Love one another
Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Easter (Mother’s Day), year B
Bible reading: 1 John 4:7-21
It’s not easy being a mother. It’s hard work. It’s fearful work. How will it all turn out?
A boy came home from school and told his mother that his teacher had asked whether he had any brothers or sisters who would be coming to school. ‘That’s nice of her to take such a interest in you,’
his mother said. ‘So what did she say when you told her that you’re the only child?’
She just said: ‘Thank goodness!’
The boy replied.
It’s not easy bringing up children in an age without much support or discipline.
I heard yesterday of a mother who went to wake up her son:
‘Wake up son, its time to go to school.’
‘But why mum,’
he replied, ‘I don’t want to go to school.’
To which his mum replied: ‘Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go.’
‘Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me too.’
he replied.
‘Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now, get ready.’
To which her son replied, ‘Give me two reasons why I should go to school.’
‘Well,’
his mum said ‘for one, you’re 52 years old, and for another, you’re the principal.’
It’s not easy being a mother. Often your kids leave home too early. Other times they never seem to leave, or keep coming back. Often you can’t get your kids to go to school or to church. Other times you can’t keep them away from bad places and bad people.
It’s a fearful thing being a mother, or a parent. Somebody has written: we did not know fear until we had our first child.
Who do you believe when it comes to raising a child? We hear stories of vaccinations gone wrong, toys that injure, child care centres that don’t care, car seats that are not safe, people who pluck children off the streets as they walk to school.
Fear can poison a host of good and life giving activities that we once took for granted, like taking a walk in the woods, playing in the sun, or swimming in the ocean.
God has raised up mothers and fathers to care for children, and to protect them from real harm, but not to live in fear of failure. It’s not easy to be a mother. It’s not easy to be a child either, or a church member, or a nurse or a doctor, or a white-collar worker or a blue-collar worker. The fear of failure, of being judged by others, of losing your job or your reputation is never far away.
Into this world of fear John speaks God’s great antidote: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
There is a place for fear. Fear is a flashing red light God sends to stop us from crossing into dangerous territory. And remember: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
You can’t mess with God by ignoring God, or by treating God as your servant whom you boss about to get what you want, as though you are the centre of the universe. The ‘fear of the Lord’ means to let God be God, and to let him be the centre of your life, and let his words and his ways be the centre of your living.
Julian of Norwich said in the 14th century: I was astonished that our God who is to be feared and revered would be so intimate with a sinful creature such as I.
No wonder that she could go on to say some of the most quoted words among Christians: all shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Luther seemed to understand this when he explained the chief commandment as to fear, love and trust in God above all things.
When we let God be God, then love for God and trust in God follow, and then all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
When our lives are built on the sands of self we have plenty of room for fear, for lost love, and for distrust. But when our lives are built on God who is the solid rock, we can live in peace and love, even in the midst of a threatening world. For as John tells us so clearly: God is love.
The very nature of God is love. The love of God is perfect. We know this by looking at how he has shown his love.
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
When we want to know what perfect love is it’s no use going to the movies, or even looking at the best days of our lives. Only God will do. God is love…
love comes from God…
perfect loves drives out fear.
As we are drawn from our self-absorption to look at God, we see how loving he is, how his Son died on the cross for our sins, because he loves us so much, wants to forgive us so much, wants to give us eternal life so much. When God is at the centre of our lives and we know that we are so totally loved by him, we don’t need to fear judgment in the future, and we don’t need to fear what others think of us now, as mothers or parents or church members or citizens. If God loves us with perfect love, all shall be well. God’s perfect loves drives out fear
. But there’s more.
God’s perfect love leads us to love one another. God made us for loving community with God and with one another. Sin torpedoes this loving community. God’s love and forgiveness in Christ restores it. God’s Spirit sets us free to live with God and with one another in love.
We love because God first loved us…since God loved us so much we also ought to love one another… if we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Like the vine bears fruit when its branches are united to the vine, so we bear the fruit of love when we abide in Christ.
Home is the place where this love is to be shown. Church is the place where this love is to be shown. This love has to hit the road at home and at church, and wherever the people that need to be cared for. We can’t say I love God
, but then not show love at home or church or to the needy. Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters [and children and mothers] also.
This is not always easy. Somebody wrote this little poem:
To live above with the saints we love – oh that will be glory.
But to live below with the saints we know – that’s another story!
It is another story, but it is the story we are writing, with the perfect love of God poured into our hearts. John who wrote the words of our text knew the love of God in Christ better than anyone. Tradition says that as he grew too old to walk to worship, he was carried there, and would whisper to the worshippers: Little children, love one another…
That is God’s word to us today. As I have loved you, love one another…
mothers, children, parents, church members, all God’s people, love one another. Amen.