Linked to Love (1 John 4: 7-9, 19)

 Sermon: “Linked to Love”

I use Google Docs to write my sermons, and, this week, Google Docs did a funny thing…

When I cut and pasted the scripture, Google Docs added a squiggly blue line underneath several of the words in that last verse.

Word processors like Google Docs do this all the time. A squiggly blue line will appear, or a squiggly red line will appear, or sometimes it’s not squiggly, but a straight line, but it’s usually red or blue. 

Some of you know what I’m talking about. Some of you see a lot more of these red and blue lines than you’d like to see.

A red line means your word is misspelled. “Misspelled” is actually a hard word to spell, and if I type it in with only one “s” or only one “l”, a red line will appear underneath it; that’s the program’s way of saying, “Um, excuse me, you might want to check the spelling on that…”

If a BLUE line appears, it means that something isn’t right in the formatting of your sentence. Maybe you’re mixing up your tenses (which I do in my sermons all the time). Maybe there’s an action without a subject. Or maybe something else missing.

Oops, there’s a blue line… Maybe something else is missing. There. That’s better.

The place where the squiggly blue line appeared when I typed in the scripture was in the last sentence, the last verse. It appeared under the words “love because.” The verse says: “We love because he first loved us,” and under the words “love because,” there was a blue line.

Now, if you hover your cursor over the blue squiggly line, the computer will give you a suggested improvement.

In this case, Google Docs suggested I change “We love because he first loved us” to “We love each other because he first loved us.”

Google Docs decided that Love was a verb that needed a subject; and Google Docs decided (I don’t know how it decided, but it decided) that the subject should be each other.

We love each other because he first loved us.

OK. Maybe, grammatically, that’s better, and it does help clarify things…

What makes this really interesting is that, in my Bible, there is a footnote in that same spot, right after the word love. And the footnote at the bottom of the page says that some ancient manuscripts have added something here, just like Google Docs wants to add something.

Some of the ancient manuscripts added the word God at this spot, and other ancient manuscripts added the word him.

So, even though they didn’t have Google Docs or Microsoft Word or the blue squiggly lines, those ancient scribes also thought something was missing here; but instead of adding the words “each other,” they added the word “God,” or the word “him…”

…So that the verse, instead of reading, “We love because he first loved us,” it would now read as, “We love God because God first loved us,” or, “We love him because he first loved us.”

So, I thought it was kinda funny, that both the ancient scribes, and Google docs, thought that something was missing here, and that both added something to improve the verse, but what they added wasn’t the same thing.

Are we supposed to love each other because God first loved us? Or, are we supposed to love God because God first loved us? … Which is it?

…Here’s an interesting thing about scripture. People often read scripture; and people often get into debates and arguments over scripture, and what it means.

Does it mean this or that?

These types of debates even appear in the stories of scripture themselves. The disciples, for example, argued whether something was this or whether it was that. 

In the gospel of John, ninth chapter, Jesus was walking along, and he saw a man who had been blind his whole life. The disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

In the minds of the disciples, it was one or the other. It was “common knowledge” that afflictions like blindness were because of sin, and they wanted to know if it was his own sin, or the sin of his parents, that led to him being born blind.

But so often, Jesus’ answers go beyond the “either/or” option. Was it this or that? In this case, Jesus says, it was neither. Neither this man nor his parents sinned.

See, the disciples were discussing what the right answer was, but the problem was that they didn’t even have the right question. And, sometimes, right questions are more important than right answers.

In the case of our scripture today, we have the question of who are we supposed to love: each other, or God?

And in the scripture itself, starting with the very next verse, the answer seems to be: YES.

Yes! Just love! 

Because there is no difference between loving God and loving each other. Why are you trying to make them into two separate things? They are the same thing!

The next verse, verse 20, says: “Those who say ‘I love God’ and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”

So, Google Docs is right in suggesting that we are to love each other; and, the ancient scribes who copied down scripture were right to suggest that we are to love God. Because loving God, and loving each other, go hand in hand.

This echoes Jesus’ emphasis on the command to love God and love your neighbor as oneself. That first command—to love God—and that second command—to love one’s neighbor—are inextricably linked. They are the two hinges that hold up the door. You can’t have just one, or the door won’t hang properly, and will fall off. You have to have both. 

To say that you love God, but you don’t love your neighbor, doesn’t make sense. It’s an impossibility. 

This is the scripture for the last day of camp, the day the campers go home, and it’s a good one to end the week on. Everything really is about love. 

And I love that it’s not an either/or thing. So many things in faith are like that. We ask a faith question, an either/or faith question, but then we find out that it’s the wrong question, because it’s not an either/or situation.

One argument that has really divided some Christians throughout history is whether we are saved through faith or through works… as if there is any difference between how we act and what we believe! 

Yet some people go to great lengths to prove that we are saved simply by believing in Jesus, and not by what we do, while others point out that, in the entire Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes on and on about how we are to behave, but doesn’t say a single word about how we are to believe.

Yet in the Letter of James, it says “by my works, I will show you my faith.” By what I do, I will show you what I believe. The two go together. You really can’t have one without the other.

It’s not an either/or situation.

Once you realize that, the debate about whether we are saved by faith or by works really seems kind of silly.

Maybe we need to program our word processors to put a little blue line underneath the words anytime someone writes about being saved by faith, or being saved by works, with a suggested revision so that the final draft would say, “We are saved by both faith and works, since faith is shown by works…”

But if we did that, we’d need another blue line under that word saved, because the way a lot of people today use the word saved isn’t always the same way the Bible uses that word.

In scripture, and especially in the gospels, the word saved means to be made whole, or made well, or to be healed. And sometimes, that is how it appears in scripture. Sometimes Jesus, when he heals someone, says, “your faith has made you well,” and other times he says, “your faith has healed you,” and other times he says, “your faith has saved you,”... and even though they sound different, they all mean the same, and they all are ways of translating a single word in scripture, the word sozo.

And I learned from Jerry McCoy that the word shalom also relates to these various meanings of the word saved: it, too, involves healing and wholeness.

And the healing/wholeness/salvation that Jesus talks about isn’t just in the future. It’s in the present as well. It’s salvation right now. It’s healing right now. It’s finding wholeness right now. In this life… and in the life to come. 

Again: it’s not an either/or thing.

But we’re so used to thinking in binary ways, that we can’t understand that not everything is defined in binary ways. It’s not always this or that.

Feel free to ponder all the implications of that…

It’s not always this or that. It’s not always a strict binary. It could be both. It could be something in between. It could be something else entirely.

—---------------------------------

There is one binary that does exist, though. Today’s scripture skips over verse 18, but verse 18 says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 

Fear and love do not go together.

There is enough to fear in this world; but the gospel is not something that should be feared. The gospel is love, and there is no fear in love. God is love, and there is no fear with God.

If you have been taught a form of religion that makes you fear God, or that makes you fear that you may not ever experience the salvation or healing or wholeness that is meant for you, then that isn’t true religion. It isn’t true to the gospel. 

The gospel is about healing and wholeness. The gospel is about love and shalom. And all that is for you. God is love, and God’s love is for you.

And in return, the gospel calls us to love God, and love each other.

Karl Barth is considered to be the greatest theologian of the twentieth century. His most famous work is called Church Dogmatics, which is a 14-volume systematic theology that is usually described with words like “colossal,” and “monumental.”

No, I haven’t read it all.

One time, after he gave a lecture, someone asked Barth if he could summarize his whole theology in a single sentence. Barth said he could, and then he offered this one-sentence summary of all his work: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

That 14-volume monumental systematic theology can be summed up by love.

Knowing that we are loved, and showing love to others, sounds simple. But nothing is more significant, or more important, or more wonderful, than God’s love for us, and our love for one another.

And with all this talk about asking the right questions, and thinking beyond the binary choices that we think are our only choices, I’m left wondering what have we overlooked when it comes to love? What ways are there that we are being called to love, that we haven’t even thought of yet? How can we be creative in showing love, loving in new ways, loving in ways that bring us and our neighbors even closer to experiencing the healing, the wholeness, the shalom, that is God’s desire for us and for all of creation?

Something to think about…

Love > Fear (1 John 4: 7-21)

 Welcome to worship. I’m Danny Bradfield, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church. 

We are an Open and Affirming congregation in covenant with 3,600 other congregations in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Working together, we are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world; and as part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table, as God has welcomed us.

Today is May 2. It is the fifth Sunday of the Easter season. The scripture we just heard read is one of the lectionary readings for this day, and I want to ask you: how many times did you hear the word “love” in that reading?

If you count present and past tense (“love” and “loved,”) the word appears 27 times; 27 times in a reading that is fifteen verses long.

That’s a lot of love!

And there’s a lot I could preach on from this scripture, but the part that stands out to me most is the part that says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

So before I talk about love, let me first talk about fear. And let me start with another question: What do you fear most? 

For a lot of people, public speaking is the number one fear. You may have heard that, according to at least one survey, public speaking ranks higher on the things people most fear than death does! Which, I guess, means people would rather die than be forced to speak in public!

Fortunately, I got over that fear a long time ago… for the most part!

So what do I fear? Well, I fear flying. And I do fear dying. And maybe a pastor isn’t supposed to fear dying, and maybe you don’t want to hear your pastor say he fears dying, but let me tell you something: Flying scares me, but when I need to fly somewhere, I still get on the plane; and the reason I still get on the plane is that I trust the engineers who designed the plane, and I trust the assemblers who built the plane, and I trust the pilot who is flying the plane. 

When it comes to dying, it’s the same thing. In death, and in life, God is the engineer, the assembler, and the pilot; and I know I can trust God and God’s assurance that, even after death, I will continue to dwell in God’s love. 

So, when death comes, I know I can get on that airplane and I’ll be OK.

In first century Rome, the greatest fear for people living in Nazareth, in Galilee, in Judea, and even in Jerusalem itself… was the cross. 

Rome used the cross to terrorize and intimidate. At times, the roads leading in and out of major cities were lined with crosses as a warning to the people, and on those crosses hung the bodies of all those who dared challenge the power of Rome. 

The crosses let the people know: Rome was in charge. So don’t step out of line.

When Jesus was crucified, it was because he was seen as a threat to Roman power. His followers even called him “Lord,” “Savior,” and “King of Kings;” these titles were reserved for Caesar - if you start calling someone else by these titles, it will appear that you are trying to start a revolution. With Roman soldiers patrolling the streets and listening in to every word you say, you can’t just do that.

By crucifying Jesus, Rome was sending a message to his followers, a message that said: Go home. You’ve had your fun, but this movement ends now. If you don’t - if you persist - well, we’ve got a lot more crosses ready.

And that’s how the cross was used as a symbol of fear, terror, and intimidation.

But the cross could not stop Jesus. That’s the Easter message! The cross could not stop God’s love. And the cross could not stop the movement Jesus began. 

After the resurrection, the cross was transformed from a symbol of fear into a symbol of love. Because what God did through and for Jesus shows that love is even stronger than fear, or death; that love has the power to cast out fear. 

And we remember that the story of Jesus began with angels telling shepherds in the field to “Fear not,” and telling a girl named Mary to “fear not,” and telling Joseph to “fear not;” and we remember that when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty, an angel appeared to her and said, “fear not;” and we remember that when Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, he said to them: “Fear not!”

Fear not, for love has cast out fear.

And the cross - the very symbol of fear, the symbol used to terrorize and intimidate - became a symbol of God’s love.

In the years that followed, Christians were persecuted for their faith, and many were even nailed to crosses themselves, but they believed in the power of God’s love, and they trusted in the power of God’s love, and though there may have been fear within them, the love within them was even greater than their fear, and they could not be stopped.

Eventually - a few centuries later - Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire… and Constantine placed Christian symbols on the shields and chariots of Roman armies. 

And before long, imperial soldiers marching into battle carried crosses and Christian flags and banners…

And the cross - that was once a symbol of fear, but had been transformed into a symbol of love - was transformed back into a symbol of fear, a symbol of terror, a symbol meant to terrorize and intimidate the enemies of Rome.

And in all the centuries since, the cross has come to mean both things - fear... and love... - depending on how it is used and who it is that is using it. 

For those of us who grew up in the church, the cross is, for us, a symbol of love. That’s certainly how we like to think of it.

But even today, for many people - a growing number of people - the cross is a symbol of fear, terror, and hate. 

As a society we are starting to open our eyes to the ways the cross was used to intimidate and oppress indigenous cultures, even right here in southern California. The first people to live here were the Tongva, but we know that Christian missionaries forced them to assimilate, and that for many Tongva, the arrival of the Christians meant death.

In many of our own lifetimes we have seen crosses burned on lawns as a way to intimidate and terrorize. And especially in this past year, we have seen white supremacists carry crosses and Christian flags as a way to intimidate and terrorize anyone who does not agree with what they stand for, and especially, to intimidate and terrorize people of color.

They even carried those crosses & Christian flags into the capitol building when they stormed it on January 6.

And the biggest supporters of hate - and of political candidates who preach hate - are Christians who wear crosses around their necks, and who have bumper stickers with crosses on their cars.

And it is cross-wearing Christians who continue to tell LGBTQ+ people that they are an abomination, that God is sending them to hell, not because of something they did, but because of who they are. (I’ve got another sermon about that coming soon…)

And I think one of our biggest challenges - one of the biggest challenges facing a church like Bixby Knolls Christian Church - is to show the world that the cross is a symbol of love, not hate. A symbol of love, not fear.

To be honest, I’m not sure it can be done.

I read an article earlier this year - it was actually written right after the January 6 storming of the capitol - in which the author argued that the cross, as a symbol, is beyond redemption. The cross has become so associated with hate and oppression in our time that it can no longer be a positive symbol for many, if not most, people in the US. 

The author compared what is happening to the cross to what happened to the swastika. We associate the swastika with Hitler and Nazis and hate. When we see a swastika, that is what immediately pops into our minds.

But the swastika is actually a symbol that goes back 15,000 years, and for most of those 15,000 years, the swastika was used by eastern religions to symbolize life and well-being. 

At the corner of Carson Street and Long Beach Boulevard, there is a Buddhist monastery called the “Blessing, Prosperity, and Longevity Monastery.” And if you walk by it, you can look into the little courtyard out front, and see swastikas.

And anyone who walks by and sees those swastikas is startled. We’re startled, because of what the swastika has come to symbolize in the modern world. 

We’re startled, because in our minds, the swastika can only mean hate and fear.

We’re startled, unless we remember that that’s not what the swastika has always stood for, that it was once a symbol of life and blessing and all good things.

In the article I read, the author said the same thing is happening to the cross. In fact, in the author’s opinion, it is already too late to save the cross as a symbol of love, because it has been used so much by people preaching hate and fear.

I read that, and I thought: “whoa.” That makes me sad. I bet it makes many of you sad as well. Or, angry! Because we know that the way of hate and fear is the opposite of the way of Jesus.

Part of me thinks that, maybe, the author of that article was exaggerating to make a point. I don’t know; but I do know that those who use fear to proclaim a message of hate have - shall we say - held on to the microphone for far too long.

And I do know that too many people have been bullied by the church, and spiritually abused by the church, and have cried themselves to sleep at night because of what the church taught them. 

They were told by Christians that white people are superior. And they were threatened with the fires of hell, and they were threatened with excommunication and “disfellowshiping”, and they were warned that if they allowed their true selves to be revealed, they would bring shame and dishonor on themselves and on their families.

And some have even committed suicide because of what the church taught them and how the church made them feel about themselves.

So maybe that author wasn’t exaggerating.

Whether the cross can be redeemed as a symbol of love in the 21st century, I don’t know. But I do know this:

The way of Jesus is about love.

The way of Jesus is about removing fear from our lives, not inflicting fear.

And those who use fear and intimidation to motivate people to follow Jesus aren’t following Jesus themselves.

And some might argue: “But didn’t Jesus threaten people with hell? Didn’t Jesus condemn people? Didn’t Jesus cry out ‘Woe unto you?’”

Well, the only people Jesus directed these types of comments to were the “very religious persons” who were themselves using fear and intimidation against people. So, really, all Jesus was doing was reflecting their own words and condemnations back to them.

To everyone else, it was always an invitation and a blessing. To everyone else - and especially to those who were suffering under the fear-based rhetoric and injunctions thrown at them by the authorities - it was always: “You are welcome in my presence.” It was always: “You are loved.” It was always: “Your faith has made you well.”

And that’s the message we are called to proclaim. You are welcome in God’s presence. You are loved. Your faith has made you well.

Because to those who have had fear used against them, Jesus offers love and blessing. Through Jesus, the love of God casts out fear! There is no fear in the way of Jesus, because the way of Jesus is the way of love.

So let us always abide in Jesus, as the scripture says. 

Let us always abide in the way of love. 

Let us always show love to one another, because love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Miraculous Love (1 John 4:7-21)

1. CCEJ

I'm not going to talk long this morning. We have a wonderful workshop after worship, led by Mayra Serna from CCEJ, the California Conference on Equality and Justice, which I am really excited about. 

Once upon a time, I was invited to help lead the opening prayer at CCEJ's annual intercultural/interfaith breakfast. So I did, and I stayed for breakfast and the program, and was so impressed, I’ve gone back every year since. 

I was impressed by the incredible feeling of love and friendship among the hundreds of people in attendance. There’s a lot of negativity in our world, but here were people from all different faiths and so many different cultures, lifting each other up, and joining together in support of peace and justice and equality and understanding.

And, I was impressed by what I learned that day about CCEJ, what it stands for, and the amazing programs it offers. It always makes me smile when I'm teaching and I see students wearing their Building Bridges sweatshirts.

So for Bixby Knolls Christian Church to partner with CCEJ is truly exciting for me. I hope we can continue working together, doing what we can to promote and build justice and equality in our community and in our world. And I do hope that you are able to stay and join us for what I know is going to be a very enlightening workshop.

The kind of love and friendship that I experience through CCEJ, and the kind of love and friendship that we experience here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, is a powerful kind of love. It’s a love we have for one another, a love that lifts us up… but it’s also a love that, together, we direct outward, to those around us, to those we don’t even know.

It’s the kind of love that can change the world. And it is nothing less than a miracle.

2. Miracles

We live in a world of miracles. Miracles are all around us. My phone, for example. It’s a miracle. 

Look! Right now, through this little phone, someone is watching me preach from hundreds of miles away...I’m going to let them see all of you… probably make them a little dizzy...but how amazing is that?

We're surrounded by miracles… We can control the weather with a little box on the wall… we can travel to almost any part of the world in less than a day... Modern medicine has found ways to make once-deadly diseases and conditions - things like appendicitis or diabetes - easily treated, cured, or managed. 

No wonder it's harder for people to be impressed by the miraculous power of God and God’s love. 

Walking on water doesn’t seem quite as exciting when we can fly through the air. Maybe if God could do things with a little more showmanship, a little more pizzazz...more fireworks, more shooting stars…I don’t know.

But I do know that part of my job as a minister is to help people see the miracle in each moment. And most of these miracles are powered by love.

3. Holy Love

So much of what I know about God and religion is love. In the OT Hebrew, it's hesed. In NT Greek, agape. Love is central to Islam, Judaism, and just about every religion. Buddhists teach kindness, which is how we show love to a neighbor. 

And every act of love is holy. Every act of love is sacred. Every act of love is a miracle. 

When we recognize love, it stops us in our tracks. A simple act of kindness may be overlooked, but when we do look, we recognize it as extraordinary. 

Love is extraordinary. 

Even in this world of everyday miracles, we celebrate and honor love that is expressed in a marriage commitment. Marriage even gets special legal recognition, because we understand that the love that is expressed in marriage is beneficial to society. 

And in this throwaway world, where everything is measured by how much pleasure it brings you in the moment, a married couple that manages to stay together, through better and worse, learning how to forgive each other and carry on… that is a miracle of love.

And nearly every movie that draws us to the theater has a story that revolves around love. It may be romantic love. It may be friendship love. It may be love for society, for the neighbors known and unknown with whom we share a community or a world. 

4. Superpowers

Superhero movies are particularly popular these days, and maybe you’re thinking, where’s the love in that? But a hero who willingly sacrifices their own peace & comfort for the sake of others…shows great love for humanity…

Sometimes the plot involves a hero who has decided to step back from being a superhero and hide away from the world and all its troubles. They just don’t want to deal with it anymore. They’re done fighting for what’s right. 

But then they wrestle with that decision, and eventually they come back, to fight the villain and save the world one more time.

Because it's not really their superpowers that make them super, that make them a hero; it's their love. Their love for humanity. That's really what the story is about. A person with superpowers but without love would not be a superhero that we'd admire. 

Sometimes that love is hidden beneath a rough exterior. Sometimes the hero will deny that it's there. The hero may say he or she doesn't care. But that love for humanity burns within them like the word that burned within Jeremiah, and they find that they can’t hold it in. And then their story becomes one in which they must find or rediscover the love that's there, and find a way to express it.

Because it's always there.

And every single one of us - though we don't have superpowers - we do have love. 

And sometimes we, also, need to find it or rediscover it. And sometimes it is hidden (even from us) beneath a rough, bitter exterior. 

But love is always there. 

And where love is, there is God.

Because God is love. 

Last week I preached about the questions and struggles that are a part of a life of faith... 

But this week’s sermon is about the one thing I know without a doubt, the one thing that I am more certain of than anything else:

That love is the most powerful force in the universe.

And that God is love.

5. What Would Love Do?

God is love. So whenever I am faced with a moral dilemma, and I wonder: “What should I do?” or, “What does God want me to do?”...

I ask myself, “What would love do?”

Because whatever love would do is what I should do. Whatever love would do is what God would want me to do.

And sometimes I think to myself, “What will people think if I do this or if I do that?” And maybe pride or fear of embarrassment gets in the way of me doing the right thing.

Which is why I need to ask myself again: What would love do? The answer to that question - when I remember to ask it - always puts me back on the right track.

Whether we verbalize it or not, I think this question has been at the heart of many of the decisions we make here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church. After many years of quietly welcoming the LGBTQ community into our church, six years ago we voted to be more vocal and open about this when we voted to become an Open and Affirming congregation.

We did this because of love. Love told us that it was the right thing to do. Love told us that it would be helpful to others who need to know that God is not a God of condemnation, but a God of love. 

And our being an Open and Affirming church is not a one-time decision. It is an ongoing commitment, to constantly re-examine our ministry and the welcome we offer, searching for barriers to inclusion, and constantly tearing down those walls.

And our workshop after worship is a part of that process. It will help us better share God’s love with those who need it.