HOW DO WE LOVE?
First Sunday after TRINITY
6 June, AD 2010
TEXT: Epistle – I St. John 4:7 – 21.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (St. John 3:16-17.)
The words we just heard are from the third chapter of the Gospel of St. John and are familiar to us all, for they are not only part of the “Comfortable Words” we hear every week, but they contain the cause and effect of God’s action that has led millions of souls to their Salvation. Jesus spoke those words to Nicodemus who, remember, had come to Jesus at night, that he might understand and comprehend the saving message of Our Lord’s earthly ministry. As usual, Jesus has spoken very succinctly, almost matter-of-factly about the salvific mysteries of God, which needed to be “unpacked” for Nicodemus and for all those who come after, seeking the Salvation of their soul. To help us “unpack” Our Lord’s words we turn to the epistle lesson this morning, the First Epistle General of St. John, chapter 4, verses 7 – 21.
It has been said that this section of First St. John is a commentary on the passage of St. John 3:16, which we just heard, and that seems to be so; for it is no less than the third time in this short epistle that St. John has talked about God’s Love. But like God’s Love itself, St. John doesn’t repeat his words, but keeps explicating the reality of God’s Love; going broader, higher, and deeper into it. It is within this section of First St. John that we are exposed to the fact that God’s Love – the way God Loves – is not in a passive or abstract way, far removed from the object of His Love, but by being in a close, personal, living relationship and activity with the beloved. As we read First St. John in the light of St. John 3:16, we begin to understand that Love, real Love, is the highest attribute of God’s Being and, thereby, becomes the essence of Christian revelation and relationship. As God Loves, we are called to Love. So it behooves us, if we are going to even attempt to apprehend what being a Christian is all about, that we must understand how God Loves so we can respond to God’s Grace in our life. Admittedly, this is similar to the task St. Augustine tried to perform regarding the essence of God as Trinity and Unity which we heard last week, but His great work entitled, On the Trinity helps shed some light on what God’s Love is all about. In that treatise he writes, as does St. John, that God is Love. And the essence of the Divine Trinity is revealed in that Love. God the Father is the source of all Love, God the Son is the Beloved or the object of God’s Love, and the Holy Ghost is actual Love, itself, that proceeds from the Father through the Son. And since those Three are One, God produces and generates Love and is Love, Himself. But what kind of Love does God generate and embody? We have but to search Holy Scripture to know that. Consistently through the New Testament, whenever God’s Love is spoken of, the Greek word agapé is used, which is quite different in essence than any other words used for love in the Greek New Testament. Agapé Love is an action verb that means the absolute and total welfare of the beloved. It is not a sentimental feeling or erotic kind of love. It is a self-sacrificing kind of Love, embodied in the action that God took in John 3:16; a Love that would put at risk, give itself for, and diminish itself for the one that was loved. This is a very different kind of Love than we know of today. The world has tried to change and contaminate the reality of “God is Love” into “Love is God”, which is not the same thing! The world’s definition of love is that which makes a person feel good; and has progressed, quite naturally to the point that this mindset sacrifices moral principles and even other person’s rights in order to feel “good”. I put to you that this is not real Love, but selfishness for real Love is self-less – that Love which caused God to sacrifice His only-begotten Son in the first place and then, too, the Love which kept Jesus crucified on the hard wood of the Cross. That’s self-less Love and, like God, it is Holy, Just, and Perfect. So we have explored why God loves – because it is of His essence – and what kind of Love God expresses – Agapé Love. But how does God express that kind of Agapé Love to His Creation, that is, to you and me? Quite simply, it is through relationship with Him. For the Love of God is manifested to His Creation in two ways: through the Divine action which sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world to redeem it from sin and to give us eternal life and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our heart; perfecting in us a Love responsive to His initial outreach to us and a Love reflected onto our fellow human beings. God is the source of Love, but He didn’t keep it unto Himself. He sent His Son to reconcile humanity back unto Himself by Jesus’ Death on the Cross and gave to us the gift of Everlasting Life by Jesus’ Resurrection! But the Love still didn’t just stop there. Jesus promised that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, would come and dwell in our heart so that we could share God’s Love with others, our neighbors, thereby spreading the Gospel of Redemption to all people, which is just what the Apostles did after Pentecost, and what we are called to do today. Massey Shepherd wrote in his Commentary on the Prayer Book, “Love of neighbor is the outward test by which we may know the reality and sincerity of our inward Love of God, whose nature and purpose were made known to us in Jesus.” This accompanies, nicely, what St. Clement of Alexandria had to say on this same point some centuries earlier, “The perfect expression of a faithful person is love of God and neighbor.” This is how St. John can call us both beloved and that we should love one another, because this is the way in which God Loves. If you will not heed St. John’s words, perhaps you will if you hear them from our Lord, Himself, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home within him.” (St. John 14:23). So we have seen why God Loves, what kind of Love God expresses, and how He expressed and continues to express that Love through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost. The only thing left for us to consider is how we, ourselves, Love.
We are called to Love God and each other – in God’s all-encompassing, never-ending, and over-abundant Love. We hear it each week in the Summary of the Law – love God and love your neighbor. It’s a Love which embraces all people, not just the ones that are easy to love, but also the ones that are not. This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of love or the latest trend in self-help psycho-babble. It is real. It is difficult sometimes, especially since we human beings have a tendency to hold grudges with one another and with God. Nevertheless, it is a Love that we are called to emulate and to live into by the Grace of God the Holy Ghost who lives within us. Look at the restoration of St. Peter in the last chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Jesus asks Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me?” And each time Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, I do love you.” But what we don’t see in the English are the Greek words used there for Love. Jesus asks Peter twice, “Do you agapé me?” To which Peter can only reply, “Yes, Lord, I phileo you.” (a filial or brotherly kind of love or affection). And Jesus says to him, “Feed my sheep.” The third time Jesus asks Peter, do you phileo me? And Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know all things. You know that I phileo you.” And Jesus responds, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus knows how difficult it is for us to Love the way God loves and yet He still uses us as channels of that Love as He used St. Peter as the instrument of His Gospel. Therefore, as the words of I St. John echo in your memory this day and throughout the week, work to discern within yourselves the way you Love; spouse, children, friends, neighbors, and those with whom you are not friendly, and pray that you will come to be able to Love them all the way in which Jesus Christ Loves you and gave Himself as a ransom for your soul. How much does Jesus love us? He loves us this much as He spread His arms out on the wood of the Cross. Therefore we can Love the way He loves because He first loved us.
Let us pray.
O GOD, who dost infuse the gifts of charity into the hearts of the faithful through the grace of Thy Holy Ghost: grant unto Thy servants, both men and women, for whom we pray unto Thy mercy, health of body and soul, that they may love Thee with all their power and perform with all love the things that may be pleasing to Thee; by Christ our Lord. Amen. (from The Primer)
And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end. Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+