A Legacy of Love
1 John 4:7-14
Five years ago on Mothers Day 2001
I
preached my candidating sermon in the Great Room
And
the topic was the love of God.
We
engraved the word love on a block of
wood
And
we talked about Jesus’ command
“Love one another, by this all will know you
are my
disciples,
if you love one another.”
We lifted up the fact that Jesus didn’t say
That
the world will know you are my disciples by
The
kind of music you play and sing in worship
Or
the stand you take on a multitude of
Divisive
topics.
What
Jesus said to his disciples then and I said to you
Is
that when people look at us and wonder
Whether
we are disciples of Jesus Christ
The
first thing they will notice
Is whether
we love each other
and whether we love others
in
the Spirit of Jesus.
That was my goal when I came here five years ago
And
that is still my goal for us and our church today
To
be a church that reflects above all else
the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Now
don’t go to sleep on me or zone out because
this
is not an easy goal.
It
is the hardest calling of the Gospel.
This
is a great church with great people
And
yet more often than not
We
struggle with the calling.
We
don’t always get it right.
We find ourselves criticizing each other
We find
ourselves operating out of our own interests
Rather than the best interests and
concern for others
We
find ourselves passing gossip about another
We
try to follow the example of Jesus Christ
But
like those early disciples we just as often
Get
it wrong as get it right.
That’s
why the Apostle John write this letter
To
the early church and to us today.
To
let us know that there is hope
And
the hope is not in us
But
in God who loves us.
I remember the words that Kevin spoke playing the part
of the disciple John on Maundy Thursday:
“If ever I shall write about the things
Jesus
taught, I shall write about love. He seemed to
bring all that the law had taught us,
to focus on
the demand of God to love. Surely God
is love.”
And that is exactly where we go when we realize
That we
aren’t good enough, wise enough,
or loving enough to
follow Christ’s command
To
love God and love one another.
We end
up on our knees before God
and we hear the
Apostle John say:
“Love
has its source in God…
In this is love, not that we love God,
But
that God loves us and sent his Son
To
be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
John is saying that the very person of the Triune God
Is
expressed in love. How different that is
than humans.
Where
we seem to try to prove our self worth
By
diminishing others to make
our selves look better.
God doesn’t have to do that.
God’s
very essence is love.
But
it is as Karl Barth says “Love in freedom”.
In
other words God doesn’t love us because
God
has to prove something to us.
God
doesn’t need us because God’s love is
Fully
expressed in the love of God the Father
For
the Son through the Holy Spirit.
God is not required to love us by any mandate from
above.
God is
the mandate from above.
And
God chooses to love us
Not
because we’re loveable but because
Loving
is the very being, essence
and nature
of God.
So the first
message today is that GOD LOVES YOU.
You are
loved by God, each one of you,
Not
for something that you will do
You
are loved because you are you,
A
child of God and God loves you.
I write
that on every Birthday card a send to a little child
In
our congregation and today I’m telling you
It
is the truth, it is the gospel
GOD
LOVES YOU!
But it doesn’t end there.
As John
says: “Brothers and sisters, if God so
loved us
We
ought to love one another.”
Sometimes
when we receive something-
money,
power, land, food
We’re
afraid to share it because we might run out.
But
in the case of God’s love it is overflowing
And
the only way to run out is
Not
to share it.
To think we can store it or ration God’s love is not
To
trust the abundance of God,
that God’s
very nature is love
And it is an overflowing love.
Karl Barth says that the person of God is described in
love
And
that we become fully actualized persons
As
we are loved by God and love God in return.
We do
not become a person in isolation,
Or by diminishing others to build
ourselves up
But
we become fully human
in the communion of Christ who is love,
and
who calls us to love God and
to
love each other in his name.
So today is a special day.
Not
only because it is a day when we remember Mothers
Mother’s
who are still with us in life and who we
Can
share a meal with us
But also Mother’s
who have gone to be with our
loving God in Christ’s promise of
eternal live
But it
is a special day because today we share a meal
With
all the saints in the
All
mothers and fathers alike who are
Loved
of God and love others
In
His name.
We
remember all of them because in this meal
God
remembers and loves all of us.
This communion meal is our chance to participate
In the
love poured out in Jesus Christ to us
And
the love we then offer us in Christ
To
God and each other.
That is the legacy of love- that we share it with
other. Amen