Learn, Practice, and Perform

The Rev. Joseph Winston

April 5, 2007 (Maundy Thursday)

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
In High School, I participated in One Act plays that ranged from Geoffrey
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.
Through the process of learning my lines, practicing with others, and perform-
ing the play on the stage, I learned one universal way of putting thoughts into
action. Perhaps you have also learned the same lesson through art, music, sports,
education, or even by living life.
When we started a new play, everyone had to learn not only their lines but also
the lines of everyone else in the play. The reason behind this practice is simple.
To function as a single unit, everyone needs to know what is happening. After we
had learned our separate parts, we then practiced giving our lines together on the
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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stage. This allowed us to combine our individual ideas about our character along
with the director’s interpretation. Finally, we placed our learning and practice into
action by performing the play in front of others.
If you have played organized sports, this routine of learn, practice, and perform
will be familiar to you. One must learn not only the rules of the game but everyone
on the team also must learn their individual roles for all the different plays. The
entire team needs to practice together so that everyone learns how the players and
the coaches work as a group. All of this learning and practicing only pays off
when the team gets to perform against other teams.
The method of learn, practice, and perform is found in today’s Gospel lesson.
Jesus tells us that we must know His will,2 that we must practice His command-
ment,3 and that we must perform acts of love for the entire world.4 We do all of
these actions to give God the glory.5
When Jesus gives His followers the commandment to love others as He first
loved us, Jesus expects us, His followers in this age, to learn this commandment.
On one level, mastering how to love as Jesus loved means that all of Christ’s fol-
lowers need to know this commandment. This knowledge can be obtained through
rote memorization. We can practice the sentence over and over again: “Just as I
have loved you, you also should love one another.” On another level, learning
this commandment means that we need to understand Christ’s love for everyone.
2
John 13:12, 15, 17.
3
John 13:15, 17,35.
4
John 13:35.
5
John 13:31b-32.

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When we look at the depth, the breadth, and the height of Christ’s love for us, we
will soon realize that our entire life needs to be devoted to others so that we can
love as God has commanded us. The learning of God’s command to love others
as God has first loved us does not imply in any way, shape, or form that we need
to comprehend God before God accepts us. Peter’s insistence that the L ORD not
wash his feet and Christ’s answer that bathing was required simply tells us that
we do not have to understand God because God will, if God desires, in God’s
own time, explain His actions to us. Neither does learning mean that we mind-
lessly copy Jesus. Washing the feet of the disciples was one concrete way that
Jesus showed them His love. Our expression of love in our specific situation here
in Liberty will be different because we are not Jesus and our location is not in
Jerusalem some two thousand years ago.
Jesus not only tells us that we need to love others, but He also shows us one
specific example of this type of love by becoming our slave and serving us. In this
action, which is upsetting because we have the God serving creation instead of the
otherway aroung, God illustrates to the universe the kind of love that God has for
all of creation, including those who will betray His only Son.
If Jesus has been called to practice love on the ones who will betray Him then
we also will be expected to do the same thing. You and I, like Jesus, must serve
all Judases that we come in contect with.
Because God knows how hard it is to serve those around us, God has given us
the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the One who teaches
us how to serve others and leads us to those who need our love. The Church is

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where we learn about God and it provides for us a place to practice showing love
to others.
The final part of this process is performance. For many of us, performing the
play, whether on the stage or the field, is frightening. This fear of failure is normal
because it shows that we understand the consequences of our actions. But just like
any good director or coach who works us through our fear, Jesus Christ is there
helping us in our darkest hour.
To perform Christ’s command, we must take what we have learned and what
we have practiced and put it into action outside of the saftey that these four walls
bring us. All of us need to “just do it” and bring God’s love to the world.6 We need
to take what has been freely given to us and give it away to others.
The results of a well executed play could be fame, fortune, and your name in
lights on Broadway but the more likely outcome will be the knowledge of a job
well done. Likewise, the results of a well-played game could be a Super Bowl ring
and a commentator’s job on ESPN but the more probable result is the satisfaction
of a well-executed game. Jesus tells us that we will be blessed for knowing His
commandment and doing it.7 Just like with the play or the game, our reward might
bring us recognition or money but a more than likely ending is that we will know
that we have done the L ORD’s will and have given God the glory.
In acting, the director knows that the play will fail if the actors do not follow
the time tested process of learning, practicing, and performing. In sports, the coach
6
My apologies to Nike for using this advertising phrase with out their permission.
7
John 13:17.

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knows that the team will not win games if they do not first learn how to play and
then practice playing the game. If you try to practice before you know how to play
the game, all that you will learn are bad habits that you will have to unlearn later.
The same pitfalls apply for followers of Christ. If we just learn that we need to
love others but then do not do it, we have fallen short and we have not kept the
L ORD’s command. When we only do what ever we want, instead of doing what
Jesus has taught us, the world will see our bad habits and they will know that we
are not following Jesus. And if we do not perform acts of love in the world, the
world will not know God’s Passion for the world.
Even when we fail and betray Jesus when we do not perform Christ’s com-
mandment to love others as we are loved, Christ still loves us.8 Even when we are
too scared to practice this love in the safety of the Church, Jesus has chosen us to
be with Him.9 Even when we do not learn His commandment, He still accepts us.
He loves us to the end, even though He knows that we all will fail Him.10
For a play or team to be successful, they must continually learn what they
are to do, they must practice this action over and over again, and then they must
actually perform in front others. God is asking Christians to do the same things:
to learn God’s commandment to love others as we are loved by Jesus, to practice
this commandment, and then to perform this commandment so that God may be
given the glory.
We know that in the end, we will be successful because God has promised us
8
?, .
9
John 13:18; ?, .
10
John 3:11; ?, .

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the Scriptures will be fulfilled. But this success will not come from our own doing
because we are too weak to keep up the routine of learn, practice, and perform.
Just ask any director or coach about willpower if you do not believe me. Instead,
success will come because God will give us the power to do God’s will.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”11

11
Philippians 4:7.