Heart of Jesus: A perfect Loving heart

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 4/15/18

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^NRS Joshua 24:14 "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

^NRS Galatians 5:16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.

There is a story about three brothers, one of which was a much-acclaimed actor. His name was Edwin Thomas and his brothers were John and Junius. In 1863, the three brothers performed Julius Caesar together to great acclaim. One of the brothers played Brutus. Why that is important comes after their performance. John would become famous as the one who entered into the President’s box in 1865 and killed Abraham Lincoln. Edwin’s brothers, John and Junius had a different last name. Their last name was Booth, as in John Wilkes Booth. Edwin was so embarrassed that he refused to act following this incident. One day he was in the train station in New Jersey when a young man lost his footing and fell onto the tracks. Edwin immediately locked his leg around a post, reached out and saved the young man. Edwin later received a letter from the current president thanking him for saving the young man that day. Funny thing about that, the young man’s name was Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln. How can one brother be about life while the other is about death?

We have gathered today to talk about what a perfect loving heart looks like. Perfect love is unconditional. It carries with it no requirements other than that of loving one another. It requires only that we decide to love in return. It carries with it no strings, no burdens, no expectations or abuse. Perfect love requires of us that we have the ability to choose whether we love back in return or not. We call this doctrine of love, free will and it is a tenant of our denomination. We believe that God loves us unconditionally without merit to who we are, where we were born, how we walked life’s journey to this point and whether we love God in return. 

God loves us unconditionally and unendingly. I have often been told that my answer is too simple, that is truly must be more complicated than what I say. There must be rules, doctrines and guidelines that I am not telling and I am using this simplistic explanation to entice people. However, the reality is that it is simply that God loves us unconditionally and unendingly, nothing more, nothing less. We make it difficult because we want to believe that life everything else it life, it cannot be simple and uncomplicated. God loves us unconditionally and unendingly.

Richard Rohr writes that it was God’s plan all along to bring Jesus into the world. That the 14.8 million years since creation began, God has intended all along to bring Jesus into the world. Not to bring atonement but to allow us to learn about God. Jesus came not to change how God is in relationship with us but how we are in relationship with God.

So what does perfect love look like? I read a poster just the other day that sums up perfect love in a wonderful way. It said, “You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Jesus came to teach us to look at the world perfectly. To see the love that weaves its way in the flaws of humanity, in the creases of age, in the beauty of a sunset and in the imperfections of our bodies. What lies within all of those things is the love that God gives each day, reaching out to us in a desire for us to feel the warmth of an embrace, the whisper of a kiss and the fullness of being loved. Today is the day when we have the opportunity to go out and change the world. It cannot be done through violence, deceit or manipulation. It can only be done when people understand that you care about them in an authentic genuine way. Paul sums it up well when he wrote these words, “⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  ⁸ Love never ends.”

Jesus summed it up a different way. He said that true love, perfect love is the willingness to lay down your life for it. Complete submission is the way of love for Jesus. It is a love where we give all that we have to another without regard to promises, conditions, strings or even life itself. Imagine with me for a moment that kind of love. Imagine if the world around us learned to love one another in such a way, that we would be willing to give our lives to secure that love. That is the essence of this scripture this morning and of the one from Corinthians. If we, the people of God, were willing to sacrifice everything so that everyone else in the world could experience that kind of love, then I believe we could and would create paradise here on earth. I believe that is the reason that Jesus came into the world, to show us what that love looks like and to go to the cross that we might experience it.

We have and will continue to be in a discussion about Discipleship. As we explore the concept of discipleship, the one thing that should continue to rise to the surface is our desire, our obligation if you will, to love one another. We cannot become perfect in our relationship with God without love. We cannot move forward in our desire to be true disciples of Jesus Christ in the world without learning to love one another. Jesus walked this earth over two thousand years ago and His example, found in the Gospel’s and Epistle writings leads us to learn this basic concept of discipleship. If we cannot find a way to love one another, regardless, we cannot find a path that allows us entry into the Kingdom. If we cannot enter the Kingdom then we have no chance for salvation. That seems to be a hard lesson that Jesus taught over and over again. If you are not willing He said, to abide in me and let me abide in you then there is little chance we can be in true authentic relationship.

Many years ago a young woman who dressed in gothic fashion and I began to have a discussion. I enjoy talking with young people because often it lets me know how out of touch with the world I really am and provokes me to learn what makes the world move around me in different ways. We cannot continue to do what we have always done or we will achieve the same results we have been achieving, declining as a church until we die. What is that famous quote; the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So I asked her why she dressed the way she did. She wrote me a three page typed response and the one reason that stood out was this. If you can accept me for who I am then we can have relationship together. If my clothes prevent that then you cannot see who I am and we cannot be friends. Profound don’t you think? I wonder how many times we turn away from folks because they dress, act or talk a certain way. Jesus by the way never turned anyone away. His teaching caused some to walk away but He offered them perfection before they decided to leave. A member of our family shared with me that another member of our family was leaving us because they did not feel welcome. What does that say about us?

We should all strive to have a perfect loving heart. It does not mean that we will be in relationship with everyone under every circumstance. What it does mean is that we will always be open to the idea that no matter who you are, we will strive to be in relationship with you. Why? Because God is that way with each of us.

We as the church called Sydenstricker have come a long ways in the last almost two years. In July, actually on June 28^th Bonnie and I will have been here two years. In that time, we have grown in size but more importantly, we have grown in love and enthusiasm. Not every one of you has welcomed all of the changes that have come and I would have expected no difference in that. We must make other changes if we have hope of being relevant in our ministry to the world around us.  

We have to come to terms with who we are called to be and how we can live into that calling. Jesus called us out in the Great Commission to GO out into the world, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teach them all the things He taught us. What did He teach us? To love God with all our hearts, minds and soul and love one another in the same way. We even have a vision of how to live into that, Christ’s love in action. Did you hear that? We are called to be Christ, as we love people in our actions. Bringing God to People and People to God.

Who are we going to be? Are we going to be faithful to the promise of God and enter into the Kingdom with the Holy Spirit? Are we willing to empty ourselves of our prejudices, our holds to tradition, our comfortability to only do what we have always done or are we willing to reach out to the world in new ways that bring folk into relationship with God? Perfect love gives us the choice to be in relationship with God or not. As Joshua said to the people of Israel, I now say to you, the choice is yours, but as for my house, and me we will serve the Lord.