We have two texts before us this morning - both of them written
by, John the Apostle. Both address the
topic of Love. In his Epistle John talks
about the Love of God that is shared between Christians. He says that "Whoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the Father
loves whoever has been born of him."
In other words, within the gathering of those who have come to know God
and believe God as he has been shown to us in Jesus, there is love between them;
love that unites them and ties them together.
God gives love, we receive love, we show love. That is the Church.
The Gospel text also talks about the love that Christian share
among them. The words of our text are
spoken by Jesus himself. And he says
that love is God’s command. He says that
we love one another as He has loved us. We should recognize that God’s commandments
here have gotten stronger. Jesus
commands are tougher than the ones God gave through Moses. Thou shalt not kill is easy enough to follow. Thou shalt love thy neighbor is a much bigger
challenge…
Our texts are about love. Today
is a good day to talk about love. After
all, today is Mother's Day. Today is a
day that we are encouraged to honor our mothers, to show them our thanks and
gratitude for the way they love us. And
our mothers do show love. Our mothers
show us their love in the way they care about us; after all who else would so gently
and lovingly clean a skinned knee or wipe a tearful eye? Who else serves the
way a mother serves; cleaning up our mess, making sure we do our best at school,
giving us advice on life's tough questions.
A mother's love is one thing that we can count on to be steady and
secure in the unsure and unforgiving and hard world. Moms love no matter what. Today is good day to talk about love.
Or what about that other “love” that everyone has been talking about
this week. Twice the news has had
headlines addressing national opinions about married love – who is eligible and
who is not. North Carolina passed a
marriage amendment to legally define marriage as between one man and one
woman. Yet on the flip side, President
Obama has publicly stated that he believes marriage should be open to anyone
who loves anyone - the whole topic of "gay marriage". Those who Mr. Obama agrees with tell us that
this is all about love. They tell us
that if we don't agree with them then we do not love, that we are anti
love. You and I have been attacked as
bigots in the media. Some say this is an
issue of love. But Paul tells us that “Love is patient and kind; love does
not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own
way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but
rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians
13:4-6 ESV)
We
have seen those who claim to be champions of love doing those things that love
does not do – insisting on their own way at all costs, rejoicing and
celebrating that which is wrong, lashing out and attacking those who hold
opposing viewpoints. This issue is not
about love. It is about power.
With all this discussion of love in the news and of course love as
it relates to our mothers, it is easy to lose sight of what true love is and
what true love should be. We are tempted
to think of love as something that we do.
Love is the way a man loves a woman and a woman loves a man. Love is the way a mom loves her child. Love is the way that child returns her
mother’s love. Sure, these are all
examples of love, these are places that we see love and that we experience
love. But this is not love. Love is not something that is created in us
or by us or that simply flows out from us.
Love is entirely of God. It is
something that begins in God and that ends in God. Love is something that God does and that God
gives and that God creates. When it
comes to our love and the love that we might have for each other, the best we
can hope to do is just to imitate love or be a reflection of God’s love as it
given in God as much as we are able, even if that is only a little bit. Love, true love, real love is what God does
for us.
Our Epistle text gives us a means to measure our love. To know if love is there in the things that
we say and do. John says that "By
this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his
commandments. For this is the love of
God, that we keep his commandments."
John adds on that "His commandments are not burdensome."
Now this is good. It is
good to have a point of comparison. Our
love is measured by whether or not we keep the commandments. Our love is measured by those things that we
find written and recorded for us in the Scriptures. We don't define love, God does. We don't decide whether or not we have
demonstrated love, whether or not our love has been sufficient, whether or not
our love has been true and pure. God
does. God measures our love by the
commands of His Word. And when we use
the Word of God as the measuring stick for our love, we find that it falls short.
The type of love matters not. A
husband's love for his wife, a mother's love for her child. All have fallen short, all have missed the
mark. All human loves falter or
waiver. Our love is not perfect love.
But, and here is the problem, generally speaking, we are okay with
that. To err is human after all...
Right? We well ourselves that is
ok. Sure, we might go off track every
now and then, but who doesn't? We are all
sinners. We all have our moments. That’s okay as long as your heart is in the
right place. Right?
Wrong. The standard we have
for ourselves and for each other is not the same standard that God has. Remember the commandments. Moses says don’t kill, Jesus cranks up the
expectation when he commands that we love
one another, even our enemies! For
us the standard is good enough. For God
the standard is perfect. God says that we
have sinned. God’s word says that we have failed. We are like the prisoners in Plato's cave – chained
to the wall in a dark cave all their lives they so that all they have seen is darkness
and shadows. When they are finally
released to go out into the light, they could not bear it. It was not what they were used to so they
went back in and lived where they were comfortable, in the shadows. That’s like us. We have lived all our lives in the darkness
and corruption of sin. We are used to
seeing it and living with it. It’s there
when read the news or pick up a magazine or go to the movies. It is all around us. We see how bad the world has become and we
have never known the world without it. Our
normal is not normal. Our normal is sin
and corruption. We can’t even imagine a
world without sin. And so when we judge
ourselves we see in ourselves the same sin that is in everyone else and we
assume we must be okay. We are measuring
with a crooked ruler. Only God’s Word gets
it right. Only God’s Word draws the line
correctly. And God’s Word says we are
sinners. God’s Word says that we don’t
show love. We don’t even know what love
is.
But God does. God knows
love. God is love. God shows love and God gives love.
“Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for
his friends.”
These are words of Jesus.
Words that are exemplified by Jesus.
He not only says them, he does them.
There is no greater love than to give all you have to give, even your
life, even your death for the life of others.
Jesus gave that gift. Jesus gave
his life, laying it down for you. There
is no greater love than the love of Jesus.
There is no greater love that the love of Jesus for you. And Jesus has called you friend.
14 You are my
friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for
the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and
bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the
Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so
that you will love one another. (John
15:14-17)
We live in a world where we do our best to love, where we do our
best to understand love and define love and live love. Mom's love their kids, kids love their moms,
and sometimes it seems that love is as close to perfect as one could hope to
expect. But our love, our loves, are
only shadows, imperfect and poor reflections of the true love, the great love,
the greatest love that anyone could have or show and that is the love of God,
the Love of Jesus for you as he gives his life for you, life for life, death
for death, so that your sins could be washed away and so that you could be
forgiven.
Jesus gives that love to you.
Jesus gave that love today - to Nevada.
She was washed, she was cleansed, she was raised to new life to new
faith and to new hope that won't perish spoil or fade. this is God's love in action, given and
demonstrated perfectly and flawlessly.
Amen.
Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts
and minds in Christ jesus,
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment