SOULS UNDER CONSTRUCTION SERMON SERIES:

                                             Spirited to Love

                                                        I John 4:7-21

    

      Pastor Robyn Hogue                             May 19, 2013                   Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

Over the last six weeks we’ve been focusing on trying to build lives that really matter. We are earnestly seeking to put God first, to love others well, to become devoted followers of Christ. Some of us are finding this experiment more exciting than we imagined, more meaningful than we anticipated, more helpful than we hoped for. Today’s sermon can be reduced to six simple words. God is love. Love one another. All we need to know about theology and moral ethics can be reduced to those six words. Let us explore them a little further.

God is love. Consider THE LOVE OF GOD:

Love is not an attribute of God, love is the essence of God. God is love. When God creates, God creates in love. When God rules, God rules in love. When God redeems, God redeems in love. When God judges, God judges in love. Every move God makes, every action God takes is an expression of God’s very being, which is love. That is all more than our minds can comprehend. To think of this grubby tennis ball we call earth, set in the vast infinity of space; to consider our lives as just milliseconds in the outward surge of time; to ponder our individuality among the billions of human beings; and then affirm that God loves each of us is more than our limited minds can fathom, yet this is exactly what the Bible says.

The love of God is UNEARNED.

You can’t acquire or achieve love. John Elderidge, in his book, Waking the Dead, writes about the wounded heart of his friend Abby. Listen to her story. “The assault started as a young girl. There was something about me that seemed to aggravate my father; something that seemed to annoy him and repel him. As I grew older, I only seemed to become more frustrating to him. I would ask him a question about how he was doing, and I would watch as the look of annoyance filled his eyes. And I began to suspect that there was something deeply wrong with me, something that made me unlovable, undesirable, something that was ‘too much’ and ‘not enough.’”  There are far too many “Abbys” in this world. They come in either gender. They live in every economic class.

Though no one mentioned it, I picked up as a child that love was something you earned. By adolescence I became very confused that no amount of effort ever seemed to enlist those three magic words “I love you” from my father or mother. These were not words that needed to be spoken out loud. No degree I earned, no award I received, no church I served ever seemed to be enough. It took my maturing in faith and the work of the Holy Spirit within me to discover that love was not something we earn.

God is love. We don’t have to pester God to get God’s attention. We don’t have to grovel for God to be good to us. We don’t have to bite our lips, and groan or moan to show God we really mean business. For God, in Jesus, has already demonstrated God’s love for us. God took the initiative. God is love. The love of God is unearned.

The love of God is also UNCONDITIONAL

It’s been years ago now, but I will never forget going with a mother to visit her teenage son in a Remann Hall. He had done some things that he ought not to have done, and then made the mistake of running from the police which landed him in juvenile detention. The next day we walked into that stark, secure, fortress on the hill, to visit him. I watched in silence as that brokenhearted mother walked slowly up to the bars, then, putting her hands through them, pulled the face of her son as close as she could. Then, leaning against his cell she said, “Son, no matter what you have done, I want you to know that I love you, and I want the best for you.” Then, both of them began to cry. God loves us like a mother loves a child.

Brides like to have I Corinthians 13 read at their weddings. In the mystical moments of a wedding I suppose it is fair to wish for a spouse that is always patient and kind, never boastful nor proud, one who is not easily angered, who keeps no record of wrongs. In moments like that you wish for a love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. After 35 years of marriage, I must confess I have not always measured up to such a high standard to love. There are times that if Larry Hogue is honest, he might say I have miserably failed at it. I humbly read the chapter with my name in it: Robyn does fail, can be rude, and is easily angered.

The love spoke about in I Corinthians 13 describes the nature of God. God is patient and kind. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. God endures all things. God has never failed us yet.

The love of God is unearned. It is unconditional.

And the love of God is UNENDING.

Consider the affirmation I will use at the close of worship today where Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor thing to come, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:28)

John says, “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.” So it does. There is no fear in life because God will never leave us nor forsake us. There is no fear in death because God has conquered death, and turned it into everlasting life. What have I to dread? What have I to fear?

Since God has first loved us, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER

The love of which I speak is neither the erotic passion of sex nor the sentimental ties of family. Christian love is the determination to do good, and not good only, but the highest good possible. Christians in the 1600’s coined a phrase for it. They called it agape (ä-gä’-pā).

We can aspire to this kind of love because we have been loved in this sort of way. We are asked to drink at the fountain of God’s grace until we have love like an ocean in our souls.

Love one another WHEN IT’S EASY
In the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie, who is dying with Lou Gehrig’s disease, says to his former student, Mitch, who is rubbing his back, “When we are infants we need people to survive. When we are dying we need people to survive. But here’s the secret, Mitch. In between we need each other even more. We must love one another or we die.”

How different would our lives be if for once we could really trust that simple acts of love make a world of difference? Think about it. Every little act of faithfulness, every gesture of love, every word of forgiveness, every bit of joy and peace, multiplied and multiplied as long as there are people to receive it. Imagine for a moment that our handshakes, embraces and affirmations are only the early signs of a world-wide community of love and peace. Henri Nouwen used to say, “If ever we loved one another as God already loves us, the world would be a house of love.” Isn’t that worthy of our prayers and deepest devotion?

We can love one another when it’s easy. And we can love one another WHEN IT’S HARD.


Somebody is surely saying by now, “OK, Robyn, but it’s easy for you as a pastor. Pastors don’t get emails from people who criticize you. Pastors don’t have to deal with the petty, manipulative, destructive behaviors of people who have the warmth of a vulture and the tenderness of a porcupine? How can we forgive the money grubbers and the back stabbers we meet, love, marry and divorce?”

God is not asking us to do anything beyond the grace given to us. We just need to remind ourselves of what John says, “If we say we love God and hate our brothers [and sisters], we are liars.” Jesus said, “If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” (Matthew 5:47-48)

For a while, revenge was the rule. Do more to your enemies than they do to you. Then Moses came and said, “Revenge is mine says the Lord, retribution is enough for you. So do not do more to others than they do to you, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Then Jesus came and said, “You don’t have to get ’em back. There is no need to get even. With My grace, you can forgive and you can love.” Is it not a better way to live?

Methodist past and author, Jim Moore, tells the story about General Omar Bradley traveling on a commercial airline in a business suit. A young, gregarious private in the Army sat down beside the general and not recognizing him wanted to talk. “You must be a banker,” said the private. The general, in no mood for casual conversation with a private replied, “I am General Bradley, a 5 star general in the U.S. Army. I am head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C.” “Well, sir,” replied the kid, “that’s a very important job. I hope you don’t blow it.”

When it comes to loving others as God first loved us, we have pretty important work to do. I sure hope we don’t blow it.