Thoughts on the 6th Sunday of Easter 2026
Acts
17.22–31; 1 Peter 3.13–end; John 14.15–21
When I was studying for my Theology degree, back in the day, the question of justification – especially on justification by faith alone was quite a topic of conversation.
I studied in a Catholic institution and was not at all averse to Catholic Theology; I was born to a French Catholic mother and was baptised, confirmed and schooled in the Roman Catholic way of things so, I knew the Pope wasn’t the Antichrist with 666 secretly tattooed on the crown of his head.
By then I also had a few years in an Evangelical Protestant church behind me so I could relate to the Protestant insistence on the primacy of Scripture, and I loved the openness to the gifts of the Spirit. I also knew that Evangelicals didn’t all play with rattlesnakes during their services, and I saw that not all their preachers flew in private jets.
I think that what I am trying to say is that my background and experience of different churches (from the inside) has inoculated me against some of the wilder stereotypes that Christians from different denominations often level at each other.
Here’s one: Catholics think that getting to heaven is a matter of works – of praying Rosaries, attending Masses and doing good deeds; while Protestants think that getting to heaven is a matter of faith – of believing in the effective sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and confessing to that faith, often by parroting words of scripture (St Paul is a favourite).
That’s a hell of a simplification because the picture on both sides is far more nuanced: Catholics take the view that the right way to tell whether a person has faith or not is by looking at their works – what they do, rather than what they say. And Protestants are often just as engaged in good works as Catholics are, so they clearly don’t devalue the expression of faith in the form of actions and not just words.
As I was thinking through all this for myself I came up with an amusing scenario in my imagination that I think sums up the polarity between the two views pretty well.
Imagine that a Catholic, a Protestant and Another Bloke all die and end up knocking on heaven’s door. In this scenario heaven is a fine restaurant and Jesus is the head waiter – the maître d'.
Jesus answers and the Catholic says, “I’ve got lists longer than both my arms of all the good and holy things I’ve done to get here – not to mention the rosaries and statues I’ve bought and the pilgrimages to Lourdes!” Jesus tells him to have a drink at the bar because his table won’t be ready for a while.
The Protestant is next and he says, “Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I believe it and God knows I’ve confessed it! Even my friends called me a bible basher and a God-botherer!” Jesus tells him to have a drink at the bar too, because his table won’t be ready for a while either.
Well the 3rd man (I’ve called him Another Bloke) is listening to all this and he's a bit bemused. He doesn’t feel as though any of his good deeds are enough to get him in, neither does he think that quoting the bible at Jesus as though it’s a password is enough.
He knows 2 things: firstly he knows how unworthy of the love he has received from God he really is; and secondly he knows that he loves God with all his heart and his soul and his mind and his strength, precisely because God has loved him first, unworthy as he is.
So he looks at Jesus and simply says: “Lord, I’ve been longing to see you!” Jesus puts his arm around him and says, “Me too! Come with me, Another Bloke, our table is ready”.
So I don’t think we are saved primarily by faith, or by works. I think we are saved primarily by love.
And love in the sense that I am talking about and I think in the sense that Jesus is talking about, is something that is expressed by obedience.
I don’t know whether you remember that a few years ago it was in vogue to talk about ‘Love Languages’? There was a book doing the rounds by Gary Chapman (Baptist Minister) called The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate.
The basic idea is that different people prefer to give and receive love and affection in different ways, so Chapman summarised those ways and called them ‘Love Languages’. So for some of us the preferred way of expressing love is physical touch; for others it’s words of affirmation; for others, acts of service; for others it’s giving and receiving gifts and for others quality time does the trick.
Even though the book has that slightly corny, American self-help and therapeutic feel to it, there’s lot of truth in it. There are different ways to express love and individuals can be more receptive to love when it’s offered in their preferred ‘Love-Language’.
Well our Gospel today makes it abundantly clear what Jesus’ love-language is: obedience! Here’s what he says: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And a few lines on: They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
And what’s also abundantly clear from the Gospels is that Jesus is not asking us for a level of obedience that he is not prepared to be subject to himself: In John Chapter 8 (28-29) in a dialogue about his impending death he gives us a glimpse of his deep obedience and profound consecration to his Father, I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him’.
He teaches us the same truth in the Lord’s prayer where he encourages us to pray, ‘Thy Kingdome come, Thy will be done’ and in the Garden of Gethsemane he teaches us what that clause of the prayer means in practice, when he is in agony and prays, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39).
So what are these commandments we need to learn to obey if we are to express our love for the Lord in his preferred love-language?
Well we have them in the form of the 10 Commandments as a starter and if we are consciously breaking any of those then we have some confessing and repenting to do. That’s pretty obvious isn’t it?
But Jesus summed the Commandments of the Law up in his teaching on the Greatest Commandment when he said that the whole thing is a command to love. He said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great Commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40)
Then there are the specific Commandments of Christ but most of those are covered by the command to love your neighbour as yourself. So be generous; be forgiving; avoid judging; make peace, and all the others like it seem to aim at a love of neighbour.
Jesus’ teaching on prayer; and fasting and self-denial seem to aim at the command to love God above all things.
So love is what the whole thing is about. As St Augustine said in a sermon on the 1st Letter of St John: Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
Ok. Let’s draw this to a close. How does all that make you feel? I can tell you that it’s such a high calling that it makes me feel inadequate to say the least. We are called to love as Christ loved and who can manage that? Not me.
None of us can really begin to keep the Commandment of Christ to love as he loves without first becoming aware of the extent of his love for us. In this sense we need to learn a lesson from ‘Another Bloke’, the 3rd man in the story I told at the beginning of my homily.
But also, and this is timely as we draw closer to the feast of Pentecost, none of us can hope to begin to love as he loved without the grace and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
So let’s finish by praying: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in us the fire of your love. Amen.
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