Moving into May we will drop into the St. James the Less book group and see how the writings of Rachel Held Evans bring the gospel to life.
The Gospel for the sixth Sunday of Easter, John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 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 so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
“Brian Ward was such a popular youth pastor that teenagers from churches all over the country showed up … on Wednesday nights to sit on the floor and listen to him play the guitar and talk about Jesus. Brian was allergic to Christianese, so it never occurred to him to talk about his walk with the Lord or about how he felt led to do this or that because something was laid on his heart.
‘It’s not my job to change people,’ Brian told me when I [the author] pestered him about it, ‘just love people.’
I figured this meant he was playing some sort of long game, working his way into their lives before recruiting them to revival. It never occurred to me that there were probably times when Brian was just loving me, too.”
*From Searching for Sunday, by Rachel Held Evans; published by Nelson Books copyright 2015, pp. 25-26.
Interested in hearing more of Rachel Held Evans? Join us for Book Club on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. as Fr. Rock and friends delve into Searching For Sunday. Any and all area invited. You can pick up where we are; no preparation necessary.
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