See What Love

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 8, 2015

See What Love

1 John 3:1

“See what love the Father has given us,

that we should be called children of God;

and that is what we are.”

You hear me say those words,

each time we have a baptism:

“See what love the Father has given us

that we should be called the children of God,

for that is what we are.”

We are called children of God,

for that IS what we are,

you and me;

and Miranda of course,

all of us.

Children of God,

children who are loved;

children who are loved

so that we would know the love,

given us by the Lord our God:

our loving Father, our loving Mother.

The first letter of John speaks more eloquently of love

than any other book in the Bible,

even more eloquently than Paul’s well-known words

from his first letter to the Corinthians.

In that letter Paul describes love at work:

“Love is patient; love is kind;

love is not envious or boastful

or arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice in wrongdoing,

but rejoices in the truth.

it bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.”

        

John takes a different approach;

John tells us where love comes from,

that “God is love”;

God is the source of love,

the giver of love.

And then John takes it to the next logical step,

telling us that since God is love, then,

“those who abide in love abide in God

and God abides in them.”

Or, saying it another way,

those who don’t abide in love

close themselves off to God.

We may be God’s children,

but if we don’t abide in love,

we leave no room for God.

Paul tells us what the outcome of that will be:

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels,

but do not have love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers,

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but do not have love,

I am nothing.

If I give away all my possessions,

and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,

but do not have love,

I gain nothing.”

(1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

We are nothing without love,

for without love,

we are shut off from God,

closed to God;

and we are the ones who close the door,

not God.

Following all the churchly rituals

we can ever hope to create

cannot replace love for knowing God,

for abiding in God,

for understanding what it means to be

a child of God.

The love that abides in us

comes from the source of love:

the Lord our God.

It is a gift given from our loving parent

to every child of God,

given freely, gracefully, lovingly.

This is not romantic love,

Valentine’s Day love,

all hearts and roses –

as nice as Valentines’ hearts and roses

can be!

                          

This is the love that the Greek language –

the language of the New Testament –

differentiated with the word “agape”

which does mean love,

but is the love our Lord Jesus refers to

when he spoke of the two great commandments,

to love God and our neighbor:

It is love for brothers and sisters,

love for friends and neighbors,

love for strangers,

and even that love

our Lord calls us to strive for:

love for enemy.

This is love grounded in compassion;

it is love that is selfless, giving,

serving, generous,

untainted by judgment or envy,

anger or criticism,

haughtiness or disdain.

This is the love that binds us together

as children of God.

This is the love that calls us to tell all the world,

“See what love God has given us!

So much love that we can’t contain it,

so much, given so freely,

that we must share it!”

This is the love in which we baptize.

This is the love in which

we honor the promises we made

to Erin and Matt, as well as to Miranda,

to nurture their faith,

and help them grow as children of God,

children of grace,

children of love.

As Miranda grows, we’ll teach her

what we teach all our children,

what we teach one another,

that the “love given us by God isn’t static”;

it is something within us that grows

as we grow in faith,

as we learn how to share love more freely.

One of my favorite books is entitled,

“If God is Love”.

The title suggests that it is a book about

the very nature of God,

a book that wonders, is God love,

or is God a smoldering volcano,

as the children of Israel thought

as they gathered more than 3000 years ago

around the base of Mount Sinai,

called by Moses,

but then recoiling in fear,

saying to Moses,

‘You speak to us, and we will listen;

but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’

(Exodus 20:19)

The authors know that God is love,

so they turn the words “if God is love”

into the beginning of a series of questions:

If God is love,then how should live?

If God is love, then how should we

work in the world?

If God is love, then how should we worship?

If God is love, then how should we treat one another

family member, friend, or stranger?

The authors are two pastors

of different denominations

and they express dismay that if God is love

and we are graced with God’s

unconditional, unwavering love,

then why are our actions as children of God

so often critical,

judgmental, indifferent,

selfish, disdainful,

vengeful,

sometimes even violent?

We will begin the 40 days of Lent

in a little more than week.

Lent begins, of course,

with our Ash Wednesday service,

a somber, serious service

in which we focus on our waywardness,

and on our need for repentance.

                                            

We focus even more ominously in that service

on our mortality

as we receive ashen crosses on our foreheads

accompanied by the words,

“Remember you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

But for as somber and serious as the service is,

the message of Ash Wednesday is,

“See what love God the Father has given us”

that we can know God’s mercy,

that we can know God’s forgiveness,

no matter what our sins might be.

“See what love God the Father has given us”

that even death cannot take that love away;

even though our bodies may return to dust,

we will continue to know the love of God

in the life to come.

The psalmist has written,

[God] knows how we were made;

he remembers that we are dust.

(Psalm 103:14)

and yet even though we are dust

the steadfast love of the Lord

is from everlasting to everlasting.

See what love God the Father has given us.

The German theologian Jurgen Moltmann

observed, “The more I love …

the more immediately and [completely] I exist.”

We cannot know fully the life

that God created us for

if we don’t know love,

if we don’t live love actively.

Baptism reminds us

that we have been graced with love,

given love,

by the source of love: God our loving parent.

Baptism calls us to renew our commitment

to that extraordinary gift

to abide in love,

and abide in God,

that God would abide in us.

To God be the glory!

AMEN