Love Will Keep Us Together
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Introduction
Introduction
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
If you are of a certain generation, you’re well aware of where I got the title of this homily from. In 1975 Captain & Tennille released the song, Love Will Keep Us Together. Tennille sang,
Love, love will keep us together
Think of me babe whenever
Some sweet talkin’ girl comes along, singin’ a song
Don’t mess around, you just gotta be strong
Just stop, ‘cause I really love you
Stop, I been thinkin’ of you
Look in my heart and let love keep us together, whatever
While this is a love song between Captain & Tennille about their desire for a love that will keep them together, whatever obstacles come their way, or whatever temptations they may face, it helpfully puts the same question before us tonight.
At a time when we are confronted daily with deep divides in almost every sphere of life, what will keep us together? And let me be clear. I’m not asking what will keep the whole world together. We could legitimately ask the rhetorical question, what is the only thing that can keep the whole world together? What, according to Jesus, will keep the people who claim to follow him, together? Love. Love will keep us together. Not only that, but the love that will keep us together is intended by Jesus to be a light that shines brightly in a dark world. There are three things I want to communicate to us tonight. Through Jesus Christ we become people who are Grounded in Love. Through Jesus Christ we become people who are Given Over to Love. Through Jesus Christ we become people who are Glued Together by Love.
Grounded in Love
Grounded in Love
We, on this Maundy Thursday, are descending into darkness. And we are descending into darkness because of love.
John says that right before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and go to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
In the Gospel of John, John and Jesus continually talk about Jesus’s hour coming. And his hour always refers to the time of his crucifixion. It refers to the time that he will accomplish the work that the Father sent him to do. In John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 the refrain has been that his hour had not yet come. But then, we hear Jesus say in John 12:23
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
And now, when John tells us in 13:1 that Jesus knew that his hour had come, he made sure that we knew that this time of his suffering and agony was grounded in love. He loved his own to the end. The apostle Paul put it this way,
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This whole night is about love. And even before going to the cross, how does he demonstrate this love for his disciples? He takes the form of a servant and he washes their dirty feet! And when Peter protests, essentially saying, “This is too low of an act for you, Lord,” Jesus says, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Can I tell you something? This wasn’t just about their feet!
Do you know that Jesus, in his ministry in the gospels, is constantly making the unclean clean? He puts his hands on lepers and makes them clean. Jesus is the only one who touches the unclean and doesn’t become unclean himself. In a household, if one person gets sick, that virus or cold gets shared with everybody. Jesus is the only one who touches lepers and doesn’t become leprous himself.
He’s the healer who makes us clean because he loves us. So now, you and I, through faith in him have an identity that is grounded in love. I’ve got to move on, but we desperately need to live out of an identity that is grounded in the cross-formed, self-sacrificing love of God in Jesus Christ for you. And you can only see it through the eyes of faith.
Given Over to Love
Given Over to Love
And the transformation that begins to take place - the transformation that begins to mark our lives - when we are grounded in the love of Jesus Christ is we become people who are given over to a life of love. In this same chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus says something surprising, “A new commandment I give you, Love one another.” We say, wait a minute, Jesus. Aren’t you the one who has affirmed that the essence of God’s law was established long ago? Didn’t you let people know that the great and first commandment is Deut 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And the second, which is like it, is Lev 19:18
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Didn’t you say that the whole of the Law and Prophets depend on these two commands? How are you saying that the commandment to love one another is new?
This is how it’s new y’all. Remember that Jesus is telling the disciples this command in the context of his hour coming, and him loving them to the end. It’s new because he says this is what this love looks like. Love one another as I have loved you. Previously, you did not understand that the Passover lamb, which had to be without blemish, that you sacrificed every year pointed forward to me. You did not understand that the lamb you slayed every year was a foreshadowing of how I would love you. But I’m here now, and I’m adding newness to your understanding of what loving one another means. It means a love that is defined by sacrificially serving one another. It means a love that looks out for the interest of others above your own interests. It means a love that is extended to enemies. It means that you are never excused from love.
Here are the manners I learned at the dinner table as a child. When you’re finished eating, you don’t just get up from the table and go about your business. You ask first, “May I be excused.” When you and I are in the hard place, when it is seemingly impossible to love, and you want to ask the Lord, “May I be excused…” There is only one answer he will give us. And it is this, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Because you belong to me you are given over to a life of love that I will empower.
What we learn from this night is that we are grounded in a cross-formed love that calls and empowers us to give ourselves over to a cross-formed love of others.
Glued Together by Love
Glued Together by Love
This is how we become glued together by love. This is just a nuance of being given over to love. What we hear in the Colossians 3 passage is almost an exposition of Jesus’s command to love one another. Put on, therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Notice with me in Paul’s description here of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and forgiveness, these things aren’t needed when everything is going great. They’re needed when there’s discord. They’re needed when there’s controversy. They’re needed when there’s a lack of understanding. They’re needed when you’ve been hurt by somebody in the church whether they intended to hurt you or not. The love that we’re called to be dressed in as those who follow Jesus Christ is the glue of perfection. That’s what Paul says in v. 14. Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. The love we receive from God that is impressed on our hearts is the glue of perfection. It is the perfecting glue. It is what enables God’s people, who are holy and loved by him, to be tender towards one another in the most trying of times. It’s what enables us to ache in our gut for others the way we ache for ourselves when things aren’t well.
This is a homily, not a sermon. So, I’m going to wrap it up with these challenge to us tonight. Where is it that you are trying to live your life grounded in performance? Grounded in a fear of failure? Grounded in the pull to please others? And you need to see for the first time, or to see again God’s love for you in Jesus Christ that transforms your life into one that is grounded in love?
Where is the command to put on love as the binding glue starting to lose its adhesiveness for you? And what would the Lord have you do about that? Where is it that you need to hear him say, “My grace is sufficient for you, so stay sticky?”
Because here’s the deal. This love is eternal. God’s word tells us that love never ends. When he told his disciples, “you will all fall away this night because of me,” and they said “we will never deny you.” Each one of them left him, and he loved them to the end. When he went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he asked them to watch and pray but they fell asleep - even though his soul was in anguish, he loved them to the end. When you find yourself falling short again, when you find yourself giving in to the same temptations and sinful he loved you to the end. That’s what enables us to sing, “O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee!
This is the love that grounds us. This is the love that we give ourselves over to. And this is the love will keep us glued together forever.
May we be people grounded in God’s cruciform love, given over to that love, and glued by that love. Love will keep us together.
