giftlove

[Note: We are doing our text in black in order to facilitate the printing of these pages for those who are working with color printers.]

Four Enduring Gifts of Easter

Life, Love, Peace, Hope

During the first four Sundays of May, we explore the abiding reality of Jesus Christ through four gifts which are His legacy to the community of faith. The strength of these gifts in our lives points to the reality of Christ within.

[ For a special Mother's Day article, see "Mother's" in illustration database ]

May 10, 1998 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ John 13: 31-35

"Can Love Ever Really Last?"

The Gift of Love

"What the world needs now, is love sweet love, that's the only thing that there's... [ask your listeners to finish for you] ("just too little of"). It isn't that there is not enough talk about love, or enough writing about love or enough searching for love -- the song must be trying to say there's not enough authentic, barrier busting, prejudice smashing, hate defeating love. A search of the largest bookstore on the internet produces over three thousand titles on the subject of love. Most of them have to do with the difficulties, barriers or aberrations of love. No wonder a late night comedian quips, "It's a good thing love hurts, otherwise all the country songs would have to be about root canals."

[ Perhaps you have heard the story about a young man out on his first date with a pretty young woman... Toward the end of the evening, the young man says to her, "I am madly in love with you, I adore you, I will love you forever!" And the surprised woman answers, "Don't get so serious." He answers back, "I'm not serious!" ]

***

Here is a list of what the American Medical Association says are the top killers in our society. You could probably guess most of them. Heart disease, hypertension, and cancer are all on the list. BUT... the worst disease of all was not listed. Do you know what this most devastating disease of all is? It is a horrible disorder and every person on earth is vulnerable to its consequences.

I trust I have your ear now. Here it is:The most destructive disease on planet earth is lack of love! Not love that comes and goes, or love that fades with the passing of months and years. What the world needs now is authentic, accepting, forgiving, unconditional love.

From the beginning of recorded history, there have been spiritual teachers who taught that lack of love is a serious flaw of the spirit. With the development of social sciences, we learned that lack of love has devastating emotional consequences. Now, increasingly, medical science is opening up to the fact that lack of love has serious physical effects.

Dr. Bernie Siegel is a surgeon, but a most unusual one. He is better known as the author of, "Love, Miracles and Medicine". He followed that up with a book called, "Peace, Love and Healing."

In the introduction to his first book, Dr. Siegel writes:

"Psychologists have shown that the effects of love on the body can be measured: An unloved infant will have retarded bone growth and may even die; a stroked infant grows faster. The effects of peace of mind are measurable too: ... Love and peace of mind do protect us... they allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us... As children, however, most of us did not grow up in an environment with sufficient love and hope. It is time to move beyond that legacy of lovelessness, to forgive and be reborn."

Isn't it astonishing that the church is pointed back to its primary agenda... not so much by the theological and ecclesiastical leaders of our day, but by people like Dr. Siegel, Dr. Karl Menninger, Dr. Carl Simonton, Norman Cousins and a growing number of people in the medical field? Dr. Siegel's comments about forgiveness and rebirth go to the heart of the gospel.

There is so much disappointment with the experience of love in our culture that we in the church dare not fail in this regard. We may have organizational failure from time to time, but we can recover from that. We will experience program failure occasionally, and we can re-program and recover from that. However, if we experience a failure in love, we are detached from the very center of what it means to be the church.

***

Is there such a thing as a love that can really last? A love so powerful and so true that it would never end? If there were such a love, it would be the root and the ground of every positive human affection -- it would be the foundation of every parent-child, husband-wife and brother-sister relationship. Such a love would be the glue that held families, communities and churches together. And if there was such a love, would we not give almost anything to learn where could it be found?

Jesus' words in our gospel lesson point us to exactly such a love. They set the standard for what it means to be the church. If ever there was hope for authentic, lasting love, it is be found in these words. When we are able to understand, embrace and practice the words of Jesus in this passage, we will be close to a transformation of our lives and of our church! The words are deceptively simple, but to work them and knead them into the fiber of our souls is spiritual work of the first magnitude.

In these words, Jesus speaks about: a) A New Commandment, b) The Nature of the New Commandment and c) The Power of the New Commandment.

a) A New Commandment

The first three verses of our text is a preface to the key point Jesus wants to make. The disciples are gathered in the Upper Room for one last evening together before Jesus is executed. At one point Jesus says in effect, Okay guys... listen up! The time has come. I will be leaving you and you will be on your own... so please get this... Then he moves to the one thing he wants them to understand -- the words cry out for attention. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The new commandment -- "love one another", is hammered home with three repetitions. "Love one another -- love one another -- love one another." It will come up twice more before they leave the room. "I command you -- love one another!"

Why is Jesus so unrelenting with this notion? It is as though he is saying to them... (and to us), "The world is urgently in need of love and it needs an example of what love really is ... " You may recall that these are the same men who just a few days before this Upper Room experience were arguing about who was going to be greatest in Jesus' Kingdom. James and John had lobbied for first and second Vice President and brought their mother in to press their case. This did not seem like a group that was about to break into unconditional love! Into the midst of this conflict of wills, Jesus issues what would seem to be a very difficult command. "Love one another." ....[** interesting language note here: "One another" ( Gk. "ah-lay-lohn" ) means literally, "each one -- every other one! That is to say -- no exceptions]

b) The Nature of the New Commandment

Jesus told his followers they were to love each other -- no exceptions, no excuses and no conditions. Now, in the event they thought about trivializing the meaning of love, he gives them a powerful definition of love. A definition that will become more powerful as the night wears on and the dawn opens up the full meaning of "This is my body which is broken for you!" "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."

Do you see the point? This is addressed to every single person who claims the name of Christ. How much does Jesus love you? (If you need a definition -- Jesus loves you as though you were the only one in the world and he comes to Bethlehem and then to Calvary just the same -- just for you!) Now... that is how you are to love "one another". At the very least, we will have to agree that the love Jesus has commanded us to have for one another is quite radical compared to that which passes for love in our culture. This is a love that will never die. It is the love of Psalm 136 which "endures forever!" [Consider using the thematic Call to Worship below from Psalm 136]

c) The Power of the New Commandment

Critical question: "How can people tell if we are the real thing?" Is there anything that can show for certain we are authentic followers of Jesus Christ?

Follow this closely. Jesus gave only one instruction to his followers as to how the world would know who was genuinely following him. It was not to be in the realm of intellectual belief. "The world will know you are my disciples if you believe the correct doctrines." Nor would the answer be correct affiliation. "The world will know you are my disciples if you belong to the one true church." No... the way the world will know that Christ was in the midst of any group would be that the persons of that group had a deep commitment to loving every other person of that group. Anyone who became a part of that group could count on love, acceptance and forgiveness!

From the earliest days of the church, this mark of committed love of Christians for each other was the hallmark of authenticity. Tertullian, who wrote in defense of Christian in the earliest days of "on again -- off again" persecution of Christians wrote, "Even the pagans exclaim [of Christians] 'see how they love one another.'"

Jesus was the love of God wrapped up in flesh. Christians represent the love of Christ wrapped up in a fellowship. There is an absolutely amazing power in genuine love. There is a love that can really last. It is the love of Christ living within his people. It is a love that will not die even when death comes. It is truly the love that can last -- not only for now, but forever!

[ Apply It ]

There is a "crunch point" that comes to each one of us when we try to live by Jesus' "new commandment". If each one of us in the church is to love every single other one in the church -- how many churches would you give a passing grade?

Better yet... would you give yourself a passing grade? Are there specific names and faces that come to mind when I ask, "Who specifically in this church, do you have a hard time with when it come to keeping Jesus' commandment?" [Unfair you say?!!]

Here's the key: You have to admit that you can not keep this commandment in your own strength then you have to ask for help. And the help is available. Memorize this one: Romans 5:5 "...God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." We supply the empty heart and God supplies the love via the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Here's the key. Are you willing to have God love this person (or persons) you have a hard time with through you? i.e. If God supplies the love, will you give it?

When you can say yes to this, you will have centered your life in that which can give lasting love in every facet of your living!

Alternate Sermon Ideas

Divine Destination - Revelation 21:1-6

Where are we headed? Where is everything headed? We are fairly clear about, "In the beginning God...", but we also need to point to the "ending" of all things. God is "Alpha" and "Omega". This familiar passage from Revelation points to the end of all things -- consummation -- or the Divine Destination.

The text speaks of a restoration of all things. "I am making all things new." Heaven and earth will be new, Jerusalem will be new, life is new and all things will be new.

Here's the key to Divine Destination: God will dwell "among mortals" and as a result, there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. In other words, life will be as God designed it to be in the beginning. As God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, so he will be immediately present to all who come to him for the waters of life.

Confronting Prejudice - Acts 11:1-18

The Acts passage deals with the critical transition of the earliest Christian community from a Jewish to a Gentile population. It deals with a typical "We" vs. "Them" dichotomy. "We Jews" vs. "Those Unclean Gentiles". A hard transition for people who came from a tradition where a well known rabbinical prayer, "Lord, I thank Thee that Thou has not created me a Gentile or a woman!" The text flows in this way:

1. vv. 5-10 God confronts and changes Peter's prejudice. The biblical emphasis of "three times" is applied. In other words, "Peter ... pay attention!"

2. vv.11-14 God sends Peter with a message of God's love without making a distinction between "them and us."

3. vv.15-18 Once God has a willing messenger, the Holy Spirit will bring about the "evidence" that God is at work overcoming prejudice and preconceived ideas.

Obedience to God brings about the gifts of God -- "Repentance that leads to Life." God brings this tremendous transition about through a vision given to Peter. The Gentiles also receive a vision and are told to call for Peter. Amazingly God uses us in spite of our prejudices and weaknesses. If we are open to God through prayer and contemplation, we are available to God as agents of reconciliation.

Children's Message

"A Miracle Kit - Part Two"

The children should be bringing back their "Miracle Kits" Talk about how life is a gift from God and that the life was already in the seeds. We can "help" the life grow, but we can not "make" the life.

Life needs care to grow. It needs light, water, warmth and earth. These things are like love. Love helps us to grow and it helps to make our lives to be happy. The care you gave to your plants is like love.

A Call To Worship (Adapted from Psalm 136)

[If you use this call to worship, before or after, tie it into the sermon theme ... "What is the key issue the Psalmist wants us to get hold of?"]

L: Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.