Bazaar United Methodist Church

Bazaar, Kansas

John 15:9-17, Acts 10:44-48

Greater Love

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 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. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. John 15:9-17 NRSV

Have you ever tried loving someone you consider unlovable? In this passage, Jesus gives us an express command. Love each other. He doesn't say love those who love you and in fact in Luke 6 he says If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?. . . And if you do good to those who are good to you what credit is that to you?. . .But love your enemies, [and] do good to them.

Now that's a pretty tough assignment. You know that person at work or at school that just drives you bats? Jesus says "Love that person." Think about the person who doesn't pull his own weight, the one you think is taking advantage of you or others or the system. Jesus says "Love this one."

A few years ago I asked God to release me from a particular prayer burden. I had been praying for this person for some time but it felt like my heart was being ripped out every time I prayed. It was very difficult, very painful for me and so I asked for this release. Jesus' reply was "Do you think it is any easier for me to pray for you?" Oops. Probably not. Remember Jesus sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

You see, if you know us, I mean really know us, most of us are not all that easy to love. Most of us are screw-ups. And we know it. We're afraid to share the deepest part of ourselves with anyone or at least with many. If people get to know us too well, they will begin to see our warts. They'll find out that we're not all we might seem. They'll know that we're not really all that loveable.

Jesus says "You don't have to be loveable. I love you anyway." Jesus says "I chose you, just the way you are and I will use you, if you will let me." And then Jesus says "Go love other people the way I love you."

Barbara Johnson wrote a book titled God Still Uses Cracked Pots. Her title comes from the 4th chapter of 2nd Corinthians when Paul is talking about the light of God shining in our hearts. "We hold this treasure," he says, "in jars of clay." Now if you've ever used a clay pot to cook in, you know that they are very fragile and easily chipped or broken. That's us. Cracked pots who carry the treasure of God within ourselves. And a part of that treasure is the ability to love the unlovable because of the grace and love God has for us.

John Wesley expected us to grow in grace and go on to Perfection. He considered Christian Perfection to be holiness of heart and life; it means loving God and loving others. That's where we're supposed to be heading. We can stop worrying about how rotten we are and start looking to the way out. The way out is accepting the grace and love of Jesus Christ and then living out that love in our lives. We can love God and we can love the people with whom we have contact. We can live out the love of God right where we are because we certainly can't do it where we are not.

At a church I used to attend, there was a woman who drove me nuts. We were in Sunday School together. We were in choir together. We were both very active. Everywhere I turned, there she was. Actually I didn't have to turn, she was so loud and obnoxious you could hear her coming down the hallway or two rooms away. I eventually decided that my attitude was not helping anything and the best thing I could do was to start to pray for her. I don't know how long it took. I know it was months. And, no, her behavior did not change. But my attitude toward her did. I found I could love this woman. I found many things about her that I actually liked. She possessed some wonderful gifts. Nothing amazed me more. Yes, it took time and patience, but it was worth the price. If we can't just act out of love, then perhaps the most loving thing we can do is to pray diligently for the one we find unlovable.

You see it is the love of God that makes it possible for us to love one another. Okay so we have a great capacity to mess things up. And we run into others whose capacity to mess things up or be obnoxious or stupid or whatever gets to us. So what? Jesus says "love one another." He says "stop with the 'yeah buts'" you know about those "Yeah but he's an idiot. Yeah but he hurt me. Yeah but I've been betrayed. Yeah but. . .whatever it is that gets in your way." Jesus says "stop with the 'yeah buts' and just do it."

Love, you see, isn't always a cozy feeling. Love is a choice. It's an action. It's a response to God's love for us which was demonstrated in the life of Jesus. Jesus says greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Most of us don't even have to consider dying for someone else. But maybe we should.

One Sunday morning, my Sunday school class in another church was discussing a kidnapping that had occurred at a local mall. A woman had been kidnapped from the mall and taken to a field where she had been beaten and raped. The kidnapper left her without any clothing. It was after dark when she was able to reach a road and tried to flag someone down. The first three cars flew past her and she decided that she was going to stand directly in front of the next one. "They were either going to stop or run me down," she said. They stopped and she got the help she needed. In our discussion my classmates seemed to have more compassion for the drivers who didn't stop than for this woman and I was appalled. Before the conversation was over I was angry. "Well, it could have been a trap," one of them said. "Somebody could easily have been over in the ditch just waiting to attack you if you stopped." One woman said "That's why I'm glad I have a cell phone. You can always hand it out the window to someone." I considered these responses unfeeling, uncaring and definitively unloving. Here had been a woman who was naked and bleeding. Sometimes we are called to risk and that may be to risk actual physical danger. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Was this woman a friend to those who passed by? I think Jesus would say yes. Just as in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said that whoever is present is my neighbor. Compassion is the hallmark of love. We are to show compassion to the needy.

Heros are those with compassionate hearts, though surveys have shown that today's youth equate heroism with fame and financial gain. They identified movie stars and professional athletes as their heros rather than scientists, humanitarians, doctors, parents, teachers, or friends. We seem to have lost the view of previous generations that service and sacrifice create the makings of heroes; that overcoming obstacles is heroic. And we have lost any thought that we are called to live lives of love and service. Any inkling of it seems to be gone even before we walk out the door of the church. "Nice thought pastor, but not for me." What has happened to us?

Jesus is absolutely clear in this passage that since we are so loved by God, we, too need to love and give ourselves for others. He says we can put our lives on the line for others because we are loved and we can love. He says that loving and being loved can embolden, encourage and empower us. We can give ourselves for others because Christ first gave himself for us. He gave himself first in the incarnation and he gave himself in his living and teaching and he gave himself in the atonement on the cross. Constantly, Christ gave himself to others throughout his living and his dying.

The context of this passage is the upper room, where Jesus has shared the Supper with his disciples, washed their feet and spoken to them about servant-hood. Jesus knows what is ahead of them, the sacrifice and challenges that have already been part of his ministry, but which will become their lot after his death and resurrection. He knows the mission they will face will require great strength and wisdom. They will need a bedrock of security, based not on their own abilities, but on a rock solid faith. They will need a sense that God will be with them come what may. They must remain attached to the life giving vine that is Christ.

So Jesus commands them to "abide in my love." Keeping the commandments of Christ (love God, love neighbor, love as he has loved them) which will result in their abiding in his love, just as he has kept his Father's commandment to abide in the Father's love.

An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy's cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck. Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher and the town's wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the boy's eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing several scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man's neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently turned and walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue.

Sometimes we are called to risk even life and limb for others. Sometimes such risks are just foolhardy and we are not called to make them. We must be so accustomed to listening to God that we recognize what God is saying to us. Too often people get caught up in the moment and make decisions that can affect their entire life. One of my sons decided to join the military while in high school. The recruiter came to the house, sat in our living room, looked us in the eye and lied to us. Then he wanted me to sign a form allowing my son into the military before he was 18. I refused. My son was very angry with me at the time. But by the time he reached 18, he realized that that was not really a wise decision for him and he, too, recognized that the recruiter had lied. Listening to God, discerning God's call on our lives is an important part of knowing when to risk and how to practice compassion.

I know I have told you this before but it is a good illustration so I tell it again. One day I was at a conference and was just passing through a room where a film was being shown. The film stopped me in my tracks and I stood there watching it. A boy of about 10 and his sister, maybe 5 or 6 had been fighting at supper. They were walking down the street that evening and as they started to cross an intersection, a car came from nowhere and struck the boy. The next scene showed them in the hospital where the boy needed blood. His sister was the only one who had the right type. The doctor agreed that she could give half a pint. They laid her on a table and her Mom told her that they needed to take some of her blood. The girl said "Is that what you want me to do?" And Mom and Dad both said "Yes". So they took the blood. But nobody really talked to her about it. (It was driving me crazy standing in the back.) Of course the parents were more concerned about their son and the little girl laid there, pretty much alone for a long time. Eventually Mom came in to check on her and the little girl said "When am I going to die?" Her mother was appalled. "Honey you're not going to die." "I thought if they take your blood you die." "You were willing to do that for your brother?" The girl nodded her head and the picture faded out. The title of the film was "Greater Love".

All of us are going to be faced with new challenges in the future. Perhaps not challenges as different from our current environments as those young people who are graduating from high school today. You will have a new pastor. I will have a new congregation in the near future. All of us will meet new people and will be in different circumstances. In the midst of that we will meet those who rub us the wrong way; some who drive us nuts. Or we'll face persons of other races or religions or something that will challenge us to grow beyond where we are now. Jesus says "Love each other." Let's do it. Amen.