Loving Christ and Loving One Another

Introduction

Talk about three things. 1. Mother’s 2. Love and what it is 3. what it means to keep the commandments (may surprise you)

I have always had difficulty with special holidays like Mother’s day or Father’s day and fitting it into the context of the lectionary readings and the church year.

That’s because the these designated holidays don’t really show up in the Three Year Lutheran Lectionary.

I would be remiss, however, if I made no reference to Mother’s Day. In truth, what we talk about on Mother’s Day are things we should know and practice every day, not just one day per year.

This Sunday’s readings provide us with that opportunity, because they speak of Gods Love for us, our Love for Him, and our love for one another, without condition or partiality.

Mothers and Love

I grew up during the 50s and the early 60s (Yes, I’m older than I look), to the tune of Father Knows Best, June Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver, Mary Tyler Moore in the Dick Van Dyke show, Aunt Bee in The Andy Griffith show, and of course, Timmy’s mom in the show Lassie.

As we moved further into the 60’s and 70’s, people began to diminish these “Mothers of the 50’s”, and the Feminist movement decried these kinds of mothers and wives as obsolete, as women who weren’t “with it”.

I had never really thought deeply about it, until about 3 years ago, when I came across two scholars of history who actually studied that period of the 50s, interviewing thousands of women from that era:

Women who had built and flown planes during World War II and built and tested tanks and held things together during those difficult years.

These were the same women who married and had husbands and homes and children in the 50’s.

These researchers found out something quite interesting

You see, During WW2, the mothers and wives of the 50’s saw the bodies and souls of their husbands, and brothers, and sons, and friends and fathers torn up and broken apart, with terrible physical wounds, lost limbs, and broken hearts from the terrible cruelty of that war. “We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it.”

And the researchers described what they had discovered from these mothers and wives, that they vowed and were determined that the home they made for their husbands and sons would be a haven and safe harbor from any of those hurts and terrors, and they fought fiercely to protect that haven.

It was love put forth in action, which is as close as one can get to understanding what love is.

Love

Four different Greek words for our one English word “love”:

Eros: Of the love between a man and a woman; embraces longing, craving and desire; physical and sensual love “Erotic”

Stergo: affection between parents and children, or that one has for pets.

Phileo: Kind of a general love, concern and care for other people, like “Philanthropy”

But the word used in our readings today is “Agape”: Love that is of special significance used to translate the Hebrew work ‘ ‘ah hab” Used specifically for God’s love for mankind, and our response of love for God, and for each other and how that is expressed

Action word, love expressed through and action towards someone who is lost, alone, and isolated, and who has no other hope.

Jesus calls us to love Him and one another the way God the Father has loved Him and He has Loved us

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as lI have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Everyone whoo believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Is Christ Just being a new law giver here?

Not at all. Because if we have been born “from above”, Born of God.

We see how great Christ’s love for us is, we see how great the father’s love for us is, and we begin to see how God’s love works. It’s not stagnant. it is active and dynamic in our every day life

And we see Jesus and his act of love for us and His continuing actions of love for us every day.

If He can love me that much, I want to show my love back to him, and I want to express that love in action by living differently from the way I used to be.

Then I say I don’t want to have any other God’s before my God because I love Him.

I don’t want to take his name in vain, because His name is so honored in my house

I do want to honor the day of the Shabbath and take time out from my week of scurrying around and being busy and stop and honor him and worship Him and sing to Him

And want to honor my father and my mother (as we’re doing today) so that they know that I know how much love they have put into me.

And I do want to preserve the lives of others wherever possible.

And I do want to honor my marriage and my spouse and keep myself pure for Him so that I can love from a pure heart

And do want learn how to be content and truly happy with where He has led me in life and where He will lead me .

And none of this is burdensome to me, because I know how much God loves me and how much Jesus loves me.

Conclusion: Power in Service of Love

My systematics professor.... old German gentleman was expressing to us the difference between Lutheranism and other Protestant theology:

“In so many others, where they talk about God being sovereign (all powerful), God’s love is always put forth in service of Gods power or divine sovereignty. Which is not what Scripture teaches.

Scripture teaches, and so our Lutheran theology, that God’s Sovereignty and Power are put forth in Service of His love” Love is the core character of God, and everything else he does in his relationship to us is done in actions of love for us.”

“I have seen the sufferings of my people, and I have come to deliver them”

“ I have seen

That’s a pretty good Model for us to follow. As the Father has love us, and Christ has loved us, so ought we to do the same.