Sunday: The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Reading: John 13:31-35
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

John Coltrane only played A Love Supreme outside the studio once, in a small town in France in 1964. The critics say the live version had even more energy than the seemingly incomparable album. I'm a bit of a neophyte when it comes to jazz, but reading about and listening to Coltrane this week it seems he was as vulnerable as ever that night. There is something about jazz-great freedom within constraints-that is an example of an appropriate vulnerability. Coltrane's music was always good. He played with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. But after having a religious experience, Coltrane kicked a heroine habit and then put out, "A Love Supreme," an album he called "a humble offering to God." Coltrane's goal was "to live the truly religious life, and express it in [his] music." He said, "If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is part of the whole thing....My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being." The Gospel of John chapter 13 verses 31-35, is calling on us to be vulnerable, to express who we are, our faith, our knowledge, our beings. The vulnerability that Coltrane exhibited on that one night in France was an act of love and indeed did point to a love supreme.

Did you notice what Jesus' new commandment is in today's gospel? To love one another. Well that is not that easy, but you have to admit it is much less radical than love your neighbor and love God. Loving neighbor? loving the other? That is difficult. Loving God? Where do you start? John had a much narrower goal. He was talking to insiders. The Gospel of John was written for people already in the church. You, in this room on this date, St. Paul and the Redeemer on May 2nd: love one another. It is so tempting to want to preach about the outside forces. Oh, how I'd like to bring in a reference about what will happen if the state cuts so much education funding. But John is not focused on outside forces, he is focused on the community. Most immediately, the community of the disciples gathered around the table after Jesus had washed their feet. To understand our reading, it has to be seen in relation to that foot washing that immediately precedes it. There is a deep parallelism between the command to love one another and the example of Jesus washing his disciples' feet. In the Gospel of John, Jesus' life is a gift of divine love. Foot washing is an expression of that divine love. Jesus tosses aside his garments and picks up the clothing of a household servant. He becomes vulnerable. There is a difference in role, but a fundamental equality because of love. Love is not lowly service. It is a dynamic within a household, a dynamic of compassion, of availability, of honesty, and of going past discomfort. Relationships within the household of God are characterized by that self-giving love.

Why highlight vulnerability? For the disciples in the story it wasn't vulnerability, it was cohesiveness. They had just lost their leader; they needed to stick together-safety in numbers. But I'm not preaching to the disciples. For the community that the Gospel of John was written for it wasn't vulnerability, it was confidence. They needed an understanding, a commitment to what they believed because of friction with the synagogue. But I'm not preaching to the church in the year 90 A.D. I don't think either of these things (cohesiveness or confidence) are what this passage is saying to us. Unlike the actual disciples, we are in no physical danger. Unlike the earliest readers of John's gospel, we are not a suspect minority needing to defend our beliefs. I think in our community, and I mean St Paul & the Redeemer, not Hyde Park or the South Side of Chicago, the thing that will draw us together, the thing that will be a marker to the world of what kind of people we are and will point to God, in our community, Jesus' command to love one another asks us to be vulnerable, a formed vulnerability like the informed freedom of Coltrane's music.

At SPR we respond quite well to the obvious. When someone has a baby, we send flowers and take many meals. When someone is in the hospital, we bring communion and conversation. Pretty hard to hide those things. What about all the things that are harder for us to put in the prayers? We pray for Peter (suffering from the ills of procrastination). We give thanks for Peter (excited about being Rector of a freaking great church.) And it is hard here, because boy, you guys are an impressive lot. Ph.D.'s Music aficionados. Heck, people get intimidated to sign up for coffee hour because it is hard to follow some your beautiful spreads. Jim Steen, the former pastor here and one of my mentors, was always telling me, "Peter, you've got to let them see you. You've got to be who you are." I'm a slow learner. Coltrane once said about his music, "I'm so free here..." If we could say the same about SPR... We need each other. We need the great hospitality of Vicki or Clara or David. And we need others to bring bagels. We need the honest contributions of people with Ph.D.'s and from the people who work with children at Baby Ph.D. Each have their strengths and vulnerabilities. Alice Coltrane said of her late husband, "He liked to draw an analogy between mankind and his horn, explaining that one group might represent the upper register, another the mid-range, and yet another the deeper notes, but that it took all to make the whole." We need each other. We need high notes and deep notes. We are a compassionate people, but in order for that compassion to be exercised we've got to be vulnerable. Let me be clear, out of vulnerability comes more than weakness. I'm using Coltrane's A Love Supreme as my example. Out of vulnerability comes the most real--weak or strong.

Allow me to be utterly practical for a second. One way I feel vulnerable is not remembering the name of a person I've known for a while. Do you know the name of the person sitting next to you? At the peace make sure you great one person whose name you don't know and then remember it so you can great them after the liturgy. And by the way, it doesn't have to be a newcomer. There might be someone who has been coming here with you for 5 years whose name you don't know. Downstairs sit among people you don't know. Or if you are sitting among people you do know, maybe risk saying how you really are. "I hate my job." "I don't understand why my relationship with my children is so broken." "Let me share with you all a great triumph I experienced this week." Maybe, just maybe, the example of Jesus will infect the people at your table and they will be able to handle it. More than able to handle it they will care for you, they will love you.

John is asking us to form a community of love as a witness to God. To truly care for one another would be great for us. It would also point to a God who is love. On Coltrane's official website, it says A Love Supreme "attests to the power, glory, love, and greatness of God." A community where we truly love one another by sharing ourselves will do the same and allow us to experience a love supreme.

Sources:
*Mary L. Coloe, "Welcome into the Household of God: The Foot Washing in John 14," in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
*NPR's All Music Considered has multiple stories about Coltrane http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15394783
*www.johncoltrane.com
*Liner notes to A Love Supreme