Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2009
Love One Another
1 John 4:7-21
Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
Love to See the Love
It has been my great joy these last few weeks to meet with a whole bunch of couples in order to plan weddings and baptisms. And I love to see the love. That’s what I enjoy the most about being a pastor. I love to see the love.
It was a thrill a week ago last Saturday to go over to Sue’s home and see her daughter Sarah and Sarah’s husband, Alex, interact with their newborn son, their first child, Timothy. I love to see the love.
And it is a joy to see Brian and Nichole with Lucas. And Ralph and Jennie with Thomas. They were the stars last week. And now today it’s Lee & Valerie with their firstborn, Wyatt. These are all great loving parents. Who, in turn, had great loving parents.
And it has been a treat to meet with about a half a dozen couples who are preparing for weddings this summer and fall to see their excellent relationship skills and joy and happiness. I love to see the love.
The Pain of Righteous Indignation
But then I come across something that is disturbing. As I have couples share and reflect on their family backgrounds, I begin to see the tensions that are there. The wounds. The griefs. The sorrows.
Every family has them. The tensions between mom and dad…and the kids…and siblings. And some of them are still felt painfully and bitterly…even on a Mother’s Day.
We hate them…we hate him…we hate her…because they first wounded and hated us. And let me tell you, there is no greater destructive force in the universe than “righteous indignation.” Not only to be angry. That is painful and powerful enough. But also to be “right” in our anger. To be “justified” in it.
What do you think is tearing people apart in the Middle East? It is “righteous indignation.” People who have been hurt and wounded. (And they have.) And who now think that they are “justified” in striking back with God’s own righteous anger. And who can tell where it all started…much less when it will all end?
We can trace it all back to the very beginning when Cain killed his brother Abel out of what Cain thought was “righteous indignation.” And that can happen in any family. Endless cycles of hurt, hate and getting even. “We hate others because…because…because they first hated us.”
Jesus Breaks the Pattern
But thank God that God sent his son Jesus to establish another pattern. “We love because God first loved us.” “In this is love, not that we loved God” (for we have our issues with God too! Why God, oh why, did you allow it all to happen?) “BUT that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
It isn’t only that Jesus forgives us all our sins. Although that is good and wonderful enough. And many of us would be satisfied with just that. That Jesus forgives us all our sins.
But Jesus does more than just forgive us all our sins. Jesus breaks the cycle of “righteous indignation” by giving forgiveness precisely where it is NOT deserved. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us,” the Bible tells us.
And if we let it, that can change us. For no longer is it “We hate others because they first hated us.” Rather it is, “We love others because God first loved us.”
A New Commandment on the Night of His Last Supper
That’s why three terrific young women—Elizabeth Ellis, Lilly Lyons, and Ashley Olszewski—are so eager to make their first communion today. They can tell you.
On the night of his Last Supper Jesus takes the bread and wine in hand and pours out his great love for us. And Jesus says, “Take eat, this is my body given for you. Take drink, this is my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you eat and drink of it in remembrance of me.”
And then Jesus says one more thing, “A new commandment I give you. That you love one another as I have loved you.”
And doesn’t that sound exactly like what we hear from First John this morning? “We love because he first loved us.” “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brother and 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 that we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” with that same self-sacrificial love.
God’s Love Seen in Christian Mothers
And probably where we see it best—that agape (God-given, Christ-enabled, self-sacrificial love)—is in our Christian mothers. Motherly love is probably the closest thing to what Jesus commanded and envisioned here on earth.
Moms bear the hurts, endure the sassy back-talk, keep on doing their everyday loving and dishing out their daily sacrifices, even when there are not many rewards or “Thank you’s!” in it.
Moms are probably the best at embodying the kind of love that Jesus has for us and making it real, concrete and alive. And for that we thank them very, very much.
And I can see the families where that kind of love takes hold and gets passed down from generation to generation. And that brings me great joy and happiness. I love to see the love.
Do you see it? Do you feel it?
We love because God first loved us.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster