A Lesson on Love

Rev. Debbie Cato
John 15:9-17
Fairfield Community Church
May 5, 2024 

Holy Spirit, help us to hear familiar words with fresh ears, and to take

your Holy Word for us seriously, as a guide and pattern for our lives. Amen

 

 A Lesson on Love

 

Back in the 1960’s, there was a great Beatles song – “All You Need is Love.”

        

 All you need is love, love; Love is all you need.            

 

 Now I know some of you weren’t even alive – I was alive but very young.  I had older sisters.  The 60’s were a turbulent time and the answer – at least from the young people, was that the answer to the world’s problems was an enthusiastic embrace of love – love would make all the problems go away.   Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

This kind of idea of love isn’t supported in today’s Gospel lesson.  Yes, Jesus certainly praises love.  He tells us that love is a gift from God, an excellence of character, and certainly a way of life.  But nothing Jesus says justifies love as some naïve ideal; some simple idea of “let’s just all get along.”  In fact, Jesus gives the impression that loving one another is rather complicated.  He goes into a lengthy description of exactly what He means by his commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”  You see, he doesn’t just say “love one another,” does he?  He complicates things tremendously when he tells us - commands us really, to “love one another as I have loved you.” 

Jesus describes this love and he gives us examples so that we can actually understand; so that we can actually grasp what he means.   “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

One of the most used scripture passages for weddings is 1 Corinthians 13.  I’m sure you are familiar with it:

 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-8

It’s a beautiful passage because it reads like a poem.  But I always tell couples that as lovely as it is, it is a hard passage to live out – harder than it sounds.  This kind of love is not about you.  This kind of love is interested in the good of the other person, rather than your own good, your own comfort, your own needs.  It does not attempt to control or dominate or possess the other person.  As Paul
defines love in Corinthians – this love is perfect love. 

 

The problem us modern English-speaking people have is that we have one word for love  - and so it’s hard for us to understand what this Scripture is teaching.  We say that we love God, we love our spouse, our children, our families, and our friends.  We say that we love chocolate or coffee or lemon meringue pie.  We love a joke, a certain restaurant, or our job.  But I at least, would argue that I don’t love a joke in the same way that I love chocolate or in the same way I love my family.  Yet the word love is really the only word we have that communicates that we really, really like something or that something is really important to us!

In Greek, the language that this passage was originally written in, there are multiple words for love that convey a difference of intensity or depth of feeling.  There is one word for the kind of love that you have friends – philia and there is another word for the love that expresses the romantic love or physical attraction that is felt between a couple - eros.  And then there’s agape – the Greek word for love that is used to describe the way that Christ loves us.  It is this word – agape – that is used in this scripture passage that describes the kind of love that a husband is to have for his wife and the kind of love a wife is to have for her husband.   The love of Christ is our model.  This is how Jesus loves.  Jesus does not envy or boast.  Jesus’ love is not self-seeking, he doesn’t keep track of our mistakes.

 When we remember that Christ loved us so much, that he died on the cross for the sins of the world, we begin to understand that the love of Christ is complete sacrificial love.  It’s a love that isn’t based on what we do or don’t do, or who we are – thank goodness!  After all, Christ died on the cross to save a bunch of sinners. 

And it’s this kind of love – agape love that’s used in our John passage this morning to describe the way we are to love one another; the way that Christ loves us.  More than just a feeling of euphoria, it’s a deep, disciplined habit of care and concern for one another that is deeply woven into our lives in such a way that we might even find ourselves called to die for it.   Complete sacrificial love. 

Agape love does not come easily.  How can we possibly love in this way?   It’s impossible, we say.  “We” get in the way of this kind of sacrificial, perfect love.  If we truly could love one another as Christ has loved us, there would be no divorce; there would be no broken relationships; there would be no pain and injustice; there would be no hatred.  There would be no war.  “How is this kind of love possible?” we ask. 

And of course the answer is, it’s not possible.  At least not on our own.  It’s only possible through Christ.  It’s only possible because Christ loves us in this way.  And through the love of Christ; out of this huge well of divine love, we can draw the love we need as we move out with our much tinier containers into a love-starved world.  We do not have the resources of love we need within ourselves. But in our spirit-filled hearts and minds and souls, we can constantly draw from this deep well of Christ’s love in us.

Jesus is commanding us to pass on the same undeserved love you have experienced and continue to experience each and every day from Jesus, to the (perhaps) undeserving but hurting people around you.  Jesus gave up his life not just for his friends, but, for the whole hurting world – including his enemies.  Jesus now asks us to give up our lives for our friends, and for the hurting and sometimes hostile world around us. 

In his commentary on today’s text, Dale Bruner said, “The inhaling of an undeserved divine love for ourselves and the exhaling of our all-too-human, but still well-intended love for others is the breathing exercise that all disciples must try to practice every day.”   I like that.  We breathe in all this undeserved love from God for ourselves each and every minute of each and every day. What we are called to do as disciples is to breathe out the same undeserved love for others.  Breathe in the love of God for us.  Breathe out the love of God from us to others.  God in.  God out.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.

And how is this love expressed?  How does the world see our love for Christ?  The same way that Christ shows his love to us – a high bar indeed. 

The love of Christ is transformed into a joyous existence; bearing good fruits and dwelling in a loving, accepting, united community.  Love becomes a transforming power more than a superficial and emotional expression.  We begin “loving our enemies; doing good to those who hate us; blessing those who curse us; praying for those who abuse us.”   We continue by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting those who are struggling and in pain, fighting for justice for the oppressed … doing the things that Jesus was about.

As a church, we made a commitment to take a risk and be about church in new and exciting and sometimes scary ways; ways that we pray will bear good fruit as Jesus’ commands us.  We are out in the community doing stuff – being the church, loving our neighbors.  We are finding ways to meet some of the needs in our community and in the process share the hope and love of Christ with a culture that sorely needs Him.  In order to move forward, it has taken, and continues to take courage and prayer and faith and the movement of the Holy Spirit.  It takes agape love. 

We will have to continue to draw from the deep well of God’s love for us in order to keep loving one another and our neighbors.  But I think this is what Jesus is talking about when he commands his disciples – when he commands you and me - to “love one another as he has loved us” and in doing so, to “go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

Let’s be prayerful and let’s live out of the depths of God’s undeserving love for each and every one of us.  It’s the best gift we’ll ever have.  Amen.