John 13:31-35

Jesus speaks of his glorification on the cross. As Jesus loves, even to death on the cross, so ought his disciples love one another. Indeed, love will be the distinctive mark of Jesus‘ community.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, „Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‚Where I am going, you cannot come.‘ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.“

THE NEXT RIGHT CHOICE

At the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus commands the inner circle to love one another. He washes their feet to remove, once and for all, any notions of being too good to get his hands and knees dirty. Then he chooses to die and rise for the life of the world. He chooses to be lifted up on the cross in order that all might be drawn to him. For those that have been drawn to him in the washing of Holy Baptism, his command to love one another is extended to us. For those that daily want to die and rise with him in the living out of Holy Baptism, there is a clear choice laid before us. Die to yourself. Die!

That’s a hard word. After all, I am a child of the great post WWII baby boom, born in 1954. As the youngest of four, I grew up on the music of the oldest baby boomers – not only the early Rock and Roll but the folk music, the Delta blues, the cool jazz, and Dylan and Baez. I lived vicariously through my older brother’s journeys to Greenwich Village and then San Francisco. During my high school years, there was Woodstock, Kent State, the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. I had a draft card and was in the last draft for Vietnam. I didn’t have to go. I didn’t have to die there or anywhere else. I don’t like death.

The baby boom mantra was (and always will be): Question Authority! We still want to make love and not war. But we know what love means. We have the lyrics and the tune from the Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods: “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now.” [Unless they don’t happen to share your worldview, your causes, etc.]

We still want to change the world. We have the lyrics and the tune from Graham Nash: “We can change the world, rearrange the world if you believe in justice, if you believe in freedom” (“ Chicago”). As we cross the barriers of 50 and next year 60, you can see some of us male parents and grandparents starting to let our hair (as much as we have) grow a little or a lot longer. You can still find some of us in the streets carrying signs and speaking our minds (a paraphrase of Stephen Still’s “For What It’s Worth”).

Meanwhile the generations behind us and ahead of us are still mostly bemused if not amused by the baby boomers. Unbaptized adult children of boomers come to church seeking the faith that was not offered at home. Generation Xers delay marriage as long as possible – afraid to commit, afraid to hurt potential children as they were hurt by the divorces of their boomer parents. Twenty-somethings could care less about the boomer’s “contemporary” worship service. Many seek the mystery of the liturgy – the quiet, the chant, the awe. Children of fundamentalists are joining the Orthodox Church with its icons, incense, and stability.

Regardless of our age, regardless of the cultures that shaped us, regardless of the particulars of our individual existence, the Lord Jesus says to the world: “I will show you what love is. You must die to yourself!”

After 28 years of church work and 23 years of ordination on May 30, after 4 pastoral calls in a variety of contexts, I look at the Church that continues to contend with and sometimes suffer the domination of the baby boomer’s worldview. And I wonder (with Peter, Paul, and Mary), “When will they [I, we] ever learn?” We must die to ourselves! Of course baby boomers would sooner paraphrase George S. Patton, “No! The goal is to make the other poor SOBs die to themselves.”

Want to start a fight among Christians? Just keep preaching that everyone has to die to her or himself. “Oh my God! You aren’t saying that I can’t stay right where I am in my ideological heaven surrounded by those that agree with me. You can’t be saying that I might actually have to accept someone’s authority other than my own. You can’t possibly mean that this is not the pinnacle of all seasons to be alive – the veritable Golden Age of theology!”

Regardless of how many of the latest books you have read or written, regardless of how sincere and pious you are, regardless of how certain you are that you are right, the Lord Jesus says to you and me, “I will show you what love is. You must die to yourself.”

To love as Jesus loves is a choice. It is an act of will. It has absolutely nothing to do with holding hands and singing “Kumbaya”. It is obedience – to hear, to understand, and to comply. Die!

The Lord Jesus did not die so that we wouldn’t have to die to ourselves. Rather he died to destroy the power of sin, death, and evil. He died and rose again that we might be drawn into the eternal love and life of the Triune God. He died and rose to live in the baptized and that we might live in him!

A pastoral counselor friend of mine, Peter Steinke, was birthing my adulthood back in the 1980s. I was raising a teenaged son (now 30 and a father of two) who was questioning my (step) parental authority. Pete said to me, “Isn’t it interesting how they say ‘nobody’s going to tell me what to do’, but then they’ll let their friends tell them what to do?”

Isn’t that how it is for baby boomers and everyone else? Nobody’s going to tell us what to do, but then we let someone else tell us what to do in the form of our desires, our prejudices, and our worldview. That someone else is (don’t say it) – the old enemy! Not some little red guy with horns and a pitchfork but that personal, malevolent force that tells us no one who really loved us would expect us to die to ourselves!

The Lord Jesus commands us to die to ourselves, because it’s the only way to have real life that goes on forever. Biological life is captive to the human will which is captive to sin, death, and evil. God’s life is sheer gift purchased at great cost on Calvary’s tree. God’s life and God’s love transcends mere biology and the tyranny of all our desires, prejudices, and imperialistic worldviews. The Lord Jesus’ paradoxical saying remains true: whoever wants to save her or his life will lose it!

Question the Lord Jesus’ authority? By all means! Look at how his feet and his lips match. Look at his life of humble service and his conquest of enemy territory! Look at his decision to die for your sake and mine! Look at his nail-scarred hands, feet, and side! Do not doubt but believe, yes, trust that dying with Jesus is the way to eternal life!

Someone once joked that someday baby boomers would have a TV series entitled “Sixty Something.” I guess we’ll find out next year or the year after. Won’t we?

The Lord Jesus is still present in the Church and the world commanding all that will listen: “Love one another as I have loved you.” It’s your choice and mine to die to ourselves today. If we don’t, things keep on going on pretty much as they have for us. If we do, there’s every real possibility that we will experience the life, the love, and even the freedom that the Lord Jesus offers. When the dying is done, there is not nothing! When the dying is done, there is real life – as God wills and intends!

The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Zumwalt
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church
Austin , Texas USA
szumwalt@saintmartins.org