The Circle of the Cross

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 1 John 5:

Text:  1 John 5:1–6; also John 15:9-17

I read Jesus’ words:  You are my friends if you do what I command you. [John 15:14]  I cannot help but think about the way such wording, such expectations, such demands influence and affect us.  I think of my Junior High years.  I had a small group of really good friends.  There were others with whom I was on a friendly basis, but not that close.  Our family moved away from that town in the middle of my 9^th grade.  Right after high-school graduation I had opportunity to return for a visit.  I had a great time with the ones who were not so close.  I found out that the ones who had been my close friends had yielded to the temptations and dangers afflicting society in the 1960’s.  Moving from there meant I ended up in a different circle.  But I wonder:  How would I have responded to the conflicting values – those of my friends; those of my family.

If…then…  Existence is filled with such transactions.  Many have their good place.  If you turn onto this road in this direction, then you will arrive at your desired destination.  If you pay this amount, then you will receive this item.  If you study these courses, then you will be prepared for this career.  If you do this work, then you will receive this pay.  We all know, however, this conditional interaction becomes dangerous.  The child demands: If you want to be my friend then you cannot be her friend!  The teenagers pressure:  If you want to be part of our group, then you will do this risky, this illegal act!  The young woman seeking affirmation hears:  If you want to be my girl friend, then you will let me do this with you.  Adults say, If you want to get ahead, then you have to cut this corner.  If you want to succeed, then you have to compromise those values.  Amidst all the ways we humans manipulate one another, what is Jesus doing when he says, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love… [John 15:10]  Sounds to me like Jesus is making his love conditional on my obedience.  Sometimes we respond to such conditions with an Well, if its that way, forget it.  Sometimes we respond, I just cannot do it; it is hopeless.

In our church year calendar, we are coming towards the end of the Easter season.  Society has long ago put away the Easter decorations.  The Easter crowd is busy this morning doing whatever.  Yet, our church year spends more time on the implications of Easter for us who live 2000 years later.  In our gospel, we are reading through words Jesus spoke to his followers the night before his death.  They had shared in the great Jewish celebration of Passover.  They did not realize what was going to happen in the next 72 hours.  Jesus would take the traditional feast celebrating God’s rescue from slavery in Egypt and offer to the whole world the power of God’s rescue from the slavery of sin.

We have been reading through the short letter entitled First John.  When we started, we read how the Apostle wanted to tell us that he and the others had seen and heard and touched the living God, come to us in Jesus Christ.  He was writing so his joy would be complete when we all share in that joy.  Our section today began with the phrase; whoever loves the parent loves the child.  Now that grabbed my attention, because I know some of you have good friends, but it is really hard to like their kids.  Or, you see kids you like, then meet the parents and wonder how such a great person could emerge from such a problematic background.  What thoughts for Mother’s Day!

We could get into the ongoing debate about the structure of the family.  I will say we better be careful when we claim to know what is the Biblical model of the family.  What we today call the nuclear family – mom, dad, a couple kids or so, a dog, a mortgage and a minivan or maybe an SUV – that nuclear family is not present in the Bible.  Some scholars have said the best model we see in the Bible is a monogamous relationship with in the structure of the tribe.  Things we expect parents to do today in our mobile society were handled by the larger, the multi-generational, extended family.  Mary and Joseph could leave Jerusalem not worrying where their adolescent son was because the whole community, the extended family, was together.  Even so, the young Jesus was showing his independent ways.

I wonder, though:  In this letter the Apostle talks to his readers as my little children.  It may sound like a patronizing old man.  I wonder, however:  We believe this is the apostle who stood at the foot of the cross, the apostle who heard the dying Jesus say, take care of my mother.  So, maybe this Apostle has a sense of parent and child that goes far beyond anything a Mother’s Day card could convey.  The Apostle seems to go round and round about commandments and love.  If you love God, you keep Jesus’ commandments.  If you keep Jesus’ commandments, you love your siblings in the faith.  If you show this love for the others, even the ones who act so self-righteous in church, then you love God and show God’s love.  I wonder if all this is coming from someone who had many years to reflect on what happened to human relationships on Jesus’ cross.

One writer put it this way:  …the Creator is the Eternal Love who calls [humans] into existence that their willing response to his love may fulfil his creative purpose…To say that we love because he first loved us is to say that our love is the result which his initiative alone makes possible.  [J. S. Whale]

We look at the cross as the horizontal and the vertical.  We rightly point out that the vertical, the upright represents our relationship with God.  God so loved the world that he gave his only son…  God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.  The horizontal, the cross piece, represents our relationship with one another.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and giving to us the [ministry] of reconciliation.  It is important to remember that distinction.  Yet the reality seems to be, that life in Jesus is circular.  We practice love for God in our relationships with others.  And we can grow in our relationship with others, because God first loved us.

Worship this Weekend

Obedience… What does love have to do with it?  Today’s readings invite us, challenge us, to connect the word love with the word obedience.  We assume love is a spontaneous feeling.  How can such be commanded?  We certainly see how the desire for love can be manipulated – by children in the playground, by adults seeking a marriage, by adults and children within the family.  In our consumerist economy, we learn to think of everything as a commodity to be consumed.  Relationships are transactions, and I need to figure out if the cost outweighs the benefit.  As our society observes Mother’s Day, our lessons call us to reflect on the interaction that flows from God’s love for us.  The Christian faith asserts that each one of us, being children of the Loving Creator, has a unique and valuable purpose.  How do we help one another live in accordance with that purpose, which we receive from the One who loves more fully than any human parent?

The Lesson – 1 John 5:1-6:  We continue our Easter-season reading through this short letter.  We recall the Apostle’s purpose in writing is so that we may share the fellowship he enjoys with the Father and the Son.  Indeed, he says, our participation will make his joy complete. [1:3-4]  The problem is that this fellowship is also with people, and sometimes that is not so easy.  We are challenged, if we claim to be children of God, to consider our relationship with the other children.  We are invited to believe this relationship comes as part of the gift of Grace offered through Jesus Christ.

The Gospel – John 15:9-17:  We also continue reading some of the words Jesus spoke as he shared the Last Supper in the hours before his betrayal.  Perhaps we come to appreciate these words only as we experience the difficulty of following Jesus faithfully.  Yet faith leads us to realize his commandments are part of his gift of life.  These are not just expectations.  Rather, Jesus offers both the direction and the promise of strength to walk as he directs/leads/carries – as we abide in him.

Key Verse:  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 1 John 5:1

Message Title:  The Circle of the Cross

Love in the Concrete

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Text:  1 John 4:7 – 21; also John 15:1-8

Perhaps you have heard me tell of an experience that has happened to me, as a pastor.  It has happened several times and in different ways.  The first time, some parents of a young child told me, that as I was driving up to their farm home, their child announced, God is coming.  Thinking this through, I realized, when they were going to the church for worship, they would tell their child they were going to God’s house.  And, it is like when they were going to Grandma’s house they would see Grandma.  So, if they were going to God’s house, or to Jesus’ house…  Well, you understand the child-like way of looking at the world, what we call concrete thinking.  Now, if an adult relates such an incident to me, I want to say, at least your child gets it.

To expand the question – in the childlike faith Jesus praised – we must ask:  If this building is God’s house, what do people see when they come in?  What kind of picture of God do they find here?

Outside the Fold

I have some other sheep who are not of this fold…

Jesus used many different images (metaphors) with their power and their limitations.  [I have especially enjoyed listening to our confirmation kids as they move from the concreteness of childhood into the broader descriptions of our experience of God.  For example, see their depictions of Psalm 8:1-2 on the bulletin board in the back of the Fellowship-Hall-Worship-Center.]  In our worship this past Sunday we heard again Jesus’ description of himself as the Good Shepherd. [John 10:11-18] I hope we offer enough background so all can benefit from the rich message conveyed in that image.

Jesus spoke of the sheep-fold, the walls or fence that protect the sheep.  Here we acknowledge the power and the limitation of biblical imagery.  The power:  In this turbulent world, I certainly do seek shelter and security.  It is so essential to know that the Good Shepherd walks with us through dangerous valleys and brings us safely into his secure fold.  The danger comes, however, because we sheep tend to try to make the Shepherd’s fold our place of private and exclusive religion.

So we hear Jesus’ words.  Even as he gives himself to us as the Good Shepherd, he tells us there are other sheep he must bring, also.  What do they look like?  What experiences have they had that will increase our awareness of God’s grace?

Hearing those words again this past Sunday, I though of our Building for Christ’s Mission.  How will our renewed facilities be an open fold so our Good Shepherd can gather his other sheep?  And of course, we remember Jesus’ words spoken on the evening of the first Easter, Peace be with you.  As the father has sent me, so I send you! [John 20:21]

Who might be that sheep – that person for whom Christ died – waiting for you to invite her/him into the security in the presence of our Lord, into the joy of serving our Lord?  Who might be that sheep (plural, even) waiting for you to help them into the Good Shepherd’s sheepfold we know as Saint Andrew’s?

Worship This Weekend

Love – whether in contemporary music or classical literature we find stories showing how love makes the world go around.  We also see how misdirected or absent love continually causes life to spin out of control.  Today’s readings invite us, challenge us, to connect the word love with the word abide. Our economy is based on consuming – that is, using up.  Sadly, we let that attitude govern the way we deal with other people.   This involves close relationships; when the relationship no longer matches our needs, we go our separate ways.  This involves the way we look at the masses of humanity, who become merely resources for cheaper goods.  Love becomes an individualistic feeling that comes and goes.  In contrast, abide implies a lasting, even permanent condition.

How is life different when we hear Jesus’ invitation to abide in him, and thus be continually connected to the God whom he called Father, the God the Bible defines as love.

The Lesson – 1 John 4:7-21:  We continue our Easter season, reading through this short letter.  John was a very “spiritual” person.  He seemed to connect with Jesus in ways the others could not quite do.  Never-the-less, he emphasized the Good News of new life in God is very real.  He said they had seen with our eyes…and touched with our hands [1:1] this Jesus, who is God-become-flesh.  Today’s reading continues to emphasize how the love given to us by the God-who-is-love becomes concrete for us as we live in the real world.

The Gospel – John 15:1-8:  Chapters 13-17 in the Gospel of John tell of Jesus’ conversation with his disciples as they sat around the table of the Last Supper.  As we continue reading through this story, we realize the disciples did not have a clue as to what they would experience in the next 72 hours.  If we do continue reading the story of Jesus’ death, his resurrection, and then his presence in the disciples through the Holy Spirit, we get to know the power in Jesus’ invitation:  As a branch is attached to a vine and thus produces juicy grapes, so we can abide in Jesus.  And, this will result in lives fruitfully serving God’s mission to save the world.

Key Verse:  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John 4:16

Message Title:  Love in the Concrete

Assessing Self

And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.

Texts:  1 John 3:16 – 24; also John 10:18; Psalm 23

One of the great joys we have experienced during these days of construction is our interaction with the different workers.  We have observed their skills.  We have received their careful attention to the ongoing life of a church congregation.  There have also been some specific conversations that have emerged because we are a church – some kind of a religious institution; for some even, a representation of Jesus Christ.  I am thinking now of one conversation in particular.  I introduced myself as a pastor here and expressed appreciation for the work he was doing – a skill I could not learn.  He commented upon the challenging work of the church.  That quickly moved to his own testimony of how important is grace, and how difficult it is to understand or receive God’s grace.  He then told me he had read Luther’s commentary on Galatians – and there he found so much that is helpful.  Now, I have read portions of that work, but not all.  It is not required reading for Lutherans, but it is a foundational writing for the way Lutheran-Christians proclaim God’s work to save the world.  He and I have had additional conversations.  He has told me bits of why grace is so important for him in his personal experience.

The challenge, indeed, is trying to figure out how grace works in our lives.  We can recite the Lutheran mantra:  Not works, but grace.  But how do we figure out what we are to be doing?  Does simply believing feel too passive?  When I strive to improve my behavior, is that a work? 

Our lesson from First John may guide us forward.  This letter was written by an older man, wise because of his length of years and depth of experience.  I admit I have difficulty with this short letter,.  He seems to have a meandering style of writing.  He does not seem to stick with one point and lay it out – as any good communication instructor would tell us to do.  I am grateful that Saint Paul does a much better job in that way.  Yet I think this writer is challenging us to take with him the twists and turns around a topic so that we may see its breadth and depth, may see the interrelationship of so many things that makes us humans, that makes us children of God. 

This passage talks of love – that true love is shown in laying down one’s life for another.  There are so many facets of this laying-down-love.  In the third section of today’s reading, this love is experienced in two directions:  belief in the name of Jesus, son of God; and then love towards one another.  We read there of love that is experienced in obedience which is mutual abiding.  In the first paragraph we are reminded that this laying-down-love will result in care for those who lack the necessities for living.  (And we must not get hung up on where this responsibility belongs, in church budgets or in government budgets.)

Our passage sort of circles around that key question of grace – and how does grace work?  In the center we read:  And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. 

I think the challenge to us, what makes it difficult to take grace seriously is this:  We start by looking at the really bad examples – the genocidal dictators and the serial killers.  Surely, a death bed, Oops, sorry! would not just forgive such?  But then we start working our way back.  We hear that God is absolutely righteous; and we could never be like that.  So, where does God draw the line?  And, the Tempter challenges us, You know God does draw a line and, you know, you probably are on the wrong side?  We experience the words of the Apostle John:  whenever our hearts condemn us.

Sometime ago I heard a radio interview with Daniel Radcliffe – the actor who plays Harry Potter.  The interviewer asked if he goes to see his own movies.  He said generally no.  Then he said this:  The line between self-critical and self loathing is very thin.  We need to be aware of self so that we do what is right.  But we so easily move from self-awareness, acknowledging our failures and, yes, sin – we move from that to self-hatred.  Our hearts and minds are filled with the reality of our sin so that we forget God’s grace in our lives.  And that leads to all sorts of problems.

Reflecting on the Apostle’s words, we realize that self-awareness limited by our own perspective is debilitating, even paralyzing.  We strike out at others; we strike at ourselves.  Self-awareness from our own perspective leads to false pride or self-loathing.  Self pride destroys others.  Self-loathing destroys our-selves.  But we are invited to live our lives in the perspective of the God who knows everything, and who looks on us with grace. 

So how does grace work?  We can admit we do not know everything, even the depths of our own hearts.  We can then trust in the God who does know everything, yet who looks on us with grace.  That gives us the strength to live boldly for love of neighbor, for love of those in need.

Love and truth come out of the God who knows everything.  That is God’s unfathomable grace – grace we cannot comprehend, grace that can surround and uphold, every moment of every day.

Worship Sunday

Everyday we encounter measurement – that is, how do I measure up to … job performance? to wealth accumulation? to life-style, to…?  Not only do we have to figure out for what we are being measured, we have to deal with who is making the assessment:  peers we encounter each day? society’s unwritten rules? some unseen Deity? self?  And, we have to figure out if we are being measured too easily or too harshly.  Christ-followers are invited/challenged to consider such personal assessment in light of the All-Righteous God, who revealed his righteousness in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  How does this affect my perspective on eternity?  How does this work in my daily choices and habits?

The Lesson – 1 John 3:16-24:  We continue our Easter season reading through this short book, written perhaps a generation after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The writer gives witness, through his long experience, of the life-changing joy that comes as we are connected to the God whom Jesus called Father.  Here we are challenged to consider love – a word often used and thus easily misused.  Living in the grace of God, we start to realize there are so many aspects to, dimensions of God’s love.  

Psalm 23 – Perhaps few of us have ever seen a shepherd guarding a flock of sheep in open fields or wilderness.  The poem reflects the culture and economy of the time.  The image of a shepherd shows the compassion and protection, the guidance and the abundance we can receive from the Creator God.

The Gospel – John 10:11-18:  Each year on the fourth Sunday of the Easter season we read from the tenth chapter of John.  Jesus spoke these words as he was encountering both acceptance and resistance.  The religious leaders who wanted to be theologically picky jumped on his words which connected himself with the Lord God.  Perhaps it was their willfulness against the God of Grace that led them to ignore the great promise Jesus offers as our Good Shepherd.

Key Verse:  And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. 1 John 3:19-20

Message:  Assessing Self