"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."

 

            A few weeks ago, I wrote this as the first paragraph of my Annual Report:

            "As I think over the events and experiences in our church in 2008, it is clear to me that Jesus loves us. There are so many times that the love of Jesus has been very near to us, and his love has brought a deep assurance to our hearts. We are thankful for the love of Jesus in the people of Libertyville Covenant Church."

            The next part of verse 9 is the call of Jesus to remain in his love. Our first reaction may be to say, "Why wouldn't we remain in Jesus' love?" But as we read on in verses 10-17, we discover that remaining is not passive. It is not like lying on the beach or even like sitting in church. "Remaining" is very active. To remain in Jesus' love is to obey his commands, to love each other and to bear fruit that will last. Again, as I think over the events of the past year, I see clearly that this active "remaining" in Christ has also been prominent in our life together. I do see you obeying Christ, loving each other and bearing fruit.

            This past week, I went about my usual preparation for today's message: writing a devotional piece, then studying the text more deeply, and then arriving at church Friday morning with some sense of "love one another" in my mind, at the same time expectantly waiting for what might emerge for today.

            But Aaron Barg changed the sermon.

            I ended up spending Friday morning at the hospital, surrounded by people who deeply loved Aaron: family, staff members at his school, and friends. They had loved Aaron for years in word and deed. They loved Aaron in feelings and in actions. Their grief at his death was acute and filled with tears. Their thanksgiving was transparent and flowed in words of blessing. Their love was expressed.

            There was surely something about Aaron that helped us understand love. There was something about Aaron that showed us the love of God. The problem with love most of the time is that it gets clouded up with self-interest and our own neediness. Love can even be used to avoid speaking the truth.

            But not so with Aaron. He expressed love without the cloudiness, without the layers of motives. So he helped us to see God. How did he do that, exactly?

I was reading in a Bible Dictionary about love. It says, "God is essentially love and his purpose right from the beginning has been one of love. God's primary purpose for the world is his compassionate and forgiving love, which asserts itself despite the world's inimical rejection of it."

            God is essentially love. If I can in my imagination now stand next to Aaron and from his wheelchair watch him and watch the people who were truly close to him (watching Chris Becker playing with him, or Neale Murray pushing him on one of his long Sunday School walks), and if I could grasp all of his 18 years in my vision, then I feel I can catch a glimpse of God through Aaron's eyes. Then I can, as Paul says, "grasp how long and high and wide and deep is the love of God." If I can just experience the love of God from that perspective, then I can go from there to love others, to know God, to obey God, to read God's Word, to think clearly and rightly about God, to hope in God and bear witness to him.

            Then the Dictionary had one other statement, and I disagree with it. I do not think it is correct, but I think it is insightful. It says, "Paul's word for describing the way people turn to God is 'faith' and John's word is 'love.' " Now, I do not agree with that, because we find the word "believe" rather prominently used in John. But there is something to it, because I think that Aaron's connecting to God was through love, and it helps me to see in my own life that I desire a greater connection with God through love, along with strong faith and renewing hope.

            Now I want to talk about Jesus. It is through Jesus that we come to know God. The love that is pure and saving is the love that we see between God the Father and Jesus his Son. In that love we see a model for our obedience, we see a closeness in love, and then, at the cross, we see a self-giving love that changes our hearts, a love that washes our sins, and a love that leads us to salvation. It is the love of Jesus that I am drawn to.

            But, when I stand at the cross, then I am compelled to admit to another truth: that when Jesus the Son came into the world, he was not received with love; he was not welcomed as Savior or King. In fact, he was rejected and even put to death on a cross. So when I stand at the cross, I am compelled to consider the nature of sin, the rejection of God's love. Then I must also look at my own participation in that sin. It turns out that I am not good at obeying the commands of God. In fact, I struggle with loving others. I so often look like my father Adam, rather than my Redeemer Jesus. But it is at the cross that in fact this sinful nature is defeated and forgiveness made real.

            So it is in being forgiven that we enter into the love of God, and we then respond in love through obedience to his commands, especially the command to love one another. The love of God is a transforming love.

            Jesus tells us to remain in his love. He describes this "remaining" as friendship. Jesus moves out of the vine-and-branches image and speaks directly about a relationship. He calls us his friends.

            There is a commercial on TV these days that is a kind of parable about friendship. Two friends are tailgating at a football game, obviously buddies for a long time, the perfect image of an American male friendship. But the ideal picture begins to unravel a bit when we discover that one does not realize the other owns a boat, and then -- after casual mention of his wife -- "You're married?!"

            What we call "friendship" often has much hidden in it. But Jesus calls us friends, because he shares everything with us:

even his Holy Spirit;

even his resurrection, which is our hope;

even his relationship with the Father, so we know God's love.

It is the experience of God's love that takes away our neediness that gets expressed in so many hurtful ways. The experience of God's love empowers us to love each other, to obey God, to bear fruit that will last.

            Amen.