Jesus was asked what were the greatest commandments, he said that the two greatest commandments are: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 22:37&39] When Jesus met with his disciples for the last time before his death he gave them a "new commandment" to "love one another." [John 13:34] The same apostle who recorded those words of Jesus in the Gospel according to John wrote in today's epistle reading, "Beloved, let us love one another." [I John 4:7]

    We all agree with Jesus that we should "love our neighbour" and "love one another." But at the same time we have doubts about our ability to turn those platitudes into full and complete reality. Part of our scepticism comes because preachers are always telling us that loving one's neighbour is a global responsibility. Our love for others has to move beyond the close circle of those near to us. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows how love of neighbour is not confined to people of our own nationality. The story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, in today's reading from the Book of Acts, illustrates how the gospel exploded all boundaries as the Church of Jesus Christ quickly reached out in love to the whole world. In the story, an Ethiopian official has been to Jerusalem to worship God and on his way back home he encounters Philip who tells the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus, and then the official asks to be baptized. Why does he want to be baptized? Because Philip has told him that the God of Jesus Christ loves him and accepts him. This would have been in direct contrast to his reception at the temple in Jerusalem where he would have found that two things disqualified him from worshipping God there. One was the fact that he was a foreigner, an Ethiopian, the other was the fact that he was a eunuch and as such would not be allowed in the temple. Philip delivered to him the good news that God's love is universal, and since God's love is universal then there are no boundaries to, "love your neighbour as yourself," there are no limits to, "love one another."

    Everyone in the world is our neighbour. No-one is excluded when we are told by Jesus to love one another. But we don't love everyone, indeed we can't love everyone. We love some people very much, especially our family and close friends. The vast majority of people we don't have any strong feelings about, simply because we don't know them. And then there are a few people whom we quite frankly dislike. So if "love one another" means "love everyone" it is impossible to move from platitude to practice. We say we should have universal love for one another but our realistic assessment says it can't be done because it's impossible to feel love toward everyone.

    If the new commandment, "love one another," is telling us how we should feel about our neighbours near and far then it is indeed impossible. But if when John says, "Beloved, let us love one another," he is talking about how we should treat each other then maybe we could move from this being an impossible platitude to a practical reality. Loving our neighbours, or loving one another, is something we can do despite our feelings. It can be done by treating people justly and fairly. It can be done by showing respect and kindness and understanding. It takes a little more work with those whom we dislike or who annoy and rankle us, but it is not an impossible ideal. Nor is it impossible to treat global neighbours whom we have never met with justice and mercy. We can act in loving ways to help people who are poor and oppressed, be it in our own land or across the seas. Such love in action may be in a political sphere and not have the same sort of warm feeling as taking a hot casserole to a neighbour who is sick, but it is an essential part of our response to Jesus' command to love one another in a world where everyone is our neighbour.

    Loving your neighbour means helping your neighbour, and it even works when you don't particularly feel like it. A sermon may arouse feelings of compassion but if it doesn't prompt us to action then nothing has been accomplished. We can love our neighbours even when we don't feel like it because love is what we do and not just how we feel, but we may still have a sense of impotence or frustration because it seems as if we are still being asked for the impossible. Loving one another involves me in dealing with huge social and political issues I can't even comprehend, let alone do anything to solve. What's more, to be quite honest, I'm just not that highly motivated a person. I don't have the sort of driving concern for healing the social ills that affect my neighbours in great distress. So I am still left with a platitude more than a practice. Love your neighbour, given its all inclusive global sense, is still too much for me. The order is still too big.

    It's true, I can't do it. I do not have within me the capacity to respond adequately to Jesus' commandment to love one another. And that's what our gospel and epistle readings are mainly concerned with. It's true, we cannot love all our neighbours by dint of our own resolve and efforts. "The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me," says Jesus in our reading from John's gospel. [John 15:4] It is not our own faltering human capacity to love that enables us to serve our neighbours. It is God's love dwelling in us that makes "love one another" turn from being a platitude into a reality. Our gospel reading speaks again and again of abiding in Jesus, and in his love, in order to "bear fruit," in order to keep Jesus' teaching, in order to be his disciples. Likewise the Epistle: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God ... for God is love." [I John 4:7‑8] Only by abiding in Jesus can "love one another" be transformed from an empty platitude into a living reality.