The sixth sunday of easter (mother’s day)
Shepherd
of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
1 John 4:7-11
7 Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know
God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He
sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another. (NIV)
You have so much to do over
the course of a day that you wake up overwhelmed and you go to bed frustrated
because you didn’t get it all done.
It sometimes feels like you don’t have a life. It’s not that you don’t have things you want to do, it’s
just that they always tend to be very low on the list of priorities. What you wouldn’t give for a little
time to read that book or catch up on your favorite show or go out with friends
or… do absolutely nothing. But
you’ve gotten used to your interests taking a back seat to everything
else. Everyone else comes
first. It is not an exaggeration
to say that your day is packed with so many things that literally will not get
done if you don’t take care of them.
What’s more, being underappreciated comes with the territory as
well. And on top of that, you also
double as the customer service department, receiving more daily complaints than
you can even keep track of! So the
many “thank you’s” that you deserve to be hearing are replaced with complaints
instead. But it’s not about
receiving recognition or acknowledgment for all that you do – you just do it
because that’s who you are: you’re a mother.
To be fair, “Mother’s Day” doesn’t begin to cut it; you deserve “Mother’s Week”
or “Mother’s Month,” if not more.
As far as human relationships go, I don’t know if there is a better
example of selfless, self-sacrificing love than the example that mothers put on
display on virtually a daily basis.
The bond of love that a mother has for her child is unique and truly
unlike any other bond. That
unconditional love is what consistently drives a mother to do the unthinkable,
the unreasonable, and the undesirable for her child. From changing dirty diapers to wet bed sheets to canceling
plans because of sick kids to working extra jobs to help pay for school to
helping raise grandchildren – mothers do it all, and if you asked most of them
why they do it, the answer would not be shocking: “I love my child.” Usually
Valentine’s Day comes to mind first when we think of expressions of love and
heart-themed decorations, but perhaps Mother’s Day would be every bit as
appropriate, for nowhere else on earth do we see love like that of a mother for
her child.
Yet as impressive and
inspiring as a mother’s love is, when John makes his appeal to his hearers to
love one another, it’s not a mother’s love he points to as an example, but a
different source of love altogether: God’s love. Now that doesn’t in any way downplay a mother’s love for her
children; rather, I think it manages to speak volumes more to the depth of
God’s love! In other words, if the
example of love on John’s mind is an example of love that surpasses that even
of mother’s love for her children, it must be quite an impressive love! And indeed it is. So this morning, a day on which many of
us will be going out to eat or making special plans to celebrate mothers – and
rightly so! – we set the tone by celebrating God and his unparalleled love for
us. We’re thankful for mothers
then, because in so many ways they help us begin to grasp the amazing love of
God. Yes, Mothers Reflect
the Father’s Love.
It shouldn’t surprise us to
find John as the author of the books of the Bible in which the connection
between God and love is more clearly drawn out than anywhere else. After all, John took special pride in
being “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (e.g. Jn. 13:23; 21:7, 20), as he enjoyed referring
to himself in his Gospel. It is
also in his Gospel that we come across what is arguably the most well-known and
frequently-quoted passage of Scripture, John 3:16, “For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish, but have eternal life.” Since the author of the Gospel of John and the author
of First, Second, and Third John
is one and the same, we can better understand the theme of love taking the
center stage in our verses this morning.
John knew and appreciated God’s love, and he certainly had a unique
perspective from which to share it.
It is that unique and
personal experience with God’s love that prompts John to encourage his readers
to pass it on, to love one another.
From the very first word of verse seven that John uses in addressing his
audience, he gives his audience a reminder of why they’re fit to love others:
they themselves are loved. The
King James’ “beloved” is better than the NIV’s “Dear friends” in reflecting
John’s address. For it is not just
dear friends to whom John is writing, but those who also are loved by God –
fellow recipients of God’s love.
And who is better qualified to love one another than those who know
God’s love firsthand? Indeed it
would be near impossible to pass on that of which a person had no knowledge or
experience. For me to encourage
you to go out and show somebody how to sail would be quite difficult if you’ve
never been sailing. To be told to
demonstrate to another how to plant a garden would be quite a challenge for you
if you’d never grown a thing in your life. But John addresses believers in a
way that reminds them they are qualified to love others, because they
themselves are beloved.
Furthermore, that title seeks
to underscore that when we do love others, we’re merely passing along that
which finds its source in God alone, for as John reminds us, “love comes
from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (v.7). Does
that help us to overcome what is often times a challenge in loving others? We speak this way: “I have a hard time
loving” or “I just can’t love so and so,” when the truth is, loving others is
less about you or the other person, and more about God. It’s not a matter of you “finding it in
yourself” to love others, but rather passing along what comes only from God
himself. You are not the source of
love, but merely a conduit, passing it along to others. You cannot take credit for loving
others well; neither should your life be wrought with guilt because you
struggle so much to love others.
Don’t be so silly and foolish to think that the ability to love others
comes from you – it doesn’t. Love
comes from God.
Last Sunday Jesus pointed out
that branches cannot do a thing when cut off from the vine. Believers can do nothing apart from
Jesus, and that includes loving others.
There’s simply no native love in our hearts to pass along to others
until God first puts it there. You
cannot love others the way God wants you to unless God is in you. Love comes from God.
Doesn’t that explain why our
society today has such a twisted and contorted idea of what love really
is? Should so many headlines and
news stories shock us anymore?
Should we be so surprised that what the world calls “love” we cannot
even recognize or identify as such?
Are we surprised that ending a life, whether by abortion or euthanasia,
doesn’t resonate with us as “loving” when such repulsive actions clearly
violate God’s command to love life?
Is it a shock that young and old alike cannot even distinguish between
love and sex when they are portrayed as one and the same in our world today,
regardless of the clear boundaries God has set? Is it alarming to see parents not only allow defiant or
disrespectful behavior in their children, but actually defend it under the
guise of loving their children, when God’s take is that failure to discipline a
child is actually showing hate to that child (Proverbs 13:24)? It’s no wonder an unbelieving
generation’s understanding of love is so woefully misguided, for love comes
from God.
And if it people don’t
recognize love from God, then how can they love others? They can’t. They can’t know that loving others involves much more than
words – it involves actions. John
explains, “This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and
only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that
we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice
for our sins” (v.9,10). See how it makes all the difference in
the world to go beyond the spoken word and let love show itself through
action! Isn’t that what is so
unique and special about mothers?
They do not mouth meaningless words that fail to touch our hearts when
they say “I love you,” because those words are consistently backed by acts of
service that clearly show love.
When he hears mom say, “I love you,” a son knows it to be true because
mom keeps the pantry stocked with his favorite snacks when his buddies come
over. When she hears mom say, “I
love you,” a daughter knows it because mom always makes sure her favorite
outfits are clean when she needs them.
When he hears his bride say, “I love you,” a husband knows it because
even though she’s worn out from putting others ahead of herself all day long,
she is willing to give him the intimacy he so appreciates from his
gift-from-God spouse. When we hear
mothers say, “I love you,” we know it’s true because they show it.
So when we hear God say “I
love you,” we know it’s true because he showed it. When John reminds us that the Father sent his Son into the
world to give us life, it’s not just about where he went, but also what he left
behind. It’s one thing to enter
into this veil of tears and be faced with the sickening reality of sin on a
daily basis, but imagine how much worse it made matters when considering what
he left behind! Jesus left the
perfect harmony of heaven. He left
things the way they should be for a world gone horribly wrong. And he left the presence of the Father
for the presence of the fallen.
Yet as loving as that alone
would have been, it was merely the beginning. The real separation from his Father wasn’t just his leaving
heaven to come to earth; no, the real separation came when Christ was
completely and utterly cut off and forsaken by the Father while enduring all
the brutality of an eternity in hell.
And, were such a punishment deserved, it would have been one thing, but
it wasn’t! It was for us that he
was punished! Our sins dragged him
out of heaven and split him apart from the Father. It was not enough to simply show us the way; he himself became
the way. He was the atoning sacrifice, the sacrifice by which we’ve
been made “at-one” with God. “This
is how God showed his love among us…” (v.9).
Then see how John brings it
all full-circle in verse eleven. “Dear
friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v.11). There’s
more here than just, “Hey, since God loves you, you should love others, too.”
John is referring back to the manner by which God showed his love to us, and
imploring us to show that same kind of love to others – not an artificial or
superficial kind of love, but a sacrificial, unconditional love. For that is what God the Father showed
us in Christ Jesus. That is the
kind of love God would have spill over from our lives into the lives of
others. How about starting today
by showing that kind of love to your mother… for she’s a pretty good reflection
of the Father’s love. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and
the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the
Christian it makes.” (Luther)
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