Love is From God

Galatians 5: 22 - 26; 1 John 4:7- 21

May 26, 2024

Ever since I arrived at Faith 5 years ago, people have said to me, “You talk about the Holy Spirit a LOT!”   

Yes. Yes I do. Maybe because the Holy Spirit is one third of the Trinity – the three distinct expressions or three persons of our God who is one. 

 

Let’s first acknowledged that the idea of the Trinity can be confusing. And it is a mystery. It is one of those realities that we can’t fully understand – this idea of God in three persons. It confused the early church leaders so much that it caused fights and schism. Hard stuff.

 

And sometimes the best we can do is say – it’s a mystery. Because God is so much bigger than we can fathom.

We often describe the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ve also heard the Trinity described as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Or Parent, Child, Breath of God.

 

We have the opportunity to relate to each member of the Trinity in distinct ways. And I think that as you develop your relationship with the Triune God, you may name the parts of the Trinity based on your relationships.

 

Yes –based on relationship. You can’t know God without a relationship with God, and over time, I believe we cultivate nuanced relationships with each part of the Trinity. And…it’s ok to have a favorite… to have a “person” of the Trinity with whom you most naturally relate.

And that is why I talk about the Holy Spirit so often. Because the Holy Spirit is my ride-or-die, my constant companion, the loft in my sails and the tug at my heart. I feel and recognize the Holy Spirit at work more readily than other aspects of the Triune God. 

 

It’s timely to launch a conversation about the Holy Spirit this week because this past Friday,  May 24 is known in the Metho-nerd world as Aldersgate Day – it is the day that founder John Wesley felt his heart strangely warmed as he left a small group gathering where they had been studying Paul’s letter to the Romans. 

 

He’d been reluctant to go that night (and surely we can relate to those times, right?), feeling a little separated from God and his call, but as he walked the streets that evening after the gathering, he had an experience of deep assurance that he was included in God’s grace, saved, able to be transformed.

 

John Wesley believed that the Spirit’s assurance, like his experience on Aldersgate, is key to our transformation. It is the point at which we feel God’s grace surround us, when we know God is at work in us. 

 

Over the WHOLE SUMMER -  the next 15 weeks - we are going to learn a little more each week about the Holy Spirit and the ways that She creates our fruitfulness and the ways that She gifts us uniquely.

 

Yes. I said SHE. Because linguistically, Jesus probably referred to the Spirit as “rucha” in Aramaic or  “ruach” in Hebrew, both of which are feminine nouns in those languages.

 

In Acts, Jesus promised his followers an advocate who would be with them after he ascended. And on Pentecost, that advocating presence, the Holy Spirit rushed into their gathering them in mysterious ways. They were suddenly uniquely able to understand and connect to one another with new understanding and unity.  

 

It turns out that the Holy Spirit kept showing up to the early church.

 

In the letter to the church in Galatia from which we read today, Paul teaches that the church which follows Jesus’ teaching has been set free from the detailed parameters of Jewish law – and to be clear, he’s addressing specific questions about things like circumcision and food laws. He’s saying that this kind of obedience to Jewish law is not necessary to be a follower.

 

But folks aren’t free from the law so that they can indulge in idolatry and greed. They are freed up instead to find and pursue ways of moving in the world that demonstrate faith in Jesus’ teaching and dedication to loving one another. 

 

Paul writes that followers commit themselves to the work of following Jesus in faith, loving their neighbor as themselves, they will find themselves bearing “fruit” by the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The fruit that they nurture and bear will transform their lives.

 

Paul refers to “fruit” as a singular thing – and so the range of fruit he names - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – are collectively “grown” the life of a healthy Jesus follower who is loving God and neighbor. Unlike the “gifts” of the Spirit that we’ll get to in the second half of the summer, these attributes or experiences are available as a collective – not just one or two aspects at a time.

 

For the next 9 weeks, we’ll take a deeper dive on each fruit, beginning today with LOVE.

 

I was struck this week while I prepared that one possible impact of our digital world is a further cheapening of what love really is. In common lingo, social media offers us the opportunity to like, dislike or love something – with a thumbs up, a thumbs down, a heart. (And if none of that means anything to you, never fear. Suffice to say that social media and quick text responses have probably made it too easy to indicate that we “love” something – making LOVE nothing more than an affirmation just a little bit stronger than “like.”)

 

In both the passage from Galatians listing the fruit of the Spirit and the text from the first letter of John, the writer is talking about agape – the deep and complex and selfless love – not just the love of friendship or romance. Agape is sacrificial. This is the kind of Love God demonstrated in sending his only Son and in losing his only Son to human hatred and power.

 

Our second reading was from a tiny part of the New Testament, typically referred to as the first letter of John, but it isn’t much like a letter. It may have been a sermon or even a tract. It IS addressed to a congregation – a community. It is broadly about how the community is called to live. It is one of three in a grouping and they are all really short so go check them out!

 

In the portion read today, the writer asserts that God is love – and we receive love through God. We are able to share love with others because we receive it from God. 

 

In that description, I connect to the image of a cascade of water as one vessel fills to the brim and then overflows into another which also fills to the brim and overflows into another.  God’s love overflows into us and eventually, we are so full of that love that we also overflow into others.

 

Here again in this writing is a reminder that God has given the Spirit – the gift of the Spirit is tangible evidence of God’s love, a way of being with us always. When we stay connected to God’s love, we KNOW God. And when we KNOW God we are better able to love others. 

 

What if the love we show is the ONLY way that some will know the love of God? 

 

That seems like important work then.

 

I have a flag that flies outside my home that says, “ABIDE NO HATRED.” I’ve preached about it before. I see it every time I enter or leave my home. But this week, I am reminded each time I see it that the absence of HATRED does not equal the presence of love. I think both love and hate take energy. And we have to choose how we will exert ourselves. It isn’t enough to just not HATE.

 

This past week, I found myself caught off guard about an image that was circulating. It was a photo of two people who were offering one another reconciliation. One of the people in the image is someone who has made me angry on a number of occasions, someone who has power that I struggle to accept and understand. 

 

As I looked at the image and read things that people were saying about it, I found myself frustrated, angry and confused. And then convicted. 

 

That person whose power I struggle with, that person who makes me angry – that person is a beloved child of God. 

 

They are deeply loved and loveable. It can be true that they make me angry AND that they are loved and loveable. And I have to expend energy to love them because I love God and I receive God’s love.

 

It hit me hard. In a way that was new to me. I was convicted. My connection to God ought to remind me daily / hourly that I am called to love. I can have all sorts of misgivings, disagreements, dislike. But that person is loveable. Can I find it in myself to love them?  

 

From 1 John: Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a sibling are liars, for those who do not love a sibling, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from Jesus is this: those who love God must love their siblings also.

 

It is such hard work to nurture in my own being the kind of Love that God has for me for others. The kind of Love that can be evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in me.

 

Love that is present in all of my relationships.

Love that is persistent.

Love that is sacrificial.

Love that is eternal.

Love that is patient, kind.

Love that never fails.

 

May we seek ways to be that kind of love in the world.

Just as God loves us.

 

May it be so.

 

Throughout our series this summer, you are going to HELP to GROW a visual garden on our altar. Each week as we explore fruits and gifts, you will be prompted to respond to a question. As you walked in, you should have received a cut-out flower or butterfly or some sweet garden thing.  

 

On that sweet garden thing, I invite you to prayerfully respond to this:

 

The Bible says that “God is love.” Off the top of your head, what’s one unexpected or new way that you can share God’s love this week? (It’s also printed on the bulletin insert.)