Dear Friends,

Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:9-11

In the gospel reading this week Jesus takes us deeper into relationship with him, as he describes what it will mean for us to abide in his love. It requires of us that we keep Jesus’ commandments. The result and gift of our keeping the commandments is joy. Joy!

When we think about commandments we might assume they are only the “thou shalt nots” and they might seem restrictive and sometimes impossible to keep all of the time. As we learned in our study of Sabbath during our Sunday Forum classes, one of the commandments is to keep the Sabbath. We also learned that indeed, we are not always very good at keeping that commandment, at keeping Sabbath.

The Greek word John uses for commandments is entolas which means to give a commission or direction, in general. So, in John’s gospel, the commandments are not merely about obeying a set of ethical precepts or moral laws. Instead, the commandments would also include Jesus’ words and all of his teachings. Obeying Jesus’ commandments more specifically means to follow the example of Jesus, to follow Jesus. When we follow the example of Jesus, keeping in step with him, the result and gift we receive is joy.

This time of sabbatical for Amelie is also a time of sabbatical for St. John’s. We will be spending some time reflecting on what sabbatical might look like in the parish, even as we remember what we have been commissioned to do as we follow Jesus. I’ll be sharing more about sabbatical rest throughout our time together, and if you would like to talk more about ways you might incorporate more intentional sabbath time in your life, I’m always delighted to talk about that with you – just call or email and we’ll set a time for conversation.

In the meantime, let’s think about those things that bring us joy and consider adding some of them to our life this summer. As we set aside some time to abide in the love of Jesus, the joy and love of Jesus will abide in us.