love God love others

I have been told that I talk about love a lot.

This whole passage is about love.

God’s love for us, and our response, that is loving others.

I think it is important that we try and get our heads around the fact that God loves us. full stop.

Not God loves us when we are good.

Not God loves us when we do well in school

Not God loves us because we don’t swear

Not God loves us because we come to church

Not God loves us only when we read the Bible

Not God loves us only when we are kind.

God loves us. full stop, or maybe

God loves us! exclamation mark!

It is easy to think that somehow what we do, or how we look or how we behave will change God’s love for us; because that is how we have been raised or what we do. From an early age many of us realised that

·         doing well at school, or sport,

·         being pretty or being quiet,

·         conforming to certain values and behaviour

would mean favourable treatment, like smiles or ice cream.

Some people learn that love can be withheld.

But God doesn’t work that way.

The idea of being loved by God is amazing. For some of you it will be like a well-worn coat, that is comfy and comforting and fits you well. For others it will uncomfortable, like wearing a coat made for someone else. Some people struggle to accept that God loves them, no matter what.

Sometimes I hear people talking about loving a particular car, flower or ice cream flavour etc.  when we mean, we like something very much.

God doesn’t love us in the way that I love sleeping 😊  

In our culture, love also tends to be used in a romantic way.

God’s love for us is not warm and fuzzy, this is love that is about relationship; love that is sacrificial.

I know that isn’t a popular word these days - sacrificial. And as humans, we look for things which satisfy us – like chocolate and ice-cream – they are nice to eat, satisfy our sweet tooth, and ask for nothing in return.  God’s love isn’t like that.

Jesus offered himself as a model for love, a love that would give up his life for his friends. A life that showed the love of God in the way he lived. The love of God was shown in the way Jesus treated the people no one else wanted to talk to or be with.

Something I read this week: “You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love^”[i]

Jesus offers a new-old commandment,
that we should love each other.

With the incredible power
and the unfathomable depth
of God's love for us
we can
we must
love one another.

And it is in this
our love for one another
that the world will know
whom and what we worship. 

Come, children of God,
let us love one another.[ii]

A few phrases from the passage:

·         Real love isn’t our love for God, but God’s love for us.

·         Since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

·         We love because God loved us first

·         The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!”

What does it mean to you that God loves you?

How do you love others as God loves you?

We will now hear a song: You are Mine. Please remain seated.

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[i] https://www.facebook.com/tobymac/photos/a.241173571178/10155616972486179/?type=3&theater

[ii] Katherine Hawker, and posted on Outside the Box. http://liturgyoutside.net/

witnesses?

Reading 1 John 1 

In the early church one of the big questions was about the nature of Jesus, was he human or was he God. The gospel of John makes the case for the divinity of Jesus. John writes of Jesus being the Word of God, the Word that spoke creation into being. In the gospel of John, Jesus is God. here in the letters of 1,2 and 3 John, we see a more human understanding of Jesus.

We now talk about Jesus being fully human and fully God.

While this is no longer contentious in the church, it was a major issue at the time.

A few themes to think about with this passage.

Witnesses – “We saw it happen, and we are witnesses to what we have seen. Now we are telling you …”

What are we witnesses to?

Not the birth in the stable,

Or the feeding of the multitude

Or the calming of the storm

Not the arrest

Or crucifixion

Or empty tomb

We didn’t walk with Jesus on the Emmaus Road

Or touch his wounds

What are we witnesses to?

What have we witnessed?

·         I have seen people grow in faith as they ask new questions and look for ways of understanding what is happening in their lives.

·         I have seen people grow in confidence as they step out in faith and use gifts they were not sure were good enough

·         I have seen young people make decisions about their future based on where they sense God is calling them – and that isn’t into ordained ministry.

·         And I have been aware of God’s presence in my own life, and how I have changed because of those experiences.

Another theme is Light – “Jesus told us that God is light and doesn’t have any darkness in him.”

·         At the time this was written there was no electric lights, or torches or even gas lamps. I remember camping a lot as a child, and even with a torch you can’t see much around you in the dark.

·         There is the idea here, that you can get away with poor behaviour in the dark, because it goes unseen. If you are going to be ashamed of what you do, do it in the dark, and no-one else will know.

·         But Jesus is light, so nothing goes unseen, and if we do something we are ashamed of, we know we have done the wrong thing.

Which brings me to another theme - Sin and forgiveness

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar “

“if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.”

We all sin,

I wonder what do we mean by the word sin?

For me, sin is that which separates us from God

Or shows that we are not living in the way God intended for us to live.

It may be something we value more than God

It may be the way we speak to or treat people, and God gives us that nudge that says – really!!!

The 2 greatest commandments are love God and love others a you love yourself; so, sin is probably anything outside that 😊

I suspect for many people sin is focusing on our own desires rather than on God.  

But, we also know that God forgives us, not so we can do the same thing again, but so we can continue to live in relationship with God and each other.

…

We are witnesses,

witnesses to the power of forgiveness,

        living in the light of Christ

                and showing the light of Christ.

Not only are we witnesses, but we are to tell others. To tell others what we have experienced of God’s presence and grace in our lives.

In the Grapevine this week, I have encouraged you to:

Think of a time when you were especially aware of God’s presence.

Sit with that image in your head - What did you feel

Here is a piece of paper, with 3 boxes on it

An example from my life:

      1.   At a retreat, day one was hard ☹

      2.   Woke day 2 – cloudy –I realised just as the sun continues to exist even if 

          it is covered by cloud here, so God still exists even if I can’t sense God

      3.   I started to sing 😊

  

One commentator writes about this passage:

“Authentic love is not an abstraction. It comes through speech, action, and presence. That is the manner of God’s communication. That will characterize authentic faith and authentic community as well.”[i]

What do we communicate about God: with our words and our lives?

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[i] Craig R. Koester; https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3702

Hesed

Book of Ruth

Proclamation of the Word

Ruth, a book of the Bible,

Ruth is a person:

• ·         An ordinary person
• ·         A foreigner
• ·         A widow

This is a story about people,

• ·         Real people
• ·         Not warriors
• ·         Or kings
• ·         Or priests

This is a story about people,

• ·         Real people
• ·         About survival and death
• ·         About struggle and birth
• ·         About welcome and blessing

Like many people, before and after, Naomi and Elimelech and their sons moved because of famine.

Same as the brothers of Joseph who go looking for food in Egypt and find Joseph.

And it happens still.

Naomi and Elimelech take their sons to search for food in foreign country, the sons marry Moabite women, and all 3 men die.

This was a perilous position for the women to be in.  At that time a woman needed a man as protector and provider, otherwise she could be destitute and at risk.

Naomi makes a sensible decision, go back to Bethlehem now that the famine is over.

And Ruth goes with her, even though Naomi points out that she is not likely to have another son for Ruth to marry.  This refers to the system of a man marrying his dead brother’s wife, so that she will have children to carry on the dead man’s name and inherit his property.

I wonder why this little book made it into the Bible. It is one of 2 books named after women, the other being Esther.

·         We hear a story of loyalty of a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law

·         We read of unusual courtship practices – including Ruth asking Boaz to marry her.

·         It is also a story that moves from despair to hope

o   From death to life

o   From famine to abundance

o   From bitterness to joy

o   Barrenness to birth[i]

This is a story about ordinary people, people like us, and how their story connects to the God story.  

Ruth, the foreigner, the widow, is the great grandmother of David, and an ancestor of Jesus. For the people of Israel, Jewishness was important, yet here we have an outsider in the lineage of the great King David and the Messiah.

….

Things to think about:

What is family?

·         Bloodline?

·         People who love us and are loyal to us?

….

How to live?

The book of Judges finishes: In those days Israel wasn’t ruled by a king, and everyone did what they thought was right. [Judges 21:25 CEV]

What we see in the book of Ruth is people living in ways that allows others to live with dignity. Naomi, Boaz and Ruth all act out of loyalty, love, and a deep sense of righteousness.[ii]

…

Spoken blessings:

In the four chapters of this book, we read of people blessing each other. It sounds a bit like passing the peace.

Such as when Boaz went to his field, he said to the harvest workers, “The Lord bless you!” They replied, “And may the Lord bless you!” [Ruth 2: 4]

…..

How God acts:

We don’t have God telling people to allow Ruth to be part of the community, there are no great miracles in this story, like walking on water or the burning bush. Here we see God acting through circumstances, and through the faithfulness of ordinary human beings.[iii]

…..

What does all this have to do with us?

The lives of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz are part of the story of God, and our lives are also part of the ongoing story of God.

Sometimes it can be difficult to see God in our lives, especially at times of grief and loss.

I wonder how often we offer a blessing to people, even when we gather as a church.

One commentator wrote: As the old adage goes, “A coincidence is a miracle in which God prefers to remain anonymous.”[iv]

Can you think of a time when a coincidence turned out to be a blessing?

When I was at University in my late teens, I was going to be a scientist, or a science teacher. Then I changed to engineering, and this boy was in my Maths class, and he was at the church I had started going to. Each year my family was involved in running a canoe race, and the same year I changed to engineering, the same boy came to the race with a mate to help with communications, remember this was before mobile phones.

It seemed everywhere I went there he was.

I remember asking one of the people at church how would I know if he was the one, God hadn’t yelled at me, or put our names in bright lights.

We have been married for almost 36 years.  

Can you see where your story connects with the God story?

There is a word that keeps appearing in this story, a Hebrew word: hesed: goodness, kindness, faithfulness[v]

We see this in the book of Ruth, which is a tale about belonging, about blessing, about faithful love (in Hebrew, hesed), God's faithfulness, incarnated in human beings.[vi]

 Where do you see God’s faithfulness, God’s covenant love, lived out in the lives of everyday, ordinary human beings, much like you and me?

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[i] Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3707

[ii] http://www.enterthebible.org/oldtestament.aspx?rid=28

[iii] Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3708

[iv] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3708

[v] https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/checed.html

[vi]   https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1108