1st John 3. 1-3
Believing – pure and simple – is being loved by god and loving neighbors!
We make it all so complicated … this church stuff. It starts out, simple enough. Sing a few songs. Say a prayer or two, together. Read a handful of words from the book. And before you know it, everything’s twisted and tangled, snarled and snagged. You can’t tell one end from the other. End times and second comings. Raptures and tribulation and millennia. Angels and demons. Sinners and saints. Consubstantiation. Transubstantiation. Real presence. And that’s not even mentioning the service and the hymnal. The church is so full of passwords and secret handshakes, it’s difficult to keep it all straight.
To make matters worse, there’s more than two hundred – more than two hundred – separate, distinct Christian church bodies, here in the U.S. Thirty-one different Baptist groups. Forty different Lutheran denominations. And, of course, thousands, tens of thousands of independent, non-denominational congregations. Congregations that are, in reality, a denomination of one. Like I said, we make it all so complicated. And here we are. It’s All Saints Day, once again. Pearly gates. Halos. Harps. Wings. Spirits. Souls. Even here, even now, there are so many things that can sweep us off our feet and carry us away. Baptized. Unbaptized. Saved. Damned. Infant baptism. Believer’s baptism. Baptism by water. Baptism of the Spirit. It makes your head spin.
Maybe, in part, it’s a way we pastors justify our existence. You need us. To explain. To enlighten. To elucidate. You need us to lead you through the ins-and-outs of believing. Or maybe, somewhere deep down inside, we know, we understand, how radical, how dangerous, simple faith is. We know. We understand. And we don’t want to have anything to do with it. So, we make a game of it. We play at believing. Safe. Secure. Singing a few songs. Saying a few prayers. Reading a passage or two or three. Listening to the preacher drone on. Compared to real faith, even the offering plates are relatively harmless.
Bottom-line, Christianity is about one thing. Love. It’s about love. About being loved. About loving. And of all the books in the newTestament, the one that understands it best is the one from which we read, this morning. First John. It’s one of the shortest. Only five chapters. A little over a hundred verses. But the word ‘love’ is used thirty times! That’s more than any other letter or book!
1 John 3.11: For this is the message you have heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another.
1 John 3.16: We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us
—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
1 John 4.7: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4.10: 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 then, there’s this morning’s passage … “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”
If First John was the only bible we had, it would be enough! Love. It’s not the word ‘grace’ that’s so important to Paul. In Greek, it’s the word ‘agape’ that John uses. But it means the same thing … gift! Une3arned! Undeserved! Without limit! Without measure! Grace! Agape! Whatever the word, it’s a love that transforms lives! A love that changes the world!
A love becomes flesh and blood! A love that dwells among us! Surrounding us! Enveloping us! It’s a love that goes where we go! A love that stays where we stay! It’s a love that changes water into wine! That heals the sick and feeds the hungry! That raised the dead and walks on water! It’s a love that washes feet! It’s a love that carries crosses! That dies and descends to the dead and rises to do it, all over again!
And from start to finish to start … From beginning to end and back to beginning … it is all very, very simple! Even a child can understand! Especially a child can understand! It’s love! Being loved! Loving! That’s why we were created! That’s why we’re here! It’s not the decisions or the choices. It’s not the philosophy or the ideology. It’s the love! The love! God loves us! And because god loves us, we, too, love! Love just like Jesus!
Loving god? Loving others? That’s only half of it! And not, even, the better, more important half! Love is conceived, is born, in god loving us! And faith – real faith – isn’t lived isn’t is the exceptions … the chapel, the sanctuary, the cathedral, the temple. But it’s lived at the times and in the places we live our life. And with the people with whom we live our lives. With family members and friends. With classmates and coworkers. With acquaintances, with neighbors, with total and complete strangers. But we make it so much more complicated, so much more difficult, than it is. So much more complicated, so much more difficult, than it should be. The heart and the soul of believing is simple …
“See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are.”
And that is who we remain! We are god’s children! God’s daughters! God’s sons! We are Christ’s sisters and brothers! Because god loves us! That love calls us! That love chooses us! That love claims us! That love makes us god’s very own! And because of that love, we go and do the same! Calling! Choosing!@ Claiming! Making everyone around us, making everyone in our world, our very own! My friends, it[s simple, this faith, this believing, of ours! God loves! And because god loves, we love, as well! Nothing more! And, certainly, nothing less!