Fr. Charles Kunene sermon

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Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another..."
Fr. Charles Kunene
Sunday, May 13, 2001

A transcription of an talk can't convey the expressiveness of the spoken word, nor does it have the built-in emphases of a pre-written talk. Fr. Charles's sermon was very expressive indeed. If you would like to hear it, the audiotape can be borrowed. Contact Fr. Nick.

"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."

Beautiful words and maybe so appropriate for today, because today we also celebrate Mothers Day, and many of us today would like to show our mothers how much we appreciate them and how much we love them. And I hope that those who are mothers today are going to enjoy the day.

But if you listen to the radio, you read the newspapers, you watch television in our day, you are unfortunately going to read about something that has got nothing to do with love sometimes. You are unfortunately going to listen to a story that doesn't say anything about love. You are going to watch a program about what happened, and whatever happened has nothing to do with love. It talks about exactly the opposite of love: all the crime that is going on, all the things that are done to people that have got nothing to do with love, and you always ask yourself, why?

In our country just very recently, there were a number of bodies, thirty-four of them, who were discovered in a forest in one of the timber plantations. And it was a mystery, why were there bodies found there. Yes, somebody had killed them, and many of them unfortunately were bones, and no one could recognize who they are, and so, as the police moved along this forest, they found more bodies, and in total, by the time I left, it was thirty-four people that were found. It was a big mystery. How did they die? Why there on the same spot? And then the mystery of course was…was undone. Somebody was caught. There was a serial killer. And you ask yourself why? Why kill people? What have you got against them so much that you kill all of these people? Where is love?

We wake up one day sometime in 1999, and we are greeted by front page stories that one of our clergy was shot the previous night, and his car was…was taken from him. Where is love? All because I want your vehicle, I have to kill you in order to have it. Where is love? We're always asking these questions. And I'm sure even in your own community maybe you have many questions you ask about things you hear, things you read, things you see, and you ask yourself, where is love?

But for us who are Christians and who are here today, even though we may be horrified at the things we read, at the things we see, and we may be asking questions, where is love in all this, why all the suffering, we have the challenge to take this new commandment that Jesus is saying is this: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another."

And so we are the ones to take love. As Christ told us to love one another, we are to take it, one another, to the places where we work, and then we can bring a difference to areas and to the people we meet. And we can bring God in those situations and even though in the middle of all those things that are happening, we can bring love.

There is a song that I like, it says, "It is love that makes the world go round," and I believe love really makes a lot of difference. When you have been shown love, it makes a big difference to you. And I think that because we are Christians, it makes a big difference to each of us just to know that God loves us. And that is why we are here, to worship, praise, and give thanks to God. Why? Because he loved us. So simple.

And then He says to us that we should love one another, and loving one another I think isn't very, very difficult. But we make it to be difficult. We always have all sorts of things against other peoples. You know, and there's another song by the Beatles that says you hurt the one you love. Probably those who are married understand that one better.

But I always find that it is really not so difficult to love. It is easy. I know there are complications in life that make it to be difficult, that can make you say maybe unkind words or do unkind things to other people. But Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment." If you could only always remember this.

Every time we are with someone else, remember the commandment to love, to love that person. Even in the middle of an argument, to love that person. Even if you are to listen, just sit and listen, to that person, you have shown love, you have been there for him them. And that is really the greatest thing you can do, is to show love to another person.

I think that we are in many ways challenged about, you know, giving love to another person at all times. It may be someone who is down, and they really feel that they are not worth anything because of the things they do, because of the problems they face. It will make a big difference if someone can sit down with them and talk to them and give them back their self-worth and say, "Yes, you know, you may have gone through what you've gone through, but you are not a bad person. God still loves you."

Someone may be having a problem. For you to be there to listen to them, to comfort them in their suffering, that is bringing love, that is bringing God, to that situation.

Not so long ago my sister's daughter was diagnosed as being HIV positive. And she was 200 kilometers away from where I was, and…. The man she was in a relationship with therefore had just dumped her. And so she called to say could someone come and collect her, and I did. I went and I collected her, brought her to a hospital. She stayed there for two…two months, because she had tuberculosis, and therefore she had to go through sixteen injections. And then I later took her home, and they said she just has to stay at home and look after herself and someone to look after her.

And in that situation, all you could really do for such a person is to give them love, on a daily basis. Make them feel that it is worth it to live, even though I am what I am and I am the way I am, but it is worth it to live all the same.

It was important that we, we therefore took care of her. There were many sleepless…sleepless nights, of course, and I remember the last two days having to spend most of my time with her. And she was saying, "Oh, I am aching all over the body; could someone just rub me all over," and we did just that, whatever she asked. That's all we could do.

And I think in our part of the world we have many situations where we are challenged to simply show people what love is all about, to bring God to them in their situation. It makes a lot of difference.

And so Jesus says to us today, "I give you a new commandment, to love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

In the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741