Sunday, December 23, 2007

It All Adds Up to Love (Not Relegion)
1 John 4:7-12

What is Christmas all about?

This question is asked by many every year, and we all make various attempts to answer it.

Some have abandoned the consumer Christmas altogether and go and serve meals at a homeless shelter.

Others try to balance the idea of giving and receiving by also giving outside of the family. This year each one in my family helped purchased an animal to give to a family in a developing nation through World Vision.

Some wrestle with the idea, but then give in to the consumer Christmas and sink themselves into debt buying gifts for their families, friends and associates.

But even though we talk about this all the time, I am still not sure we really get it. Sometimes I feel we are like Rose and
her husband Jimbo while they are out shopping. Rose and Jimbo are from the comic Rose is Rose.

Rose – “Gift-giving has gotten out of hand, hasn’t it, Jimbo?”
Jimbo – “Oh-Huh”
Rose – “I don’t want to be so shallow that my possessions define who I am!”
Rose – “Now… If I were a shallow person… that’s the sweater I’d want to be shallow in!”
Jimbo – “There’s a cordless drill over on hardware with shallow written all over it!”

So, what is Christmas all about?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NRSV)

Maybe the question should not just be, “What is Christmas all about?” but “What is life all about?”

A similar question was asked of Jesus and this is what His response was: “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NRSV)

Notice that Jesus does not say that you shall spend 15 hours a week at church, show up for prayer meeting, stop
smoking and witness to three people a day.

Jesus says in essence that it all adds up to love – love God and love other people.

You see, I think it is vitally important to come to church, serve, show up for prayer meeting, stop smoking, and witness to others, but there is a huge difference between doing those things because they are the rules of Christianity (the institution) and doing them out of love.

Do you really understand? It is my experience that we have a lot of religion, but little love. We know all the doctrines, we have heard all the sermons, and we can say all the right things, but we have little love.

And that reminds me of something else I have read: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do
not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have
love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, NRSV)

My friends, “God is love.” He is nothing other than love, and while that may not fit into your understanding of your experiences, it is nonetheless true.

The whole nature of the Trinity is love – The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit participating in an eternal dance of love and inviting this entire, stubborn, rebellious, independent world to join into the greatest mystery of love and relationship we could ever hope to know.

But religion seems easier than relationship, so we keep this incredible God of love at a distance, putting Him into boxes
that we can easily define and (supposedly) control.

Yet there is no love in religion – in fact religion, along with politics and economics, has been the source of great pain and conflict throughout the ages.

However, Jesus did not come to us in Bethlehem to found a new religion – He came to extend an invitation to the eternal dance of love. Jesus makes it possible to enter into a relationship with the only one who can love you unconditionally.

And He is the only one through whom you can love those around you.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in
us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:7-12, NRSV)

This Christmas, in the midst of all the gifts, moments with family, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire – let us remember that it all adds up to love.