Tag Archives: Mental Health Awareness

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Love? Jesus Says So.

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“Love? Jesus Says So.”

John 13:31-35 (13:34) – May 18, 2025

            May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This month is particularly meaningful to me, since I deal with people who have mental health challenges almost all the time. Both professionally, as a hospice chaplain, and personally, since I have a number of people in my extended family who have mental health challenges.

            I have highlighted May and mental health awareness for years, as a hospice chaplain working in the Chicago community. As a friend of mine, the Rev. Kathy MacNair said many times, everyone knows someone. Every single person knows someone who is struggling with mental health issues – and sometimes, they know several someones. Or, are related to several someones. Or, perhaps you are one of these people who have mental health challenges.

            Our Lord Jesus was very familiar with mental health challenges. As we can see from all four Gospels, the Rabbi Jesus traveled from place to place, preaching, teaching and healing. Sure, some of these healings were physical healings, but some of these healings were also spiritual, mental, and I believe psychological, too. Our Lord Jesus truly healed these dear folks. His compassionate action and treatment is always truly loving, and infinitely caring.  

John chapter 13 comes from the Upper Room Discourse, that last night the Rabbi Jesus was with His disciples. Remember, this was at the Passover meal they all shared together, just before Jesus was arrested later that evening, beaten, tried, appeared before Pontius Pilate, and later the next day crucified outside the city of Jerusalem.  

            Do you understand how important and poignant these words of Jesus are? Just think back to a particularly important conversation you had with someone very meaningful in your life. Perhaps it was one of the last conversations you remember having with that loved one. Just so, our Gospel writer is aware of how important these last hours with his Lord Jesus actually were! I am certain all the disciples remembered these memorable words of Jesus with particular care.

            Let us read again the words of Jesus, from John 13: “34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Shallow people comment about what they call love, thinking about valentines, candy and chocolates, and champagne toasts of undying affection. Can’t you hear them already? “Oh, how wonderful of Jesus! I love everybody already. I’m a good Christian.” Let’s take a closer look at exactly what Jesus was commanding.

            Sure, the Gospel of John mentions the disciples loving one another. But – John’s Gospel also has passages about other kinds of people, too. Nicodemus was a respected member of the Jewish religious rulers, the Sanhedrin, the religious upper class. By and large, the Jewish rulers were no friends of the Rabbi Jesus. What about the half-Jew, the Samaritan woman of chapter 4? What is more, she was also an outcast in her own town.

Did Jesus show any hesitation in His interaction with either one? Wasn’t He caring, loving and honest with each of them, just as He was with everyone else?

            Jesus was the ultimate in being open, loving and honest to everyone. No matter who, no matter where, no matter what faith tradition, social strata, ethnicity, or any other designation.  Jesus is commanding us to love in the same way. Not only towards strangers, but towards friends, as well. That can be even more difficult sometimes.

            “Here in John chapter 13, Jesus demonstrates his love for the same disciples who will fail him miserably. Jesus washes and feeds Judas who will betray him, Peter who will deny him, and all the rest who will fail to stand by him in his hour of greatest distress. The love that Jesus demonstrates is certainly not based on the merit of the recipients, and Jesus commands his disciples to love others in the same way.” [1]

            I get set back a bit when I realize the full ramifications of that boundless, amazing love of Jesus. It’s a tall order! Whoa, Lord! You don’t really expect me to be that way with people who insult me, or are mean to me, or disrespect me, do You?  I kind of think that is exactly what Jesus means. Love them. No “but, what if…?” Love all of them unconditionally.

            Which brings us back to where we started. It’s easy to love lovable people, to love babies and small children. Easier to love those in our families, and friends. But what about those we don’t even know? What about people we actively dislike? And, what about people who are scary, who we don’t understand, who are in dementia or who throw tantrums, or have addictions?

            I have permission from our friend Irene to talk about her adult daughter, who does have mental health challenges, was living at Thresholds social services for years, and who currently lives in Wisconsin. Now that the daughter is regularly taking her prescribed medication, things are stable and under control.  This dear daughter is quite helpful to Irene when she comes to visit. Thank God, this story has a happy ending, and this mother and daughter are reunited and grateful to God for all the help and support from friends, doctors and from support groups.

            That is exactly what Jesus means. Love all people. Even the scary ones, even the ones we dislike. No “but, what if…?” Love all of them, unconditionally.

            This is not just a suggestion. Jesus makes it a command. If you and I want to follow Jesus, this is one of the requirements. Some well-meaning believers say that other people may not merit Jesus’ love, for whatever reason.  Gosh, I don’t merit Jesus’ love a lot of the time! But, that makes no difference. Jesus still loves each of us, unconditionally. No matter what. Plus, Jesus commands us to love others in the same way. The same ultimate, above-and-beyond, bottomless way.

            So, whether you and I succeed or fail in our attempts to love one another this week, yet God in Jesus loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And hearing of this deep Jesus-love we are set free and sent forth, once again, to “love one another.”

That is good news for all of us! Alleluia, amen!

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-john-1331-35

Commentary, John 13:31-35, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

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All Who Call on God’s Name

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“All Who Call on God’s Name”

Acts 2-3 pentecost

Acts 2:1-21 (2:21) – May 20, 2018

Reporting to you live, down the street from Temple Square, scattered reports are streaming in to our news desk. The reports are all about the huge commotion affecting almost everyone: the local people in downtown Jerusalem as well as the yearly visitors in town for the Passover festival.

What facts we have been able to piece together give an incomplete picture. But, most reports agree that something significant happened today, involving several violent gusts of wind, some flames that appeared out of nowhere, and just as quickly disappeared, and a veritable Babel of tongues from the gathering crowd, as a result. We will keep you updated on this developing story as more information comes in.

What would the modern-day media have to say about the happenings on that first day of Pentecost? Might their stories have sounded a bit like this?

Of course, you and I have heard about this account from the first day of Pentecost over and over again. But—what if this news from the streets of Jerusalem was indeed new to us?

If reported by today’s news outlets, these accounts of strong wind, tongues of fire, and unfamiliar languages sound out of control. Wild, raging, unsettling, untamed. What kind of occurrence is happening in Jerusalem—and beyond? Something definitely out of control. Out of human control, at least.

Let’s go to the end of today’s scripture reading, and listen to what Peter preached: “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is surely beyond human control, too.  Plus, this reading can have a great deal to say to us on this Mental Health Awareness Sunday, too.

 

“Let’s begin with the last part – all who call on the Lord are saved. Did you hear this? It says “all.” There’s no comment on who has “right” theology, “right” behavior, “right” thinking, or the “right way” of living. It also doesn’t say that those who struggle with physical or mental illness have no place in the Body of Christ. This strange story of the first Pentecost says clearly that salvation, the Love of God shown in Christ, is for all people.” [1]

Do you hear? Salvation is not only for some people, or even for most people. What about  salvation only for people with sight or with hearing? Or, only for those who are left-handed, or for those who are right-handed. What of those people who only can speak one language, instead of those who can speak several? Or, is salvation only for those who grow up on “the right side of the tracks?” What about the rest of the people who grew up elsewhere?

I have spoken from the pulpit and from the front of the church about God’s ideas of equality, any number of times. The kind of equality that the apostle Paul talks about in Galatians chapter 3: “28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

But, what about people with mental health challenges? Is salvation also for these people? Are those with mental health challenges—and their families and loved ones—beloved children of God, too? The account of Pentecost in Acts indicates a whole different kind of truth.

“Imagine what we would say if somebody told us this story today. If someone came into our worship and said that they saw flames of fire above our heads, we might dismiss it as a hallucination. If they told us that they heard a sound of mighty and rushing wind, we might say the same thing. Then if they added that they heard us speaking in languages not our own, we would just shake our heads and turn away, if not back away in fear. How wrong we would be!

 

“Maybe we can consider the Pentecost narrative as invitation to welcome, include, support, and engage persons who live with mental illness, and their loved ones. Let’s face it, those disciples don’t sound particularly well in this story. Yet, God did not abandon them. God didn’t turn them away. God included them in the building of the early church. They might have had some unusual experiences and some unique ways of being in the world, but God used them to create the Body of Christ that we are all a part of.

What if this story isn’t only a story about the mysteries of the Holy Spirit, but also a story of extravagant welcome? And if we add to this Paul’s account from Romans of the Holy Spirit’s care, concern and love for each of us, we get such a powerful promise of inclusion and new life.

“No brokenness, no illness is beyond the reach of our loving God. The breath of the Holy Spirit gives all of us life. God transforms our bony, broken, despairing lives by knitting us all together into the Body of Christ. We can all find wholeness and hope when we come together in the name of the One who Loves us all…” [2]

Alleluia, amen.

 

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my regular blog for 2018: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and my other blog,  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!)

[1] http://www.ucc.org/worship_worship-ways  Mental Health Sunday, Pentecost, May 20, 2018

[2] I have borrowed freely for my sermon today from the Sermon Starters in the Worship Ways of the United Church of Christ. Yes, today is Mental Health Awareness Sunday as well as Pentecost Sunday. May we all help to become more aware, more caring, and more welcoming of all people, including those with mental health challenges and their loved ones. #EraseTheStigma

http://www.ucc.org/worship_worship-ways  Mental Health Sunday, Pentecost, May 20, 2018