Sermon: 1 John 5:1-6 and John 15:9-17 Love According to the Gospel of John
I love the Gospel of John. It’s so different from the other three—so full of great stories that stick with you. And the farewell discourse, the three chapters of Jesus’ final instructions to the disciples before he is arrested and crucified, just makes me feel all warm inside, like I’m curled up in a warm, fuzzy blanket with a cup of hot cocoa, sitting in front of a warm fire. It’s just so full of love. And most of the book of First John seems full of echoes of that love. The unfortunate result, however, is that when I read these scriptures, my head fills up with old Sunday School songs and campfire songs about love that were inspired by these and other, similar texts. I just keep hearing them, playing in my head, over and over. Simple, wonderful love songs about God. It made me wonder, does it do that to you, too? What songs did you learn that come to mind when you hear these scriptures? I had at least four different songs in my head, starting with this one: (sing along if you know it.) “Love, love, love! That’s what it’s all about. Since God loves us we love each other, mother, father, sister, brother. Everybody sing and shout! ‘Cause that’s what it’s all about. It’s about love, love, love… Or maybe this one comes to mind: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God…. Or this one: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love. How about this one: This is my commandment that you love one another that your joy may be full…that your joy may be full… Are you starting to feel are warm and fuzzy inside yet?
Yeah…but the problem with this, besides that having all these sweet little songs about love playing in my head is really distracting and makes it hard to concentrate on writing a sermon…is that that’s really not the sort of love these scriptures are talking about. The love John is talking about isn’t the sort of sappy, sweet, sentimental, mushy, gushy, warm fuzzy sort of lovey-dovey feeling we tend to think of when we hear the word love. It’s not really an emotional feeling at all. Feelings can’t just be commanded. We can hug each other on command. We might even be able to say the words, “I love you.” on command. But it’s pretty hard to summon a genuine emotional outpouring of love and affection for someone just because Jesus says, “love one another,” unless the other you’re supposed to love is a close friend or family member.
Love, in the Gospels, isn’t really an emotion at all. It’s more of a decision, a choice, a promise. It’s the way we are supposed to respond to God’s love for us. Love is the hallmark of the beloved community—but it doesn’t remain locked up inside the community, reserved for community members alone. Love is who we are and who we choose to be, this day and every day. Love is characterized by generosity and forgiveness, mercy and compassion, relentless hope and determined optimism, and above all, a constant resistance to our knee-jerk reflex responses to enemies and strangers and our fear of otherness.
Love demands a cost. Love demands action on behalf of someone else. Love is a way of living and being and interacting with the world, and it isn’t automatic or easy. It isn’t safe, either. It’s the way of the Good Samaritan. Love requires forgiveness, patience, tolerance and unselfishness. Love means putting others first, and making sacrifices. Love seeks justice and freedom for others. Love never turns a blind eye or a deaf ear to another’s pain and suffering. Love recognizes the innate value and belovedness of every living thing, and treats everyone with respect and dignity and compassion, no matter the circumstances.
First John says, “the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.” The prophets said that too. John says that God’s commandments are not burdensome. John can say that because Jesus simplified the laws, distilling them down to two seemingly simple rules: Love God above all else, with all your being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The prophets all said, repeatedly in various ways, that the obedience to God’s commandments to love others is the most perfect and most appropriate expression of worship. In fact, the prophets said that no matter how frequently and arduously we worship and sing God’s praises, our worship is empty, like a lie, unless it is accompanied by acts of love and justice toward our neighbors. The prophets knew that words are cheap, unless they are followed up with real, concrete actions. Jesus, himself, said that whatever we do to /for others: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned, we do to/for him—confirming that obeying the commandment to love our neighbors proves that we love God.
Love is the way of Jesus…and we know where the way of love led him. Sometimes love means taking up the cross and following in his Christ’s footsteps up the hill to Golgotha, if need be, for the sake of others. Love is the most profound and sometimes, the most difficult and dangerous thing we are called to do as disciples of Christ. Fortunately, we aren’t all called to extreme discipleship like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ita Ford, Sophia Scholl and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
For my final project in the Gospel of John course, I had to create some form of artwork based on a portion of the text, which, of course, had to be accompanied by a long paper explaining it. The art form I chose was, of course, poetry—surprise, surprise. I’d like to leave you with this excerpt from that poem, entitled, “Do You Love Me?”
For Christ, love is not emotion or attraction
It’s the foundation, the basis, of all interaction.
It’s an attitude of deliberate deference to grace.
Love finds God’s image in each human face.
It’s a choice, a commitment, a lifestyle, a creed.
Love acts on behalf of all others in need.
Love provides aid to the weak and the helpless.
Love is, above all, inherently selfless.
Love demands naught, withholds naught, but graciously gives.
It’s the ethic that defines how disciples must live.
Love acts without weighing or counting the cost.
Love is dangerous. For Peter, it leads to the cross…
By the grace of God, may we all develop the strength, the courage and the capacity to love and worship God by loving others in concrete and meaningful ways as true disciples of Christ. Amen.