BECOMING LOVING

Sermon Summary, June 28, 2015, “Becoming Loving” (John 13:34-35) 

We’re finishing the Gospel of John this week.  We’ve said before that in John, Jesus gives but one commandment, “to love one another, even as I have loved you.”  But of course, Jesus loved with a perfect love.  How do we do that?  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called us to “be perfect, therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect?” (Matt 5:48)  How do we do that? 

We’ve witnessed examples, one a week ago, of followers of Jesus who seem to have run passed us in becoming perfect, in loving as Jesus loved, as forgiving as Jesus forgave.  The most recent was the survivor and family members for the victims in the Charleston Emanuel AME church who came before the court with a uniform chorus of forgiveness.  “Christ in them” has made them the kind of person whose nature it is to love and to forgive.  It would be against their nature to not be forgiving.  We have seen this previously in the Amish shooting in 2006.  It would have been against their nature not to forgive. (It is God’s nature to love all, forgive all.)

How is it we do that?  We are transformed by grace.  CS Lewis says that God will make us into the kind of creatures whose very nature it is to love as Jesus loved, who will become perfect as our heavenly father is perfect.

 

A good and respected friend, Rev. Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room, says that transformation requires three dimensions: Information, experience, and community.  All three are necessary but by themselves not sufficient. He uses Alcoholics Anonymous as an example.  Information by itself is not sufficient or a 12 step brochure would solve all of the addict's problems.  He or she needs a model, an inspiration, a sponsor would has been there to provide the experience along the way.  Lastly, the meetings where the person is loved for who the are, forgiven when they falter, encouraged on the journey is also needed.  And all of AA is service, to those within and those yet to find their way.

 

In our Christian walk, we also do so in three dimensions: 1) Within, “Christ within us.” We read, study, emulate, we strive to become more like Jesus.  It is our devotional life. 2) In the midst of Jesus’ followers, the church, an extension of the twelve.  We are loved, forgiven, held accountable in the midst of his followers.  And 3) At the margins.  We join Jesus’ ministry at the margins.  It is there where we learn to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable.  We do so in ministry.  And we do these three over and over again. And we are changed! Amen.