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Back to Sermon ArchivesJuly 12,
2009
Rev. Judith Bither
Fruit of the Spirit: Love
For the rest of the summer we will be considering the
Fruit of the Spirit as outlined by Paul in his letter to the Galatians.
Together this sums up what is referred to as spiritual formation. Spiritual
formation, simply put, is practicing spiritual disciplines. These naturally
include meditation, prayer, fasting, study, worship and almsgiving. John Wesley,
the founder of Methodism was a big proponent of these as well. Since you are
here this morning, I imagine you agree that we all need time and a means to
deepen our lives in God, not in order to warn some heavenly reward, but so that
we can deepen our relationships with other people as we grow spiritually. "Our
world is hungry for genuinely changed people," wrote Richard Foster. Leo
Tolstoy wrote, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of
changing himself. (herself)" Most of us know the absolute truth of Tolstoy's
statement. We see it every day.
Paul got it right when he wrote, "The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. " This is the worthy goal and object of the
Christian life as we live it now.
If you are like me, your life does not always feel
much like "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control." Rather, we have events and people that
challenge us daily. Unfortunately, perhaps especially in the church, we don’t
want to admit this even to ourselves, so we put on a smiling face. Deep in the
dark night of the soul, however, we know that we need more of God than we ever
manage to shoehorn into our lives. Thus we need the disciplines of the Spirit
and the spiritual life just like we need the four major food groups to survive
and to thrive. Spiritual formation is all about spiritual disciplines. Only by
disciplining ourselves--after all, the word "disciple" does have its roots deep
into discipline --can we assure ourselves of the double portion of God's grace
so necessary to work with and among and for such a "stiff-necked people,"
as always seems our lot.
This morning we begin to cultivate the first fruit,
love. People who know even a little about the Christian faith know that love
is at the center. We memorized as children for God so loved the world…
and God is love and those who abide in love abide in God.
Indeed we are instructed in both Testaments that: the
love of God and the love of neighbor sum up the whole law. Indeed Paul wrote
in his famous love chapter in I Corinthians 13: faith, hope and love abide
and the greatest of these is love. So it’s no surprise that Paul begins his
Fruit of the Spirit with love! Some scholars believe that the other eight
fruit of the Spirit are not simply additions to the first, but that each
amplifies love.
Much has been written about the poverty in the English
language when it comes to the word love. I was mindful of this recently
as I heard on NPR: ”Love. It’s what makes Subaru a Subaru.” Perhaps you
know that I drive a Subaru! It’s my third one. I really like Subarus, but I
don’t understand their motto in the least! So let’s look at how the Greeks used
the word. There are three words most commonly used in Greek for our one word
love: Eros, Philia and Agape.
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Eros is a love
based on desire to fulfill one’s longing or passion. Our word erotica comes
from this root word.
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Philia is a love
based a mutual give and take and is used in such words as Philadelphia, the
city of brotherly love.
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Agape is the
only word used in the New Testament and it means giving with the other
person’s good in mind. Agape is unconditional love.
Scripture describes several characteristic features of God’s love, all using
agape.
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First, God’s love
for us is completely unmerited, completely undeserved. Central to the
message of the gospel is that God reached out to us in love in spite of
our rebelliousness. For Christians, the definitive act of God’s love is
that God became human and humbly took on the role of the suffering
servant. We refer to this as the incarnation: God in the flesh.
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A second
characteristic feature of God’s love for us is its steadfastness.
Because God’s love for us is unmerited love, there is nothing we can do
to keep God from loving us.
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Third, God’s love
for us is a suffering love. God does not love us from a distance, as
Bette Midler so famously sang. Rather God’s love is such that it draws
God into the very fabric of human life. God is present is every breath
we breathe, bringing us new life.
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Finally, God’s love
knows no bounds. In addition to the boundaries of time and space, God’s
love transcends the boundaries constructed by human societies. God loves
people of every color on every part of the earth and does not recognize
boundaries of country or private property! Those are human-made, not
God-made.
So love is
easy, right? Take parent-hood for example.
At first it’s glorious! No
matter how wrinkly, red or ridiculous our baby might appear to others, to us he
or she is beautiful. No duration of labor or surgery or fear of the unknown
could hold our hearts back from the delight of loving this child who has become
ours through birth or adoption.At that point love seems natural, almost second
nature and easiest to both offer and receive. Until that precious baby cries all
night for weeks on end. We love that child more than our own life, but the
desire for sleep seduces us into a rage that tugs our attention away from our
child and the love we exclaimed at birth.
Love. Indeed, seemingly the
easiest of all qualities to model in so many moments. Love is there, in all
things.Except when love is hard. And it can be hard, can’t it? Let’s talk
honestly about love. It can be hard to love people. Love means handing
over the remote control when we’d rather keep it, getting up when we’re all
settled in a comfy spot to get a glass of water for another, speaking in a
balanced voice when we feel like screaming, opening our heart to listen to
another when we’d rather allow our own feelings to tumble out. It is really hard
to love even those people we live with sometimes.
And Jesus asks even more from
us. He said we must even love our enemies, those who speak hateful things about
us or strike out in any way. Return hate with love, he said. Love is not
about being nice for the sake of niceness. Cultivating the Fruit of the
Spirit isn’t about going around with a big smile all the time. It’s about
being more like Jesus. This is especially true with love. While suffering on the
cross he was able to cry out Father, forgive them. That is ultimate
unconditional love.
Jesus not only lived this love,
he told some of his best stories to illustrate it: the prodigal son where the
father welcomed his son home; and the Good Samaritan where the one who helped
the stranger showed compassion. Story after story illustrating the unconditional
love of God and how we are to love like that. He never said it would be easy,
though did he?
I really had this put to the
test in the neighborhood where I lived in Manteca. Two houses down was a guy who
rode a Harley. I really don’t have anything against motorcycles; I’ve have taken
many wonderful trips riding on the back of one. The first time I saw Glacier
Park was on the back of a motorcycle. Well, not only did this neighbor seem to
enjoy roaring off to work at 5:00 AM or back home after mid-night, he would have
his radio turned up so loud it sometimes set off the cross-the street neighbor’s
truck alarm! And then there was the horrible way I heard this family yell each
other, especially their teenage son. I don’t know any people who talk to one
another with such hateful words—at least not in my presence! I prayed about how
to approach this.
I was not ready to invite them
to dinner, but I did make the decision to pray for them every time I heard the
motorcycle zoom down the street. I prayed not to judge them but to pray for
peace in their family. I began to wave to him as he passed me on the street and
he began to wave back. I’m not sure if he actually became more considerate or I
became more tolerant, but the noise bothered me less as time went by. A prayer
answered perhaps.
When it’s hard to love
hard-to-love people, the Fruit of the Spirit helps us in the difficult moments
in life. As God is the source of all spiritual fruit, God is the source of love.
God shows us the way. In the difficult moments love is a choice. God
chose to love us. We can choose to love others, even those who would do us harm.
Love is also a commitment in everything we do. God is committed to us no matter
what. Love stays when it wants to go. To accept when it wants to reject. It gets
beyond the: I can’t stand this person moments and helps us to look at
them the way God does. Love is a commitment to keep choosing love…even when we
don’t feel like it.
Love, however, is not being a
doormat or allowing ourselves to be misused or abused. Love of self does not
allow that. The greatest commandment, Jesus told his followers, is to
love God and to love others as we love ourselves.So that doesn’t mean
staying in a situation that is dangerous or hurtful. Some times the loving thing
is to leave. That’s where prayer and discernment come into play.
One of the main sources I’m
using for this series is entitled Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of
the Spirit in Christian Community. If it’s hard to love at all times, it’s
probably impossible to go it alone. We need one another in the church to keep
each other accountable and to help each other grow in our faith and practice. We
have to practice love, practice doing the loving thing when it’s tough. As the
author of the book expresses it: Paul challenges us to pursue love. Here we
have a prime example of that seeming paradox that stands at the center of the
Christian life (and horti-culture): the fruit is always a gift, but it still
requires hard work!
He also writes that our worship
is the place we come to celebrate our love for God and God’s love for us. It is
here that we gather bringing our past failures and feeble attempts to
love. It is here that we are forgiven and encouraged to go back out there
and try again and again.
We won’t ever become perfect at
loving. But we can get better. We can be more honest in our love; more
consistent; more expressive. Quicker. When we give a back rub, mail a note of
encouragement, give our full attention to a hurting friend or family member, or
volunteer around the church in one of our many ministries, we are giving love.
What we practice, we improve! Let’s agree that for just the week to practice
love a little more conscientiously. What will that look like in your life? Let’s
practice this week!
In Jesus’ name and for his
sake. Amen
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