Love Lifts Us All

Love Lifts Us All

Well good morning again everyone. I am so glad to be able to share this time with you - especially today! I am so grateful to have been asked to speak with you, and honored and humbled to be able to do so today.

After all this will forever be my home. It was here where God first called our family into ministry. Here where Olivia was brought to school age, and it was here - this church - which welcomed Daisy into the world. Nancy, in fact, spent the night at our house with Olivia while Daisy was making her appearance.

It was here that I was not only called, but then ordained, and eventually equipped and nurtured on my way to the pulpit.

So Valdese First Baptist is my home. And it will always be, in some part.

So for me, today, it is sort of a homecoming. Even though I am here most weeks anyway. And in that spirit I wanted to take this chance to thank you all. Not just for all those things I mentioned before, but for those and especially for - both then and now - loving us.

It is, after all, why when I left ministry and moved back into the area that we chose to come here. We chose to come heal and begin to regrow at the place where we first began to grow.

And that is what a homecoming is really. A chance to return to the place where you were brought up. Where you began to grow into the person you were meant to be, or where you always knew you would be accepted, or to the place that makes you feel whole - no matter how broken you or it are.

That is, after all, what home really is. The place where love lives. And I am grateful to be here today, to speak with you all about just that.

So lets turn in our Bible to 1 John 3:16-18 and read for a moment about love and begin a short trip together working through how love and home are working in us even today.

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Scripture/Pray

Now before I get going on my ideas of how this text speaks to us today, I want to walk through what is actually going on here. And that is vitally important for us. You see, we can often only look at a text from our point of view, and miss the context entirely! And without context, we can’t possibly understand intent. And sure, we can still get some meaning out of the text, but to prepare our hearts and minds sufficiently to receive the word the Spirit is offering us, requires that we dig as deeply as we can and allow Context speak through the text and into our situation.

So to briefly summarize for us - this letter was likely written with the intent of helping to bring people into fellowship with God. I say that, because it all focuses on elements of that idea.

In, what is for us the first 2 chapters, but to the readers just the first section, John outlines this idea that Jesus is the core - the center and focus - of out relationship with God. And I want us to take that to heart today. We often have rules, and traditions, and goodness knows what else that we allow to get in the way between Christ and his example for us. So we must likewise start with Christ at the center of all things.

John then outlines in the 2nd chapter some things that can get in the way of our relationship with God. Namely sin - which is compared to darkness. And how we repair that relationship - again with Christ - the propitiation for out sins! Or in our modern terms, the holy and approved offering for our sin. The atonement. But not just the sacrifice is at play here. Atonement is important, that goes without saying, but to understand out text and indeed the rest of this letter we must look here in this moment to find the key.

Chapter 2 verse 4-6: 1 John 2:4-6 “4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” We ought to walk as he walked. Following his example. Holding up his ways to our lives and to our world in order to compare and contrast - and then ultimately adjust ourselves.

Which brings us closer to our text and to this moment.

1 John 3:1 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us.

Church, sometimes all we can see is darkness. Sometimes life can really get in the way of all that God has for us, and this moment - it just isn’t very relatable all the time. But the truth here remains! See what kind of love God has given us!

It is everywhere! It abounds in all things, and does so far above and beyond our situation. But that is really a sermon for another day - today what I want us to focus on is actually far more basic!

Notice John doesn’t say “see that God loves,” he says “what kind.” Now I know what you are thinking here. What does that even mean? And believe me, I can sympathize with you on that - I have listened to my own sermons. But when I read that opening line and recognize how it relates to the context of this letter it brings our text into focus.

Church we know what kind of love it is! It is a fully sacrificial love that would do anything to be with us! But there is even more to see here. And that is the truth I want us to focus on today.

It isn’t THAT you love. It is HOW you love that matters.

God loved us, to be sure, but the HOW for Him was coming to join us and then sacrificing His Son - His Self - for us! These aren’t empty love notes offered by school children - this is a real and abiding love that is made clear in the actions of the Creator of the Universe!

And that love reminds us that we too are to follow in that example. All too often, you hear Christians talk about love in terms that are effectively neutered by themselves. What I mean by that, is that we have made love so generic that it has become relatively useless. We say we love people that we would never speak with. Never spend time with. Never have a real relationship with. Our love, in those examples, is one of words and talk. All hat and no cattle, as they say in Texas. They would rather seem than be.

And y’all, that idea of love has made it’s way into all parts of our lives, not just our faith.

Think of your family reunion. If you still have them that is! I know in my family, we have it the first weekend of October every year. At least we used to. Life, and in particular deaths, have taken it away from us. But that further illustrates my point in this! We “Love” each other in words and thoughts, but not so much in action and truth. But I digress.

Think of you family reunion. Every year you will remember it sometime around the week before that you have to go there. You might be excited, you might not. Either way, you make your way to wherever you are going. And as you get closer, I imagine that the excitement starts to grow. The anticipation of seeing people you haven’t seen all year and catching up grows and pretty soon, whether you were excited before or not, you soon can’t wait to see everyone.

And no matter what happens - whether your uncle who drinks too much does just that, or your overly political cousin causes a big argument, or if that niece or nephew that you see endless potential in shows up struggling with life - you find there a group of people just as flawed as you. With problems just as real and difficult as yours.

But y’all it is what happens next that John is after.

So what happens next with you? Do you leave that place and pray for that uncle, cousin and niece or nephew? Maybe. And honestly only you can answer that. So do just that; answer that to yourself now. I know you can imagine it. So what do you do next?

I imagine that you love them. That much is sure, right? If a thousand people asked you that, the answer never changes. But neither John, nor I, am asking IF you love them. We are asking HOW you love them.

Do you love them enough to pray for them? Great! Do you love them enough to hug them, or say something to them. Even better!

But church, do you love them enough to create a new relationship with them? To reach into their lives beyond that one day. To show up without asking to check in. To become a part of their life and to make them a part of yours!

Do you love them like that?

1 John 3:18 ESV

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Because that, church is John’s command here. That is what this text calls us to do! Not to love in word or talk, but in action - in deed and truth!

But those deeds are hard. It is messy there. That Uncle lives a rough life, and you don’t really feel like becoming a part of it. Those cousins will never change, so why even try? And what can you really do for someone who is unwilling to do it for themselves?

Well, John reminds us, you can love. Not in words, but in deeds. In actions. And y’all, I wish I could tell you what thaT means specifically for you, but I can’t. All I can tell you is what I know it looks like.

It looks like countless moments when love was offered to us. I think of spending every 4th of July with the Skidmore clan, exercising with our little group that met 3 nights a week. Going out to eat with friends, being driven home after a trip to the ER, teaching my daughters to knit, thoughtful gifts that always seemed to come at the right moments, meeting to sing songs together, mourning the loss of friends and family of friends together. Sharing milestones, getting and sending cards. Lunches, ice cream, talks on the phone, showing up to help us take our son home, even though we were no longer members or serving here; all of these things that alone mean everything and so much more when done in combination!

Deeds done by those who loved us and who wanted to share with us our very lives. That is what VFBC was - and is - for us.

This church, then and now, loved us to wholeness. To wellness. And that, y’all, is the embodiment of this call in our text today! And whether we show it or not, that is what this church has the power to be for the world.

You see, if all you care about is THAT you love someone, you leave them there. In that box. Where they always were! It isn’t different than that family that you only see at the reunion, or that toy that is in the box because it is just too valuable to open up.

But that isn’t our call! That isn’t us! The church - the true followers of the very example of the God who came to live among us - those people care about HOW they love! And because of that, they love in action!

And that might mean that you shake hands with someone you don’t like! That might mean that you always plan on setting another place at the table for that widow who is always eating alone or making time to go hang out with that widower who just can’t seem to get out and get back to living. Maybe it means that you plan on taking time whenever you can to stop and find out how you can help.

But those things take time. And they take a first step. So maybe that first step is forgiving. Maybe it is looking past differences in agendas, or politics, or theology - and ANY hot button topic - and seeing a lovely, worthy, and fully formed creation of almighty God staring back at you. And in that moment, knowing with all that you are, that you love them - and because of that, you know you have to show them.

NT Wright

In short, we need to move our faith from a reunion in the sky, to a life lived here - in God’s creation - together.

NT Wright shares that idea as well. In his book Surprised By Hope, he talks about our ideas of heaven and the afterlife. Western faith, it turns out, has put so much emphasis on Heaven that we forget where we are - which is also where we are created to be. We say things like “this world is not my home,” and talk about longing for the next life.

Church - you were made for this life too. I know that is hard to swallow. But God didn’t just create you for the great big family reunion in the sky! Don’t hear me wrong, I am not knocking Heaven here! I am, however, agreeing with Prof. Wright in the understanding that when we focus all our efforts, and energy, and thoughts towards the reunion, we miss out on the opportunities to love in action all around us!

And y’all, it just isn’t very logical either if you look at scripture!

You see, when we stare to hard at heaven, and fail to love in action and instead just love them with words, we are actually only loving ourselves! We are saying - oh I want to see you there - in heaven - but the only way I can do that is to get there myself! But church, that isn’t how we are going to see God! That isn’t how creation is to be approached!

After all, God came down to us! To be with us! He didn’t wait for the first weekend in October, or for us the second Sunday in September - No He didn’t wait for the reunion, He came so that He could be with us every day! And that has been the example from the very beginning! God is there in the garden, He is there with Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in Gen 18. He is there when He sends the ram for the sacrifice in Gen 21. He is there throughout exodus, leading His people and giving them Manna. He is there in the Burning Bush. In the still small voice for Elijah, in the ark, in the holy of holies, with Mary, Christ’s baptism and resurrection, the Emmaus road, in the Sheet offered to Peter, and in all the encounters of Paul - TIME AFTER TIME GOD COMES TO BE WITH US! CHURCH, IT IS CRYSTAL CLEAR THAT WE KNOW FOR SURE THAT GOD IS THERE, BUT WE LOOK OVER JUST HOW HE IS THERE SOMETIMES! AND TIME AFTER TIME SCRIPTURE REMINDS US THAT GOD IS RIGHT THERE WITH US AND FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY - THAT WE - YOU AND ME AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW - ARE TASKED WITH BEING THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD IN THE LIFE OF SOMEONE ELSE!

And that reflection of God is always shown in HOW we love them, because church - God is love. And HOW you handle that love and offer it to another changes everything.

Mr. rogers

Every time I get to preach now, I never know if it is the last time. So I like to offer a little piece of myself, or something that I feel passionate and can relate to every time I preach.

Today that is Mr. Rogers. At the end of his career in television, Mr. Rogers was honored by being given a lifetime achievement Emmy for his daytime show and indeed for his life generally speaking.

If you would indulge me, I would like to offer a very close paraphrase for us here today.

So many people have helped us to come to this place in our lives. Some of them are here. Some are far away. Some are even in heaven.

All of us have special ones who have loved us into being.

Would you just take along with me 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are -- those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life?

Ten seconds of silence.

I'll watch the time.

[silence observed]

Whomever you've been thinking about -- how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they've made. They are the kind of people God does well to offer our world.

Love, love in action, changes this world one person, one moment at a time. Love lifts us all.

I know if lifted me. And those people who lifted you, who you just thought of, I can guarantee when you get to the great reunion, and you ask them, they will tell you that when they loved you, they were lifted too!

So make today the day that you decide to love in action. And to love a love that will lift others. And there you too will be lifted as you become a reflection of the God’s love for them - and for you. Bring God into their lives and God will always be with you.