May 14, 2006
(Fifth Sunday of Easter)

It’s Always About Love

  by The Rev. Canon Linda Yeager, Canon Deacon

Acts 8:26-40 or Deuteronomy 4:32-40  •  Psalm 66:1-11 or 66:1-8  •  1 John 3:(14-17)18-24 or Acts 8:26-40  •  John 14:15-21
(From The Lectionary Page)

The dean and I were joking the other day about how each one of us on staff has a particular way of preaching. We said that we could almost predict what one another would say about a specific lesson or at least about the emphasis each one might avow. Dean White said, “Well, your sermons always end up being about love.” And so they do.

But today’s scripture passages scream love from practically every sentence. There is no avoiding the “L" word.  So, yes, today my sermon will once again revolve around love. And perhaps the love message is one that deserves repeating or at least exploring.

Our second reading today comes from the First Letter of John, a rather short book in the New Testament, consisting of five chapters. It is tucked between the Second Letter of Peter and the Second Letter of John, fairly far back in the Bible where the pages are thought of by some as merely filler between Romans and Revelation. But I recommend this short yet insightful book to you when exploring the power and importance of love. While many of us are familiar with the saying “God is love,” the only place in scripture that the specific phrase is found is in this First Letter of John.

As to who the “John” is who wrote the letter, speculation prevails. Early Christian tradition identified the author as John the apostle. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Whoever wrote it, this short yet powerful book reads more like a sermon than a letter and is not addressed to a specific group, although we can surmise that the author is writing to Christians. It is not a particularly cheerful book either, even though it is about love. It contains many warnings, and the main purpose of the book was surely to combat certain ideas about Jesus by those who denied that Jesus was human as well as divine. There was dissension in the early Christian family regarding sin and salvation, with one group believing that the spiritual Christ had not only dissolved them from sin, but made them so spiritual that they did not have an obligation to reach out to those in need. The author of John, let’s call him the Elder, on the other hand, believed that anyone who claimed to be without sin was fooling himself or herself, and the failure to help those in need was a sure sign of the lack of divine love. The Elder found the remedy for sin as well as the example of love to be found in the human, self-giving Jesus.

It is out of this belief that here in the First Letter of John, we discover the Elder’s reasoning that love is an activity rather than a quality and is exemplified by God’s own act in sending Jesus to share our humanity and our mortality. The humanity of Christ in life and death, according to the Elder, is what reveals that God is love. Love is certainly not, according to the Elder, simply a feeling of warmth for another, but more than that, love is the way that feeling is expressed in will and in action. Love is a caring for one another that is so compelling that it will set its own interests aside for the sake of that caring. This is love, and God is this love, and it is in Jesus that this God is made known.

Now these can be just so many words to many of those who did not experience the act of love, the act of unconditional love and acceptance from family or others close to them in their formative years. Those who missed out on the experience of warmth and of acts of unselfish approval and acceptance may understand intellectually that Jesus proclaimed the message of love and lived the message of love while not seeing any connection between knowledge and experience. For love must be felt to be understood. But it is never too late to open ourselves to this kind of experience.

It often seems that we are living in a world of tragedies, of hatred, and of loss. Genocide in the Sudan, sacrifice of young men and women in wars that many of us don’t understand, child abuse of unspeakable kinds, hunger, disease, and on and on. We don’t have an explanation for the horrors that surround us, but we do know that despite the tragedies and inconsistencies of life, if we are open to finding unselfish love, it is all around us, even within these tragedies. For example, we watch the medical world respond to disease and disfigurement with unselfish care. Doctors Without Borders travel all over the world dedicating themselves to aiding those most in need of medical care.

Within our own congregation we find numerous examples of unselfish love, not only in the Kansas City Community Kitchen, but among the members. For example, last Saturday afternoon we had a spring gathering here at the Cathedral sponsored by our Eucharistic Visitors. The Eucharistic Visitors are a group of parishioners whose ministry is to take communion to those who cannot easily come to church. You see these EV’s, as we call them, sometimes at the end of the Eucharist when they come to the altar to accept a communion kit that contains bread and wine that was consecrated on that day. What you don’t see is what happens next. Each EV leaves church and goes directly to the home or hospital or senior citizen facility where the person being served lives. The EV greets and chats with this person; the EV administers the sacrament using a short service; and they probably exchange a hug or two. The EV then reports in writing on the visit, noting any pastoral needs.

In the spring, the EV’s host an afternoon at the Cathedral for our shut-ins. We invite each shut-in and his or her family members if appropriate. The EV’s plan the event, including refreshments and a small gift. The clergy provide the liturgy. Dean White presided last Saturday at our annual spring gathering. The Eucharistic Visitors made sure that those who could come were here. The EV’s checked with family members or provided rides themselves. I watched as these groups interacted, the EV’s making sure that the shut-ins were comfortable, could see and hear the service, guiding them through the service leaflet. Following the abbreviated Eucharist, the EV’s helped those who needed help to Founders’ Hall where the Cathedral staff plus other generous, loving parishioners had decorated the tables and provided a welcome setting—not to mention delicious refreshments. This experience, for me, exemplified the kind of love that the Elder is talking about in the First Letter of John, the kind of love that puts the needs and concerns of others before one’s own needs and concerns. This love, whether ever experienced before, reaches into one’s heart and speaks the message of God’s love and opens one’s heart to receive and accept it.

We are converted by God’s love to a thankful love rooted in the love we receive from God. In accepting this love, we are freed to become self-giving children of God. We no longer love God simply for loving us, but because God is love. With that realization, we begin to view others from a different perspective.

To do this, we must acknowledge that we cannot love God or one another without divine help. And Jesus tells us in the gospel passage for today the he will not leave us orphaned. He has filled us with the comforter, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and makes Christ present to us, who assures us that it is in God that we have our being. Even when we fail, we do not cease being loved by God. So in that love from God we know that even our failures are forgiven, that we continue to be loved unconditionally. Our sincere and complete acceptance of that love allows us to follow God’s commandments and love others with this same sacramental love. We bring Christ’s unconditional love to others by portraying the love we receive from God through Christ. We become true examples of Christ’s love through our actions, through our acceptance of others, through our forgiveness of others, through our genuine response to others.

We know that we cannot live up to our own expectations, yet we have no option. We must try; we must allow ourselves to be at God’s bidding. God seeks to be known to the world as love as exhibited by those who know that God is love. That is our mission—indeed, perhaps it is our reason for being.

I didn’t count how many times I used the word “love” in today’s message, but I am sure I may have broken my own record. Nevertheless, I am convinced that it is up to us to show the world who God is. We are the best evidence to reveal to this world whether God is rigidity or acceptance, vengeance or compassion, selectivity or openness, hatred or love. And this is a message that deserves repeating. Let’s choose love—every time.