Today I want to focus on the second lesson - the letter from John. This weekend feels to me like love is in the air. Sam and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and I talked briefly about love yesterday at the party. It seems so appropriate this morning to talk about love because some form of that word appears 27 times in our second lesson this morning. Twenty-seven times, I think maybe John is trying to tell us that love is important.
There is a story told about John who spent most of his later life as an exile on Patmos Island. It is said that John would be brought out to preach to the people and he would say, “God is love.” Each time he said the same thing. Someone asked when he was going to say something else, and he replied, “God is love. When you learn this, then I will teach you something else.”
In our second lesson, John begins, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.” We often think of love as being a warm fuzzy kind of feeling toward other people, or an attraction to someone or something. When Sam and I went to marriage encounter, we were taught that “love is a decision.” It is a decision that needs to be made on a daily basis. That funny little feeling that couples get that leads them toward marriage will not last a lifetime in the same way. It is an attraction that can lead them toward love, but that love must mature and grow if it is to last a lifetime. But in its early form, it is not the kind of love John is talking about here. John uses the word, Agape, in both its verb and noun forms, throughout this reading.
The Greeks have actually 6 words for love. I’m only going to name 4. There is Eros - the kind of love that is primarily sexual in nature. It is the kind of love that keeps the species alive and can be the foundation for the bond of marriage. There is Phileo - a brotherly love or warm tender affection between people that draws them to be friends. There is storge - the kind of love parents have for their children, it is the bond between family members.
Then there is Agape - Agape is defined as: The unconditional love that sees beyond the outer surface and accepts the recipient for whom he/she is, regardless of their flaws, shortcomings or faults. It’s the type of love that everyone (should) strive to have for their fellow human beings. Although you may not like someone, you decide to love them just as a human being. This kind of love is all about sacrifice as well as giving and expecting nothing in return. The translation of the word agape is love in the verb – form: it is the love demonstrated by your behavior towards another person. It is a committed and chosen love.
Agape is the kind of love God has for us. It is intentional. It is God’s intention to treat us with love, even when we are not very lovable. It is the glue that can hold a marriage together through rocky times. It is the bond that can hold a family together when things go wrong. And it is the one thing that can hold a church together when people’s personalities rub each other the wrong way causing conflict. Agape love is what we should be striving for as a congregation, because it is only through agape love that we will survive and grow strong.
Sam and I will be gone during this next week. We are going on a “retreat” designed for retired clergy couples - yes, I know that I don’t always act retired. We have been required to read a little book called “Strength for the Journey” in preparation for this retreat. It is a little book that is designed to help us integrate all areas of life into a well-rounded balanced life. It includes using prayer, ministry, study, movement and uses of technology and the arts to keep us centered in Christ. Sometimes we think that going to church several times a month, and saying grace at the table before we eat and maybe a bedtime prayer is enough. But God really wants more from us. In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”
I think one of the most important things is being able to hear God when he speaks to us. It takes practice and awareness to hear God. God will lead us, guide us, direct us, nudge us for all kinds of reasons; sometimes to help us and sometimes so that we might help others. But we have to know what his voice in our life sounds like.
Most of you have heard by now that I have been declared ‘cancer free’. It was the quickest journey down cancer road that I can imagine. Two months, that’s all it was. Now I have a medication that I am being required to take for 5 years - one pill a day. Well, I’m going to credit God with the miracle. The miracle is not that He took away the cancer. He didn’t. The miracle was in the timing. My doctor told me he wanted me to get a mammogram. I ignored him. The Clear Lake Breast Center called to set up an appointment time and I said no because I just didn’t want to go through that. About a month later they called again - and this time I said yes. I’m sure I was nudged by the Holy Spirit. To catch this thing at stage zero was the miracle. The actual malignant portion was 4 mm at it’s greatest dimension.
The surgeon and his team used their God-given talent to remove the cancer and start me on the journey to healing. I believe that God has a purpose for each of us and he gives us our talent and our love to further his purpose on earth, whether it’s healing, or encouraging, or feeding or comforting, or teaching. And I believe that each of us is called to grow in love, and the way we do that is by being in community. I believe that we are called to minister to all people we meet in some way and it’s so much easier to do that when we work together.
We only have a month left together, but God has something wonderful in the works for Grace church. I know that you are going to be blessed by God’s plan for Grace. You’ve hear a couple of times now about the ‘Blessing Box’ that has been proposed for Grace. I hope that the vestry will follow through with this idea and you will all embrace the concept to make it a reality to help fight hunger in Alvin and especially in our neighborhood. I didn’t realize until recently how large our low income community was. The Blessing Box, especially on weekends and during the summer, may be the only source of food some children will have. We initially stock the box and the idea is, take what you need and give what you can. Working and praying together, Grace Church can become a beacon of hope here in Alvin.
May God bless you and keep you, feed you and encourage you, and grow you into the church that He wants you to be. Amen.
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