Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church- Internship May 7, 2010 Supervisor: Reverend Dr. Meagan Boozer Pastoral Intern: Dennis A. Dillman 1 John 4:7-21 and Leviticus 19: 17-18 and 33-34 and John 15:4-14: “Resurrection Life: The Call to Share Love” (11:00 am UPVPC Worship Service; May 9, 2010): How do we share the love that God has given us to share? OT/ Hebrew Reading: Leviticus 19:17-18, 33-34 NRS Leviticus 19:17 “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove (to speak and show disapproval of) your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. NRS Leviticus 19:33 ¶ When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (NRSV, Leviticus 19:17-18, 33-34) The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Gospel Reading: John 15:4-14 NRS John 15:4 “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become1 my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 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. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (NRSV, John 15:4-14) The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I. Introduction: Week 6 of our Resurrection Life sermon series is entitled Resurrection Life: The Call to Share Love. There may not be another way of being for a Christian. We are to love one another, and we are to love God. We are to seek ways to share with other people, the love that God has given to us. But what is this love that God has given to us to share? In the Bible there are references to four kinds of love. The first level of love is eros, sexual love, or our passionate love associated with feelings of attraction. Eros was rejected in first century Palestine, so by God’s will it does not appear in the New Testament. Therefore it was never written into the New Testament writings, but it is referenced within the context of marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:5. But this kind of love has been, is, and will be, the most often referred to, kind of love of this world. It is the kind of love that we have all felt. It is probably what we meant when we said, “I love you”, for the first time to someone other than our relatives!  The second level of love is storge (στοργή) or our family love. It is the love we are born into, or the responsibility we have been given to care for our family members. It is the dutiful love we experience between parents and their children and siblings. An example of storge (στοργή) is referenced in 1 Timothy 5:8. The third level of love is phileo (φιλεὼ), or our affectionate feelings for another person. By some it is thought to be the highest form of love. It is even used in the Bible to describe one way in which God loves us in John 16:27. This kind of love is central in a healthy marriage. It is usually expressed this way by spouses that are in healthy marriages: “My spouse is my best friend.” But phileo (φιλεὼ) can, and does diminish as our feelings change. The fourth level of love is agape (ἀγάπη) or the highest form of love: This is the way in which God loves us; the way in which we are called to love our neighbor; the love that God has given us to share. In 1 John 4: 7-21 the love written about is agape (ἀγάπη). 29 times in these verses a form of the word (ἀγάπη) is used in the original Greek text. There is no other word for love used in these verses, so we know that the love we are to share is the highest form of love. It is the love that we employ to act on behalf of another person without regarding our feelings toward the person being loved. It is therefore a response to the needs of the other person or persons. It is the selfless love that is used to describe Jesus’ actions in this world on our behalf. With this understanding of love let us now work our way through 1 John 4: 7-21. Remembering that, only forms of the word agape (ἀγάπη) are being used to describe the love for which this passage was written. II. A Journey into Our Call to Share God’s Love with Others Our call to love one another as God loves us (v. 7). The writer of 1 John is passing on this message from God to us today. He writes: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:7-8) Four times the Greek word root for (ἀγάπη) is being used in this first verse. We are the beloved; the ones being asked to love one another! So, are we loving one another? We are born, created, brought into this world by God. But do we know God? The writer of 1 John, who was inspired by God, contends that if we are born of God, we know God. Of course we are all born of God so we must know God! And since we know God we must love as God loves! (This is tough stuff- I may need to read this passage several times each year.) Without love we cannot know God (v.8). God’s very nature is to love His creation. So God inspired the writer to write: “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:8) Who do you know that does not love? Have you ever met a person who does not love anyone else? If God’s very nature is to love, and we are all created by God, then every one of us needs to both love and be loved. It does not matter as much on this Mother’s day if we had a great, a good, or a bad mother. What matters most at this moment is that every single one of us would wish for our selves and others, that we all had great mothers. Do you have, or did you have a great mother? If you can’t answer, “Yes, I had a great mother”, you may have a greater understanding of this verse. We need love from our mothers! We need to love our mothers! We need to receive love from God and we need to share it. But how do we share God’s love? Let’s read on! Our call to share the love that God has given to us, in the same way that God shares His love with us (vv.9-11). But how does God love us? Verses 9 through 11 read: “God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:9-11) Seven times the Greek word root (ἀγάπη) is used in these three verses. In the passion of Christ, God’s love is revealed to us! In this cross, God’s love is revealed to us! In God’s forgiveness of all our repented sins, God’s love is revealed to us! This is agape (ἀγάπη), selfless love, love that gives, and gives, and gives despite God’s feelings of disappointment with us! Now beloved, how are we going to love? Let us read again v.11: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:11) No one has ever seen God, but if we share the love that God gives, we will see God (vv.12-14). What? We can see God? According to these verses we can see God in our acts of love. Verses 12 through 14 read: “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.”(NRSV, 1 John 4:12-14) So we see our Triune God everyday in this community - because of our Triune God! We see God when a husband takes care of his ailing wife! We see God when a bill is paid for someone who cannot pay! We see God when a Sunday school teacher keeps coming week after week when only two people show up for the class! We see God when a group of Christians gather to pray for others, on the national day of prayer! We see God when two Christians are reconciled with an apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation in Christ! We see God when we share God’s love, the love we confess in Jesus’ name, the love we receive by way of the Holy Spirit: Agape (ἀγάπη)! God is within those that confess “Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (v.15). Can we confess that Jesus is the Son of God? Verse 15 reads: “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:15) When I count to 3 in a moment, let’s shout it out together: “Jesus is the Son of God!” three times with the expectation that we will feel God abiding in us by the 3rd time. Ready? One, two, three: “Jesus is the Son of God!” “Jesus is the Son of God!” “Jesus is the Son of God!” Do you feel that? Do you feel God abiding in you? Abiding in God means loving one another (vv.16-21). This may be a tricky to some? But I think we got it. Something has happened in this congregation! It’s like the front of our bulletins: “A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!” (NRSV, Proverbs 31:30) If you had, or have, a great mother who feared, or fears the Lord, you should and will want to praise her. If you had a mother who did not fear the Lord you should not, and are not expected to praise her. If we abide in God, we will love all those that we come into contact with, just as God loves us! And we will be praised by others and by God! Let’s read the rest of this passage from 1 John 4: 7-21, starting with v.16: “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (NRSV, 1 John 4:16-21) The Word of the Lord, thanks be to God! Let me say it again: If we abide in God, we will love all those that we come into contact with, just as God loves us! And we will be praised by others and by God! And everybody will be joyous on this and every Mother’s Day! III. Conclusion: Robert and Jeanette Lauer write in their book entitled “Love Never Ends”: “(Agape love) is acting on behalf of another person’s well-being regardless of your feelings. Such love is not instinctive, yet you can learn to practice it by remembering Christ’s love for you and your call to pass on that love to others.” (p.166, Lauer and Lauer) (Repeat) I want to read something from our Book of Confessions. It is from The Confession of 1967: It reads: “God expressed His love for all mankind through Israel, whom he chose to be His covenant people to serve him in love and faithfulness. When Israel was unfaithful, he disciplined the nation with His judgments and maintained His cause through prophets, priests, teachers, and true believers. These witnesses called all Israelites to a destiny in which they would serve God faithfully and become a light to the nations. The same witnesses proclaimed the coming of a new age, and a true servant of God in whom God’s purpose for Israel and for mankind would be realized. Out of Israel, God in due time raised up Jesus. His faith and obedience were the response of the perfect child of God. He was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel, the beginning of the new creation, and the pioneer of the new humanity. He gave history its meaning and direction and called the church to be His servant for the reconciliation of the world.” (9.18-.19, PCUSA- The Confession of 1967) If we start with one another, if we love one another as God loves us, we will one day share the love that God is so faithfully pumping into our lives with the world, without even knowing it is happening. By sharing the agape (ἀγάπη) love given by God, we can move toward the reconciliation of the whole world in Christ Jesus. So, how do we share the love that God has given us to share? By sparing nothing, by sharing everything, by loving one another as God loves us: “By acting on behalf of another person’s well-being regardless of (our) feelings.” (p.166, Lauer and Lauer) Let us pray, Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for Your Word! Thank You that Your Word is timeless, and thereby speaks to us this morning. We have been blessed once again by You. This passage from 1 John has convicted us! We choose to love one another as You have loved us. Help us, O God! Guide us, O Jesus! Empower us, O Holy Spirit! To share the love that You have so freely given to us. Thank You God, for Your love that teems within us, ready for sharing. In Jesus name we pray, Amen! Bibliography: Laurer, Robert H. and Jeanette C. Lauer. Love Never Ends: Growing Together in Marriage and Faith. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2002. PCUSA. Book of Confessions: Study Edition. Louisville: Geneva Press, 1996.