Sermon 16th June 2013

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, continues our study of the book of 1 John. The reading is from 1 John 3 verses 11-24.

Love One Another

This is a story told by a man called Orson: “Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What denomination?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

“Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.”

“For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” The point that Orson missed, of course, is that love is one of the most basic marks of being a Christian. “Love one another.” And John makes the point that his message about love isn’t a new one.  He’s very much echoing the words of Jesus who said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Love is something that will never go out of fashion. People throughout the ages have searched for love; it’s a basic human need to love and to be loved. So it’s not surprising that we read a lot in the Bible about love, but the specific point that John is making is this; “Love one another.” Why is he focusing on this? The reason is that John was writing to a church that had gone through division. As Cameron explained at the start of this series on John, we know there were big issues afoot in the early church. The church had been split by heresy and false teaching. And many of John’s readers were no doubt deeply troubled by this. They faced many questions. How do we identify the true believers in the midst of all these divisive issues we’re facing? Are we genuine in our own faith? How do we stay true to our faith?

Last week’s sermon title was, “Children of God.” This links in with verse 10, just before the start of today’s reading; “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” Loving one another is part of being a child of God. So we really do need to think about what it means. Why is that we need to love one another? I’m going to start answering that question with a verse that comes about half way through our reading; “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (verse 16)

We love because God has lavished love on us. We don’t love so that God will love us. No, we love because God has first loved us.

We are children of God, and love is a hallmark of being a child of God. The Bible teaches us that we already are the children of God, and John is spelling out the implications of this; he is spelling out the implications of who we are. We do not love to become children of God, but we love because we are children of God. John is encouraging his readers to love because of the glory of who they are. In effect he’s saying, “You should be honest, faithful and loving because of who you are. Don’t contradict who you are by being something different.”

Are we being who we are? Are we working out the implications of being sons and daughters of God? If we do, the world will know that God loves us and that we are Jesus’ disciples. There are those who say we should be good because if we aren’t, God will punish us. We find God by being good. But that isn’t how Christianity operates. It says, “Love, because God first loved us. Be loving because you have been lavished with love by God.”

We love because God first loved us.  And John says that this is the mark of a true believer, that we love one another. And he doesn’t leave his readers to define what love is. He spells it out. First of all he does it negatively. And for this he turns to Cain, a model of hatred. He warns. “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.”

The root of Cain’s problem was jealousy. His jealousy grew into hatred and ultimately into murder. Jealousy/envy made the first baby into a murderer. He hated his brother and robbed him of life.  And in contrast to Cain, Jesus provides the model of true love. While hatred sacrifices others for the good of self, love sacrifices self for the good of others. As John says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” Cain took a life; Jesus laid down his life. There couldn’t be a starker contrast.

And John continues, and this sounds very challenging, “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” But what is self-giving love? To lay down one's life for another sounds noble and heroic, but what does it mean in practice? It’s highly unlikely that any of us will literally have to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. So how are we supposed to go about it? But before I tackle that question, a word of caution.

The idea of self-giving love is often misunderstood and misused. To tell the woman or child who is being abused that they are showing "self-giving" or sacrificial love is bad advice and bad theology. Sacrificial love based on Jesus' example doesn’t enable others to behave in a destructive manner. Instead it encourages them to actions that lead to love and life, and that lead to healing and wholeness.

Self-giving love doesn’t mean being a door-mat. So what does it mean – to lay down my life? It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it. Well, let me ask you a different question. Now I sincerely hope this is something none of us will ever want to do, but here’s the question anyway: How would you eat an elephant? Anyone know the answer?

It’s quite simple: one mouthful at a time! Or to put it another way – in bite-size chunks. In a way John’s answer is the same. How do I lay down my life? We start by laying down those things we can lay down – like our wallet, or the money in it. Or our prized evening off. Or a much looked forward to treat. John is very specific in verse 17; “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”

We may be materially rich, or have a particular skill, or maybe just the time to spend with someone. If we have any of these and we see someone in need, then if we have the love of God in us, we will help that person.

It’s very easy to become overwhelmed by all the needs there are in the world. It’s right and proper that campaigns such as the IF campaign are fighting for the changes needed to combat world hunger. But let’s not allow our support for such campaigns to distract us from needs closer to home – perhaps just sitting a few seats away in church this morning. GP Lewis once wrote, “It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital “H” than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.”

 So John says, “Let’s do it, let’s love,” or rather, in the words of verse 18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. “

“Love one another.” Last Sunday we had a special service on “Celebration” and one of the activities we did was to write down on a piece of paper what we liked about our church. One of the things that came out from that was that many of us felt tremendously supported and loved. We’re actually not too bad at loving one another with the ministry of food which provides meals, the hardship fund, the play group and everyone who helps in Children’s Church to name just a few of the many things that are going on.  So thankfully today I think that I am preaching to the converted. But let’s not become complacent; let’s not rest on our laurels. I’ve lived locally for quite a long time now and I first set foot in this church about 29 years ago. And I can truthfully say both our churches are loving and supportive communities, but we’re not perfect; it is possible to miss things. Quite some time ago there was a woman who came to one of our churches and was very much involved and part of the church family. She had a couple of years living out of London during which her mother became seriously ill and died. We were in fact very concerned for her and her mother; we prayed for them both and they were in our thoughts. But we didn’t communicate our love and concern to this person who not surprisingly didn’t feel supported and cared for. We can’t be complacent.

We love one another because God first loved us. We don’t love to earn God’s love, but we love because God first loved us. And the example we follow is that of Jesus. But perhaps you may be thinking, “This is all very good; but isn’t it a bit inward looking, all this talk about loving one another?”

If we stopped there, then there would be a danger of being inward looking, of becoming a holy huddle. However, if we go back to the Acts of the Apostles, we can see that through loving one another, the early church was able to reach out. In Acts 2, verses 44 onwards we read; “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” The loving generosity of the early Christians was a major factor in the growth of the Church.

As the early church spread out from Jerusalem, one of the most divided cities it reached was Antioch, a city in which there were perhaps as many as eighteen identifiable ethnic quarters. These ethnic quarters were walled off from each other. But when the news about Jesus reached Antioch the city changed. People started crossing the race-dividing walls. Families from different quarters were praying to the same God. Jews were eating with non-Jews. Citizens addressed slaves as brothers. Acts 13 describes the leadership of the early church there and shows that it reflected the ethnic diversity of the city. There was Barnabas, who was Jewish and came from Cyprus, Simeon who was black, Lucius, a Roman from Cyrene in North Africa, and Manaen, who in his youth was a companion to a prince, Herod Antipas.

Christianity could no longer be seen as an off-shoot of Judaism and, unsure about how to refer to members of this new religious phenomenon – cultural and ethnic labels no longer applied – others in the city first coined the term “Christian”. Through their love for each other, the early Christians broke down massive human barriers.

Sometimes we may not feel particularly loving. But the fact that at a given moment we don’t feel loving is not an excuse for failing to act in a loving manner. At these times we need to remember who we are, children of God; we need to remember what God has done for us through Christ; we need to remember that Christ laid down his life for us. And we need to remember that being a child of God means loving one another. And by doing that, we will be able to reach out to the people around us.

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father. Thank you for the love that you have lavished upon us. Thank you for Jesus’ love – that he laid down his life us. Help us to be a loving church family, to love one another as Jesus loved us so that we can bring Jesus to our community. Amen.