4/28/24 Sermon

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

WORD OF LORD

The past few weeks something strange and kind of remarkable has happened to me. I’ve been contacted by two of the most quiet and distant youth of churches I used to serve - kids that I didn’t think I really left an impression on - and what’s even weirder is that they don’t know or talk to each other, but they were both asking me the same basic questions. I mean, almost directly, they both basically asked me what’s the meaning of life and what’s the point of God. I was relieved they didn’t ask me anything hard.

Oddly enough, I’d found myself asking the same question recently too. And so we began this series of dialogue essentially about what gives life it’s meaning. They both wanted to know what the point of all this is if we just die one day and what if there isn’t life after death. Now, I’m pretty convinced there is. I’m pretty convinced there’s life after death. I might not know what it looks like or what it is exactly, but I do believe in an afterlife and because I believe in God, I believe that whatever is or isn’t after we die, I believe that we’re connected to and enveloped in God after we leave this life. We go back into God’s presence. But to kids in their early 20s and me in my - ugh- mid 40s now, I’m not exactly sure why that would put any special meaning on how I live today. As I’ve been confronting death rather directly recently, it’s reminded me of the urgency of life, but I’m not so sure it’s led to much insight on the meaning of life…

I wish I could say that by the end of this sermon we’ll have the meaning of life all figured out and that we’ll all finally understand what this is all about, but we both know that isn’t possible. I mean if even Albert Einstein couldn’t figure it out, then why in the world would anyone think I could? And actually, Einstein says this about the meaning of life:

“The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.” So maybe he did figure it out…

For me, and what I told these young adults, is that life is worth living because of Love and that maybe the goal of life isn’t to understand or make sense of it all, but to embrace and live into that love. I think that Einstein would agree with me which makes me kind of happy to think about because I think I would have really liked Albert Einstein had I gotten to meet him.

You know, I often lament that there aren’t multiple words for love in English that express different kinds of love. Like, I can tell you that I love Tacos and then turn to my wife and say I love you. But, I don’t feel the same way about tacos as I do my wife. Sometimes I like tacos a whole lot more… Or like, the other day I was talking with my daughter Olivia and i said, “Guess what?” and she rolled her eyes and responded, “I know Dad.. you love me.” Which is awesome. My kids are tired of me telling them that I love them. It means I’m almost saying it enough. I remember once when she was like 7 or 8 and I told her that I loved her and she asked me, Daddy, is there anything you love more than me? And I told her I couldn’t think of anything.

And then she asked if I loved her mother more or less than her. I think she was trying to set a trap. And I told her I loved her mother just as much but in a different way. I don’t think she really got it and I wish I had different words of love to explain it.

The Greeks and the writers of the Bible had different words to talk about love. In Biblical Greek there are three kinds of love. They have three different words for it. The first word the Greeks have is called Eros. And Eros love is... well... The word Erotic comes from it. Need I say more? It’s passionate, romantic love. The butterflies in the stomach when you’re first dating someone love.

There’s also Philia love. And that’s sometimes called brotherly love. like... Philadelphia- the city of brotherly love. It’s the friend love or mutual affection. When girls “friendzone” guys, this is what happens. The guy wants Eros and he ends up in Philia.

But the love that Jesus uses and the love that the author of 1st John is using here is a different kind of love - the word they both use is this Agape love. And Agape love is... well... It’s loving someone or something with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. It’s a deep and abiding love. It’s loving someone as if they were you. Another one of my heroes, C.S. Lewis, actually calls it charity - it’s this giving of yourself over to God and by giving yourself over to God you give yourself over to others as well. It’s not romantic or sexy or easy love. It’s a complete love, though. It’s not how I love tacos; it’s how I love my children and it’s how I try to love others too. Because I believe in my heart of hearts, I believe deep down in my soul, that agape love is the meaning of life. I really do. Cs Lewis says Agape is the best because it is the kind God has for us and is good in all circumstances.

And I believe that it’s through nurturing and receiving and in giving that love that we find fulfillment and meaning in this life and it’s what bridges us over into the next life as well. Paul in Romans tells us that no matter what happens, if we love like that, if we live in to this agape love, if we try to embrace God with this love, if we extend it to other people and to all of creation, then no matter what happens we’ll never be separated from God or from Jesus. This love transcends all boundaries, all obstacles, all questions, all doubts, all hardships, all struggles, and anything else we can put in its way.

You know, Christians used to gather together and have these meals that they would call agape feasts. We don’t really know much about them or what they served or what they did at them, but I’d like to think that there were tacos involved. (Leave me alone. I’m on a weight cut for a tournament and I can’t stop thinking about tacos) We do know that there was worship involved, like what we’re doing, but for them there was something powerful about community, about gathering around tables, about sharing meals and being in fellowship with one another like we do after service here. There was something really important to them about nurturing the love that they felt for God and for each other.

And the amazing thing about it, I think, is that after the big meal and after being with like-minded in faith friends, they’d walk out into a world where they were underfed and persecuted and put to death. But they’d go out there with the agape that they nourished around that table and with their friends. They’d go out there into that hostile world and try to take the agape with them. I think that’s really what church is here for - to remind us that the meaning of life - the thing that matters the most is this agape love.

My eldest daughter tells us all the time that you don’t need to go to church in order to believe in God and I 100% agree with her. But I wish I could get her to understand that isn’t why you go to church, or at least that isn’t why I’m a part of a church. I’m a part of the church because I have faith in Agape. Because in this world that tries to tell me that meaning and fulfillment are found in things that aren’t really meaningful or fulfilling, I need to come and gather around tables like the ones we have here and feel the love of God through people like you, so that I can remember that agape, full and total love, the love of God through Jesus Christ, remains supreme. I’m a part of a church so I can be filled with love and then I can go share that love with the rest of my world. And I believe that’s why God put us here and what we’re called to do - to bring a little more agape and a little less hatred into this world. And sometimes when I lay down and close my eyes at night, I think to myself how beautiful and wonderful and scary this life is and I think about how much more beautiful and wonderful and how much less scary this life would be if more agape were lived out and enacted in this world. If we could truly realize how much God loves us and that we’re called to love others in the same way…

Amen