Well happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers, and foster mothers, adopted mothers, grandmothers and stepmothers. And to all of you who ever HAD a mother, Happy Mother’s Day.

I’ve been reading this week about Anna Jarvis. She was the woman who first suggested that there be an annual day to honour all mothers. She loved and admired her own mother dearly and at her mother’s funeral in 1905, she gave all those who attended a white carnation. The idea caught on and by 1914 "Mother’s Day" was a national holiday. It’s believed that it was first celebrated in Canada in 1912. It was a truly popular idea. It was so popular that some decided to cash in on its popularity. By 1923 Anna Jarvis found herself suing to stop a Mother’s Day festival. Later she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a Mother’s Day convention. She was angry that the carnations, which she had designated as the official Mother’s Day flower, were being sold. She said, "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit." I’m so sorry Anna.

So we find ourselves on this second Sunday in May once again celebrating the love and care of our mothers –– some of us can express our appreciation to our mothers personally face to face, or by telephone, or cards, for others whose mothers have departed from this life it is a day when we can remember with thanks and praise what our mothers have meant to us.

Now, it would be foolish for me to suggest that all mothers and fathers are angels - perfect in every way. They’re human like every one else. Except MY mother. She’s perfectly wonderful. I had to say that -- she reads my sermons online. But for the most part parents are human. They make mistakes. I’m guessing all of us can recall moments when our mothers or fathers were not the perfect models of God’s love. They didn’t understand us, weren’t sympathetic, weren’t patient, were totally stressed out by us, weren’t there for us, and generally did NOT manage to make things all better with a kiss.

I’m hoping we can be forgiving toward our parents’ imperfections, the way God is forgiving toward ours, and remember with thanks to God for blessings we received from them. The gospel lesson that Anne read today could easily be about being a good mother or father, about being loving, but it’s actually aimed at the whole Church, at all of us. Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. " Do you suppose he learned that at his mother’s knee? Can’t you just hear Mary saying that to Jesus?

And I want to say a couple of things about that. First – loving is not an option. We hear these words, and think "Hmmm... nice text." But it’s not about niceness. Notice that love is not optional for the followers of Jesus. Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment ...". Not a suggestion, not a recommendation. A commandment! A few weeks ago, this came up in another sermon, and I think I asked how it is that Jesus can COMMAND love. And the short answer is that, basically, Jesus doesn’t care how we feel about it. The command is there to love, however we feel about it.

Love can’t be trivialized, and it really can’t be reduced to a feeling. Love is the direction we choose for each action, each word. We CHOOSE to go toward the love of Christ. Jesus said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Notice the little word "must". Just as there was no getting around my mother’s command, "You must wash your hands before supper", likewise there is no way around this command of Jesus, "You must love one another."

Why does Jesus command us to love? He gives this command because there is a part of every one of us that rebels against the idea of pure, unconditional love. Despite the example that we have in Jesus’ undeserved and unconditional love for us - there’s a part of us that says that kind of love is out of place in the world in which we live. There is a part of us that says – "sure, loving others is great - up to a point...."

Isn’t that what we do all the time? We draw a line as to how much we are prepared to love the next person. We draw a line as to how far we’re prepared to go in doing a kind deed for someone else. We draw a line as to which people we’re prepared to love. We’re happy to love in this selective kind of way. We’re comfortable with the kind of love that doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable. We might be happy with this kind of love but it’s not what Jesus was talking about here when he said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another".

What Jesus says is quite plain. We should love others in the same way that Christ loves us. He loved unconditionally and completely. He loved us to death. He didn’t draw a line and say that beyond that line it’s too much to ask. That love knew no limits. And that’s how he commanded us to love –– willingly and sacrificially.

And most importantly – the good news is that love is an infinite resource. We can love like this because the love Jesus commanded is an infinite resource. Love isn’t something we have to stock up on, like buying groceries at the grocery store. The ability to love is within all of us. It is about choosing to share what we have already been given.

I’m guessing I wouldn’t have to twist your arm too hard to get you to admit that God’s unconditional love for us is a far cry from the kind of love that we actually show toward others. Do you know why it is that we can love as Jesus commanded? Because – our ability to love comes from our relationship with Jesus Christ. "We love because he first loved us", says the Apostle John. We are able to love because he loves us. Understanding this is critical to our ability to live out the life of love.

Love doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Love is something that is passed from one person to another. A child who doesn’t receive love, psychologists tell us, will have a hard time learning to give love. On the other hand, a child who has received the proper amount of nurturing as an infant and as a toddler will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their lives. So in order to show Christlike love, we need to receive that love from Christ. To receive that love, we need to open ourselves to it.

Let’s look at it this way. Let’s say – hypothetically – I decide to get in shape, so I take up jogging. Hypothetically. I buy a pair of expensive running shoes and sprint on up Eldon Avenue towards the park. I get about halfway down the block, not even as far as Judi’s house, and my muscles begin to cramp, my ankle begins to throb, I get a stitch in my side, I can hardly get my breath. I stop. I turn around and slowly walk home gasping, "I’ll never do that again."

You’ve heard of aerobic exercise? That’s not it. That was ANaerobic exercise. Anaerobic means WITHOUT oxygen. That was anaerobic running. It’s caused by the body using up more oxygen than it takes in. Some folks people try to run that way, without much success, I’m guessing, and unfortunately, some of us sometimes try to love that way, too, with similar results. Some folks try to love with great fervour and self-sacrifice. You can’t keep that up. Like joggers we find ourselves halfway down the road in pain, gasping and cramped, saying, "I’’ll never do that again." Anybody ever loved like that?

Love, like running, must be aerobic. Our output must be matched by our intake. Running requires oxygen. An enduring love requires God’s word, God’s presence, God’s Holy Spirit, God’s love and forgiveness. As we love aerobically, we will love not in our own strength and ability, but the strength and ability that we receive from Jesus Christ. We will love because God has first loved us.

To love as Jesus commands us in our text today means that we need to immerse ourselves in God’s love. We need to let the love of Christ enter our lives and empower us to love, serve and work together. We’ll come to realise more and more our place in God’s family and cast off everything that is opposed to love –– things like impatience, selfishness, greed, an uncaring attitude, an unforgiving spirit... and then be led by the Spirit and be more Christlike in all that we say and do.

If you have anything in your life right now that doesn't look like love, then, with the help of God, try to chip it away! If you have anything in your life that doesn't look like compassion or mercy or empathy, then, with the help of God, chip it away! If you have hatred or prejudice or vengeance or envy or resentment in your heart, for God's sake, and for the other person's sake, and especially for your own sake, get rid of it! I’ve been reading about the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to Toronto, and what he’s been talking about, and he and I are in agreement on this. He’s been saying that the most important thing is to be, as he puts it, "warm hearted." Let God chip everything out of your life that doesn't look like warm heartedness.

CHIP AWAY AT ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE LOVE

Resources gratefully acknowledged: Pastor Vince Gerhardy St Luke's Lutheran Church; Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s UCC