Sermon: Love is Courage
Lectionary: Year B, Easter 5
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
- We “love” our spouses and significant others
- We “love” our families
- We “love” people that have made significant contributions to our lives
- We “love” our preferences for food
- We “love” sport teams
- We “love” our hobbies
- We “love” kinds of music
And the list goes on.
We use “love” as a noun and a verb and modified into
adjectives and adverbs. (Ooh… I can see some people having flashbacks to
elementary school!)
“Love” is frequently used as a stronger form of “like.” In
these cases, what we love, we mean that we like immensely.
But what does it mean to “love God?” And what does it mean to
“love like God loves us?”
Is loving God the same thing as religious piety? Weekly
attendance at services, giving to the church, volunteering for church
activities, personal prayer time, regular reading of the Bible, witnessing and
evangelizing to others – do these count as loving God? What about having a set
of beliefs and practices? Or avoiding certain practices? Do these count as
loving God?
Piety, beliefs, and correct practice do not count as loving
God. The gospel has numerous instances recorded where Jesus spoke out against
mere piety toward God. Here are two passages from the gospel according to
Matthew.
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everybody who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of
my Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 On the Judgment Day, many people will
say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name and expel demons in your
name and do lots of miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I’ll tell them, ‘I’ve never
known you. Get away from me, you people who do wrong.’
Matthew 23:23-24
23 “How terrible it will be for
you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint,
dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law:
justice, peace, and faith. You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting
about those more important matters. 24 You blind guides! You filter out an ant
but swallow a camel.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that even very
spiritual activities and faith itself is not the same as love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in tongues of human
beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing
cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and
everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but
I don’t have love, I’m nothing. 3 If I give away everything that I have and hand
over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I
receive no benefit whatsoever.
We heard from 1 John this morning. I want to focus on one
particular sentence within that reading:
1 John 4:18
18 There is no fear in love, but
perfect [or mature] love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The
person who is afraid has not been made perfect [or mature] in love.
I want to look at love (noun) as courage and love (verb) as
courage in action.
Strictly, the text refers specifically to fearing some kind
of divine punishment, but in the larger picture, it can refer to any kind of
misplaced fear.
Hate is often seen
as the opposite of love. But perhaps hate should be seen as a symptom of fear,
and fear is the real opposite of love. Think about it like this: people don’t
hate something or someone for no reason. People hate because, among other
reasons, they dislike something, have had bad experiences with it, think it can
hurt or harm them, or it challenges their way of thinking or their way of
life.
The result of fear is hate. Hate can manifest in any number
of ways. An obvious one is literal violence against the object of hate. But it
can also manifest in thinking badly about this thing or person, spreading false
rumors, ignoring and giving a cold shoulder, undermining what they are doing,
and other passive-aggressive behaviors.
Fear leads to actions that try to protect one’s own self.
Fear builds barriers. Fear draws boundaries. Fear seeks to draw clear lines
between what is in and what is out. Fear seeks out certainties in beliefs and
belonging. Fear wants to clearly define what I think is right versus what I
think is wrong.
This is not love. Love is courage. Courage to venture beyond
boundaries of comfort. Courage to tear down barriers that others have erected as
“proper.” Courage to accept ambiguities. Courage to engage with beliefs and
ideas that cause us discomfort. Courage to risk being wrong. Courage to see
things and people outside of our traditional and comfortable spheres on their
own terms. Courage to take a stand against those who attempt to instill
irrational fear.
In the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus says this:
Matthew 5:43-48
43 “You have heard that it was
said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love
your enemies and pray for those who harass you 45 so that you will be acting as
children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil
and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you
love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax
collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what
more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore, just as
your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must
be complete.
Paul describes what love is in the continuation of what I
read earlier:
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
4 Love is patient, love is kind,
it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, 5 it isn’t rude, it
doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of
complaints, 6 it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. 7
Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things,
endures all things.
Near the end of his ministry, Jesus describes the kinds of
actions taken by those who are his genuine followers:
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “Now when the Human One [Son of
Man] comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his
majestic throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in front of him. He will
separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right side. But the goats he will put on
his left.
34 “Then the king will say to
those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father.
Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. 35 I was
hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was
a stranger and you welcomed me. 36 I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear.
I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 “Then those who are righteous
will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty
and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or
naked and give you clothes to wear? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and
visit you?’
40 “Then the king will reply to
them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on
his left, ‘Get away from me, you who will receive terrible things. Go into the
unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 I was
hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me
anything to drink. 43 I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked
and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t
visit me.’
44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ 45 Then he will answer, ‘I assure
you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t
done it for me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the
righteous ones will go into eternal life.”
Easter is the proof that love is more powerful than fear.
Easter is the promise that courageous love can bring resurrection to people
today. Easter is the preview of God’s kingdom fully restored.
How do we keep Easter and the power of resurrection in us day
in and day out? Our gospel reading and the text from 1 John tells us that we are
to abide or remain in God. And how do we do that?
1 John 4:10-11, 16b,
20-21
10 This is love: it is not that we
loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with
our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us
this way, we also ought to love each other.
16b God is love, and those who
remain in love remain in God and God remains in them…
20 If anyone says, I love God, and
hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who doesn’t love a
brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen. 21 This
commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their
brother and sister also.
It is easier to think about these things in the abstract, or
to apply it to people and places “over there.” But what about here in
Petersburg? In this very community?
Are there people we avoid? People that we feel uncomfortable
around? People that think differently from us, or have different values? Are
there people we fear in this community? (I need to add a caveat that there are
legitimate cases, such as abuse, where for genuine reasons it is necessary to
place boundaries and avoid interactions.)
Have we allowed fear to overrule love? In what ways can we
become more courageous and bring the power of resurrection and restoration to
the lives of people in our community?
Perhaps there are relationships that have been diminished or
broken because of something that happened in the past. Perhaps within this very
congregation. Courageous love can mend those relationships. But love that merely
hypothesizes and keeps to one’s self is not really love. Genuine love always
acts.
Love is a process. Maturity doesn’t happen overnight. But it
does require practice. Our capacity to love increases as we take steps to risk
consequences that may arise from offering genuine love.
The source of such love is infinite. We, in our human
thinking, might consider love to be a zero-sum game. But God showed otherwise.
Remain in God’s abundance of love and we will have the courage to love as God
loves. All who choose to allow God’s love into their lives will bear the fruit
of love.
Loving God necessarily means loving people. To love God is to
love one another. To love God is to love those that, in human ways of thinking,
are difficult to love or even unlovable. To love God is to love is to love those
that your circle may frown upon, or even society as a whole might discourage. To
love God is to see the spark of the goodness of God’s creation in all created
beings and seek to bring that out in one another.
Love is courage. Love is courage to be a part of the
resurrection story each day.
