Rooted in the Spirit: Love

Our first scripture reading today comes from

Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verses

Galatians 5:22–23

22 to 23. Let us listen to and for the word of

the Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self -control. There is no law

against such things. And our second scripture

comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 15. Jesus

John 15 · chapter mention

says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved

you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,

you will abide in my love, just as I have kept

my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

I've said these things to you so that my joy

may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

This is my commandment, that you love one another

as I have loved you. No one has greater love

than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends. You do what I command you.

I do not call you servants any longer, because

the servant does not know what the master is

doing. But I have called you friends, because

I have made known to you everything that I have

heard from my Father. You did not choose me,

but I chose you, and I appointed you to go and

bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the

Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

I am giving you these commands so that you may

love one another. Friends, this is the word of

God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Let us pray. O come, Holy Spirit, come. Breathe

upon us this day so that your word may bear fruit

in our hearts and in our lives. In Christ's name

we pray. Amen. So as John Daniel mentioned to

the children, this week we begin our summer series

on the fruit of the Spirit. Spoiler alert, that

first reading you just heard in Galatians 5,

you'll get to hear that every Sunday for about

the next eight weeks. We figured if the children's

choir who did their spring programming on Fruit

of the Spirit, if they could memorize all of

them, then I am very confident the rest of us

can too by the end of the summer. So Paul writes

those Fruits of the Spirit to the church in Galatia

in the context of them being swayed by false

teaching and disagreeing with one another about

how they should live. Paul expresses his frustration

because many of them are disconnecting from God's

way of life. And as a result, they're accepting

or rejecting one another based on human traditions

and social status instead of sharing and experiencing

God's gracious love for each other. So I think

about the fruit of the Spirit as their roadmap,

almost, to get themselves back on track. That

they will know that they are following the path

of Christ when they see this fruit in their lives

and in their community. And just like them, we

know that as the Spirit changes our hearts, that

our behavior also changes, leading us to bear

fruit. So that is what we'll be exploring all

summer. And this morning, the first fruit that

we will look at is love. Now it makes sense that

love is first, because it has to be present for

all of the other fruits to grow. And any sign

of those fruits without love, or what that famous

passage in 1 Corinthians that we've probably

all heard, would call a clanging gong or a crashing

cymbal. That no true fruit of the Spirit can

flourish without love at the core. However, I

must admit that preaching on love feels a little

intimidating because, I mean, if we had to sum

up, you know, the entire Bible, all of Christianity

in one word, I would probably say love. So how

in the world do you fit it into one sermon? And

I realize that I can't, and so for all of our

sakes, I'm focusing on just one of the many scripture

passages about love. And of all of the ones that

I could have chosen for today, I kept coming

back to Jesus' words in the Gospel of John. If

you were here a few weeks ago, this text may

have sounded familiar. Alan preached not very

long ago on John 13, which is where Jesus first

introduces the command to his disciples to love

one another as I have loved you, that he repeats

again here in chapter 15. This time, Jesus brings

up this command to love following a metaphor

about the vine and the branches. which seemed

appropriate as we begin our Fruit of the Spirit

series. Earlier it says, I am the vine and you

are the branches. Those who abide in me and I

in them will bear much fruit. That word abide

has always stood out to me. In fact, on my bulletin

board in my office, right above my computer,

the Greek word for abide is written there, along

with several of its meanings. Abide with me.

Stay with me. Dwell with me. Remain with me.

Endure with me. This word implies an intimate

relationship of time and energy invested. The

reality is that when you're around people for

significant periods of time, especially when

you abide or dwell with them, for better or for

worse, you start to rub off on each other. I

remember at some point, I was home from college,

and I was at a coffee shop with a close friend

who had known me for a long time. And as we were

sipping our coffees and catching up, she turned

to me and she said, you always shake your drink

around before you drink it. She's like, do you

know why you do that? And I was like, I have

no idea. I didn't even realize that I was doing

it. And then within a week of that conversation,

I was sitting with my family around the table

for dinner. And right as we were about to eat,

I noticed that my mom, my dad, and my brother

all picked up their drink glasses and shook them

around before drinking them. And I couldn't help

but laugh, apparently being around my family.

had managed to deeply affect my everyday behaviors

without me even noticing that it was happening.

Jesus gives instructions to his disciples for

how they come to understand the kind of self

-giving love that he has for them, which is abide

in my love. It's like he's saying, be present

with me. Spend time with me. Allow my ways to

influence you. And that doesn't happen without

long -term relationship. Jesus challenges us

to abide in his love, meaning that we have to

sit with that love long enough to let that love

wash over us, to let it sink in and to change

our being. The company that we keep shapes who

we are. Drawing closer to God changes us. The

more time that we abide with God, the more hopefully

we take on God's characteristics as our own,

cultivating that spirit of love that God has

for us, and then acting in the same way towards

others. And that doesn't happen overnight. To

love people is to spend time with them, to share

life with them. And the more we invest in others,

the more we allow ourselves to be affected by

them. And what better example of this than friendship?

I've probably quoted Frederick Buechner almost

every time that I've preached, but I'm doing

it again. I'm going to do it again. That in his

book, Whistling in the Dark, Frederick Buechner

says, friends are people you make part of your

life just because you feel like it. But there

are lots of other ways people get to be part

of each other's lives, like being related to

each other, living near each other, sharing some

special passion with each other. But though all

or any of those may be involved in a friendship,

they are secondary to it. Basically, your friends

are not your friends for any particular reason.

The job you do, the family you have, the way

you vote, the major achievements and blunders

in your life, your religious convictions or lack

of them, are all somehow set off to one side

when you get together. You meet with a clean

slate every time, and you meet on equal terms.

Anything may come of it, or nothing may, but

that doesn't matter either. Only the meeting

matters. When we talk about love, I don't think

we talk about the powerful love of friendship

enough. Although Rod Ray did this morning in

Sunday school, that was a nice... tie in. I think

that is another reason why I like this passage

in John so much. To hear Jesus change his relationship

with his disciples, from servant and master,

even from teacher and student, to friends, is

an extraordinary thing. That this kind of love

that Jesus exemplifies changes everything. A

servant would be obligated to support a master

through difficult times. But a friend would do

it freely, out of mutual commitment and affection.

A friend is someone we choose to let into our

lives. Someone we choose to abide and spend time

with. Someone who will potentially rub off on

us. And then to think about how we treat our

friends. That we look out for their best interests.

We give them the benefit of the doubt. We can

overlook their faults. And we wish what's best

for them. Jesus does the same for his followers.

Love one another as I have loved you, he says.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus calls

them friends at the end of his life, after they

have spent a lot of time with one another. This

abiding love that lasts takes time and investment

in repeated showing up and being present for

one another. It's the kind of love that will

put your own needs aside for the sake of someone

else. The kind of love that feels the pain of

another as if it's your own. And Christ loves

us enough to do that for us. And then challenges

us to do the same for others. Now that feels

like a high bar. It's one thing to love the people

that we have chosen to be our friends, to love

them like that. But it's quite another to hear

Jesus' challenge for us to love everyone in that

way. And if it were only up to us to choose Jesus,

to abide in him and obey his commandments, to

always love as he loves. And we are setting ourselves

up for failure. And so thanks be to God that

Christ reminds us that he has chosen us first.

That he has already made the first move. That

love does not come from our own will. It comes

because Jesus chooses us. and enables the Spirit

to move us and to continue what he started. When

Jesus commands us to be friends with one another,

it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to always

like each other all the time. But he says whether

we feel like it or not, Jesus commands us And

shows us how to look out for each other's good.

To see each other as beloved children of God.

With all of our imperfections and annoying habits.

Just as Jesus did for us. And it starts here.

It starts here with our church family. This is

the perfect Sunday, actually, for a little bit

of practice because we are worshiping together

all as one for this one service. And soon each

person will walk up front to receive communion.

So I invite you, as you look around the church,

you will probably see people that you know and

that you like. Maybe you'll see people you know

and maybe don't like all that much. And then

you'll see people that you probably don't know

at all. It is a big church. And we've said before

that a church should be like a family, and I

think that's true. But today I want you to shift

your focus just a little and imagine that each

person you see is your friend. Maybe commit to

spending more time with somebody that you don't

already know and like, because in order to be

friends with someone, you have to be around them

first. And imagine enacting Jesus' command to

look out for their well -being, to wish what's

best for them, and to share the ups and downs

of life with them. It's those little, repeated,

conscious actions over and over that make that

abiding love bloom. The more we put this into

practice, the more we strive to love one another

as Jesus loved us, the more we bear that fruit

of love that will last. May it be so. Amen.