Terms Of Endearment

Story: Jim Arends of Trinity Lutheran Church, Spring Grove, Minnesota, tells of an old cartoon that pictures a preacher at the pulpit and a deacon sitting behind him with a grumpy expression on his face. The preacher says, "So until next Sunday, remember that God loves you, I love you and Brother Al here is working on it."

Prayer

To Love One Another… ridiculously easy to understand, and ridiculously hard to do…

It’s interesting that this story from Jesus comes along in the lectionary after the past week of experiencing both hate and love.

-       We’ve lived both of these expressions….

o    The hate of two brothers over against a country who openly embraced them.

o    The love of hundreds who offered help, hope, and love to care for those injured.

Similarly… for us today we hear Jesus’ new command to love one another just as he had loved them. These words are set in the tension of Jesus pointing out Judas’ indiscretions, Peter’s upcoming denial, and Jesus’ crucifixion. In the tensions of darkness, Jesus exclaims to his friends, to love one another… and if you do this people will know you are my disciples.

Today for many… this is a double edged sword. There are people who go out of their way to disassociate with Christianity… to much baggage… and those who go out of their way to hide their Christianity… their ashamed. Nonetheless… in the rampage of last week’s Boston Bombings, the near destruction of West, Texas from a fertilizer plant explosion, and the countless shootings in our surrounding cities… it certainly can be hard to see any love. But… despite all of this… there was love being demonstrated in Boston, Texas, and in our cities as people come to help those in need… People do Love!

Earlier this week where I live a school bus driver saw smoke from a house on his bus route stopped, told the kids to stay on the bus, and he ran to the house knocking on the doors and windows to tell the people, who were asleep their house was on fire. This guy demonstrated love.

We live in the moment of such drama and tension… and we hear the words of Jesus,“I give you a new command, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know you belong to me.” Yet… as simple as this is… we still have difficulty living this out.

How can we Love One Another more Effectively?

First… Love is Self-Sacrificing.

We saw this self-sacrificing in Boston and Texas, and in my community when people rushed in to help those wounded… everyday people who put themselves in the line of fire to help. Those who take the time to help an older person cross the street… pick something up for someone who can’t, or to take someone to the doctor, or store, or to the beauty salon. These are demonstrations of love.

The apostle Paul in Romans 13 encourages them to love others as they love themselves. This kind of self-sacrifice while simple is often times quite challenging for many of us.  Why?  Because it is the hallmark of God & Jesus and it should be the hallmark of the church too. You have the catch-phrase at Cross… “Love Grows Here” but… How deep does “Love Grow Here?”

Second… To Love is to Act.

Loving one another is only as good as our love in action.

1 Cor. 13… the often quoted love chapter at weddings where Paul says, “If I didn’t love others I would be nothing more than a noisy gong”… he also goes on to say, “Love is kind, Love is patient, Love isn’t selfish… etc.”

These are action words…. These are relationship words. Interestingly, the context of this passage, Paul wrote these words to admonish the Corinthian congregation for people behaving badly. We may not do these love actions perfectly, nonetheless they are powerful words that we need to take to heart. I’m thinking of the handful of people from Cross who each month serve to provide meals at our Community Dinners, and those who serve when McRest is here…at the core of those who do this is LOVE.

As Paul emphasized… love without action is just noise. 

Third… To Love is to Forgive.

This is the most difficult love of all. To forgive someone who’s harmed you… to forgive someone you know well who’s hurt and disappointed you. We’ve all experienced this…. And many of us have resented and sought retribution.  In Jesus’ sermon on the mount he tells us to love our enemies… Matt 5. In Luke’s version, 6:32, Jesus says, “If you only love those who love you, will God praise you for that? Even sinners love people who love them.” Think of Jesus’ act of going to the cross… “Father Forgive Them…” Without forgiveness love cannot act nor will love be selfless.

Closing:

Ask congregation to clench their hands to make a fist and feel the tenseness.

Story…

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, said this: "Because of our faith in Christ and in humankind, we must apply our humble efforts to the construction of a more just and humane world. And I want to declare emphatically: SUCH A WORLD IS POSSIBLE.

To create this new society we must present outstretched, friendly hands, without hatred, without rancor - even as we show great determination, never wavering in the defense of truth and justice. Because we know that seeds are not sown with clenched fists.

TO SOW WE MUST OPEN OUR HANDS."

--10 December 1980 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, as quoted in Anne Broyles, Meeting God Through Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 84.

See You Out On The Road