Scripture
1My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world…7Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before… 9If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 1 John 2:1-2, 7,9
Observation
John reminds us all that we need Jesus as our advocate. Satan accuses us before God (Revelation 12:10) and Jesus stands us our defense. None of us are innocent apart from His sacrifice on the Cross and therefore we are all on the same level. None of us are above the other. John defines and describes what true love looks like through Christ and then reminds us that we are all commanded to love each other the same way. John goes on to call us liars if we say we walk in the light but aren’t willing to love and serve each other sacrificially. This love is not a suggestion, it’s a command. The proof that we have received Christ’s love is that we show Christ’s love when it is entirely inconvenient, uncomfortable, and sometimes downright painful to do so. What does this look like? Well, if we needed an advocate, someone to defend us before The Heavenly Judge, through Jesus, we also need to advocate for others. The ancient word for advocate was used to “designate the friends of the accused who voluntarily step in and personally urge the judge to decide in his favor.” (Lenski). What an amazing witness to the world it would be if, instead of kicking each other while we are down, we actually helped each other up and walked back into the light together!
Application
So, I survived “Hurricane” Hilary on Sunday, but couldn’t escape Jury Duty on Monday. Like most people, I was not thrilled to perform my civic duty this morning. As I stood in line outside the Vista County Courthouse with a hundred others of my peers, a lady with a bullhorn was yelling at me to take off my belt and take out my lap top in advance of the screening. Unlike the annoying but necessary TSA experience at the airport which precedes an exciting trip, all I had waiting for me was endless hours of waiting in a bland room with complete strangers and the promise of a whopping 15 dollars a day if I’m called back tomorrow. I was thinking of the endless list of places I’d rather be when I sat down to read today’s Life Journal plan. I had to smile. God and His sense of humor timed it perfectly that the very first verse of 1 John 2 would be using the language of the courtroom. God was clearly up to something with this Jury summons and it became clear what it was when a judge came the front of the room and quoted Thomas Jefferson, "We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." In our self-centered, self-obsessed, self-absorbed culture the last thing we want to do is show up on behalf of someone else. We want the benefits and privileges of a free society with a fair and balanced legal system based upon our constitution, but we don’t want to have to actually be involved in the process ourselves. That is, until, we are standing as the accused and praying to God for a jury of our peers that will hear the merits of our case and grant us mercy. Until we need it we don’t care about it which is why most of us try to avoid Jury Duty at all costs. It’s not just Jury Duty we avoid either. Anything that requires our very limited commodity of time we will avoid. This is where the command of Jesus to “love one another” comes in to full view. This is our summons, this is our invitation to participation to stand on behalf of another in the way Christ did for us. This is the inherent strength of belonging to a community of faith in Christ. We aren’t all out for ourselves we are instead laying our lives down for each other. Just this week alone The Father's House had a team helping to clean a women’s home and yard who didn’t have any means to do so, we had some guys fix the skate ramps for our youth group outreach, we have a prayer team going to visit a man in the hospital who was just in a motorcycle accident, and we had sand bags being brought to the church for the potential flooding. All of this is what love looks. Not just one of us, but all of us showing up on behalf of another. The joy that this sacrifice of time and energy brought to these individuals was priceless. Let me close with this quote from Andrew Ferguson writing in The Atlantic, “Turning the dread of jury duty into a form of enjoyment begins with understanding why jury duty matters. Simply put, it may well be the closest you ever come to the Constitution -- not just exercising a right it gives you, but participating in the process through which constitutional rights and values come alive in practice. In a country formed from a single founding document, it is amazing how disconnected most of us are from its meaning and purpose. Jury duty changes that reality - it is a day of constitutional connection.” Imagine how connected The Church, the gathering of believers who’s faith is built on the back of One Book, would be if we actually lived out what we say believe. What if instead of running from the need we we would run to meet it? What if we realized loving others isn’t a wast of time, but this is the best use of our time? What if instead of relegating or delegating the help of the hurting to “the professionals” we would see these interruptions as invitations to participation with The Divine?
Prayer
Sitting right next to me waiting for his Jury Duty assignment is County Supervisor Jim Desmond. This means a lot to me. To see my local leader serving in this way reminds me of how important this is. This is what You are showing me this morning. I’m always saying I want to walk in Your foot steps, that I’m willing to follow You wherever You lead, but then I find myself tying to avoid the very things You’re asking me to do because they “take too much time.” Knowing the fullness of my sin You still stood as my advocate and You took my place on that Cross. How can I do any less than this on behalf of those around me and still say that I’m following You? The joy in serving is discovered when I stop serving myself because I finally realize that self-service is the biggest waste of time there is!
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