Faith Daily | 7 May 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - EASTER FIVE APBA p513

Saving God,

who called your Church to witness

that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:

help us so to proclaim the good news of your love,

that all who hear it may be reconciled to you;

through him who died for us and rose again

and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: John 15: 12-17

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants* any longer, because the servant* does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by Rosemary Bruton

We can be in no doubt from these verses that Jesus wants us to love people. It’s an order. I don’t know about you but that can be very challenging at times to do. There is an Anglican Church on the Sunshine Coast whose motto is Love one another. Every single other. This kind of love, I believe comes only through loving God and asking the Holy Spirit every day to assist us with loving every single other because sometimes we don’t actually like “the others”.

Sometimes others are rude, mean or exclude us, maybe even disagree with us. Real love is sacrificial and usually requires us to humble ourselves before God in order to respond in a loving, kind and friendly way to those people.

I am so glad that Jesus calls us his friends. It reminds me of the book of Genesis, the beginning when God had created the world and placed the man and the woman in the garden. God would come each day to talk with them and be their friend. I love that intimacy that we can be friends with our maker. We can call upon Jesus anytime, anywhere as our friend in order that we can go out there and love others as he has asked us to do.

And in order for us to bear fruit, we need that friendship, his Spirit to guide us, direct us and help us. Thank you Jesus that we are not expected to do this on our own. Thank you for creating us to be friends with you and to help others become friends with you too.

FINAL PRAYER: Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney

Spirit of joy, with us always,

through you, Christ lives in us, and we in Christ.

Forgive us when we forget you

and when we fail to live in your joy.

Spirit of love, with us always,

You bind us in love to yourself

and to those around us.

Forgive us when we hurt those we love

and when we turn away

from the love of our friends.

Amen