perfect submission, perfect delight

visions of rapture now burst on my sight

A sermon on a better sermon about love in Christ:

This is one of those passages where the pastor can’t help but be a bit miffed! In this passage, John encapsulates the entire Bible AND all of theology, too! And he does it with just one sentence! Worse still, the sentence is simple! But worst of all, the sentence is short, to boot! 

It’s just three little words: God is love. What else is there to say?!? God is love. Amen! Let’s go home! Right?!?

If I were to do that, though, in no time, you’d start thinking, “Gee, Pastor’s job is awfully easy.” And sure, that may be true! But who is Saint John to make it so plain?!?

The least John could do is have the decency to resort to cliche or summary! It’d be one thing if this sentence was on the shallow side. But it’s not! In this short and simple sentence, John has compacted the breadth of faith into one explosive sentence: God is love. Whammo!

Now, maybe you’re a bit uncomfortable with that. Maybe God is love sounds just a little too emotional or intimate to you. Well, too bad! God is love!

That’s not all, either! God isn’t just love. In Christ, God is a lover. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, you are loved. And the sooner you get used to that, the better.

…That said, although John may have made my life harder by calling the lie to every long sermon, he has done me a favor by landing upon something we all have a vested interest in. I don’t have to convince you. Do I? We all agree. Love IS important. 

Love is important. Right? Can I at least get a few head nods to see that y’all agree? Love IS important. Isn't it? Ok. Good. That’s what I thought.

Let’s have some more participation. Shall we? On a scale between one and ten, how loving would you say you are? One is means you’re as loving as a rock. And ten means your heart is just one great open wound, you fall in love with everyone AND everything you see. 

I’ll start counting from one to ten. When I get to your number, raise your hand. I’ll play, too. And as always, you’re free. If you’re uncomfortable, you can lie! Just raise your hand somewhere in the middle!

Alright. Let’s play. Raise your hand when I get to your number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 

Ok. But here’s the real question: By a show of hands, do you wish you were more or less loving? Raise your hand if you wish you were more loving.

Ok. That’s what I thought. And dare I ask? Is there anyone out there who wishes they were less loving?

I didn’t think so. We all want to be more loving. Don’t we? For whatever reason, though, love doesn’t always come all that easily. Does it? 

What’s more, love is often hardest to drum up when we need it most. Isn’t it? Why do you suppose that is?

…That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. Today’s passage tells us why! The simple answer is, you can’t drum up love! Love isn’t something you can generate on your own! Love isn’t a decision. No, God is love!

That leaves us in a tight spot, though. Doesn’t it? We all want to love more. Yet, love is something that’s entirely beyond our control! What are we to do?!?

Herein lies our first point: There’s nothing to do! Love doesn’t run on to-dos! Honestly, to-dos are stone-cold love killers every time! 

Let me say that again: To-dos are love killers! Nothing ruins love faster than placing demands on it. If there are conditions or contingencies, you’re not dealing with love.

This is why we Lutherans get so fired up about grace! Grace isn’t a concept! No, grace is the adverb that describes God! God is love! And grace is love in action! Grace is God’s one-way love coming to you head-on!

But perhaps you noticed I said grace is an adverb. But then I said this adverb describes God. And at that, maybe all you grammar police flipped on your sirens! “Hold up, Pastor Ryan!” you thought. 

That’s a grammar violation! Adverbs describe actions. Adverbs describe, obviously, verbs. But I just said grace is the adverb that describes God! 

God isn’t a verb, though! On the contrary, God is a noun. A noun is a person, place, or thing. And God is a person. Therefore, God is a noun!

Well, to all this, I must plead guilty as charged. Here’s the deal, though: we’re not dealing with to-dos. Are we? As we said, to-dos are love killers! And we’re dealing with love. We’re dealing with love because God is love!

…We’re on Christ’s autobahn here! There might be rules out there. But here, there are no rules! You might not have noticed, but the Holy Spirit is the bouncer today. And the Holy Spirit isn’t about to allow you to smuggle in contraband like rules here. 

The only rule in here is the rule of love! And love is the end of rules! Love, sisters and brothers, runs on freedom! You want to love more? And who doesn’t? Well then, drop the rules!

This is why St. Paul, in a fit of Holy Spirited exaltation as profound as “God is love,” could exclaim, “For freedom Christ has set us free!” Far from being redundant, this brief sentence compresses the supernova of grace! For freedom Christ has set us free!

Christ hasn’t come to give you the bait and switch. Christ hasn’t come to give you back the rules you failed to keep in the first place! No, Christ has come to give you himself! And Christ is God! And God is love! This means, you follow, that Christ has come to give you love! And love has no rules! For freedom Christ has set us free!

That’s what makes it love! It wouldn’t be love if I told you I would only love you if you did this, that, or the other. Would it? No, it would not! Even if you did all those things, the very perimeters I put down would preclude the possibility of love ever really happening. Wouldn’t it?

No, for love to blossom, you must be free of expectations. And we all already know this, too. Don’t we? This is why we call it falling in love! You don’t plan on it. It just happens to you! As we said, it’s why the Bachelor always chooses the wrong person!

…You know where this takes us, though. Don’t you? We’re right back to the objection you raised! Earlier, I said grace is the adverb that describes God. But, as you noticed, thank you very much; adverbs describe verbs. And the problem is, God isn’t a verb! God is a noun. God is a person!

However, at this point, perhaps you’re feeling a tad apologetic for being so fussy with me. Maybe, in an attempt to be helpful, you’re thinking of offering an olive branch. “I believe you meant to say grace is an adjective, Pastor. Adjectives describe nouns, not adverbs.” 

By the way, do you like how I’m putting all these petty objections in your mouth? Well, so long as you just sit there with your lips buttoned, I’m going to fill them with whatever suits me! Sorry! And sorry if I’m painting you as stuffy, too. What can I say? You’re just no good, rotten sinners that way!

Don’t worry, though. As Luther said, God only saves sinners. And that includes sinners who use your kind attention as an occasion to make you say whatever I want, too. Thank heavens!

Yesh! I keep getting distracted! Don’t I? Let’s get to the point! Here’s the deal: I didn’t misspeak. I didn’t mean to say grace is an adjective. No, grace is an adverb! And grace is an adverb because grace describes God! And God is a verb!

Yes, I said it! God is a verb! God is love! And what else is love if not an action?!? God is an event!

…But how can this be? If God is an event, where does that leave you and me? You thought saying “God is love” was just a nice sentiment. Didn’t you? You didn’t think John actually meant it!

Well, meant it he did. And correct he was! With this simple three-word sentence, John has taken us into the very nuclear core of God Thyself! God is love. God is an event. 

This is true because God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! When you’re dealing with God, you’re never dealing with just the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. No, God is triune! Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the very name of God! And God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because God is love! And love, dear sisters and brothers, is an action. Love is an event!

From all eternity, God wills to really love! And Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, NOT made, of one Being with the Father; is the one who receives this actual love of God!

And the Holy Spirit is the bond, or spirit, of this love. The Holy Spirit is the freedom of God the Father to love Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is the power of acceptance for Jesus to receive this love, too! And fully obey it, for that matter!

And there it is. Isn’t it? The church has been trying to tell you all along what it means to say “God is love.” But guess what? The church has also been trying to tell you what love is, too!

Love isn’t some fleeting feeling. No, love is a person. And we have met him, too! His name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus doesn’t go to the cross to make God love us. No, Jesus goes to the cross because he is God. And God is love! Jesus loves because he is God! Truthfully, Jesus goes to the cross to make us love God! And if you want to get right down to brass tax, the only reason there is love is because God is!

But that’s not all! You and I are because God is! We don’t exist out of necessity! We exist out of love! And remember, we said rules are not a consideration where love, and so God, is concerned. As the creed puts it, through him, through Christ, ALL things were made!

God the Father is not just satisfied to love Christ the Son. No, the love between the two is so perfect, or complete, that God the Holy Spirit CREATES you and me out of this holy love named Christ! As Luther said, God doesn’t love you because you’re beautiful. No, God loves you, and that makes you beautiful!

…I didn’t quote Luther for any ol’ reason, either. I quoted him because this insight of his brings us full circle! You probably noticed because you’re all such careful listeners today. When I said God is an event, I asked the question, where does that leave us? And I asked that way on purpose! 

If God is the event of holy love, where does that leave us? 

Well, since you asked so politely, the answer is you are the time God takes for you out of love! And you are the space God makes for you out of love, too! You, too, are an event in the divine love of God! You, too, are love! You, too, are an event!

This simple sentence doesn’t just take us to the heart of God. Does it? No, it also takes us to the heart of humanity! This passage is telling you what it means to be you! You are not some static thing! No, you are a dynamic event happening within the never-ending love of God!

And that’s not all, either! This passage is also telling you how to be human, too! To be human is to love! To be a creature of the divine lover is to love! And all it takes to love is the death of you!

Once you stop measuring and judging, love will blossom! Once you quit expecting life to be one way or another, it will bloom with the holy fire of love that’s always been burning just beneath all that is seen and unseen! And it can happen anywhere, too! In fact, it’s happening right now!

What’s more, you can extend this to others, too! What else is forgiveness but the putting to rest of all the tired expectations and so-called shortcomings? And you can proactively do this, too! You can step forward with freedom, grace, mercy, and love! You can just go ahead and love someone without any expectations! You can love someone without making them earn it or threatening to withhold it!

Go ahead and try! I bet it’ll be a lot of fun! Not only will this preemptive love be a shot in the arm for whoever receives it, but it’ll also be a hoot for you! For once in your life, you won’t have to worry about this or that outcome! You’ll just be able to fall head over heels for the people and places within arm’s reach of you right now! 

Not bad. Right? You didn’t know saying "God is love” meant all this. Did you? 

Well, it does! This is why Irenaeus could say the glory of God is human fully alive! “God is love!” And love means life! The life that really is life! And in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, this love unto true life is all yours!

…One more thing: This is true for Kerry, too. I don’t want to put anyone on the spot. But I don’t want to be quiet, either. As Fred said, nothing can prepare you for what happened to our brother, Kerry. And that’s right. You can’t.

Most of us have walked through the impossible at some point in our lives. Haven’t we? And we’ve learned, the hard way, that all those peccadillos about doing life right or wrong, better or worse, are just a bunch of folderol. There’s love, and then there’s everything else. And all that other stuff barely even registers as stuff when the chips are down. That’s putting it politely, too. Isn’t it? Stuff.

But here’s the promise: In Christ, this love of God is stronger than even Death. In fact, this love of God is so loving it kills Death! Christ isn’t polite with Death. No, he murders the old cuss by his death. 

And by his resurrection, Christ creates life! Eternal life! And by the Holy Spirit, God raises us up to live forever in the unstoppable love of Christ! And this is true for Kerry. And this is true for you. And this is true even as we grieve. Ok?

There’s so much more we could say. But John crammed the explosive core of faith into three simple words: God is love. Boom.

What else is there to say? Nothing. Nothing and everything! So let’s do a little speaking of this love ourselves! Music is the sound of love! And this hymn is all about the melody of that tune!

Our hymn of the Day is hymn number 517. Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word. Hymn number 517. Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word. Let’s sing!

Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word, ELW 517