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David Orendorff    I John 4:7-21    May 17, 2009

Those of you who have been around me for any length of time know that this scripture is the scripture of my faith and my life. The longer and more frequently I hang out with God and God’s people, the simpler my theology becomes. I see God, Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit as, first and foremost, servant love.

Max Lucado, reflecting on verse 16: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them,” writes:

Love is All You’ll Find[1]

We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love (I John 4:16).

Water must be wet. A fire must be hot. You can’t take the wet out of water and still have water. You can’t take the heat out of fire and still have fire.

In the same way, you can’t take the love out of (God)… and still have him exist. For he was …and is…Love.

Probe deep within him. Explore every corner. Search every angle. Love is all you find. Go to the beginning of every decision he has made and you’ll find it. Go to the end of every story he has told and you’ll see it.

Love.

No bitterness. No evil. No cruelty. Just love. Flawless love. Passionate love. Vast and pure love. He is love.

Karl Barth, one of the most complex and sophisticated German theologians of the last century, was once asked to describe his faith in a sentence. He simply sang, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong.”

When John’s congregation at Ephesus writes, “God is Love,” and Max Lucado writes, “Love is all you find,” and we sing, “Jesus loves me,” what is meant? Is God the kind of love that makes me crave M&M peanuts? Is God the kind of love that happens to adolescents? Is God the kind of love that parents feel for children or grandparents for grandchildren? Is God the kind of love that many men and women grow into after years of marriage?

I believe that God is all these kinds of love and more. God’s love is the mystery and beauty of creation; it is the symmetry and harmony of mathematics and physics; it is music and poetry, tears and prayer, a friend and an enemy; it is the quiet soul resting in a storm; it is giving care to those for whom we don’t care. Love is what conquers death, and it is more.

John says we know that we live in God/love and God/love in us “because God has given us his Spirit.”[2] Every creature and all creation have the spirit of love. Without a self sacrificing and servant love, quarks cannot become atoms, atoms cannot become molecules; molecules cannot become compounds; compounds cannot become amoebas; amoebas cannot become complex organisms, the big bang is only a lot of noise signifying nothing, and there is no community of any kind. Without love there is no creation and we do not exist. Without the spirit of God dwelling in us, our existence has no meaning and no purpose. We exist to love and be loved.

And John says, “There is no fear in love, but complete love casts out fear.” Look into your heart. What causes you to fear and be anxious? If it is being judged, doesn’t the love of God forgive forever? If it is failure, isn’t the ultimate failure the loss of love? If it is sickness, isn’t sickness what keeps us from loving? If it is war, isn’t war the very antithesis of a community built upon the Spirit of God? Love casts out all fear.

Look again into your heart. What do you most desire from this life and from God? Is it success, and isn’t the gain of success the hope of being loved? Is it good health, and isn’t good health the opportunity to love and be loved? Is it peace, shalom, and isn’t shalom abiding with a people in a place of gracious love? Is it a compassionate and forgiving God, and haven’t we been shown this God in Jesus’ full and complete love of us?

And John says, “We love because God first loved us.”[3] God did not and does not make us come first to love, but brings love first to us. God is always seeking us with a desire to abide in us and an offering of gifts for us; the fruits of the seasons in the food for our table and graces for our being.

And when we awake to this love and accept that love relentlessly and selflessly comes for us, we are made whole and complete in love; we are metamorphosed like the caterpillar into the butterfly; we are renewed to be who we were from the beginning made to be-love.

John and his congregation have written this letter to us that we, today’s congregation of God’s people, might abide in God’s love. This letter was prompted by the hard times caused when some current or former members of the small congregation in Ephesus didn’t love, even hated each other. It is an acknowledgement that they (and we), sadly, don’t always abide in God. But though we may not always abide in God, God always abides in us. God does not abandon us when we abandon God. God first loves us in all times.

God is love. Though it is simply stated, I find it often difficult to live. That is why I must daily practice being a disciple of Jesus in worship, study and service. It was my way to be in God’s love before I came to Bear Creek and it will be my way after I have moved to whatever is next.

I invite you to practice with me-to renew your commitment to be a disciple of Jesus that love might be completed and perfected in you. Be grateful for the love that first loves you. Accept God’s forgiveness of whatever failure might be yours. And accept the power to do good that is offered you in every breath. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s healing of you and healing of the world through you.

Open your minds, hearts and souls to God. Be a disciple of Jesus. Worship God by praise, in prayer and sacrifice. Study God and God’s creation so that your mind might come closer to the mind of Christ. Serve God and each other with a servant love that you and we together will be Christ-raised for the transformation of the world.

My sermon is most perfectly embodied in the video of Susan Boyle’s audition on this year’s “Britain’s Got Talent” singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserable.[4]

I am guessing most, if not all of you, have seen this clip. I have watched it again and again and every time I am moved by the love of God. Susan Boyle is God’s beautiful child gifted with a remarkable voice in a frumpy body. When she walks on stage the judges and the audience are without love, but by her choice of song and the spirit of God in her, she loves them before they love her. And by her love they become love for her and for each other. For me it is a remarkable playing of the gospel we have been given for our lives, for the lives we touch and for the life of the world. (Show clip)

Across two millennia the congregation of Ephesus invites, even begs us, “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”[5] When we experience God abiding in us first as love and choose to abide in God’s love, the Holy Spirit sings through our frumpy selves and we are frumpy no more. And when we join our voices together we become a great choir of love and the world is frumpy no more. What might have been a fearful and cruel place is recreated to be of great wonder, hope and beauty. It is the kingdom of God with us.

Amen and Shalom.

[2] I John 4:13

[3] I John 4:19

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

[5] I John 4:11