Pentecost and Confirmation 2021 (Acts 2:1-21 & Joihn 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

 Pentecost Sunday 2021 – Acts 2:1-21 and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

            Years ago, I heard an interview with then-rising movie star, Julia Roberts. The interviewer was talking with the actress about her beginnings, and it was revealed that Roberts’ father had died when the actress was only 10 years old, fundamentally changing her life.

But the thing that stood out to me is how Roberts spoke about having a relationship with her father that was changed, but resilient and everlasting. When alive, she and her father were separated by distance following her parents’ divorce.

But now, her father is present with her in spirit wherever she is, no longer confined by physical space and the limitations of mortality.

I found that thinking about my own loved ones who have died in this way, was liberating and comforting. And that helps me to understand and speak to the mystery of the Holy Spirit whom we celebrate today, and our ongoing relationship with our Lord, whom we can neither see nor touch.

The pervasive presence of Spirit Jesus gives as both inspiration and accompaniment is part of the promise of which we read of in today’s Gospel text. Jesus will no longer be in literal bodily presence of his disciples as they have known him until now (except for the 3 days between his crucifixion and resurrection); but he will be with them in a new, powerful, and ongoing way through his Spirit.

This Spirit whom Jesus had promised comes upon them not simply as a presence, but as the power that enables, guides, empowers, instructs, and intercedes for the disciples.

It was fifty days after Easter; the disciples were gathered together. Jesus had ascended into heaven just ten days before, right in front of their eyes. so, they know there will be no more of the post-resurrection visits with their master, no more meals eaten together, no more learning from him as they had been doing from the day each one had met him.

But then, something amazing happens as a great wind enters the room and the promised Advocate, the Holy Spirit, pours herself out on them in divided tongues of fire, visibly resting on each of them.

On that day. the Holy Spirit crosses boundaries that had previously confined them and defined them. The Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus and will enable the actions of his beloved disciples, begun and ended in him, to glorify Jesus as well, through the one, true faith.

On this Pentecost Sunday we celebrate that Spirit. For centuries and still in many places, this Sunday is considered to be a wonderful birthday celebration of the Church. The reading from Acts that is always read on Pentecost, which tells what happened in Jerusalem that day is part of the reason for equating the day to a birthday celebration. It’s like each of the disciples there was a candle standing in the room and lit by the candle-lighter God with flame given oxygen by the Holy Spirit.

It was fifty days after Easter that the Holy Spirit crossed all boundaries. In the reading from Acts, the boundary indicated of cour
se is that of language, but we know that there are many boundaries which separate people today, especially in matters of religion, belief, and practice.

The Spirit brings the wideness of God’s mercy to places where disciples gather and work—biblically, to a crowd of strangers gathered from the corners of the earth; and, experientially, to hearts that are divided or weak in faith.

Jesus promises that this Advocate, the Spirit with whom he will gift his followers, will accompany his followers and enable them to do things they never before thought possible, revealing the truth about the identity, power, character, and peace of Jesus the Christ, through whom God loves the world.

Thus, as Jesus was physically lifted up into the sky and now sits at the right hand of the Father, so it is that the Spirit serves as his presence, power, mercy, and peace in every place and land where the good news of Jesus is shared, and his love is embodied.

This is where Julia Roberts’s observation and our own understanding may run parallel. Through his Spirit, Jesus is no longer limited by a human body or the nature of physics. Instead, Jesus is at once everywhere with everyone who believes in him, and he empowers them by his Spirit as they serve him by sharing his story. Through his Spirit, Jesus is always with us, and never apart from us.

A manifestation of the Spirit’s work and Spirit’s power is seen in the two young people in our congregation today. Sophia and Brett, who have completed at least two years of study and will Affirm their Baptisms during the Rite of Confirmation, this week and next.

Baptism is the mark of the Christian, and it is during baptism that we pray for the Spirit’s blessing of gifts of faith on a person. Sophia and Brett were both baptized as babies. Now they take responsibility for opening themselves up to the Scriptures, the Sacraments, and Community formed by the Spirit, and to being disciples blessed for sharing the Good News of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, in their lives.

We included their Faith Papers with the bulletins you received today, but I wanted to share some of the wisdom, derived of the Spirit, that they shared in their writing:

Brett shared the challenge of living a Christian life in this day and age -

The most difficult thing about following Jesus is that I’m not physically able to see him. I am a hands on learner and I like to be able to see and touch things. This explains the reason I am so successful in science. I am able to touch things and see the reactions that they make. As it may be hard to follow Jesus and understand what is written in the Bible, when I break it all down little by little it is a little easier to follow him.

I feel that the Bible verse Ephesians 4:32 is needed to be heard by all. It states, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” This means that you don’t always know someone’s background…..You should be kind and nice to them even if they aren’t doing it back. God will forgive them and will praise you for the great act of kindness you have committed.

God died on the cross for you, and he didn’t intend for everyone to be mad at each other. He wants everyone to be kind, but that doesn’t always happen. When someone isn’t nice to you, you could throw a fit and start a fight, but instead he wants you to be the bigger person and forgive them.  That one time you forgive them could be the one thing that changes their life forever.

Sophia addressed her favorite verse when she wrote:

“ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”- Philippians 4:6

I choose this verse because it has an important message that we should remember in our daily lives. To me, this quote means to worry about nothing, and instead pray about everything. This is true and can apply to many situations that we face during our lives.

Trust in God, and everything will be okay. In my own words, the Gospel message is both the beginning of our world and Creation, as well as a “guide” to living a successful life through Jesus, our Creator. Right now, in my life, the Gospel means the pathway to living a Christian life dedicated to Jesus and for him.

The Gospel is proof of our Creator and that He has a plan for all of us. I want to affirm my faith in Jesus right now so I can live a successful life through him. Through Jesus, I will be able to overcome any situation given, push through all my struggles, and know how to handle any ball thrown at me. I was able to grow my faith in Jesus through each Confirmation class. The best part of Confirmation was being able to grow my relationship with God and having great members to help me in this process. Although Confirmation is coming to an end, I intend to continue growing in my faith.

Today as we celebrate the power and work of the Holy Spirit in drawing the church together and blessing it, we remember that it is in Baptism that we are each marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit forever. Due to the restrictions we are still under it seemed inadvisable to “sprinkle” you all with water from the Baptismal font, but we have a gift for each of you on this celebration day. On your way out of worship today, you will receive a little container of water from the baptismal font and a card, reminding you of the power of Christ in you through the power of the Holy Spirit you received in your Baptism.

You will also receive a card with a prayer on it. Take it home and sprinkle or pour that water over your head as you pray the prayer on the card, and remember on this Pentecost Sunday that you, too, are a Child of God, intended for great works and blessed through your Baptism for the same.

If you are not able to be in church, Recite this prayer as you make the sign of the cross upon your body. Know that in Jesus you are loved beyond belief and that through the Holy Spirit, you are blessed in the power of his name. Thanks be to God!

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

           

Hands and Feet - Dynamite for the Gospel (Acts 1:1-11 & Luke 24:44-53) Ascension Sunday 2021

Hands and Feet – Dynamite for the Gospel

            While Jim and I were visiting the Holy Land back in 2018, we visited an octagonally-shaped chapel devoted to remembering and honoring the event we mark today - the Ascension of Jesus. This event is monumental to our faith as Jesus does exactly what he said he was going to do: dies, rises, and finally, he ascends into heaven.  Yet, the chapel marking this important event – the ascension of Jesus – is tiny.

            Located at the highest point on the Mount of Olives, portions of the chapel date back to the twelfth century after Christ, and it includes in it a rock bearing a footprint – a right footprint, to be precise, said to be the last place where the foot of Jesus touched the earth before he ascended into heaven. (The left footprint was supposedly taken to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Middle Ages). 

            So important is this event, the Ascension of Jesus, that this chapel is widely regarded as the second holiest site in all of Christendom. And yet, Ascension Day is so often missed – passed over – and ignored in our lives of faith.

            The truth is, unless you went to an Amish farm or  place of business on Thursday and found signs posted on the doors reading, “Closed for Ascension Day”, most of us would never even be aware of the passage of this day that marks the last earthly view the disciples had of our Lord, as he blessed them and was carried away on a cloud. And yet, in both our 1^st reading and Gospel this event is reported by Luke.

            Bewildered, perplexed, perhaps, and utterly amazed, the disciples stood rooted to the spot, staring up into heaven. Jesus has just given them a command and a commission: it was now up to them to proclaim forgiveness of sin in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. As formidable as that sounds, the gospel reports that following the ascension they returned to Jerusalem rejoicing.  

While Jesus tells them that they are to carry on and share the good news of the gospel in all the world, he also tells them that at this moment they need to sit tight – that he’s sending them some help.

Ten days later, on the day we celebrate as Pentecost, indeed that help arrived as the Holy Spirit appeared and baptized them with fire, and gave them all they needed to pursue their call to serve.

They would be sent out to teach, heal, preach and give witness that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that out of love for all people, he gave his life on the cross for the forgiveness of sin. 

            Being sent for those disciples meant serving a fledgling church in places where at times, they would be persecuted; where they would meet resistance; where their missionary work would begin the spread of what would later come to be called “Christianity” for sake of the kingdom of God, as they traveled far and wide for the rest of their lives. Some of them would literally give their lives for this cause.

            Today, multitudes of Christians like Jim and I and the group we were with, travel to Jerusalem and the Holy Land to visit places like the tiny chapel of the Ascension of Our Lord, and many other places connected to the Scriptures. We had a plan to do the same with a group from Zion this year, but plans were changed by the pandemic. We are hoping to make the trip in 2023.

But the thing is, faithfulness doesn’t require such a pilgrimage or focus upon that far-away land. While it was moving and fascinating for us to be in the place where Jesus walked, and to see the holy sites, the reality is that our deepest experience of Jesus happens as we traverse the mainstream of life. Jesus calls us to live out our faith in our everyday lives; to live out the gospel in whatever communities we find ourselves.

            Jesus of course, taught that holiness lies not in stones or in the structures that are built of them, using human hands – structures which can crumble or be torn down; holiness is not found in buildings or even in footprints where perhaps Jesus himself physically touched the earth. Holiness lies in the gospel message of God’s love shared in community gathered as we are today; shared as the offering of forgiveness to others; shared as we feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned, speak up for the persecuted, and care for the poor.

            Holiness is found in befriending the lonely or the outcast – like those who are bullied, or ostracized or isolated; when sharing acceptance and God’s warmth with those rejected because of the color of their skin or their ethnicity; when praying for or sheltering the ones denied freedom or safety or the ones terrorized by hatred, violence, racism, and ignorance. Holiness is found in the suffering servanthood that risks rejection and reprisal when the status quo is challenged.

            As we celebrate Jesus ascending into heaven today, we join witnesses across the millennia who have not seen Jesus in person, but have found him to be very present in their lives and in the world, through the Scriptures and in the bodies and actions of his followers.

            St. Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth century Carmelite nun and mystic wrote, “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.” We are all Jesus’ hands and feet, from the youngest of us to the oldest and everywhere in between.

We here at Zion are called and commissioned to become as vital to the mission of God as any chapel or holy site in Jerusalem. What if we took a close look at ourselves and saw what Christ sees – beloved sisters and brothers called and sent to bring comfort and healing and forgiveness to those who are hurting?

            The mission is not always easy; the original Greek words in this passage include those that form the basis for English words such as “martyr” and “dynamite.” God’s love is explosive. God’s inclusivity blasts apart the human tendencies to hoard power, wealth, and status and to enslave the poor in the poverty and the weak in their helplessness. It is not always welcomed. It is often rejected, sometimes violently so. Jesus’ awesome message is dynamite to worldly greed, corruption, and sin that are tenacious and will strongly resist God’s Good Word.

            Yet, the message of Jesus Christ is for people of every time and place. While we celebrate this day as the time when our Lord and Savior “ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God,” as we recite in our creeds, Ascension Day and these texts are even more about our being sent out, as disciples of Christ, into all the ends of the earth. That translates easily as ‘everywhere we go.” Everywhere? Yes, everywhere: home, work, school, playground, the beach, the mountains, the store, gym or soccer field.

            Next week we will celebrate Pentecost Sunday and the empowerment given to the church by the Holy Spirit. On that day we will confer the Rite of Confirmation on two of our young people as they Affirm their Baptism, and we will remember that at our Baptism we each, too, received the Holy Spirit, and it is that Spirit who enlivens our church and sends us out in mission with the power of dynamite to share the gospel truth of forgiveness, love and peace known through Jesus Christ.

            We are Christ’s body. We are empowered, inspired, strengthened, and sent into the world by the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ among us.  

We are blessed by God to carry this gift into every place we travel, to share the message of God’s grace, and to give it to all with whom we interact, to bless others through the healing love of Christ, the restorative compassion and vibrant embrace of the Holy Spirit, whether this takes place in acts of worship and praise inviting others to join in, through meals distributed to the hungry, or assistance extended to those needing shelter, or acts of authentic caring, prayer, and engagement with our neighbor.

The two men dressed in white robes urged those who stood speechless, gazing up toward heaven, to get moving, to get to work, to believe and know that Christ would be with them through a different kind of power they had never before experienced.

The message is the same for us. The living Jesus comes to us in the same way – it is present wherever the church pours itself out for others. This is our call to follow the Lord of all. May we each be empowered through open minds and enlightened hearts to follow our Lord Jesus with hands and feet, hearts and minds, all devoted to embodying his love for the world. Amen.

           

           

 

           

           

A Different Kind of Love (John 15:9-17, Easter 6 2021)

A Different Kind of Love

There are so many sayings and platitudes about love circulating in the atmosphere, and we have been hearing them our entire lives. So, for better or worse, what are some of the best – and worst – clichés about love that you have heard? Here are some I came up with:

·       It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

·       All you need is love!

·       Love makes the world go round.

·       Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

·       Love comes when you least expect it.

·       Love is blind.

·       Love means never having to say you’re sorry.

·       Love is tender love is true.

·       Love is kind.

·       All is fair in love and war.

·       Love conquers all.

·       Love is not love till you give it away.

Most of these clichés come to us straight from our cultural library – movies, books, poetry, songs, and the like. Some make us roll our eyes, and others make us want to scream. Still others, or perhaps the collection of them together, have integrated themselves deeply into our psyche, no matter how hard we have tried to resist. After all, “love hurts”, right?

Some of us in fact resist relational “love” because of the potential pain of loving and losing, or because of the way previous experiences of “love” that was not love at all has nearly undone us.

Our experiences of “love” can be wonderful, and they can be incredibly, insidiously, painful – because we are imperfect creatures who oftentimes give and receive love imperfectly. Perhaps you have been hurt by love that was selfish, abusive, manipulative, marked by infidelity and betrayal, or unlasting.

Perhaps you have been blessed with love that is enduring, all-encompassing, mutually supportive and mature. Maybe you have experienced enough of both, to know the difference.

There is perhaps no concept, topic or word we talk about here in the church more than “love.” It has certainly been a strong theme in the Scriptures we have read in the past several weeks.

All this talk about love is appropriate because, as John tells us, God is love, and as Jesus commands us, we are to love one another as he has loved us. Further, in today’s Gospel we hear again that word that describes something that is deeply steeped within us, that defines us, that dwells within us to the core when Jesus says, “abide in my love.”

Jesus ties the Old Testament law with the New Testament truth and light when he says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Jesus makes it clear that this commandment and this love are not optional for his followers. Love is the fundamental characteristic, behavior, and commitment that defines his disciples, and Jesus has set the tone for this kind of self-giving love throughout his life, and certainly, in his death. In fact, he states, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus is our greatest love.

Jesus doesn’t give his disciples (or us) the easy “out” of doing nice things with clenched teeth and resentful hearts.  God doesn’t intend for us to perform actions as hollow as a “loving” act performed lovelessly. 

Rather, when Jesus says, “Love as I have loved you,” – he means it – and the grammatical construction of the Greek is indicative not of an action that is once and done, or in the past, but action that, begun in the past, is ongoing now, and infinitely into the future.

When Jesus says, “Love as I have love you,” Jesus is speaking of real, authentic, honest, beautiful, generous love-in-action. And as we learned last week, this is possible only when we remain integrally connected to God the Father and to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus speaks of true compassion, concern, and care for another that is soul-deep and ongoing, is made evident in behaviors and actions, thoughts and prayers, commitment and service, all enlivened and shaped by his love. It may sometimes feel too hard, perhaps even impossible to carry out that kind of love at times.

But just imagine what the world – what our community – what our church, our families, our schools or workplaces ,and neighborhoods would look like, if we took this commandment seriously and were obedient to Jesus’ intention for us.

How would we have to change? What could Christendom look like if we obeyed orders and cultivated this “impossible” love?

There are places and spaces where these questions might be easy to answer – or so we might think. But there are definitely places in our lives and in our world, where the answers seem few and difficult to conjure, and even more difficult to live out.

Just coming out of such a long period of pandemic, many of us are exhausted and unsure of best practices. Some of us are still extremely cautious and not entirely confident we can trust the experts who have frequently changed course in recommendations while dealing with the new, unknown, and insidious thread of COVID 19. Patience, compassion, honest engagement and love are needed. Let Jesus guide us.

Manipulation of information and the scourge of intentional misinformation has underscored the vast divide in values and ideology present in our society. They have succeeded in their malevolent intent of further dividing us. Let Jesus bind us together.

In this era of heightened anxiety, the reality that the effects of racism, which have abated and been mitigated in some places, are hardly conquered, and in fact still shape the everyday lives of our black and brown and Asian and Native Indian and Latinx siblings in heinous ways and heartbreaking acts. Love calls us to truly invest ourselves in the loving acts of understanding, and changing behaviors we have, for centuries, denied as real. May Jesus heal us.

We are shaped by Jesus’ command, “abide in my love.”

In the face of so much pain, isolation, and death as we have seen this year, God’s love and Jesus’ abiding presence and insistence on defining love dwelling within us, authentically defining us, and shaping our lives is pure gift and grace.

It is that love and that presence, that find their home in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus the Christ.

Jesus has loved us with a power that is so strong, it seeps into our very being and makes “abiding in his love” possible. Through the Holy Spirit, we are given everything we need to truly, authentically, fully love because we know love, real, life-changing love that the cultural clichés cannot and do not define.

We are again reminded that the love God has for us is so strong that indeed he sent Jesus into the world to conquer sin and death and lead us to life everlasting – life that is shaped and defined by holy love.

As Christians and disciples of Christ, we cannot simply treat Jesus as a role model.  We don’t just emulating his love.  In the vine-and-branches metaphor of last week, Jesus’s love is not our example; it’s our source. 

It is where our love originates and deepens.  It is where our love is replenished.  To love as Jesus commands us to love, is different from the culturally-defined, worldly love of culture – rather, it is to abide in him, and to welcome his divine presence and love within our own hearts; then and only then can the fruit of our love mirror of his most abundant and inexhaustible love there is. 

John tells us in our earlier reading today that the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments which are not burdensome, but life-giving. Jesus calls us friends, because he has made known to us the true quality of this godly love, choosing us to bear fruit in that love.

Therefore, Siblings in Christ, may we love with Christ-like love, and live in love that changes the world with fruitful goodness and peace.   Amen.

 

 

Vines, Vineyards, and Love

 Easter 5 2021 – 1 John 4:7-21 & John 15:1-8

            The Gospel of John is incredibly beautiful, and its Christology is clear; John himself reports that the reason for his writing this gospel and using the stories within it, are so that by hearing them you may come to believe, to know, without a doubt, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Messiah, the one sent in love by God to save the world through that self-same love and abiding presence.

            Still, John’s gospel is sometimes a lot. It’s a lot to take in, a lot to understand, it contains a lot of theological weaving and knitting together of thoughts and ideas all intended to lead us to, and to guide our faith in, the true identity of Jesus Christ.

The reason we hear so much from John in this Easter season, is the same - so that we may fully believe in the Christ as we prepare for the Spirit’s coming and sending us out to proclaim the Good News on Pentecost.

            Today we heard twice from John – certainly in this beloved gospel, with imagery offered to the believers and lovers of Jesus, emphasizing their need always to be fully connected to the vine.

            But this morning, we also heard in the first reading, from the letter entitled 1 John, the necessity for love to shape and define our actions and interactions. The connection between these two concepts – abiding and loving are deep – they instruct us as Christians, in how to live and move and be in the world as his branches, his beloved followers and lovers, and that is what I want us to focus on today.

            We hear in this gospel talk of fruit and branches and pruning and abiding. Finally, at the end of the passage today, we read, ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

             Sometimes, in our childlike rendering of this passage, what we hold on to is, “ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This leads us to models of prayer that are not actually what Jesus intends when he stresses the importance of prayer or models prayer in his own life.

God is not the genie-in-the bottle which we rub, and he suddenly appears and grants us our wishes. Our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the essential connection that this passage points to and that we often miss. The prayers we pray are on behalf of the world; on behalf of God’s creation; in support of God’s agenda and our part in it. The prayers we pray create pathways of connectivity to God through which we are fed and nourished and transformed so that we might continue in the world, living lives that are increasingly reflective of branches that are integrally connected to and dependent on the vine.

Note that in this text, what we see is a conditional clause – the bible uses those a lot – statements that offer concepts or instructions which cannot be understood apart from what comes before them. This conditional clause offers a fuller, more mature understanding to the promise of answered prayer. So, we might – and should – ask, what does Jesus mean here? What is the condition and what is the promise?

“If you abide in me and my words abide in you…”

Here we have the condition, If you abide in me, of course, then the promise: ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. In other words, abiding is essential, but since we don’t commonly use this word, we might ask what does this mean? What does it look like? What does it mean for our everyday lives as we traverse our world today?

The answer to these questions is connected to what comes before this text in the gospel of John, and it is connected as well to the first reading today.

In the thirteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus shares the Last Supper with the disciples. He washes their feet, instructing them live in humble service to others, in his name.

Following that, Jesus gives what he refers to as “a new commandment.” Just as I have loved you, he says, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples”.

A little further on, at the beginning of chapter 14, Jesus promises an eternal place in his Father’s house, where he will take all those who believe in him when he comes again, declaring that he is the way, the truth and the life who leads the way to the Father.

In John 13:15 he says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask my Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. A promise is made: those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

It is then that Jesus uses the metaphor of vine, vinekeeper, and branches.

As Jesus continually draws the undeniable, inviolable connection between abiding in his love, keeping his commandments, and remaining integrally connected in and to him, he helped those who were intimately aware of the world of vineyards and vine-keeping to understand the reliance of those he would soon be leaving in the world to abide in him, in his teachings, in his word.

Jesus states that the ruler of the world – the evil one, that is – is coming. He has no power over me; Jesus declares, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. It is only through abiding in Jesus, being connected to him firmly and completely as branches are connected to the vine that we too can resist and defeat the evil one, that we too can show others the way to the Father.

The letter from John from which our first reading was taken is further support and reminder of these teachings;  So essential are they not only in the life of the believer but in the community formed to live for Christ.  

⁷Beloved, the Evangelist writes, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In 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. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

We know that when words, topics, and concepts are repeated in the Bible it is because they are essential. What theme is more revisited than the love of God? Yet, the Evangelist points out,  No one has ever seen God; rather, if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Then we are told, ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

Jesus reminds us that this love comes first from God. We are able to share it only because we have received it – and we pass it on so that others can know the joy of knowing, loving, and living in Christ.

We know that the love described, illustrated, and commanded in the Scriptures is not simply describing a particular type of emotional attachment – in fact this love has little to do with emotional or physical attachment or intimacy.

Rather, the love that is named and appears throughout the Bible is lived in and through Jesus, is a verb – it is an action word, which cannot be known – anywhere or by anyone – without generous, caring, compassionate, grace-filled, powerful action.

Abiding in Jesus is living out the love he gives us and the life he prepares us for through behaviors, attitudes, words, actions and the like – behaviors that support life and ensure good lives for every person, remembering that each is created in God’s image and therefore whatever is done to one of God’s creatures is done to and for Godself.

In John 15:12 Jesus states, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love thank this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Jesus leaves no doubt – to love is to be a life-giving force in the world. To be a life-giving force in the world is to care for the least, the last, the lost, the little, and the lifeless.

        To abide in love is to remain connected to the vine, living as Jesus lived, loving as Jesus loved, never checking a person’s credentials to determine their worthiness, but relying on God’s never-ending love to determine it.As Jesus has saved us through his love, he equips us for loving as well. As Jesus showed us, loving isn’t always easy, it is not “safe” and it is sometimes complex. But it is also so wonderful, so awesome and awe-inspiring, and is a precious gift, meant to be shared. God help us to love, as you love; to abide in you always, and to give ourselves away in your grace. Amen.