+Points to ponder

1. What do you make of the ‘4 Loves’ as C.S. Lewis has described?
2. How does God’s schema around love differ from what our world sees as love?
3. How can we express agape love in our everyday lives?
4. What do you do when you fail to love as Jesus has called us to do?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us Pray: God our redeemer, You have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son: grant, that as by His death he has recalled us to life, so by His continual presence in us He may raise us to eternal joy; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.

“Dwight L. Moody, the American evangelist once used a glass as an object to teach that the love of God overcomes our evil nature and controls our lives. He asked his audience, ‘How can I get the air out of this glass?’ One person said, ‘Suck it out with a pump.’ But Moody insisted that this would create a vacuum and break the glass. He listened to a couple of other suggestions and then picked up a pitcher of water and filled the glass. “There,” he said, “all the air is removed. We cannot overcome evil and enmity, bitterness and [resentment, we cannot overcome] temptation simply by fighting against it.” The Holy Spirit must fill us and pour His love in us until it overflows. Then, love and forgiveness, peace, and joy, and yes, obedience to God, can come to fruition in our lives.

Unfortunately, as we ponder what God’s love means we find ourselves limited by our language. In English, there are not a great variety of words for love, as there is so in Greek.

First, there is storge (store-gay) – affectionate, nurturing love. C.S. Lewis, in his work, The Four Loves, said, “The image we must start with is that of a mother nursing a baby … or a cat with a basketful of … kittens; all in a squeaking, nuzzling heap together; purrings, lickings, baby-talk, milk, warmth, the smell of young life.”

Then there is eros – erotic, passionate, head-over-heels falling in love. It is sexual and romantic. It is the love described in the Song of Solomon.

The third kind of love is philos – the love borne of friendship. Hence, Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. Think of David and Jonathan.

And finally, there is Agape. “This primal love is Gift-love. In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give [and] He communicates to [us] a share of His own Gift-love.”

Agape is the word for love in both our epistle lesson, 1 John 5 and in our Gospel lesson from John 15. “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.”

Now, we are talking about sacrificial love, laying down one’s life for and because of love for another. This love, as it pertains to divine qualities, is an unconditional love, love to the loveless and unlovable, divine love. God is agape. God is love.

Storge, eros, philos – those all happen sort-of naturally. But Agape does not “just happen” for us, only for God. It must be created, given, bestowed. In other words, such love is sheer gift. Such love is begotten of grace.

“This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sin.”

Or, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the Triune God created the world out of love so that God, who is love, might have more creatures with whom to share His love.

Lewis also shares, “Divine love is Gift-love. The Father gives all He is and has to the Son. The Son gives Himself back to the Father and gives Himself to the world and for the world to the Father, and thus gives the world (in Himself) back to the Father, too.”

St. Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians chapter 13: “Agape is patient and kind. It is not jealous or boastful, not arrogant, or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Agape bears all things, trusts all things, hopes all things, patiently endures all things.”

We may object: “But I can’t love that way.” True, we cannot. There is only One who has. Jesus loves us in this manner. His love never fails. And where this is the divine standard, a standard of perfect love – that clearly shows that we fall short and condemns us – Christ fulfills it on our behalf and then puts His love in us in the resurrection of our spirits in Baptism.

That is why Jesus says, “Abide in My love.” To abide in Jesus’ love is, above all, to be on the receiving end of His love.

We may claim to ‘love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind’ and that we love our neighbor as ourselves,’ but we are not fooling anyone, least of all God. But God is love and, so, our love can never be God, only an idol, a star-crossed love doomed to a tragic death. Thankfully, our infatuation with sin and selfish love is not the greatest love there is.

“For greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” That is Jesus’ love for sinners. This is something we sinners need to hear, over and over. The Vine dies to give life to the branches. Jesus lays down His life for His enemies that He may call them friends. Jesus takes all which is unlovable and makes it lovable in His cross. The love we sinners need is the love Christ provides. It is a love that transforms us and once we have that love, all the others are thrown in as a consequence of resurrection life and love.

But, pastor, ‘how do I know Jesus loves me?’ I direct your attention to the baptismal font – the well spring of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus – where He washed your sin and guilt away in love. I direct your attention to the altar and that chalice of Christ’s blood given and shed for you, in love.

Beloved, pestilence, perfidy, puzzlement, or pandemic cannot stop the love God has for you in Christ Jesus. He comes as we gather here at Redeemer – to love you and me – to help you live ‘wet in your baptism’ to let you “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” If I may put it so audaciously: ‘God. Loves. You.’… period.

Jesus reminds us again, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.”

But how? By keeping His commandments. What does that mean? “If you keep; cling to; hold fast to My teaching and Word, you will abide in My love.” In other words, abide in your Baptism; receive forgiveness; hear Jesus’ Word; eat and drink His saving Body and Blood. How does one abide in Jesus then? One abides by faith in the One who loves.

These are not commands to fulfill so that God would love us but means by which we abide in His love. For the love Jesus commands is the love He gives to you. It is like parents and their children. We do not give our children rules for them to earn our love. Rather, we give them instruction and rules because we love them, so that they abide in love with one another.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Turn it around and it is clear. “As I loved you, so love one another.” As I have laid down My life for you, lay down your life for your neighbor. Everything begins and ends with Jesus’ love and can be accomplished in our horizontal relationships by His resurrection life, love, and Spirit put within His baptized people.

Beloved, we are chosen in love and for love. We abide in Jesus’ love and Jesus’ love abides in us for the neighbor. As Jesus puts it: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”

Christ bears good fruit in you through your vocations, fruit which will not rot. It is found in the household, the congregation, places of work, and in our lives as citizens. There is no expiration date. These good works are ongoing and, often, quite ordinary.

“Near Milan, Italy, in A.D. 312 the Roman general Constantine had a vision that if he replaced the Roman eagle with a Christian cross at the top of his banners, he would be victorious in the military contest for the post of emperor. In this vision he saw a cross in the skies accompanied with the Latin inscription ‘In hoc signo vinces,’ which means, ‘In this sign you shall conquer.’ He did conquer and became emperor of Rome.

We too are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us, died for us, and rose again for us. With complete confidence and assurance, we can say with Paul, ‘Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’” Amen!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

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Some sermon study helps from Rev. John J. Bombaro, Ph.D. at 1517.org (1 John 5:1-8)