Sixth Sunday of Easter

Last week I said that I think one of the primary tasks, or goals of the Christian life is learning to be loved.

We’re going to continue on that theme this morning, starting in John 15 again.

John 15:9–17 (NIV84)

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Look at the cycle Jesus lays out here.

The Father loves Jesus.

The relationship in the trinity is love and unity.

That’s the heart of all things.

As we read last week, God is love.

Jesus says, I love you in the same way.

The love of the triune God flows outward to others

It is GIVEN

As we receive that love, what are we called to do?

Accept it and then give it to others

Which includes giving it back to the source, through Jesus

That is what harmony in creation is meant to look like

All of life animated by reciprocal love, given and received

Humankind resting in the security of a self-giving God

But of course creation is broken, out of sync with the love of God

Consumed by competition and violence

And so God’s self-giving love ends up being rejected and abused

God comes to us in love and is killed

But this only affirms his love for us all the more

And serves as the beacon for us to follow back to the rest we were always meant to live in

Look to the love of God, evidenced in Jesus, and find our way back home

This is what it means when Jesus says “If you love me you’ll obey my commands”

It’s not a “fall in line or you’ll be punished” statement

It’s part of his invitation to follow him into the life that is truly life

“If you love me. If you trust me. Then follow me and I’ll lead you home. Do what I do and what I say.”

Let’s look at the reading from 1 John to expand on this.

1 John 5:1–6 (NIV84)

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

You can see the cycle of reciprocal love here.

But what stands out to me is this idea of overcoming the world.

We know that Jesus has overcome the power of sin and death by giving his life and rising again.

John is saying we overcome the world by believing that is true and trusting in him.

So what does it mean to overcome the world?

We get super powers?

We become stronger than everyone and everything else?

Nothing in the world can stop us from achieving our goals and getting what we want?

What does it mean to overcome the world?

Is it like being “more than conquerors” in Jesus?

Pretty awesome language right?

Conquerors who have now overcome the world.

But let’s look at THAT passage. We actually read it last week.

Romans 8:35–39 (NIV84) - 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Is Paul talking about being strong and successful?

Nah, he’s talking about being loved.

We are more than conquerers because we have security in the love of Christ and nothing in the world can separate us from it.

In the same way, we have overcome the world because we have been reconnected with the source of Love and nothing in the world can take it away.

Think about what it would mean to be conquered by the world.

It would mean being so utterly defeated by the brokenness, the hurt, the sense of hopelessness that we give up

It would mean being so separated from love that we are consumed by emptiness and darkness

It could mean giving up on the notion of love altogether to embrace hate and lust as the driving forces of life

AND LISTEN, THERE IS ENOUGH DARKNESS IN THIS WORLD TO BRING US TO THAT PLACE

THE DARKNESS IS OPPRESSIVE

AND WE ARE SO WOUNDED AND CONFUSED THAT IT’S HARD TO FIND OUR WAY THROUGH IT

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

WE LOOK TO JESUS AS THE BEACON OF GOD’S LOVE AND WE FOLLOW HIM HOME

TO OVERCOME THE WORLD IS TO FIND THE SOURCE OF LOVE AND REMAIN IN THAT LOVE

BEING CAUGHT UP IN THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE END GOAL OF IT ALL

So last week I said the passage was kind of like a rorshack test.

Depending on our upbringing we may read different things into it.

We may read passages like this morning’s and only see duty and threat of punishment

Similarly we may have had depravity and sin SO HAMMERED into us that the notion of actually being loved by God seems impossible or even unbiblical.

It’s not unbiblical. Its the very core message of the Bible.

You are loved by God.

To that end I want to share this quote from Henri Nouwen that I think may resonate with some of you

For a very long time I considered low self-esteem to be some kind of virtue. I had been warned so often against pride and conceit that I came to consider it a good thing to deprecate myself. But now I realize that the real sin is to deny God’s first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on the destructive search among the wrong people and in the wrong places for what can only be found in the house of my Father. - Nouwen

Look back at the passage from John’s gospel

Jesus says, “I don’t call you servants I call you friends.”

I find a lot of people, mostly dudes, would rather be called servants, because it feels more business like and transactional and that’s preferred because you can fulfil your duty and never have to learn to be loved.

You never have to let your guard down and treat the wounds that you’ve been hiding.

The end game of life is to be restored to the rest of God’s love and become people of love ourselves