20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 11, 2015
Deuteronomy 6:1-6; Psalm 89; 1 John 3:11-23; John 13:34-35
Extravagant Generosity, Week 2
Any
Country music fans here? Sometimes
Country Western songs are called “somebody-done-somebody-wrong songs.” Have you
heard the joke that if you play a country song backwards you get back your truck, your dog, your job, and
your wife or husband? Perhaps these lyrics are popular in our culture because
they acknowledge our difficulties with relationships. At the same time, they also speak from the
cynical or negative aspects of our culture. In his letter to the church at
Philippi, Paul encouraged the church to think on things that are true, noble,
right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy.[1]
But our cynical culture can make it hard to focus on these things. Sometimes, even the church struggles to shift
focus from the cynical and the negative. That’s why we began a journey last week
to consider matters of the heart and check our spiritual health.
This
week we are celebrating those we love and their positive influence in our
lives. From the great Shema of the Torah in Deuteronomy to the teaching of
Jesus found in John 13, this focus on loving relationship is at the root of the
scriptural values of our faith. The word
“Shema” is the first word in Hebrew of this address to Israel, it means “hear,”
as in “Hear, O Israel: The Lord
is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Keep these words
that I am commanding you today in your heart.”[2] It’s called the Great Shema to stress that
this is the great thing to hear, this commandment. And then in John, Jesus gives us a new
commandment: “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love
each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you
love each other.”[3] In the Christian faith, we look at the
teaching of the Shema in the context of the teaching of Jesus. One of the ways
we express our love for God is
through our love for one another.
This is a clear expectation of our faith. And yet sometimes it’s difficult,
isn’t it?
Sometimes
it’s hard to love people, people who are different from us, people whose
lifestyle choices we don’t agree with, people who do outrageously horrendous
things, like start shooting at a school.
And sometimes it’s hard to love people who we do know, people who drive us crazy, people who rub us the wrong
way, people who are just as stubborn as we are, people who hurt us. It’s easier to put conditions and limits on
our love. Our brains latch on to wrongs
done to us, like a defense mechanism to keep it from happening again. And yet Jesus says the world will know that
we follow him if we love each other. I
know sometimes we don’t want to love
each other, or we wait for the other person to show love to us first. I’m reminded of the poem that was found
written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta, India:
People
are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If
you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If
you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine
enemies. Succeed anyway.
If
you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What
you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.
If
you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The
good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give
the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In
the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.[4]
The reason we love each other
is because God first loved us. Yes, we
can be irrational, stubborn, proud, and a whole host of other things. However, to quote a Michael W. Smith song,
you have never been unloved.[5] God loves us unconditionally, no matter
what. One of the ways he shows his love
to us is through other people. Jesus
says, “Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.”[6] To
love each other like Jesus loves us means unconditionally, and it means, like 1
John explains, being willing to lay down our lives for our brothers and
sisters. “This is how we know what love
is: Jesus gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for
others!” It doesn’t usually mean
physical death, much less death on a cross.
But it probably does mean some sort of death to self, death to pride,
death to greed, so that we can put others first. As 1 John also says, “If we have material
possessions and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can
we claim that we love God?”[7] Indeed, when our hearts are closed, it’s hard
to claim that we love anyone, except maybe ourselves, but certainly not
God. The old hippie song from the ‘60’s
says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”[8] Do people know you love God because of the
love you show for them? Because we love
God, therefore we love other people.
That’s how relationships are a matter of the heart.
How
do we overcome those obstacles to healthy, loving relationships? Forgiveness, communication, unconditional
love. I was talking with my sister trying to remember this one incident at least ten years ago, and she
didn’t remember it clearly, either. What
I remember was that she was really, really mad and she said something to the
effect of “I hate you” or “You’re not my sister anymore” and the part I
remember clearest was that I told her, “I will always be your sister, no matter
what,” and that actually calmed her down.
That unconditionality are what a lot of people really need to
hear. That there is nothing you can do
or say or have done that will stop God’s love for you or stop our love for
you. No matter what, we love you. No matter what, you are beloved. You have never been, and never will be,
unloved. Why? Because that’s how God loves us, and so
that’s how we are to love each other as well.
We already know we like to hang out together, especially
when donuts are involved. And we have
already been on the receiving end of love.
We love because we have been loved.
PG: As we continue this second Sunday of our stewardship
focus on Extravagant Generosity, you have in your bulletin this coming week’s devotional
guide, adapted from Practicing
Extravagant Generosity. In the Friday reading for Week Two, Bishop Schnase
describes how practicing Extravagant Generosity is a fundamental activity
because we ourselves have been recipients of Extravagant Generosity:
“Every sanctuary and chapel in which we have
worshiped, every church organ that has lifted our spirits, every pew where we
have sat, every Communion rail where we have knelt, every hymnal from which we
have sung, every praise band that has touched our hearts, every church
classroom where we have gathered with our friends, every church kitchen that
has prepared our meals, every church van that has taken us to camp, every
church camp cabin where we have slept—all are the fruit of someone’s
Extravagant Generosity.
“We have been the recipients of grace upon grace.
We are the heirs, the beneficiaries of those who came before us who were
touched by the generosity of Christ enough to give graciously so that we could
experience the truth of Christ for ourselves. We owe the same to generations to
come. We have worshiped in sanctuaries that we did not build, so to us falls
the privilege of building sanctuaries where we shall never worship.”[9]
Or roofs, or HVAC units, or what have
you. It’s part of being
forward-thinking.
This
week we celebrated people you love in the church. Consider an appropriate way
to express your appreciation of these gifts of grace. Find a way this week to
say I love you to your family members as well. Next week, we will explore what
we would most like to see happen in our church in the coming year. What is your
greatest hope and best vision for God work through this congregation? Besides
survive, in what way would you like to see us thrive?
[1] Philippians 4:8
[2] Deuteronomy 6:4-6
[3] John 13:34-35, CEB
[5] “Never Been Unloved” from
the album Live the Life, Michael W.
Smith, 1998
[6] John 13:34
[7] 1 John 3:17
[8] By Peter Scholtes, 1966;
published, among other places, in The
Faith We Sing, p. 2223
[9] Practicing Extravagant Generosity, Robert Schnase, p. 41-42
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