What is love?
In last week’s scripture reading, I John 4:7-21, we were told by that writer that “God is love.” And, we were told that the best example of that love came in the form of Jesus . . . his words and how he lived his life. The writer told us: “In this world we are like Jesus.” Then finally the writer tells us that we are to go out and do likewise . . . we are to love. But what is love? Inquiring minds want to know.
Being an inquiring mind, I did what any sane person would do . . . I Googled it. I Googled “what is love?” In a little over one second Google told me that there were nearly 22 billion entries on “what love is”. Twenty-two billion! Needless to say, I decided that I would bypass attempting to read all 22 billion entries. That is a lot of articles and opinions about “what love is”, and that tells me that there probably is not one pat answer that is going to please everyone.
Or . . . is there?
This morning I would have you consider what we have heard from the Gospel of John. What we have heard is a pretty good definition of love . . . and, get this, it comes straight out of the mouth of Jesus!
One of the first things we notice is that the love Jesus is speaking about is not a warm fuzzy feeling. It is not that longing in our hearts. It is not a sweet flower for the picking. No, love is not some romantic notion we carry around. It is much more.
The love Jesus speaks about is demonstrated through his life. The way that Jesus lived his life shows how to love . . . and, the way that he died shows how to love. Jesus tells us, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Here we are reminded that the kind of love that we followers of Jesus are called to embody takes on a cruciform shape . . . it is shaped and based on the cross.
Fortunately, few, if any, of us will ever be called to martyrdom. Instead we are called upon to enter what Dr. Robin Maas—Professor of Spirituality—tells us are a “series of little deaths in the form of invitations to restrain or deny self.” She explains it this way: “The sending of God by God was the sending of Love – a crucified Love willing to lay down its life for friends and enemies alike. Your mission and mine – which we can only perform insofar as we are in communion with God and with one another – is to submit, out of love for one another, to countless, daily ‘little deaths’ until we have yielded every least and last remnant of self to the purpose of Christ.”
In such “deaths” we discover life.
For the followers of Jesus love is not the warm fuzzies . . . it is not some romantic feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Anna MacDonald of the Ekklesia Project tells us: “Love is that act of wanting the best for everyone . . . it bears the fruit of justice, joy, and reconciliation. It creates space for life where it seems that there is none, making room for other people to flourish.
It nurtures friendships and fosters the ability to trust in God’s abundance, grace, provision in the face of scarcity, death. It includes the excluded, invites in the ostracized, meets the needs of the hungry, the isolated, the oppressed . . . Crucified love is not the warm fuzzies. Rather, it ultimately anticipates that our own bodies – individually and collectively as the church, the body of Christ – are a means by which God provides for the world if we’re open to and rest in the leading of the Spirit.”
Whoa! That’s tough . . . that’s tough to do. It is not something that comes easily for any of us . . . this idea of loving like Jesus loved. For those of us who love and have loved, we know how hard it is to love . . . really, really difficult. And, we also know, that for those of us who love and have loved, we do it because we choose to do it . . . we choose to love. Love is a choice.
These words we hear this morning in the Gospel of John are words spoken by Jesus to those individuals he chose to follow him—his disciples. He chose them and in time they chose to follow him. He intentionally picked them. He tells them, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit . . .” Now remember, this was a motley crew that he intentionally picked . . . not the cream of the crop, but people who were not always easy to get along with, were not always the smartest, and not the most popular. Yet, Jesus chose them . . . loved them no matter what . . . shared his words, showed them God’s power, and brought them into the family. This was an intentional act . . . love is an intentional act.
And, Jesus expects the disciples to do likewise . . . to choose to love. In fact, that is how you know that they did . . . they followed his command to “love each other.” To follow Jesus . . . to follow his command . . . was an intentional choice.
So, it is for us if we are truly the followers of Jesus . . . we will choose to love as Jesus loved. Jesus said it . . . Jesus did it . . . and, it is up to us to decide whether we will follow in his footsteps.
If we do . . . it will bear fruit . . . lasting fruit.
It is our choice . . . so, what happens if we choose not to follow Jesus and his command “to love”? Well then, we choose indifference . . . we choose not to care.
I want to share this quote from Holocaust survivor and author, Eli Wiesel: ““The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” The dictionary defines “indifference” as “lack of interest, concern, or sympathy.” It is to not care. And, that too is a choice.
Jesus cared. Jesus loved. Jesus brought life.
Jesus said: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Jesus said: “This is my command: Love each other.”
Choose love. Love that reflects the love of God for each of us through Jesus. Love that brings life.
Feed the hungry . . . whether they are our own or others. Walk with the morally, spiritually, or physically wounded . . . whether we believe them or not for their pain is real. Hug the lonely . . . whether they are among the beautiful and wanted or not. Celebrate the outcasts and welcome them in . . . for they, too, are among God’s children. Welcome the stranger . . . though we are scared of those who are different. Listen . . . listen to the voices that no one hears . . . those crying for acceptance and wanting to be loved. Break bread with the enemy, tear down the walls that separate, and reconcile the divisiveness that tear apart communities. Speak out for those who have no voice . . . those who are forgotten . . . those who have been lost.
Choose love.
We have been chosen . . . intentionally chosen by God through Jesus. Jesus’ hope is that we will choose to follow and love. Love is hard. The choice is ours. It is the only way that God wins . . . that the family of God is restored . . . that the Kingdom comes . . . that there is life! Mahatma Gandhi said it well, “Where there is love there is life.” Where there is no love, there is indifference . . . no caring . . . no life.
Choose love. Amen.
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