"Love Each Other"

Acts 10:44-48; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

One of the striking things about Christianity is the emphasis that we have on love. In fact, if we were to compare the Christian faith with the Moslem faith, for instance, we would find that the thing that motivates that Moslem to serve God isn't love for God as much as it is a fear of God and a desire to go to heaven. In fact, Moslems are taught little about loving one another, or loving one's enemies, or loving one's neighbor as one's self. Rather, how one should treat such persons is much more legalistic in the Moslem religion. As a result, we can see how this has resulted in Moslem societies being very structured and often dominated by dictators who are feared by their people. In fact, we see this in almost all of the Arab countries: most of them in some way dominated by some strong man who demands utter loyalty.

Christians, on the other hand, are taught to believe that God is love; that God wants us to love one another, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to love our enemies. And it is this emphasis on love that places the focus on the individual person in society. Therefore, as a result, Christian societies do have a greater potential toward becoming more democratic, with notable exceptions, of course.

Although the concept of loving God and one's neighbor existed within Judaism, Jesus took the concept as far as he could. Looking around his society, he could see that what motivated persons to worship wasn't love, but fear of God. He could see that what motivated persons to follow God's Law wasn't love, but fear of going to hell. He could see that what lay behind a very disturbing tendency of his people to judge one another was, not a love for God, but a fear that God would not tolerate anything but perfection within society. And, so, as Jesus taught his disciples and all others who would listen to him, he said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."

I believe that all too often we Christians forget that teaching of Jesus about love and fall back into fear. In fact, I talked with a man the other day who said that he went to church simply because he was afraid that God would punish him if he didn't. That same man then went on to say that the reason he obeyed God was so that he wouldn't be condemned to hell. Never once did he mention that he did these things because of love. Rather, his reasons for being Christian were pretty negative. He was a Christian so bad things wouldn't happen to him. And what a sad state of affairs this is!

When I was a kid going to Court Street United Methodist Church in Flint, I remember attending Sunday worship services while Rev. Andy Michaelson was the associate pastor there. It was his job to do most of the liturgy and scripture reading so that the senior pastor only had to preach and pray the pastoral prayer. And of all the ministers we ever had in that church, it was Rev. Michaelson who probably had the most trouble with reading the scriptures without making a mistake, or leading the congregation through a responsive reading without starting on the wrong page, or something like that. Most of us kind of chuckled to ourselves when something like that happened, knowing that we would probably bungle it up worse if we were up there. But, there were always a few who would leave the worship service grumbling something about how it was time for old Rev. Michaelson to move. But, I can remember my Sunday School teacher, Harry Piper, responding to this criticism by saying, "If you're coming to church for perfection, then you're coming for the wrong reason. For there's something in church that is offered that is far greater than perfection. It's the gift of God called grace. And if God loves us, and if we love God, and if we love one another, as Christ has told us to, then it is grace that we must extend to one other. And what better place to begin than right here in church?"

And the longer I've been in the ministry the more I believe that Harry Piper was right. I really believe that this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, "My command is this: love each other as I have loved you." If we, Christ's disciples can't do it here we can't do it anywhere. The place to begin to practice loving others is in the fellowship of the Church.

Jesus' understanding of our relationship with God was one based upon love, rather than upon judgement. That is why he was able to take his advice to his disciples one step further when he said, "You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

What does this mean? It means that if we are Christians then we may consider God our friend. Jesus purposely diminished the servant-master relationship which dominated the Jewish faith and stressed the friendly relationship between God and the church he would establish.

The last hymn which we will sing today, "Jesus, United by Thy Grace," reminds us that there is something that is much greater than perfection. It is the grace of God. And that grace come forth out of his love for us. And it is God's grace, alone, that can make us whole. Amen.