Acts 1:45-48
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the
word.The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
John 15:10-17
As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you; abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you
will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide
in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and
that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any
longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have
called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have
heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed
you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you
whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may
love one another.****************************************************************************
About three years ago I was having a
conversation with my son about God, faith, religion and - in his mind - the
damage religion does when it is not carefully thought out. He isn’t a church
going follower, but is well-read in many religious texts. He was relating that
a colleague of his at a previous job had become involved in a church, and it
was beginning to consume his life – and negatively affect his working
relationships. My son felt it was more of a cult than a church. He said this
colleague tends to repeat whatever he is told without thinking. So this
colleague pronounced that if people don’t love God, they can’t love others
either.
It was interesting that we were having this particular conversation, because I had already decided to preach on the text of John - whoever loves comes from God, and loving as Jesus loved us; and I believe that this is precisely the opposite of what my son’s colleague was saying.
It was interesting that we were having this particular conversation, because I had already decided to preach on the text of John - whoever loves comes from God, and loving as Jesus loved us; and I believe that this is precisely the opposite of what my son’s colleague was saying.
Look at both those statements.
“Whoever loves comes from God.” “Love others as I have loved you.” It’s entirely the other way around. We don’t
have to love God first, and then find the capability to love others. The action
first comes from God; first comes from Jesus. Humans are born to love, and the
love we are capable of having for others connects us. We who claim the
Christian faith believe it connects us to God. But neither God nor Jesus speaks
about any particular faith. Whoever loves comes from God. Period.
So it raises for me the question of what constitutes “right belief”. Is it a so-called orthodox belief that only Christians are selected by God, and only Christians can have a relationship with God. If God is God, can God be so limited? What, and who, defines our relationship to God? Us? God? Others?
Is baptism evidence of “right belief”? We bring children for baptism, make promises on their behalf. Does that mean they have “right belief” just because of that action? We confirm our children when they are teens, and they are considered members of the church. Is that all ‘right belief’ takes? Or do those young people then continue to learn and discover what love in faith means? Just as we hope we do too – for one never “arrives” at a fully mature faith.
Is prayer “right belief”? What kind of prayer? Is prayer alone the most important thing? Jesus said to go away into your private space and pray. He said beware of those who stand up in the synagogue and pray so all can hear. Does God ignore us if we don’t pray a certain way? Does God do what we ask and turn others down? Do we have to have the right prayers or the same prayers all the time?
What about social justice and outreach? Is that “right belief”? Shelters, boycotts, warm meals, Habitat for Humanity builds, lobbying, marching, compassion. Are those the only evidence of “right belief”? John’s Gospel talks about Jesus being the vine, and us the branches. Jesus was love, Jesus is love. So if that is the case, then we also are born to love - and out of that love surely comes a mission. A church with no sense of mission is severed from the Vine – and will wither and die. Without connection to the Vine, mission in the church is just mission by any social agency.
What about the ‘born again’ experience? Is that the earmark of “right belief”? We know that deeply moving experiences can change lives. Is that all? One moving experience which connects us to God, and suddenly we have “right belief”? What does it mean to be “born again”? Who defines what “born again” is?
I suggest that beyond baptism, beyond orthodox or unorthodox faith stances, beyond how we order our service, beyond prayer, beyond social justice and outreach, there are these statements which put all of those things into a clear perspective.
First, we have this statement: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” The Holy Spirit falls on all who hear the word. The Word is more than one kind of faith – it transcends faith, for the word is love.
....and this statement: “For God is love.....if we love one another, God lives in us, God’s love is perfected in us.”
“You did not choose me, I chose you.
Love one another as I have loved you.”
Love. It is the single most important thing in the Christian faith. Prayer, baptism, outreach, life in community - these are all important things. For me, it is that the most important is love.
Agape, or love within a community, is the single piece, the one criterion that gives meaning to everything else we say or do. We might be able to recite the creeds; we might sing and say the Lord’s Prayer every week; but if we do not have love, we are what Paul says is a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. We may have experiences that take us into God’s holy presence, but without love it does us no good. And though we feed the hungry and rescue those who are perishing but have no love, we are nothing. We might think baptism is all it takes - but unless a child learns to love throughout life - it is a meaningless ritual. We might think confirmation, membership, communion, prayers in church are enough.
Love. It is the single most important thing in the Christian faith. Prayer, baptism, outreach, life in community - these are all important things. For me, it is that the most important is love.
Agape, or love within a community, is the single piece, the one criterion that gives meaning to everything else we say or do. We might be able to recite the creeds; we might sing and say the Lord’s Prayer every week; but if we do not have love, we are what Paul says is a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. We may have experiences that take us into God’s holy presence, but without love it does us no good. And though we feed the hungry and rescue those who are perishing but have no love, we are nothing. We might think baptism is all it takes - but unless a child learns to love throughout life - it is a meaningless ritual. We might think confirmation, membership, communion, prayers in church are enough.
So the aged writer of 1st John writes his last words to a community that he is about to leave and tells them over and over again never to lose their ability to love. When we hear, "God’s love was revealed among us in this way," it means that God is not a snoozing professor sitting in a dusty study mumbling on about love like it’s some arcane, esoteric theological concept. Instead, it means that God came to us through Jesus in the raw material of humanity that knows pain, passion, defeat, death, and now resurrection. Years ago when asked if Jesus was God, our then-Moderator Bill Phipps said no – but, he said, Jesus was the best window through which we could see God and know God’s nature.
And now, the writer proclaims that we are Jesus acting in the world. As Jesus showed humanity love, so we are called to do the same. The world is starving for love to come on to the stage and show love. Yet too many times seekers come to the theater hurting and in need of hope only to see a re-run about what Christians believe, do or don’t do, shoulda, coulda, woulda.
To have love - agape - is to have God living within us; everyone who loves has God within them.
But this one simple statement takes us well beyond the Christian context, and into a world-wide context. Here is the whole statement: “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God; if we love one another, God lives in us.” It means that God lives within human beings regardless of whether or not they are baptised, or whether or not they pray, or even whether or not they claim they are Christian. God is love. God cannot be contained by one faith, or one way of looking at faith. Wherever there is love, God lives.
Belief, experience, and love abide, but the greatest of these is _________. I invite you to finish the sentence in your life this week. Amen.
Sources:
1.
Evidence Demanding a Verdict – by Rev. Thomas Hall
