What Does It Mean To Love?
Sermon
CRITICAL DECISIONS IN FOLLOWING JESUS
Sermons ForPentecost (Last Third)
Do you remember the first time you told a boyfriend or girlfriend those three words, "I love you?" When did you first say it to the one you married? I don't remember the particular occasion, but I remember thinking about it. Do I dare tell her how I feel? I really think I love her, but should I tell her yet? Then I thought, what if she doesn't have any of these feelings for me? Will she be embarrassed? Will I be sticking my neck out? Will it change our relationship if I tell her that I love her? Should I wait until I'm more certain?
That was a long time ago. I still say those words - perhaps not as often as I should. And I still love to hear them said to me, "I love you."
Those three words are powerful. To say them, to hear them said, can make a big difference. Today's children's song sums it up.
Love, love, love, that's what it's all about.
'Cause God loves us we love each other
Mother, Father, Sister, Brother
Everybody sing and shout
'Cause that's what it's all about
It's about love, love, love
It's about love, love, love.
Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for another person. You shall love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love, that's what it's all about. Jesus also said, "I am giving you these so that you may love one another." John's epistle puts it this way, "Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." John also says, "If we love one another, God lives in us and God's love is perfected in us. God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them."
Here we have several statements about love. It seems pretty obvious that the central teaching of Jesus is love. The kingdom of God is about love. Justice and righteousness are about love. It starts out with love. Love is the energy that keeps us alive, and love is the goal. If there is a God, it doesn't say God loves, but God is love. The essence of God is love. The prime mover, the creator, the mastermind behind all that we see and discover is love. The manifestation of that love came in the person of Jesus. God sent the one born of Mary to reveal, to let us see love. God wanted to love us in a tangible way, so Jesus was born. The Word of God which is love became flesh.
In the life of Jesus we see that love is a binding relationship, a caring, a willingness to sacrifice, to lay down one's life, to enter into the other person's situation. "Greater love has no one," says Jesus, "than to lay down one's life for others." Jesus' life is a demonstration of that love.
In the end, the bottom line is: God wants us to love one another. It's God's commandment to us. Love sums up all the commandments. It has authority behind it. It's not an option. It's not a theory, an idea, a philosophy to bounce around. It's not a question or suggestion as one possible route you may take. It's a command. This is my commandment that you love one another. It is the "law," that the psalmist meditates on day and night (Psalm 1).
There is some interesting insight in 1 John that may bother some of us a bit, especially those who operate with a rather closed system. It says, "Whoever loves is born of God and knows God. Those who abide in love abide in God."
We tend to turn it around. We say whoever is born of God, loves. Or if you accept Christ as your Savior, if you abide in God, then you will love. John doesn't use that formula here. He says, "Whoever loves is born of God."
Baptism, justification by faith, saved by grace, accepting Christ, or being accepted by God is not mentioned here. Being a member of a church, or believing the Bible to be God's word, or being heterosexual, or believing certain dogmas, none of these is mentioned here. But "Whoever loves is born of God."
It raises some interesting questions about our attitude toward people who aren't inside our circle. Jews, Arabs, Moslems, atheists, people who believe differently than we do. We don't have time to deal with all the implications of this, but I draw your attention to it so that we don't become too narrow or dogmatic in our judgment or attitude toward others. "Whoever loves is born of God and knows God." If we don't like this verse, if it unsettles our theology, then of course we can ignore it or cross it out and move on to some other parts of the Bible that we feel more comfortable with. However, it can be a rather liberating insight from God's Word. When asked to summarize what the will of God is all about, Jesus puts it simply. Love God and love your neighbor.
My point is, love seems to be the beginning and the end, the top line and the bottom line. So we sing, "Love, love, love, that's what it's all about." But that's not all the Bible says. That's not all that Jesus said. He goes on to say more and to demonstrate what he means. As we study the scriptures and as we live out our faith we discover some interesting things about love.
Love is more than a feeling. It is an attitude from which we operate. It is a way of behaving toward others. We may not always feel love, but we can do the loving thing.
Can you think of someone at work or one of your relatives that you don't feel loving towards? I'm sure we all can. Your feelings toward that person are perhaps negative or suspicious. You may have been hurt by that person. Their words may have cut you down. They don't deserve your love. God has given you a command to love that person. That doesn't mean that you have to feel a certain way, but to do the loving thing, to respond from a stance of love. That might mean to forgive, to give that person another chance, to sacrifice your pride. It might mean deciding not to pay that person back or putting them down in order to prove that you are right. You may decide not to criticize or talk about that person behind their back.
We don't have to wait for a feeling of love before we love. We can decide to love without feeling love. I encourage you to think about that person you don't feel good about. The presence of God in you will help you to love that person. It may not change that person, but it will change you. Love is more than a feeling. It's an attitude, a stance from which we see and operate.
Love is more than a doctrine. It is an experience. Children who grow up with little love in their homes may have a hard time loving others. It is being loved that enables us to love. "Beloved, since God loved us so much we are to love one another." It begins with the experience of love. It is being loved that can change our behavior.
Dennis was a neighbor boy when we lived in San Francisco. He was always getting into trouble, doing the wrong thing. His mother found out that he had broken our basement window and crawled in one day when we were not home. She marched him over to our house to apologize. Dennis looked frightened as he came down to my office which was in the basement of our home at that time. He didn't speak, but his lips quivered. I didn't speak either. Instead, I took his arm and put him in my lap. I hugged him and told him that I loved him. He started to sob. The hard shell he had usually displayed started to crack. At other times when I tried to scold him or preach to him about what was right, it didn't seem to work. Once Dennis experienced love, it made a difference. Love is more than a doctrine. It is an experience.
Love is more than words. It is action. I can say I love you to my wife, my children, or my friend. But if it doesn't show in my behavior, then my words become like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. We can say that we believe in God, that we believe the Bible, that we are forgiven sinners, that we are followers of Jesus, but the test of reality comes not in our words, but in the way we live. We can say we trust God to take care of us, that we don't have other gods, that we love to tell the story. But the real test of love is not in our words. It is in our action.
The Bible is very practical. For example, to help us know what it means to love our neighbor, the Bible talks about giving a tithe - 10 percent of all our income to the Lord's work to the poor. It is for others (Malachi 3:8-10). The tithe is not an amount, but a percentage, a step toward equality, toward redistribution. It may be a sacrifice to do that, but to love is a sacrifice.
Some of us have adopted a lifestyle that makes tithing very difficult. That is, we have homes, cars, clothes, sports and long range goals that make it difficult to live on the 90 percent. So we may take from the 10 percent that belongs to God for our lifestyle, to meet our obligations and appetites, to fulfill our goals. The Bible says that is stealing from God. It is the failure to love that leads us to steal what does not belong to us. Of course, parents who steal may find that their children will also learn to steal.
Tithing is not about church budgets, building programs, or stewardship campaigns. It's about love. It's about the commandment to love as God loved us. The scriptures say, "Let us not love in word but in deed and in truth." Some of us will go fishing next weekend because it's the season opener. Or we may get tickets to the baligame or the concert. Cultural events are important and good. It might be a sign of love if we make sure that we have taken our tithe out first.
Love is more than words. Love is sacrifice, obedience, partnership, turning the other cheek. We may sing "I love to tell the story of unseen things above," but what the world is looking for is not words or melodies, but love, love that manifests itself in the way we spend our money, the way we vote, the way we treat those who don't deserve our love, those whose skin color or beliefs are different than ours. "Mother, father, sister, brother, everybody sing and shout, 'cause that's what it's all about. It's about love."
To love is not always easy, but as the Bible says, it does make our joy complete. If Jesus taught us anything, he taught us that to love can be painful.
The movie The Nasty Girl, is a German film with subtitles. It's about a young girl who decides to write an essay for school about her home town in Germany. She concentrates on her home town during World War II. She is commended and applauded by the residents of her community until she begins to discover some covered-up history. People had forgotten their town's treatment of Jews. The secret files of that history were locked up, off limits. People remembered only what they wanted to remember. It's no different today. But the young girl persists. She doesn't quit even though everyone tells her to drop it. She marries one of her high school teachers, and continues her research into the town's history. After some time, even her own husband turns against her. She feels alone, forsaken, even hated as someone throws a fire bomb into her apartment. They call her a communist. She is the "nasty girl" in town because of her persistent quest for the truth. Her love for the truth, her love for justice, compels her to go forward until she finally is able to tell the full story. It is a painful story to watch as it unfolds on the screen. One is reminded how the love of truth and justice can be very painful. Jesus' example certainly teaches this.
But not to love is to deny who we are.
Not to love is to lose the joy of living.
Not to love is to live a very lonely life.
Not to love is boring and dull.
Not to love is to merely exist, without meaning or purpose.
Not to love is to deny the presence of God, the image of God within us.
Not to love is a form of atheism.
We come together each week not because we have to go to "church" to be Christian or to get to heaven. We come together to experience God's love in a fresh way, to explore what it means to love, to find energy in order to love. We come so we can be obedient to the command, to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbor as ourselves so that our joy may be complete. Every Sunday is a love feast. Every day of the week is filled with opportunities to love and to be loved. Amen.
That was a long time ago. I still say those words - perhaps not as often as I should. And I still love to hear them said to me, "I love you."
Those three words are powerful. To say them, to hear them said, can make a big difference. Today's children's song sums it up.
Love, love, love, that's what it's all about.
'Cause God loves us we love each other
Mother, Father, Sister, Brother
Everybody sing and shout
'Cause that's what it's all about
It's about love, love, love
It's about love, love, love.
Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for another person. You shall love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love, that's what it's all about. Jesus also said, "I am giving you these so that you may love one another." John's epistle puts it this way, "Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." John also says, "If we love one another, God lives in us and God's love is perfected in us. God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them."
Here we have several statements about love. It seems pretty obvious that the central teaching of Jesus is love. The kingdom of God is about love. Justice and righteousness are about love. It starts out with love. Love is the energy that keeps us alive, and love is the goal. If there is a God, it doesn't say God loves, but God is love. The essence of God is love. The prime mover, the creator, the mastermind behind all that we see and discover is love. The manifestation of that love came in the person of Jesus. God sent the one born of Mary to reveal, to let us see love. God wanted to love us in a tangible way, so Jesus was born. The Word of God which is love became flesh.
In the life of Jesus we see that love is a binding relationship, a caring, a willingness to sacrifice, to lay down one's life, to enter into the other person's situation. "Greater love has no one," says Jesus, "than to lay down one's life for others." Jesus' life is a demonstration of that love.
In the end, the bottom line is: God wants us to love one another. It's God's commandment to us. Love sums up all the commandments. It has authority behind it. It's not an option. It's not a theory, an idea, a philosophy to bounce around. It's not a question or suggestion as one possible route you may take. It's a command. This is my commandment that you love one another. It is the "law," that the psalmist meditates on day and night (Psalm 1).
There is some interesting insight in 1 John that may bother some of us a bit, especially those who operate with a rather closed system. It says, "Whoever loves is born of God and knows God. Those who abide in love abide in God."
We tend to turn it around. We say whoever is born of God, loves. Or if you accept Christ as your Savior, if you abide in God, then you will love. John doesn't use that formula here. He says, "Whoever loves is born of God."
Baptism, justification by faith, saved by grace, accepting Christ, or being accepted by God is not mentioned here. Being a member of a church, or believing the Bible to be God's word, or being heterosexual, or believing certain dogmas, none of these is mentioned here. But "Whoever loves is born of God."
It raises some interesting questions about our attitude toward people who aren't inside our circle. Jews, Arabs, Moslems, atheists, people who believe differently than we do. We don't have time to deal with all the implications of this, but I draw your attention to it so that we don't become too narrow or dogmatic in our judgment or attitude toward others. "Whoever loves is born of God and knows God." If we don't like this verse, if it unsettles our theology, then of course we can ignore it or cross it out and move on to some other parts of the Bible that we feel more comfortable with. However, it can be a rather liberating insight from God's Word. When asked to summarize what the will of God is all about, Jesus puts it simply. Love God and love your neighbor.
My point is, love seems to be the beginning and the end, the top line and the bottom line. So we sing, "Love, love, love, that's what it's all about." But that's not all the Bible says. That's not all that Jesus said. He goes on to say more and to demonstrate what he means. As we study the scriptures and as we live out our faith we discover some interesting things about love.
Love is more than a feeling. It is an attitude from which we operate. It is a way of behaving toward others. We may not always feel love, but we can do the loving thing.
Can you think of someone at work or one of your relatives that you don't feel loving towards? I'm sure we all can. Your feelings toward that person are perhaps negative or suspicious. You may have been hurt by that person. Their words may have cut you down. They don't deserve your love. God has given you a command to love that person. That doesn't mean that you have to feel a certain way, but to do the loving thing, to respond from a stance of love. That might mean to forgive, to give that person another chance, to sacrifice your pride. It might mean deciding not to pay that person back or putting them down in order to prove that you are right. You may decide not to criticize or talk about that person behind their back.
We don't have to wait for a feeling of love before we love. We can decide to love without feeling love. I encourage you to think about that person you don't feel good about. The presence of God in you will help you to love that person. It may not change that person, but it will change you. Love is more than a feeling. It's an attitude, a stance from which we see and operate.
Love is more than a doctrine. It is an experience. Children who grow up with little love in their homes may have a hard time loving others. It is being loved that enables us to love. "Beloved, since God loved us so much we are to love one another." It begins with the experience of love. It is being loved that can change our behavior.
Dennis was a neighbor boy when we lived in San Francisco. He was always getting into trouble, doing the wrong thing. His mother found out that he had broken our basement window and crawled in one day when we were not home. She marched him over to our house to apologize. Dennis looked frightened as he came down to my office which was in the basement of our home at that time. He didn't speak, but his lips quivered. I didn't speak either. Instead, I took his arm and put him in my lap. I hugged him and told him that I loved him. He started to sob. The hard shell he had usually displayed started to crack. At other times when I tried to scold him or preach to him about what was right, it didn't seem to work. Once Dennis experienced love, it made a difference. Love is more than a doctrine. It is an experience.
Love is more than words. It is action. I can say I love you to my wife, my children, or my friend. But if it doesn't show in my behavior, then my words become like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. We can say that we believe in God, that we believe the Bible, that we are forgiven sinners, that we are followers of Jesus, but the test of reality comes not in our words, but in the way we live. We can say we trust God to take care of us, that we don't have other gods, that we love to tell the story. But the real test of love is not in our words. It is in our action.
The Bible is very practical. For example, to help us know what it means to love our neighbor, the Bible talks about giving a tithe - 10 percent of all our income to the Lord's work to the poor. It is for others (Malachi 3:8-10). The tithe is not an amount, but a percentage, a step toward equality, toward redistribution. It may be a sacrifice to do that, but to love is a sacrifice.
Some of us have adopted a lifestyle that makes tithing very difficult. That is, we have homes, cars, clothes, sports and long range goals that make it difficult to live on the 90 percent. So we may take from the 10 percent that belongs to God for our lifestyle, to meet our obligations and appetites, to fulfill our goals. The Bible says that is stealing from God. It is the failure to love that leads us to steal what does not belong to us. Of course, parents who steal may find that their children will also learn to steal.
Tithing is not about church budgets, building programs, or stewardship campaigns. It's about love. It's about the commandment to love as God loved us. The scriptures say, "Let us not love in word but in deed and in truth." Some of us will go fishing next weekend because it's the season opener. Or we may get tickets to the baligame or the concert. Cultural events are important and good. It might be a sign of love if we make sure that we have taken our tithe out first.
Love is more than words. Love is sacrifice, obedience, partnership, turning the other cheek. We may sing "I love to tell the story of unseen things above," but what the world is looking for is not words or melodies, but love, love that manifests itself in the way we spend our money, the way we vote, the way we treat those who don't deserve our love, those whose skin color or beliefs are different than ours. "Mother, father, sister, brother, everybody sing and shout, 'cause that's what it's all about. It's about love."
To love is not always easy, but as the Bible says, it does make our joy complete. If Jesus taught us anything, he taught us that to love can be painful.
The movie The Nasty Girl, is a German film with subtitles. It's about a young girl who decides to write an essay for school about her home town in Germany. She concentrates on her home town during World War II. She is commended and applauded by the residents of her community until she begins to discover some covered-up history. People had forgotten their town's treatment of Jews. The secret files of that history were locked up, off limits. People remembered only what they wanted to remember. It's no different today. But the young girl persists. She doesn't quit even though everyone tells her to drop it. She marries one of her high school teachers, and continues her research into the town's history. After some time, even her own husband turns against her. She feels alone, forsaken, even hated as someone throws a fire bomb into her apartment. They call her a communist. She is the "nasty girl" in town because of her persistent quest for the truth. Her love for the truth, her love for justice, compels her to go forward until she finally is able to tell the full story. It is a painful story to watch as it unfolds on the screen. One is reminded how the love of truth and justice can be very painful. Jesus' example certainly teaches this.
But not to love is to deny who we are.
Not to love is to lose the joy of living.
Not to love is to live a very lonely life.
Not to love is boring and dull.
Not to love is to merely exist, without meaning or purpose.
Not to love is to deny the presence of God, the image of God within us.
Not to love is a form of atheism.
We come together each week not because we have to go to "church" to be Christian or to get to heaven. We come together to experience God's love in a fresh way, to explore what it means to love, to find energy in order to love. We come so we can be obedient to the command, to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbor as ourselves so that our joy may be complete. Every Sunday is a love feast. Every day of the week is filled with opportunities to love and to be loved. Amen.
