Today s sermon is about love. Love which originated not in the human heart but which, in our best moments, is reflected there.

Transcription

1 FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF DENTON REV. JOHN BURTON MAY 9, 2010 MOTHER S DAY SERMON: A NEW COMMANDMENT TEXT: JOHN 13: When he had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Today s sermon is about love. Love which originated not in the human heart but which, in our best moments, is reflected there. Our belief is not in an angry God but in a God who loves us. Who created us in love and for love. Who gave us laws and judges and prophets and kings out of love. Who out of love has forgiven countless sins Whose love sent the Son to be such a sacrifice that the world could be saved through Him. Whose love sends the Holy Spirit to be our constant companion and comforter. As a nucleolus is at the heart of an atom so love is at the heart of God. And when we share and show love then we reflect a bit of the primeval love of God for all of God s children. So a church filled with love is the truest reflection of God we could ever hope for. Let me offer a few mundane thoughts on love: To love a person you must first know how to love yourself. Paramjit To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven. Karen Sunde Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. Robert Frost Whoso loves believes the impossible. Elizabeth Barrett Browning Love is the Venus flytrap that lures you in with its sweet aroma and delicate appearance then snaps shut and slowly sucks the life out of you. Andrew Hayworth (I think he wrote that in a divorce attorney s waiting room)

2 We can do no great things only small things with love. Mother Theresa At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. Plato Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. H.L. Mencken A heart that loves is always young. Greek proverb (the opposite: a heart without love is all saggy and wrinkly and in need of a vitamin shot) That s the collective wisdom of some pretty intelligent people. But let s balance that with the answers of some 4-8 year old children who were asked What does love mean? Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go outside and smell each other. Love is what makes you smile when you are tired. There are two kinds of love. Our love. God s love. But God makes both kinds of them. Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt and then he wears it everyday. Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well. Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day. You really shouldn t say I love you unless you mean it. But if you mean it you should say it a lot. People forget. My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night. Obviously there are lots of different ways to look at love but everyone quoted certainly feels passionately about love. We love the subject of love! Are you tired of this sort of thing yet? Well, allow me just one more. If you love something, set if free. If it comes back, it was and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. But if it just sits in your living room, Messes up your stuff Eats your food Uses your telephone Takes your money And never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place, You either married it or gave birth to it. (Anonymous)

3 I liked that one...until someone mentioned that anonymous might have been a woman talking about her husband. That changes the way I interpret the thing! Our scripture also has things to tell us about love. (Let s not forget the scripture!) Three little things. First, while love may feel selfish it manifests itself in selflessness. Would I be correct in saying that we all want to be loved? Unfortunately we don t always get what we want or get it from the people we want it from. Do we? But we long for it even when it eludes us. But the love which we have for others is the opposite of selfish. Love causes us to act selflessly for the sake of others: When those we love are lonely we reach out. When those we love are hungry we bring food. When those we love...you get the idea love is putting others first! One of my favorite poems is entitled The Alchemist by Pauline Frances Camp: Love is the filling from one s own Another s cup, Love is the daily laying down And taking up; A choosing of the stony path Through each new day, That other feet may tread with ease A smoother way. Love is not blind, but look abroad Through other s eyes; And asks not must I give? but May I sacrifice? Love hides its grief that other hearts And lips may sing; And burdened walks, that other lives May buoyant wing. Hast thou a love like this Within they soul? Twill crown thy life with bliss When thou doest reach the goal.

4 This is the love which Jesus offers us, modeling it on the cross for all of us to see the sinless one sacrificing himself for the sins of the world. True love made manifest. Long ago I was told the story of a family interred in a Nazi death camp. In that particular death camp as long as a person could work they were allowed to live. In the family of Solomon Rosenberg the first to go were his aged parents. Solomon knew that the next to go would likely be his youngest son, David, who was slightly crippled. Each morning as the family separated for their work assignments and then returned to the barracks at night, the father trembled with fear for his son. At last the night came which he feared. When he walked into his barracks he could see none of his family other than his eldest son, Jacob, hunched over, weeping. Solomon said, Son, tell me it isn t so. Did they take David today? Yes Papa, they took David. They said he could no longer do his work. But Mama, where is Mama? She s still strong! Jacob said through his tears, Papa, when they came to take David, he was afraid and he cried. So Mama said to David, Don t cry. I ll go with you and hold you close. And so Mama went with her boy to the ovens so he wouldn t be afraid. Love is what gives us the courage to make sacrifices! That is just as true for Christian love as it is for motherly love! Mothers each us a lot about love and the sacrifices it requires. Someone once wrote: You Know You Are A Mother When: You count the sprinkles on each cupcake to make sure they are equal. Your child throws up and you catch it. Someone else kid throws up and you keep on eating. You master the art of putting large quantities of food on a plate without anything touching. You child insists you read Once Upon a Potty out loud in the lobby of the doctor s office and you do. You donate to charities in the hope your child won t get that disease. You fast-forward through the scene in which Bambi s mother get shot. You use your own saliva to clean your child s face. You hear yourself say, in your mother s voice, Not in your good clothes! You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you. Navy Seals can t teach mothers anything about making sacrifices!

5 And lastly, our scripture tells us that it is love which defines us as Christians. Christ s commandment is that we love one another just as Christ has loved us. And by that love people will know that we are Christians, disciples of Christ. Reading that tells me that We are not to be defined by good sermons. We are not to be defined by a unique roof. We are not to be defined by excellent music. We are not to be defined by outstanding dining. All those are good things, wonderful things but we are to be defined by love. As long as we major in love then God allows us to minor in the other things that bring us joy but always we have to remember what our major is! In fact, let me suggest that the church is supposed to be a school of love. It s not our job to write the textbook book on love we already have it! But it is our job to love so well, so compassionately, so mercifully, that others can learn how from simply sitting beside us. I m not saying that people can only learn love from us! But they ought to be able to learn it from us! We have to be loving when we disagree, when we are tired, when we are distracted, when we could be remembering old wrongs, even when we could gain from being hateful. Loving has to become so ingrained in our personal and corporate life that it happens naturally, without hesitation or reservation. Jesus calls us to love one another as he loved us! If you can nurture in yourself selfless, active love then that love will not only define who and what you are but it will also define who we are as a Church.