Circle of Love

Psalm 66:8-20, John 14:15-21

My mom sent me the following cartoon strip, so you can blame her. We see the Reverend Will B. Dunn answering letters for his advice column. One letter reads, "Dear Preacher, Your advice makes me feel uncomfortable. I expect comfort, support and a little lift from my advice columnists. [signed] Dissatisfied Customer." The preacher thinks for a moment then writes back, "Dear Dissatisfied, You don't want advice--you want a Wonderbra."

Sometimes we'd like to have a gospel like that, one that never makes us uncomfortable, one that just gives "comfort, support, and a little lift." And in fact there are preachers who’ll do just that. They offer "a health and wealth gospel." They lift up a success gospel that says if you just think positively or just use "possibility thinking" everything will be fine. The good news is a soft blankie, warm milk, and a teddy bear to put you to sleep. There’s no bite or challenge to it.

But every time we’re ready to settle down with an easy saccharine sweet gospel, Jesus comes along and messes things up. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." There’s nothing about health, wealth, and success here. No mention of simply believing the right things like some sort of magic formula. Instead, to paraphrase theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, "Those who believe obey, and those who obey believe." "Those who believe obey, and those who obey believe." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship," 69.) And Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Now with all the things Jesus commanded maybe that seems impossible, as though we could never dot enough i's and cross enough t's to get it right. But in John's gospel at least, it's clear Jesus meant something beyond legalism.

Jesus said it twice, once in chapter 13 and again in chapter 15. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus was not insisting on a nit picking obedience to the law. Rather he was demanding that his followers love. Care for others. Wish the best interests for others. Do whatever it takes to express that care. Jesus' commandments are summarized in love.

So Jesus gave the command to love, but maybe the disciples were thinking, "Wow! How’re we going to do that? Jesus is getting ready to die and leave us behind." So Jesus said to them "I will not leave you orphaned." Think of that word, orphaned. What do you imagine? A baby left in a basket on a cold doorstep in the dead of night? Little kids left in a group home hoping that new parents will pick them this time? Orphans in Jesus' time were the weakest of the weak, vulnerable, without someone to protect them they were helpless. Maybe that's how the disciples felt as they thought about Jesus leaving them. They felt as though they were going to be parent-less.

Have you ever felt that way, as if you had nobody on your side and you were all alone?

If you’ve ever endured a long depression, you may have felt that way.

Many of you who have lived for a while have had both parents die. Maybe you know how it feels to be orphaned.

And as some of you know from personal experience, thousands of children in the United States have lost parents to our broken domestic courts system. It’s a system that allows one parent in a divorce to cut off and destroy the relationship that the other parent enjoyed with their child. Only later does the child sometimes figure out what has happened. It is a disgrace and a human rights violation largely ignored by the media and the church. Orphans.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments . . . I will not leave you orphaned . . . because I live, you also will live . . . you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." What do these strange verses mean? How do they work together?

I’ll tell you what I think. I didn’t see this in any of the big, fat scholarly Bible commentaries I plowed through, as helpful as they were. I think Jesus was making a point we could illustrate with a three-word image–circle of love. In plain language, here’s what I think Jesus was saying, "If you love me, you’re going to try to keep my commandments. And if you keep my commandments, you’re going to try to love other people. You’re going to wish them well, forgive them, treat them patiently, generously, kindly, even if you don’t always like them. And you can do it. You see, I’m the Advocate and I’m sending another Advocate empowering you to love. And the more you love, the more I’ll be revealed to you. The more you love others, the more you love me. And the more you love me, the more I’m able to work in you." It’s a never-ending circle of love.

Does that make sense? Circle of love. That’s what we’re doing as we raise thousands of dollars with the charity auction today, isn’t it? We’re loving poor people in developing countries. We’re equipping them to care for themselves with Heifer International livestock that will feed families and whole villages. And we’re loving hungry people in our own area by giving money to the Willoughby Food Pantry. Many folks have worked very hard over several months to make this auction happen. They’ve done it because Christ, the Advocate, has been causing love to spring forth from them. And out of that love has come an auction that will be lots of fun but also lots of love.

Circle of love. Isn’t that what happens when we pray, worship, study the Bible and our faith? Isn’t that what happens as we go about those seemingly minor daily acts of kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and justice? Isn’t that what happens when we sometimes do or say something really great or hard in Christian love? Christ prompts us and moves us to love. We grow and see Christ more clearly. And the circle continues.

This circle of love is really like dancing with God isn’t it? Round and round. And judging from the dancing First Presbyterian Church members I saw at the church’s 175^th party a couple of weeks ago, you folks do like to dance.

Another preacher, Jim Wallis, also tells a dancing story. He says, during apartheid a few years ago South African Security Police came busting into a worship service led by South African archbishop Desmond Tutu. These police lined up all around the inside of the cathedral. They took notes and ran tape recorders, just in case Tutu said anything especially prophetic. They’d already arrested and jailed him a few weeks before. And now they were back. Tutu stared at them and said, "You are powerful, very powerful . . . But I serve a God who cannot be mocked!" And then, with a smile he said, "Since you have already lost, I invite you today to come and join the winning side!" No longer afraid, the congregation was electrified. And as Wallis says, ". . . we literally leaped to our feet, shouted the praises of God and began . . . dancing." Folks danced right out of the cathedral, and the police and military forces didn’t know what to do with them. So they backed up and watched them dance the dance of freedom in the streets. (Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, 347-348.)

First Presbyterian Church, I know you like to dance. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Blessings as you and I dance the circle of love. Amen.

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