John 15: 'All you need is love' (Easter 6)

 Even people who were not born when the Beatles were at their height will recognise the song “All you need is love”.

 

My mum was 41 when the Beatles live broadcast of “All you need is love” was televised.

A snippet was shown on an amazing, world first, satellite link-up “Our World” with Cliff Michelmore. The programme reached 400 million people across the world. The Beatles were towards the end of the programme.

Even years later whenever we heard the song, my mum would talk about how wonderful it was to see and hear the Beatles, accompanied by a 13 piece orchestra and surrounded by balloons and flowers and other pop stars, singing “all you need is love”. Mum said she thought it was a moment when it would come true, that the whole world could be united by satellites and by love. 

I texted my big sister to ask about her memories of the broadcast (she would have been nearly 16 at the time) and she said this:

“I can remember watching with wet eyes and feeling as if I had seen a taste of the future with the human race coming together via technology”.

If it could move 41 year old mothers of four and 15 year old Beatles fans maybe love is all you need.

 

And yet, having extolled the virtues of the Beatles, my sister finished her text to me with “hmm if only love had been all the world needs”.  

Even John Lennon, who wrote the song, said in 1980 “Maybe in the sixties we were naïve and like children and later everyone went back to their rooms and said ‘we didn’t get a wonderful world of flowers and peace’.”

 

So is Jesus being naïve and unrealistic when he talks about love in the part of John’s gospel we’ve just heard? 

There’s no doubt that Jesus mentions love a lot – and says 

“I am giving you these commands that you may love one another” or as The Message translates it 

“remember the root command – love one another”.

But before ‘love’ is a command from Jesus, it is an offer from Jesus.

 

Speaking to his disciples just before his arrest and death, Jesus wants to give them words of hope and courage. He wants to bring them together: together as followers and together with him and in the knowledge of God. There is only one power that can bring them together like that – and it’s not a network of satellites – it’s love.

‘As the Father has loved me so have I loved you. Abide in my love.’

Or as The Message puts it ‘make yourself at home in my love’.

 

Here is a wonderful offer from Jesus which makes all the difference in our lives. Be at home in my love, abide in me, live surrounded and filled by my love just as I have lived in the Father’s love. All you need is love – to know love, to live in the love of God which we have known in Jesus. Here is an offer to bring great hope for the future.

 

When we know the true depth of Jesus’ love for us – which will be shown on the cross; when we know the amazing power of God the father’s love for Jesus and for all who follow Jesus – which will be shown in the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

Then we will know the gracious gift of love. All you need is love.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that to be part of a global event, like that satellite TV show, and to hear a simple yet stirring song like ‘all you need is love’ can move even the hardest heart for a moment to believe anything is possible.

But Jesus was doing more than that – he was offering his followers something more than a feel-good moment – he was offering an invitation to be changed and strengthened forever.

 

Jesus invites his followers to be joined to him as the branches of the vine are joined to the roots – fully, fruitfully, with living energy, infused by love.

Having talked about the vine, and the fruit of the vine, Jesus tells his friends that the fruit of his abiding presence is love. If we are joined to Jesus, if we make ourselves at home in his love, if we accept his love, knowing that it is a reflection to us of the way God loves the whole world, then we will find joy.

 

And that joy is not just for us to revel in for ourselves. It is also a command for how we are to live – to live loving others, to live loving God, to live knowing that love is what we are made for. All you need is love.

 

The offer to know love, to be loved, to abide in the love of Jesus, then becomes a command – live showing that love to one another. All you need is love.

 

That love is a gift to each one of us.

It is a command to love one another.

But in case that sounds rather too cozy – love the people in this chapel with you today, or maybe just the ones you choose to sit by – remember that John’s gospel begins by explaining for whom this love of Jesus became flesh and lived among us. 

‘God so loved the world that he sent his only Son’.

 

The love of God in Jesus is for the whole world – it is the force which can join us across the globe – love one another means ‘love everyone’. All you need is love. All anyone needs is love – and that love asks ‘how do we help, serve, support and share the riches of the love we know?’.

 

This morning we share the bread and wine of communion together. This gift of love, a reminder of the gift of Jesus’ life for us, is not just for us, but is a gift which strengthens us to share the love we know with others, as we go from here to the other parts of our lives.

 

And as Christian Aid week starts next week, we have a chance to take an envelope today and think about how our gifts of money can be gifts of love to those who most need it. We will collect the envelopes in in 2 weeks’ time – or if you prefer to do it today before you forget, you can do that! All you need is love.

 

Our gifts of money, this bread and this wine, are all signs of that love, which comes to us from Jesus as a gift to be shared, as a command to be followed:

‘Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love’

 

Amen.