What is Love?
A sermon by Currie Burris
John 14: 15-24
May 1, 2005
It is springtime. The flowers are bursting with color. New life is awakening all around. I love this season of the year. It is also at this time of the year that many couples are having weddings. I have already performed one wedding this year and plan to attend several more before the summer is over.
I have done many weddings in my ministry and almost all of them have used the traditional vows and promises. The couple promised each other: “Before God and then witnesses, I, John, promise to take you, Mary, to be my wife. And I promise to love you and to be faithful to you, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, for better or for worse, as long as we both shall live.” And then “I, Mary, promise to take you, John, to be my husband, and I promise to love you and to be faithful to you …”
Have you ever noticed how strange those vows sound? The questions are not “Do you love John? Or do you love Mary?” We are not inquiring about the state of their feelings for one another, in order to determine whether or not they should marry. Rather they are making a pledge about what they will do, about how they will act, and the way they will live their lives for the rest of their lives. These vows seem to be commanding how we are going to feel about someone now and for the rest of our days. How can you command a feeling? This is so contrary to the way that we are used to thinking about loving. You cannot command a feeling. It is either there or it isn’t.
But the love here, expressed in the vows of marriage, is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. This love is an act of the will. It is something we do. It is a decision we make, today and each day of our lives. And it is expressed not in an inquiry into the state of our emotions, but by daily actions of faithfulness and caring, protecting and sharing, providing for and supporting in all the situations that life brings. A loving husband, a loving wife, a loving life partner will find each other not by the state of the emotions felt at any particular day or time, and not by words said or not said. A couple will be married by a thousand and one small acts of caring and sharing, all the things we do for each other and with each other. This is love.
In this fourteenth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus is sitting with his disciples at a meal, the last meal he will share with them. He is preparing them for what is about to happen: his betrayal, arrest and death. But more than that, he is preparing them for life together after he is gone. He teaches them that their lives together will be marked by love. Love each other. By this, the world will know that you are my disciples, by the love that fills your lives. Love each other. Then he gives them this lesson: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. They, who have my commandments and keep them, are those who love me.” (John 14: 15, 21) Loving and obedience are inextricably tied together. Loving is doing what Christ calls on us to do.
Earlier in the other gospel accounts, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is and he responds: “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” A command to love, a command to do. The way we love is by doing.
If we want to know what loving God is all about, look at what is being done. If we want to know where our love is, look at our actions. Loving the Lord means doing what God call on us to do. It is not some kind of mystical, spiritual feeling. It is hearing what God calls on us to do, and then doing it. What is love? This is love.
In fact, we may “feel” many ways about God. Our “feelings” about God may change from day to day according to our mood or circumstances, according to what has happened to us, what we have perceived God has given or not given us. We may be awed by God. We may feel wonder in God’s creation. We may feel gratitude for God’s blessings. We may feel passion for God’s presence. We may feel respect for God’s power.
On the other hand, we may feel anger or resentment. We may want to rise up to challenge God. Why did this happen, O Lord? Why did my mother have to die? Why do the innocent suffer?
Or we may feel empty or alone. We may feel lost and abandoned. We may even feel distanced, separated from God. There may be times when we feel nothing about God.
But we may also feel convicted by God’s judgment or ashamed for our sin. We may feel forgiven and redeemed. We may feel the light of God’s love in our hearts. And we may feel joy in the presence of God with us.
We may feel many things. But to love God, is to do what God asks us to do. This is love.
And what did he ask us to do?
· Follow the Great Commandment. Love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself.
· Worship God. That means a commitment to being in church no matter how tired or how busy or how late you were up the night before.
· Serve your neighbor and support each other. That means everyone, not just those who look like me, or come from my home, or who are clean or good or nice.
· Give of your money and your blessings to God. This means not just when you feel like it, not just when you can afford it, not just when you have a little extra in your pocket, but like the widow who gave her last coin, give always regardless of whether you can afford it.
· Do good to all: That means not just to those who do good to you, but also to those who hurt you; not just to those you like, but also to those you do not like; not just to friends, but also to strangers.
· Love your enemy. That means the ones who want to hurt you, who slander or defame you, the ones who want to kill you, who want to destroy you. Yes, love them. No matter what race, what religion, sane or insane. Love them.
· Forgive those who offend you. That means all of them, even the ones who offend you again and again, the ones who hurt you, who take you to court and seek your destruction, the ones who curse you, the ones who betray you. Forgive them.
· Feed the hungry. That means people who are hungry for food, here in our own community or across the other side of the globe. That means the ones who are spiritually hungry as well. Give them the good news. Show them God. Feed them.
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Clothe the naked. That means those without clothes to keep warm and dry,
here on the street corner or in the deserts of
· Give homes to those without. That means every one without a home, whether they are drug addicts or alcoholics, whether they are stable or unstable, whether they have already lost many chances at stability, whether they will probably lose this house too. Give them shelter.
· Do justice. Act fairly with all people. Seek liberty for the captives, and justice for those oppressed. Make right that which is wrong.
· Support the widow and the orphan. Help those who cannot help themselves.
· Visit the sick and those in prison. That means all of them, convicted justly or unjustly, innocent or guilty.
· Seek peace. Even in the midst of war and violence, even in the midst of intractable tribal conflict, religious fanaticism, class warfare. Wherever there is brokenness, seek peace.
· Practice hospitality. Open your homes to the stranger, the lost, and the foreigner.
All these things and more, Jesus commands us to do. If we love him, we will do what he has commanded us to do. And if we do what he has commanded us to do, then we love him.
Then Jesus gave his disciples a promise. He said, “I will not leave you alone. I will not leave you like one without a family. I will come and be with you. I will send to you the Comforter, The Holy Spirit, the one who will be with you. And when the Holy Spirit comes, you and I will be one. I will love you and you will love me. We will be one.”
In loving Jesus, in doing all that he asked us to do, in living the life that he called us to, in living the life he showed us how to live, we are one with him. We are not alone. God is with us. Now and always.