Sunday, May 29, 2011

Evangelizing Love



Sermon:

I’m sure that all of us by now have seen pictures and video from the devastating storms in Joplin, MO that have struck deep in our hearts.  There was one particular video that I saw in the aftermath that has particularly stuck with me.  When the tornados came, a number of people were caught in a convenience store.  They took shelter from the storm by crowding into the big walk in refrigerator.  In the video, you hear panicked voices as the wind swells and the storm begins to batter the building.  As the storm builds, you hear the voice of one man as he begins to say “I love you.  I love you guys.  I love all of you.”  The video is posted below:


Upon watching the video, I thought to myself, here is a guy who truly gets it.  When faced with mortal danger, in the dark with the winds blowing, he takes the opportunity to tell everyone that he loves them.  He doesn’t know if he will have a future, he doesn’t know what might happen in the next moments.  What he does know is that there is nothing more important for him to than express his love for those around him.
Thankfully, it appears that everyone who was featured in the video survived the tornados that ripped through town.  But I wonder-  why is it that it takes tragedy to cut through our defenses, to loosen our tongues so that we can finally say to one another-  “I love you.”
I think its partly because its a powerful sentiment- one we are afraid that people might take the wrong way.  And I think its also because we fear that that expression of love will be one-sided-  that we will feel silly because the other will laugh, or that we’ll be rejected when they doesn’t respond in kind.
Expressing love can be a difficult and dangerous thing to do.  And yet, it is a vital part of who we are as Christians.  Furthermore, expressing and embodying love is perhaps the most core quality of the God we worship.  It is certainly at the core of everything we can learn from the stories of Jesus in scripture.
Perhaps the most famous verse of John is  “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”-  God loved us so much, that he desired to be close to us.  To be among us, to be able to clap the shoulder of his friend, to hug his mother, to weep upon hearing of the death of his friend Lazarus.  In this passage we heard today, we come upon Jesus in the upper room, sharing a meal with his disciples.  But before the meal can even get under way, Jesus removed his cloak, got down on his hands and knees, and washed the feet of his disciples.  Truly, this was a man who was not afraid to express love.
I need to confess that I probably don’t preach that enough.  Frankly, I probably don’t believe it enough in my own life.  Often when I look at scripture and pray, what comes to mind is all of the ways I fall short of who God intends me to be.  And when I read scripture to get ready for a sermon, my thoughts often flow to the ways we as a congregation, and we in our society, need to change to live up to our calling as disciples of Jesus.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with that persey; God does indeed want us to examine our hearts, our minds and our actions so that we may live into God’s intentions for us.  But I need to express more often, both to you and to myself, that God loves you.  God loves me.  Exactly as we are.  There is nothing we need do; no way for us to earn that love.  God simply and overwhelmingly loves each and everyone one of us.  So, lets not wait for tragedy to express something important:  I want you to turn to your neighbor and say-  God loves you exactly the way you are.  Now turn to the other side and say-  God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.
So, what does God, what does Jesus, ask in return for that love?  Well, we are asked to return that love.  At times, that can be hard to swallow.  I sort of understand how to love someone I can see, feel and touch.  How do I love God, how do I love Jesus, when there isn’t a tangible aspect to it.  This passage today provides the solution-  to love Jesus is to keep his commandments.  Now lets be clear, this isn’t a quid pro quo thing.  If you don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, God doesn’t stop loving you.  But the question isn’t how do you get God to love you-  that’s done.  The question is how do you love God-  and that is by keeping his commandments.
But, what does that mean?  There are lots of commandments in scripture-  which ones do we keep?  Well, let’s keep it simple today-  When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, what did he reply?
  1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength;
  2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
So-  we are to return love with love.  And in fact, Jesus sweetens the offer.  He said that he’ll send his advocate- what we call the holy spirit, to help us love one another.  The spirit won’t leave us alone, but will always be with us if we can be so trusting.  If we can trust that God loves us, and that God’s spirit is with us always, can we not lose a bit of our fear.  Maybe we can learn to grow beyond our fear of rejected love.  God continues to love us whether or not we love God, maybe we can do the same.  Maybe we can say I love you, or live I love you, to someone else and not be afraid that they might not return that love.  We can release our fear- because we don’t need them to return love to survive-  we are loved more then we can know.  We just need to express that love.
I want you to turn to someone near by and tell them I love you.  Now, this doesn’t mean you necessarily have to have warm and gushy feelings for them, that your heart goes a flutter every time they walk in the room.  But, you can say I truly want the best for you, I want you to experience all the good that God has set forth for your life.  If you can say that, then you can say and mean I love you.  Find someone nearby, and say that to them.  If you dare (and they seem willing), give them a hug too.
So if Christian Love 101 is know God loves you, love God, Love your neighbor, love yourself, what’s Christian Love 201?  Its helping others to realize God’s love for them.  That, by the way, is fundamentally what evangelism is about.  Its not about convincing people of a doctrine, or convincing them they are a horrible, sinful person, or convincing them to say specific words at a religious event, its helping them to realize that they are loved by God.  In our first scripture today, Paul showed us how this could be done.
Paul goes to Athens, is invited to stand in front of the cities elite scholars and philosophers, and proceeds to give a philosophical discourse on the nature of God and Christ’s resurrection.  He argues from natural law, quotes two Greek poets, and argues about the true nature of one particular Athenian statue.
Ok, I can hear you now.  “You tell us evangelism is just about helping people to know that God loves them, and your example is Paul giving a speech on philosophy?  Really?  How is this about God’s love?”
Well, Paul recognizes something.  We have the saying, the key to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right?  Well, the key to an Athenian’s heart is through philosophy.  Paul wants to communicate God’s love.  But to do it, he knows he has to speak their language.  So, he draws upon all that he knows and can learn about Athenian culture, and tries to express it in the way they will understand it best.
That is the way that Paul’s love is expressed.  He doesn’t say, understand it on my terms or else, he loves the Athenians enough to go to their city, to learn their culture, and to try to connect on their playing field.  I think at church some times, we try to do the opposite.  If you want to learn about God, you are going to have to come to my building, worship in the way I am comfortable, and speak my language to hear about the love of God.  Learn what music you listen to?  Too hard, and besides, I like my music better.  Go where you are?  Look, I would, but you like to hang out in scary places.  Can’t you just come to my neat church and sit in my pew (but not my seat!!!).  
So maybe we wouldn’t say any of those things, but do our actions show it?  Do our actions show that we are doing everything possible to demonstrate God’s love to those outside the walls, or do we want people to love God on our conditions, and our turf?  
Evangelism doesn’t have to be scary, but it does require us to demonstrate love.  We don’t have to give a discourse, but we do have to learn how to communicate with those outside these walls.  We don’t have to give a speech on public square, but we do have to hang out and develop relationships with people outside of the church.  
Doing evangelism like that can stretch us.  What if they reject what I say?  What if they don’t like me?  My friends, are we not confident of God’s love?  Can we not release that fear, knowing that God’s spirit goes with us?  Brothers and sisters, God’s love and spirit goes out before us.  Its already working in our friends, our relatives, our acquaintances and our neighbor’s lives.  May we be bold enough to show our love for them.  May we be loving enough to seek out the key to their heart.  And may we be confident enough to say that “God loves you, exactly the way you are.”

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