Monday, May 22, 2017

Sunday Sermon: Connect to the Father's Love

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton VA
May 21, 2017
Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  John 14: 15-21

I have three points for today.

I will remind you what the word agape means.  

I want you to know that you are not orphaned.  

And I want you to see how Christ reveals the Father’s love.  

This all comes to you today from the very last verse of the Gospel lesson:  “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  (John 14:21)

You hear in that passage of scripture four times variations on the verb to love.  The word in Greek is variations on the word agape—one of the Greek words for loveAgape means selfless love, community love, and unconditional love.  The Biblical Greek language has two other words we understand as “love” besides agapePhilos which means brotherly love.  You could think of Philadelphia which means city of brotherly love, a city named by William Penn, a Christian and a member of The Society of Friends.  The third Greek word for love, besides agape and philos, is eros, which people often think of as romantic love, or emotional love.    

You may have heard about agape before today. To help further reflect on the word I have a definition from Christianity Today magazine:  “Agape is “deliberate and unconditional love that is the result of choices and behaviors rather than feelings and emotions.  [In that regard] Agape love is about the values we embrace as a way of life, and [our] determination to behave in a certain way that stems from our regard for other human beings, regardless of how we may feel about them.”  

It sounds unromantic to think about love as a deliberate choice, but that of course is an important point.  Agape is not romantic love, Agape is not being swept off your feet.  Also, I must say, Agape does not mean you treat everyone the same.  You can treat everyone the same and still be a jerk or still be aloof.  Agape/love is about treating people with compassionate values.  

Agape is being gracious to those who may not deserve it.  Being gracious to all, even telemarketers when you mistakenly pick up the phone.  That meaning of Agape guides the rest of our reflection this morning.

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me;

Love is actually the only thing the Jesus commands in the Gospel of John.  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  (John 13:34)

Jesus gives other commands elsewhere in other gospels.  For example “you are to love your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and your neighbor as yourself,” comes from Matthew 22 and Mark 12. The same is true about “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto the lord the things that are the Lords.”  (Also Matthew 22 and Mark 12)  Also not John.  Even the commands of Jesus on which we base the sacraments—“Go and Baptize” along with “Do this in remembrance of me”— are not found in John.  

Now, there might be a command in the foot washing event.  That seems to depend on the translation.  If you wanted to argue that as another command in the Gospel of John, I would not argue against you.  And at the end of John, Jesus commands Peter to feed my sheep and many have embraced this instruction of Jesus.  But the formula in John 13 is distinct, I give you a new command.  You are to love others as I have loved you.”  In the gospel of John, Love, agape, is both the central command as well as our central connection to the Father.

Our second is another observation from our scripture this morning.  There are people out there who still feel orphaned from God.  Orphaned, fatherless.  Detached.  Some of them depressed.  Some of them not.  I do not want you feeling orphaned from the Father.

I thought of that as I was reading verse from Jesus.  “I will not leave you orphaned.  I will come to you.”  Jesus said that and today he says that to you.  “I will not leave you orphaned.  I will come to you.”

You and I seek out and watch for that which makes God real in our lives.  And the realness of God is more than the reality of God.  We believe!  It is not a question about whether or not God exists.  but where is that which makes God real in your life rather than some far out entity that watches from a distance, or a far out entity that doesn’t even watch.  You look and search for that which makes you feel connected, connected to God, and reminders of Christ’s promise to come to you.  And those reminders, and that connection brings you in to the realness of the love of God.  Many of you practice daily devotions.  In that act of stopping and reading scripture and praying, you feel connected to God.  You feel not orphaned.  

Orphaned.  I will not leave you orphaned as spoken by Jesus, what does that mean.  It means that Jesus connects us, connects you, to the Father’s love.  And Jesus says that quite plainly in the last verse.  “those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  To feel orphaned is to feel disconnected from the love of the Father. 

Third, in my own reflection and devotion, especially around preaching, I have focused on revelation lately—the revelation of God to us.  I do not want you feeling orphaned.  I do not want you feeling disconnected or detached from God.  I want you to be able to see reminders of Jesus promise that “I will come to you” and to share these reminders with other people.

How does Jesus connect you to the Father?  Through word, through meal, through prayers answered and compassion given, By sending the Holy Spirit to you.  Christ in many ways connects you to the heavenly Father.  Most of all, however, by dying and rising again.

You see and know of course, agape is costly, Love is generous, love/agape is sacrificial.  Love is frightening.  In Jesus act of cross and tomb once and for all Jesus reveals His and His Father’s agape truly, and for all the world, and for you.  We celebrate that moment of cross and tomb as if it happened just last month.  

Through our actions today, we make Jesus’ victory timeless and for everyone throughout time.  We gather today in worship as an act of agape for the whole world so they to might know of Jesus death for them, and our victory over the grave. Amen

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