Love One Another

(Jn. 13.34-35)

In 1787, (that's just 14 years after this church was built), Captain Bligh took the ship The Bounty on a voyage around the world to collect bread-fruit trees.

When he reached Tahiti, in the central southern Pacific, he found a wonderful paradise. Soon every sailor had a girlfriend. And, as you can imagine, there was a great deal of grumbling when, after they had been there a few months, Captain Bligh announced that they were leaving.

Not many days out of Tahiti, Bligh woke up to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun. Bligh and eighteen officers were put in a small boat without maps; and Fletcher Christian, and eight mutineers took the ship back to Tahiti and the pretty ladies.

Of course they were in great fear of getting caught, so they soon set off again, and convinced twelve girls to go with them. They had no plans, but came across Pitcairn Island. It was another island paradise. They took as many things as possible onto the island, and then set fire to the ship.

But what looked like paradise turned out to be ten years of hell.

One of the sailors used a copper kettle to make a distillery, and they drank 'fire-water' made from tree roots. The men spent days, weeks, and months on end in a drunken stupor.

Some of them went mad, and became like animals. They fought among themselves. One jumped off a cliff. ...And after several years there were only two men left: Edward Young and Alexander Smith.

One night the women they had taken with them seized the guns and barricaded themselves, and their eighteen children, away from the men. Neither the children, nor the women, would go near the two men.

One day, Young went to the ship's chest and, at the bottom among the papers, he found a book. It was leather-bound, ...old, mildewed, and worm eaten. ...It was a Bible.

Young had not read for years, and Smith could not read at all, ...but Young taught him. The two men, ...frightened, disillusioned, and utter wrecks, together read the Bible.

They started at Genesis, and as they read the Old Testament they saw that God is a Holy God, and that they were sinful. They did their best to pray.

The little children were the first to come back to the men, and they noticed a change in them. The children then brought the women, and they all sat and listened to them read.

Shortly afterwards, Young, (who was old and ill), then died.

Smith, the last surviving sailor, kept on reading and came to the New Testament. Something important happened to him as he read the story of Jesus in the Bible.

He said:

"I had been working like a mole for years, and suddenly it was as if the doors flew wide open, and I saw the light, and I met God in Jesus Christ, ...and the burden of my sin rolled away, and I found new life in Christ.

Eighteen years after the mutiny on The Bounty, a ship from Boston came across the island of Pitcairn and the captain went ashore. He found a community of people who were godly. They had a love and peace about them that he had never seen before. When the captain got back to the United States he reported that in all his travels he had never seen or met a people who were so good, gracious, or so loving.

(Drive the Point Home, No.12)

I find that to be a fascinating story in several ways.

Firstly, because of the way in which in which the lives of these people were transformed simply through reading the Bible. They had no vicar to preach at them, ...no theologians to explain it to them, ...they just had a molding old Bible which they read for themselves. ...and there they met with God.

And the second thing that struck me was the fact that, having met with God, this small community showed immense love for each other. It was this love which the captain remarked upon when he returned to the United States.

...and it's a great illustration of the love that Jesus talked about in our gospel reading this morning:

"I give you a new commandment", Jesus said,

"Love one another;

...just as I have loved you,

you also must love one another.

By this love you have for one another,

everyone will know that you are my disciples."

(Jn. 13.34-35)

In industry these days, it's fashionable to have a 'Mission Statement', ...a snappy sentence or phrase which tries to capture what there business is all about.

I was talking to another curate at a church in Coventry, and was interested to hear that they've done something very similar for their church. With just nine words they've come up with a statement of what they think is the main purpose as a church.

And it's this:

Love God;

Love others;

Love one another;

Make disciples.

I think that's quite a good summary, ...don't you?

To love God...

After all, that's what Jesus said was the most important commandment, ...to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.

To love Others..

Jesus said that this was the second most important commandment, ...to love our neighbours as ourselves.

But on the day before he was crucified, during the Last Supper, Jesus now gives his disciples a New Commandment.

[Incidentally the Latin for 'New Commandment is mandatum novum, (MAN-DAR-TUM NO─VUM), from which we get the name 'Maundy Thursday', ...the anniversary of the Last Supper when Jesus gave us this New Commandment.]

And this New Commandment is...

To love One Another...

But if Jesus had already told us to Love our neighbours, what was so 'new' about this?

Well part of the answer lies in the quality of love that Jesus is talking about. When talking to the crowds he'd previously said that we're to love our neighbours as ourselves, ...but when talking to his own disciples he said... "love one another just as I have loved you."

...and that's far more. It's quite a thought isn't it, Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to die for us, ...and on the night before that happened, he said that we Christians are to love one another as much as he loves us.

And what would be the result of such love?

Well Jesus said that people would then recognise that we are his disciples.

The world will recognise that we're Christians, not primarily by the things we say, ...not primarily by the things we do, ...but by the quality of our relationships with one another.

And that's why it's such a tragedy when Christians fall out with each other. It's bad enough when the members of a family don't get along, but when members of a church harbour unforgiveness to one another we are really letting Christ himself down.

And if that applies to anyone here, can I urge you to make your peace with that person.

We say that actions speak louder than words, ...and it's as others recognise the love that we have for one another, they too will be drawn towards the Jesus who we love, ...and they too will become disciples.

I finish with one final story of the transforming power of love.

The miracle on the River Kwai is one of the most remarkable stories of the Second World War. The conditions for Allied prisoners in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on the River Kwai were so abysmal, and the death rate so high, that men became like animals in their selfishness.

People did not shrink from stealing the food from their dying mates in a desperate attempt to survive.

The 'miracle' was the transforming attitudes in that camp as the people began to understand, and respond, to the love of Christ.

Earnest Gordon, who wrote the book, was himself given up as incurable by the Medical Officer, but was nursed back to life by the devoted self-sacrifice of a man in his company.

But how did it all begin?

Well it all began with one man, ...a Scotsman called Angus McGilvray, who literally gave his life for his friend.

The friend was very ill and about to die. Someone had stolen his blanket, so Angus gave him his own.

...Someone had stolen his food, so Angus gave him his own.

As a result, Angus's friend got better, ...but Angus himself collapsed from starvation and exhaustion.

But that act of sacrificial love, by just one man, was the catalyst which transformed that camp on the River Kwai into a loving community.

(Drive the Point Home, No.105)

"I give you a new commandment", Jesus said,

"Love one another;

...just as I have loved you,

you also must love one another.

By this love you have for one another,

everyone will know that you are my disciples."