a sermon preached on May 6, 2012 at Douglas Avenue UMC
He loves me, he loves me not. I spent a few lazy afternoons in junior high plucking petals off of daisies to determine if the boy of my affections would return the favor. The decision of the flower. Pluck petal one: He loves me. Pluck petal two: he loves me not. Petal three: he loves me. Petal four: he loves me not.
And so on around the face of the flower until the final petal is left...is it a “he loves me petal?” Or a “he loves me not” petal? While I’m not overly superstitious by nature, I did get a little ping of anxiety if it came up “he loves me not.” And then I tossed that flower and did another one until I got the answer I wanted.
How many of us have played this game...about God. God loves me? God loves me not? God loves me? God loves me not?
Just this week I spoke with a young woman, who because of her addiction to drugs and subsequent theft found herself entangled in a lifestyle of destruction. She lived through years of self-destructive behavior and is trying to get her life back on track now. She is 24. She has a problem with God.
Her problem? She’s been taught that God is a judging God. That the goal of God is to kill and destroy the unrighteous. That our lives are to be spent avoiding the wrath of God. She also has a problem with church. She went once a couple years ago and the message she heard went straight to her heart; she felt like the message that day was just for her. But she hasn’t been back. She needs new friends. She needs support and guidance. But she’s certain that the people in that church will judge her and the thought of their judgment is more than she can bear.
If she were to pluck a daisy and pull the petals off a daisy, from her perspective, the last petal would proclaim: God loves me not.
This holy body, the church, has messed up. We’ve taught it wrong, we’ve lived it wrong and then we wonder why people aren’t attracted to Jesus? The early followers of Jesus, those first disciples were crazy about Jesus. They found in him something they’d longed for and imagined but never dreamed possible. In Jesus they met love and in meeting love, they knew God.
Listen to what John says about God and Jesus:
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 Saviour 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 judgement, 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.
There is so much in this passage... I have a feeling you might have heard “love, love, love, blah, blah, blah...” But I promise you: this passage of Scripture is a heart-stopping, life-changing, lid-blowing couple of paragraphs. In a nutshell: the last petal always shouts: GOD LOVES ME!
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
You don’t have to know fancy liturgy or big church words or have memorized Scripture. If you love...you are born of God and you know God. It’s a formula so simple an illiterate person can understand it. And so magnificent as to keep the most complex mind and imagination engaged for a lifetime.
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. And a few verses later: we love because God first loved us.
It is my heart’s deep desire that you hear this clearly: it’s not about how well you’ve loved God. It’s not about how smart you’ve gotten by reading the Bible (reading the Bible and carrying the Word of God in your heart is icing on your cake). It’s not about how many poor people you’ve fed or how many dollars you’ve given to charity (that’s also icing on the cake...doing those things gives your life meaning, purpose and joy). It’s not about the high moral code you’ve chosen to follow (there is just one code....love).
It isn’t that we love God...it’s always that God loves us. We love, we are able to love, because he first loved us.
In Men in Black II, Agent K is trying to tell a young woman that she is an alien princess and her people need her to lead them. She’s having a hard time believing that she needs to get in the spacepod and be shot into the sky to return to her people in a faroff place in the galaxy. To convince her that she truly is an alien princess Agent Kay says this to her:
Agent K: When you get sad it always seems to rain.
Laura: Lots of people get sad when it rains!
And he shakes his head looks her in the eyes and says: It rains because you're sad, baby.
What comes first: the sadness or the rain? the chicken or the egg? Our capacity for love or God’s love for us? God’s love comes first.
We love because God first loved us. Not because we are so wonderful, though we are!. We love because God loved us. If you’ve ever loved, it’s because God loved you first.
If you looked into your partner’s eyes and felt love...thank God....that is God in you.
If you hold your baby close and are overwhelmed by the love you feel, thank God...that is God in you.
If you love a friend, thank God...that is God in you...your capacity to love is made possible by God loving you.
If you saw someone hungry, naked or sick or imprisoned and you cared for them in their need, thank God...that’s God in you.
We love because God first loved us.
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.
This is for the kids: What is the opposite of up? down
What is the opposite of in? out
What is the opposite of light? dark
What is the opposite of good? bad.
Let’s let the grownups play, too: What is the opposite of love? hate? Nope-kind of a trick question.
The opposite of love is fear. The thing that love casts out is not hatred. The thing that perfect love pushes out of us is fear. With fear gone, we have the capacity to love like God loves us. God loves us fearlessly.
When we are not afraid...we can love ourselves. Jesus said, Love your neighbor AS you love yourself.
“I
do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love
you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked
person offers you a shirt.” (Maya Angelou)
When we are not afraid...we can love others as they are.
When we are not afraid...we can love God. Not fear God, but love God.
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.
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.
This week at our General Conference we wrestled once again with our “official stance” on homosexuality. Keep in mind members of The United Methodist Church do not have to agree with the official stance of the church, but our official stance does say something about who we are as a denomination. 38% of the 988 delegates were from outside the United States.
372 were not American, 616 were US Methodists
Of the total 372, 282 of the central conference delegates will be from Africa, up 90 from 2008. The
24
annual conferences in the Philippines will have 48 delegates, the 21
conferences in Europe will have 42, and an additional 10 delegates will
come from “concordat” churches with which the denomination has a formal
relationship: four from Great Britain and two each from Puerto Rico,
Mexico, and the Caribbean and the Americas. The United Methodist Church
has special covenant relationships with the Methodist traditions in
those countries.
Our delegates have voted again NOT to ordain self-avowed, practicing homosexuals and NOT to offer the church’s blessing on loving, same-sex couples in marriage. United Methodist churches cannot be used for gay marriages and United Methodist pastors cannot officiate.
I, of course, am saddened by this official stance and I wonder: What are we afraid of?
And the real question: does our official stand show fearless love of all our brothers and sisters?
Does our official stand show the same kind of fearless love God pours out on heterosexuals?
The church says repeatedly to gays and lesbians: of course, we love you. But it is not a healthy love.
If my parents had said to me: we love you so much...but we sure do wish you’d been a boy, boys are better. I would not have felt unconditional love.
If Mozart’s parents had said to him: we love you, but would you mind taking up physics instead of playing that piano? In fact, we want you to cut off your fingers so that you won’t dabble in piano-playing. But remember....we love you.
If your parents had said to you: we love you, but please stop being who you are at the core of your being...would you feel loved?
I can only imagine, but I think that must be how the church stance sounds to homosexuals. We love you, but we want you to stop being you.
And here’s why it might be especially confusing, because of the many ways we have allowed the Bible to be interpreted through the lens of grace...for all kinds of issues, but when we come to homosexuality, we draw a line in the sand.
Yes, you’re right: the bible speaks very strongly, Jesus speaks very strongly against divorce, but we don’t really have a problem with that anymore...that was a cultural norm for that time and place.
Yes, you’re right: the bible speaks strongly agains pre-marital sex, but our daughter is really sweet, pregnant, yes, but she’s practically engaged to her boyfriend, so it’s ok for her to get married in the church. The scripture about that stuff is out-of date.
Yes, you’re right: the bible speaks strongly against consumerism and self-indulgence in the face of poverty and hunger. Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell everything he has in order to follow Jesus. But Jesus just meant that one kid, right?
Yes, you’re right: Jesus said love your enemy. Lay down your sword. Be at peace. But he didn’t mean Al -quaeda, did he?
Why do we cling with such a tight grip to the six, ambiguous sentences or so that address homosexuality? Perhaps because by pointing over there at them, we don’t have to take a very hard look at us.
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. 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.
The church may be confused and may not always get it right. But God is not confused.
God loves me? God loves me not?
There is only God loves me. God loves me. God loves you. God loves me. God loves you.
