St. John assures us in this morning's Epistle: "We have confidence before God - IF we obey his commandments." Doubtless one would, feel confident, feel quite and comfortably confident - IF we obeyed his commandments. But not an easy task, is it? Not a simple goal, not easily or even feasibly achieved, no.

Wait. Perhaps, perhaps. "We have confidence before God if we keep his commandments and his commandment is this, believe in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and love one another". That's it. I wonder, I wonder if we could? Perhaps. Yes I think, perhaps we could do that. And that's it. That's it. That's really all there is. Sounds like we are talking about something that is within the realm of possibility, within the arena of the actually achievable.

"Believe in Jesus, and love each other". Still very, very hard, but not unimaginable is it?

I said last Sunday, and meant it, that May is classically the Church's month of Mary. But Easter Season is also a time appointed, at least this year, by the Episcopal Church to read, Sunday after Sunday, installment after installment, from St. John's Epistles, these little treasures, and hearing them, (you cannot have missed it!) we know they are all and each about "Love". John the beloved disciple, the one whom Jesus seemed to love even above his evident love for them all, and the one who loved so much in return, that he, of all the men, alone of all the men, was faithful and constant and unwavering, and unafraid in dread danger. Like the women, he and they stood at the Cross, defying the cost to themselves, to be with Jesus in his last hour on the Cross, all of them knowing full-well they were exposing themselves to the full fury of his enemies, and not flinching or failing or fleeing. A handful who, well-loved, loved enough, loved so much, loved above all and so beyond all, that they were able and willing to do great, faithful, devoted, (doubtless reassuring) things for our Lord in his Passion and torment and betrayal and death. I will listen to what such a man writes about love, knowing it is not sentimental or ill-considered, or hypocritical. This man loved, loved so much, that I will pay him close attention. I will regard and revere and respect his Epistles and what they say, Sunday after Sunday, through Eastertide.

It is a coincidence, really, but a lovely one, that this one falls on Mothers Day.

The very love St. John showed and expressed, and asked us to show and feel and make real, is probably much of the very love we have for our Mothers and feel from them. (Or, if they have gone to the Lord, felt for us, and still feel from those heavenly places.)

And here he is, St. John, speaking to us in Scripture on this day of all days, that loving one another is the heart of the Gospel, the very fulfillment of the commandment of God, and the fulfillment of our Christian life and faith, of our attempt to obey the commandment of God. I won't linger on that first injunction: "that you believe in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ". You would not be here if you did not! That is the starting point, and the point at which we have, certainly, at least started from already and long-since. Always, we know, we have more to learn and new ways to deepen our faith and increase our understanding of all of this, but it is, in some ways, largely a done-deal. We believe in his Son or Lord Jesus. What we more likely face is the So what? So what now? What are we to do, not just feel and think and believe and say and confess - what are the consequences of this for us, what do we now do as Christians, hoping and believing? What are we, as Christians, to do?

That is the tough part, but, it turns out this morning, it may not be all that scary after all, not so alien that we can have no idea about what to do. And not so impossible that it is so deeply discouraging at the outset, that we may worry about setting out at all! It might have seemed impossible, but I guess not. We will not be perfect, we will not love perfectly, maybe not even well, or always, or often, or on all occasions. But we can see the road ahead of us, we can tell the direction. Why? Well, surely, because we have been there, been there before! We have loved - loved our Mothers, our spouses, our kids, our dearest friends, our country, our Church - we have loved, and know what that feels like. We can do more, we feel sure. We can work, by and through and with God's Grace, toward loving each other - all the others in our lives that we might not now naturally and easily love. We can try that, we can move forward toward that, confident - with that confidence we have before God that St. John delights in and promises us as well this morning when he reminds us: "We have this confidence before God!"

No, no, not easy, but perhaps, just maybe, we could do it. We can certainly try, and try our best, and always in faith and trust and, well, yes, confidence. But above all, in love.