Introduction

In his book Primary Purpose, Ted Haggard makes a distinction between the absolutes of Christian faith and interpretations of the faith. He strongly advocates that we focus our witness on the absolutes, so that the world will hear from all of us one and the same message about God and God's love for the world. I agree both with Ted's distinction and his recommendation. This morning I want to talk about one of the absolutes. The readings you have heard are the inspiration for my remarks, along with these words from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13.

And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

God Is Love

Faith, hope and love are among the absolutes of Christian faith and life. But they're not all equally absolute. It's not our orthodox faith and it's not our hope of going to heaven that identify us as Jesus' disciples. Rather, "if you have love for one another," Jesus says in John 13, then "everyone will know you are my disciples." And so Paul declares, "the greatest of these is love." Love is the ultimate Absolute.

Rooted in God

Of course, you and I know that Paul is talking about a love that no created being can generate, a love whose source is not in the human heart. God alone is the Source and Origin of this Love. The scriptures are so bold as to say "God is (this) Love."

This is a statement not just about what God does, but who God is. God's very Being, God's innermost essence, is love.

In my morning devotions, I've been reading a little book by Mother Teresa called A Gift for God. Mother Teresa understands what it means to say, "God is Love." Reflecting on her experience with God, she writes, "I don't think God can hate, because God is love. God loves because God is love." Her belief that God is Love is the inspiration for Mother Teresa's whole life and work.

Love Comes Close

The Love of which St. Paul speaks in I Corinthians is supernatural and transcendent. It comes from God and it is God. But this Love comes close to us and, if we will allow it, takes up residence within us. That's what the Incarnation and the Holy Spirit are about. The love that is God becomes flesh and dwells among us in Jesus. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that love lives in us and works through us.

Expression of Love

How does this radical, transcendent love of God express itself in real life? We find the answer by observing and reflecting on the way Jesus lived and died. Much has been written about this, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer sums it up well when he calls Jesus the One who lived and died for Others.

Looking to Jesus, the biblical authors insist that love is not an idea or an abstraction, but a concrete way of relating to those with whom we come into contact in our daily lives. "If you say, 'I love God,' but hate your brother or sister, you are is a liar. If you don't love your brother or sister, whom you see, you can't love God, whom you do not see." These words from I John put it about as plainly as it can be put. They make me uncomfortable because, when I consider how difficult it is for me to love some of my brothers and sisters, I have to question how much I love God.

But the biblical authors press on. They connect love to economics. The same author who wrote these words about love of God and neighbor being inextricably bound together also wrote this. "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees his brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and in action!"

The scriptures don't see human beings are not disembodied Souls that we're called to save but as embodied spirits we're called to love. Such a holistic love compels us to share the material blessings God has given us with those who are in need. And it moves us to work for a world in which there will be no hungry, no homeless, no people dying because they lack proper care.

One of my goals for several years has been to give more money and time to groups and causes that minister to and empower the poor. This is the first year I made any progress toward that goal, and it was only a baby step. I still have so far to go. So I ask myself, "Does God's love really abides in me?" The answer is, "Not to the extent I hope, and also fear, it could."

When God's love dwells in us, it moves us not only to practice charity but also to advocate for justice. This means speaking the Word of God to those in power as Moses spoke to Pharaoh, Elijah to Ahab and David to Nathan. The Prophets and Jesus confronted rulers with their responsibility as stewards of God. They are to manage the world the way God wants it managed-that is, not in their own interests, but in a way that enhances the well being of all people. Rulers have a special obligation to ensure that the rights of the poorest, weakest and most vulnerable members of the community are honored and that their needs are met. They have a responsibility to defend the vulnerable against oppression and exploitation by the rich and powerful. There is room for honest disagreement about the best way to accomplish these things. But Christians who take the Bible seriously will agree that rulers are called to this task and that the Church is called to remind them of that. If the love of God dwells in us, we will faithfully communicate this prophetic word to the world. This is not easy because it often requires us to be a thorn in the flesh of society. It's even harder if we're aware of our own sins. Then we feel like hypocrites when we speak this prophetic word. But we have to remember that sinners like us are the only means God to get this message across to the world.

Love of Enemy

If the love of God dwells in us, we will take one more step. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. "You have heard it said 'you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. He continues, "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

These words make it clear that the love of God that we are called to bring to the world is beyond us--beyond our nature and it is beyond our power. But this doesn't let us off the hook. Loving as God loves, which is so impossible for us to do on our own, becomes possible in Christ and through the Holy Spirit. We know this, because there have always been and continue to be women and men whose lives embody this love.

Examples

Jesus, of course, is the example par excellence. He not only taught us to love our enemies, but he showed us how. As he was dying, Jesus prayed for those who had nailed him to the cross, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing." But Jesus is God. We're just frail human beings. So perhaps Jesus' example doesn't help us much. But Jesus is not the only one who practiced love of the enemy. With his dying breath, St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Love of enemy continued to be a hallmark of Christian witness through the centuries. According to New Testament scholar William Klassen, Jesus' words, "Love your enemy" were the most quoted of all biblical texts by Christian writers in the second century. The early Church also put these words into practice. Christians in the first three centuries had to commit civil disobedience to celebrate the Eucharist, which was forbidden by law. Yet, when they gathered they prayed for the Emperor, who was persecuting and killing them. When thousands fled Roman cities in times of plague, Christians often stayed behind and cared for the sick and dying - not only their fellow Believers but even those neighbors who had been persecuting and killing them. This radically counter-cultural way of life was one of the most powerful forces attracting people to the Christian movement in these early years.

There are many Christians in our own time who are practice this radical love. Some we have heard about, because through them the Holy Spirit has moved mountains, as it were. One example is Mother Teresa, to whom I have already referred. Giving all she had to the poor, she took up her cross and followed Jesus. Martin Luther King, Jr. is another example. Let me share a story from his first book, Stride Toward Freedom. On January 10, 1955, Coretta King was rocking her infant daughter Yolanda in the living room of their house in Montgomery. The teakettle whistled and she went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, taking Yolanda with her. While she was there, someone through a bomb into the living room, blasting the chair on which she had been sitting to smithereens. Martin rushed home from his meeting to find the house surrounded by hundreds of angry black people, ready to loot and burn throughout the city. After checking on his wife and daughter and finding them unharmed, he walked out onto the porch of his bombed-out house. Quieting the crowd, he said, "Take your weapons home. Remember Jesus' words, 'Whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword.' We must love our white brothers and sisters, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries, 'Love your enemies.'" To the great relief of the police and city officials, the crowd peacefully dispersed.

There are also lots of ordinary people like you and me who practice this kind of love. I met such a person recently. Her name is Jackie Milar. She's on a Task Force of a Wisconsin Council of Churches that is developing a statement on nonviolence. At our first meeting, we shared our stories with one anther. This is Jackie's story. Two or three years ago, some young men broke into her house and shot her, leaving her for dead. She was in a coma several months. She finally woke up. She was paralyzed on the left side, legally blind and couldn't talk. She told God, "If you let me talk, I'll tell my story." She's still legally blind and partially paralyzed, but she did recover her ability to talk. The story she tells is not the one we would expect. She tells a story of love. She speaks in schools all over the state about the importance of forgiveness. She has befriended the young men who tried to kill her. They exchange letters. She read a letter from one of them. It moved us to tears. Jackie and her assailants work together in behalf of a more humane criminal justice system. They advocate restorative justice and a process of healing and reconciliation for victims, perpetrators and society as a whole. Jackie visits inmates in the maximum-security prison in Green Bay, including the young men who shot her. She told us that when she opens her heart to these hardened criminals, they hide their faces, because they don't want their fellow prisoners to see them cry. She concluded her story with these words, "They are in my heart and always will be. And I am in theirs." When she finished, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

Conclusion

There are many, many people who, through the Holy Spirit, love in this powerful and radical way. In them love, the ultimate absolute, becomes a powerful, living reality. Their very existence makes it impossible for us to dismiss Jesus' teaching about love as an unrealizable ideal.

Brothers and sister, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, we are surrounded by a great a cloud of witnesses. So let us lay aside every sin that clings so closely and run with perseverance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. As we run, let us remember Jesus' words. "Everyone who loves-knows God-for God is love," and let us love one another.

Amen.