I’ve surprised myself a few times in traffic, and had to take pause and ask myself,Where in the heck did that come from?

My theory is this: When we are in our cars, there is a certain amount of anonymity. It’s almost as though people aren’t even involved. It’s not that person behind you, it’s that car behind you.

We say things like, that red Ford pulled right out in front of me! or I hate it when those big trucks get right up on my tail like that.

Well, of course, when we take some time to think about it, we realize that red Fords don’t pull out anywhere, and trucks don’t make a single move on their own.

Road Rage, a term my parents never used, is now a common phenomenon. What’s the solution? Well maybe it would help if we started seeing other drivers as human beings instead of just cars!

Now It is not my intention to share a sermon written by the Department of Motor Vehicles, but I do think the metaphor carries over into our everyday lives. In our Gospel this week, Jesus tells us to love one another. Big deal huh? I mean Jesus seems to say that just about every time we turn a page in the Gospels, doesn’t he? Yes, he says it a lot, but he says it in the 13^th chapter of John’s Gospel with a very interesting twist. He doesn’t just ask us to love one another, but he specifically asks us to love one another JUST AS HE LOVES US.

It’s so easy for us to see only the exterior and never really see the person inside. That only happens because we don’t always love the way Jesus loved us.

When everybody else could only see a tax collector, Jesus could look inside and see an Apostle.

When everybody else could only see a blemished leper, Jesus could look inside and see a spotless child of God.

When everybody else could only see a tarnished reputation, Jesus could look inside and see one created in the image of God.

When everybody else could only see a beggar, Jesus could look inside and see a human being with the same hopes and dreams as you and me.

Our religion isn’t about keeping all the rules of the road, it’s about seeing real people on the same road that we travel; it’s about grace and acceptance not codes and violations. As far as I can tell, Jesus has authorized only one identifying mark for his followers, and it’s not our knowledge of scripture. It’s not our theological position. It’s not our orthodoxy. It’s just our love for one another…that’s all. This Gospel isn’t nearly as much about what to believe as it is about how to relate to each other.

Mother’s Day is just behind us, and that’s really rather fortuitous because I can’t think of a better example of the servant love of Jesus than the unswerving selfless love of a parent. Is it any wonder that Jesus compares Almighty God to a mother hen who gathers her chicks under her wing?

There is no such thing as social, racial or religious profiling in heaven, and there ought not to be on earth either. I pray and yearn for the day when all Christians can display the bumper sticker that says, Jesus loves you and so do I, and no one will assume that the car was stolen.