Sermons

May 13 , 2009

“No Greater Love”

Revelation 22:1-6, Luke 24:36b-48

Our opening hymn, In Christ There is No East or West, is a hymn of Christian unity in which the love of Christ has no boundaries. Christ’s love is available for all:

“In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north; but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” The Gospel reading today is about love for all people as we love one another in the name of Christ.

Do you know the old Sunday school song, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where?” The kids get louder and louder on the question – “Where?” With each verse more words are added. Here is the last verse: “I’ve got the wonderful love of my precious redeemer way down in the depths of my heart.” Jesus tells us to keep his commandments, to love one another just as God has loved us. As we commit our lives to God, our joy will be complete. This is not of our own doing, however; it is the love of God through Christ. Joy is not something that can be forced, nor is it even an emotion that we can make happen on our own.

It is because God first loves us that we bask in that love. It is because God first loves us that we love others. It is because God first loves us that we have complete joy. This is not the glass half empty or half full kind of outlook or an inner mirror on what you are experiencing in your life. It is the overflowing joy that the Samaritan woman at the well received from Jesus in the overflowing water of eternal life. Love is not a casual emotion. Love is grace, gift, completely unearned and what a complete joy is this amazing love of God that we receive with utter joy and awe.

Love in Jesus’ commandment to the disciples here is agape. Agape love does not mean a feeling. It is not a synonym for “to like.” Agape is love for another and is acting on this agape love for another. Jesus tells the disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” The disciples were told to love others in agape love. They were commanded to love through actions, not words only.

How is God’s love for us an act of agape love for us? Jesus continues, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus has given then and now, and for all time, the ultimate agape love. He gave his life so that we would receive God’s grace and forgiveness. He freely gave of himself so that we would love one another as Jesus loves us now, with all the fullness of agape love, with complete joy, and knowing us now as friends.

Jesus gave his life for the world, so that we would love one another. Not just our own circle of friends and maybe acquaintances. As God loves the whole world we would participate in that love. Remember agape love is an action, not sentimental or casual or static.

Jesus tells all to go and bear fruit. We are to do whatever loving action is needed to relieve a person’s suffering. Our loving actions will not be on the front cover of Newsweek or featured on the Oprah show. Our loving actions of agape love will not make CBS channel 2 right here down the street, however; a life will be changed for the better when we follow the command of Jesus.

From the parable in Matthew 25 that depicts the judgment of all the nations, hear these questioning responses of the righteous ones, referring to those who are in right relationship with God:

“Then the righteous will answer [the king] him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25: 37-40)

In this parable of judgment we are given a guideline of what it means to love friends – friends who are all God’s children – no one is left outside. In this parable we are also given a plumb line of how we will be judged for our way of loving another. My father was a carpenter and I remember him snapping the chalk-filled string to make a plumb line for a wall. A plumb line sets a straight line and it measures when a wall is out of line. God asks that we participate in response to the gift of love and in response to the gift of friendship with Jesus. This friendship is not a surface type “lets go to lunch” kind of friendship. It is a deep friendship in which everything is shared from pain to joy from the agape love of God. All this is given through the sacrifice of Jesus for our failings. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend,” from today’s reading of the Gospel of John.

Our response must be as we have been instructed by Jesus: to keep the commandments, to being in love for one another so much that as a friend we will act for the betterment of another at any cost to ourselves. We are to love the one who laid his life down for us and now calls us friend, both undeserved gifts. We are to respond with being sent out to bear fruit in Jesus’ name. All this is a sacrificial and loving response to the agape love of God that we know through the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus where he laid down his life for us. What is placed before us can be summed up simply yet profoundly that can run deep into our soul: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Thanks be to God. Amen.