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November 11, 2007
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Relationship
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"LOVING LIKE JESUS"
1 John 3: 11-24
- Our daughter Susanna turned 18 this past week on Thursday the 8th. She had been telling us for a couple weeks prior to her birthday that she had to do a Zoology lab and would be dissecting a rat on her birthday! She was not squeamish about this, but had decided to name her rat: "Birthday Rat" in honor of her day.
Being a good student on birthday celebrations, Susanna had been telling everyone for weeks of her upcoming birthday - and people came through with signs in the hall of her dorm including a sign that filled up the door of her room that she bumped into upon exiting the room for her shower. They wrote messages on the mirror in the bathroom for her, since she is always the first one in there everyday. But what they did to say: "Susanna we love you" was easily matched when she reached zoology lab. Her professor had taken the rat she and her team of three were to work on, dyed it various colors of red, yellow, blue and green, and then placed a candle in it, lit it and brought it to her singing "Happy Birthday". Susanna was thrilled. There is nothing like love that comes through actions-indeed love must be practiced through actions to be love.
- That is what John is saying in this great book of his, as he has walked us through the reality that God is light and to walk as Jesus did means to stay in the light of truth - to not hide but to confess sin. That God is light means our love must truly be love for those around us, not hating others while sacrificing all for the things this world offers our cravings.
So in the third chapter John says, "this is the message that we love one another" and then tells us how. We must practice love not as some syrupy show but as a true expression of what it means to be alive.
Wherever love is used in this book John is speaking of love as defined by God when Jesus died on the cross. Love is the self-sacrificing, other-focused, self-giving kind of love. It is the unselfish love in which Jesus laid down his life for us.
John says we know we have eternal life - we know we have passed from death to life, because of the love expressed through our lives. If we hate our brothers, if we have contempt for others (like you all did last week), then we are murderers like Cain who killed his brother Abel and there is no life in us.
So, we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
Abel laid down his life in the face of his brother's attack. Note there is no mention in the account of this first murder of Abel seeking to defend himself. John uses here the word "slew" for Cain's action. He slew his brother - it is the word used of Jesus the Lamb of God who was slain for our sins. Abel loved his brother and refused to harm him-as later Jesus would refuse to fight the cross but go to it in order that we would know His love!
Our question today is this: What ought this love look like in our lives? In other words, what does it look like to "lay down our lives" for one another?
I don't see fewer and fewer numbers in church week by week because we have been killed saving other people's lives, so I believe John is not speaking literally (although such martyrdom is definitely a possibility).
I remember the accounts of the 1992 Air Florida crash into the Potomac River in which only 5 passengers survived. Among them a sixth passenger continued to pass the helicopter life lines to others more injured than he was. In the end, the tail section of the plane to which they had all been clinging sank taking this man, Arland Williams, Jr, a 46-year old bank examiner with it before he could be saved. He was heralded a hero in the press, he had loved by literally giving up his life for the others. (ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Florida_Flight_90)
That certainly demonstrated great love and sacrifice. But here John is definitely speaking of something other than the actual laying down of our lives, rather he speaks of the giving daily of this life God has granted you in order to see God move in other's lives.
John shows this is what he is thinking in verse 17. He asks: "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?"
So, John defines "laying down our lives" as the giving of our lives for the sake of others by how we meet their needs.
So, does that mean I must always hand money to everyone I meet on street corners and at traffic lights who ask for a handout?
Not necessarily. But to decide never to give is also NOT the answer. With these folk the question is, "do I have any pity toward their situation?" If not, check your attitude and repent. For Jesus has compassion for them and we must also. Regarding what we do, the only manner with which to walk is to ask, "Jesus, what would you have me do with this person?" Perhaps it is to simply pray for them as you travel by them. Perhaps it is to give something. Perhaps it is to offer them a night's lodging. The key is this: to love them is to give of yourself - maybe to treat them as human with the acknowledgement that but for the grace of God you might trade places!
Street people however are not the toughest situations. The more difficult situations are those involving the people closest to us, those in our families, those in and out of our lives who are in need and love taking advantage of the free offering. How are we to truly "love" these folk and show them true compassion?
The question in this book is: "How are we to lay down our lives for them?" That is the question. It is easy to throw money at someone, but it takes more from us to give them our lives.
Sometimes you love best by not giving any money, by not offering someone a place to stay. Sometimes you love best by bringing light into another's darkness by just being there, listening, staying with them through the crisis rather than trying to crowbar them out of it.
- Love with skin on - love expressed through us not just as a word through our mouths but as something lived through our lives is that calling in Christ. So, John writes, to love in actions and truth.
So, why did John write: "in actions and truth"? Why not only in "actions"? Remember his point is that everything we are and experience began with God who is light and love. So, our actions will demonstrate that we belong to the "truth" - that we are God's children. Our actions are expressions of the truth that we have received God's love. Truth to God is not a body of knowledge, but the knowing of a person. Jesus is the truth. So, when I act in love I am doing so only because I have been loved. The love I have to share began with the love shared with me in Jesus. I have been born of God through Jesus, I am a child of God's and so I love in "action and truth" expressing not just my own love with those actions, but the truth of God's love through me.
I find it so easy to allow love to become the "assumed reality" - like the old geezer who told his wife who asked him after 60 years of marriage if he loved her: "Didn't I say 'I Do" at the altar 60 years ago? If I change my mind I will let you know."
I can live on autopilot but Karen won't let me leave the house without kissing her goodbye (which I don't complain about). She reminds me that love must be more than a spoken "I love you" on the way out the door, but something written into my daily thoughts about how I can express love in actions --whether by working in the yard, cleaning the bathrooms, doing dishes, making dinner, or by taking her on a date, or courting her by bringing home some favorite thing.
God's love for her must be expressed through my life - I am to sacrificially offer myself in this marriage as an expression of how much Jesus loves her.
I have a long ways to go to practice love.
- But I believe that is just the idea. The idea is that none of us can ever really arrive at being everything God wants for us to be in relationship with those around us, but we are called to practice putting His love into action with people along the way of life.
And there is a closing thought by John in this passage which says that even when our hearts condemn us - that we have not measured up to everything God has for us, that we are not saved because we are not as good as we ought to be, that we are less than what God wants of us - or however our hearts condemn us, that we can then look at the actions that come through our lives - the ways in which we are seeking to love people around us, the manner with which we are living to put love into action and the simple things that have come forth from us, and have confidence that we do belong to the truth, that we belong to Jesus.
His commands are simply these, John writes, to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another (v23).
This is the message from the beginning - to love one another. So, keep on practicing love with others.
This week many of you know that a dear friend of mine, Billy Craig, was found in his office at the Cottage Grove UMC having passed out and had what looked like a major seizure. He was rushed to the hospital, placed on a ventilator and into ICU. He developed pneumonia because of the fluids swallowed during the seizure and it has been determined he has a previously undiagnosed brain tumor. He remains in grave condition.
So what happens during an emergency, during a time of hardship like this? What happens is that everyone who has been impacted by a life comes out of the woodwork. They had a prayer meeting Thursday night at the church that was well attended. The entire community has rallied to pray for Billy. The other pastors in town have come forward offering to help the Cottage Grove congregation as they carry on.
Pat the secretary told me, "Billy inspires all of us. He has a way of stirring others up to want to serve God more."
If there is anyone who has practiced love it is my friend Billy. Everything he does anywhere has the stamp of God's great love upon it. His actions continue to express the truth that he has received God's love for you meet Jesus in his eyes as he expresses that love to you.
Practice love. That is what we are to do. Practice demonstrating that the love of God extends through you to the person before you.
community, Sharon Woods, died. Emmaus is a Christian ministry that offers retreats to help people experience and walk in God's love. Now Sharon was a woman in her 50s I believe whose heart was several sizes too big for her body. She was such a precious saint. When you met Sharon you met love personified - she lived love. She could look at you and you knew God cared for her in her eyes. I always met Jesus in her.
She cared for members of our family. After she and our oldest daughter Anna worked on a retreat, Sharon for years afterward would ask me about how Anna was doing, still was praying for Anna, and interested in her life. Her whole life was lived expressing God's grace and love.
Her memorial service was held a few weeks ago and the pastor of the McMinnville congregation where it was held said he has never experienced anything quite like it. First it was packed with nearly 400 people attending. In addition he has had several people coming up to him in the weeks following telling him that they want to learn to live better lives. Hearing of Sharon's life of witness to the love and grace of God, they want to live like that too.
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