“If You Love Me”
John 14:15-21
First Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Donald E. Ray
May 29, 2011
Easter 6
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I expect we all have been asked, “Do you believe
in God?” Parents are asked to
affirm that belief when they present their child for baptism. That
question is among those asked of us at our confirmation as a member of a church.
A lot of people had to have been
asked: “Do you believe in God?” to arrive at that statistic of 92% affirming
that they do.
Without Tom and I actually collaborating, it seems
his sermon last Sunday was Part One, and today this is Part Two. The
lectionary readings from John’s Gospel lead to that.
Believe in God. As Tom said
last Sunday, “Not in the glib way in which polls on religion report that 92%
of Americans ‘believe in God.’ Not
the cursory affirmative answer that many give when asked if they believe in God.
When Jesus says to believe in God,
he means to trust God sincerely, deeply, completely even when it seems
existentially as though such trust is misplaced.” (1)
Because to believe in God is to take the leap of
faith, to the unverifiable. Our next
step is often the attempt to justify and make sense of a belief in God. Jesus
is drawn into that discussion with his disciples, “How can we know the way? Show
us the Father. But then Jesus says, If you love me, . . . (John 14:15)
We’ve been asked do you believe in God, but have
you ever been asked do you love God? I
don’t recall that I have. I
can’t say that I have really pondered that question. Here’s
the hazard of preaching. The
preacher has to live with his or her own sermon first.
In the 1964 musical Fiddler
on the Roof, a favorite of mine, there is a pensive duet between Tevye and
his wife, Golde. Tevye informs Golde
that he has decided to give Perchick permission to become engaged to their
daughter, Hodel.
(Golde) “What??? He’s
poor! He has nothing, absolutely
nothing!”
(Tevye) “He’s a good man, Golde. I
like him and what’s more important, Hodel likes him. Hodel
loves him. So what can we do? It’s
a new world. . . A new world. Love.
Golde. . .
Do you love me?”
(Golde) “Do I what?”
“Do you love me?”
“Do
I love you?
With our daughters getting married and
this trouble in the town
you’re upset, you’re worn out
go inside, go lie down!
Maybe it’s indigestion.”
“Golde,
I’m asking you a question. . .
Do you love me?”
(Golde) “You’re a fool!”
(Tevye)
“I know.
Golde, the first time I met you was on our wedding
day.
I was scared.”
(Golde)
“I was shy.”
(Tevye)
“I was nervous.”
(Golde)
“So was I.”
(Tevye)
But my father and my mother said we’d learn to
love each other
and now I’m asking.
Golde,
Do you love me?”
(Golde)
“I’m
your wife.”
(Tevye)
“I know. . .
But do you love me?”
(Golde
- to the wind) “ Do I love him?
For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him
fought him, starved with him.
Twenty-five years my bed is his; if that’s not love,
what is?”
(Tevye)
“Then you love me?”
(Golde)
“I suppose I do.”
(Tevye)
“And I suppose I love you too.”
Then, Golde and Tevye each affirm “I suppose I
do.” end singing together;
“It doesn’t change a thing but even so
after twenty-five years it’s nice to know.”
The closing duet is comedic because the answer to
that question, “Do you love me?” makes all
the difference. I toyed with or
perhaps, since this sermon is about love, I should say I flirted with titling it Falling
in Love with God or A Love Affair with
God. While I decided otherwise
because those phrases have become shallow and of ill repute, the essential
corollary to our believing in God is the ultimate leap, or perhaps plunge of
faith like falling in love. The
passion, not unlike that of an affair, is the very heart of living our belief.
We are conditioned to think of love as feelings
associated with the relationship between persons or pets, sometimes a car or
boat. You may, as I do, have
difficulty with the idea of loving the anthropomorphic image of God implied in person and Father. If
Paul was right wading through all the attempts at defining God and concluding in
God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Then
to love life, to love the very core of our being that is within us yet greater
than us, is to love God. Jesus, John
says, is the human face of God. Jesus
takes that step from believe in God. Believe
also in me. to, If you love me. . .
When I officiate at a wedding, I most often read a
part of the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians:
Love
is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It
does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful; it does
not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love
never ends. (I Corinthians
13:4-8)
Then, tongue in cheek, I say to the couple that, of
course, that describes the way they always are together - patient, kind, never
rude, not irritable. They grin at
the irony of it and relax a little of their nervousness. Family
and friends laugh. Of course, Paul
was not writing about how we are. He
was writing about love. To love God
is to be in love with love itself.
Jesus says, If
you love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15).
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.
(John 15:12-13) Writing years after
Jesus lived, John knew that Jesus’ laying down his life for his friends was
not to be isolated in some sacrificial theory of his crucifixion. Jesus
had laid down his life for his friends every time he touched the untouchable,
afforded healing and forgiving, built community among a rag-tag group of
fishermen, tax collectors, rebels, intellectuals, whatever that were his
disciples. And John reminds us that
interwoven through all of that was love. Jesus,
God in him, loved and as his friends followed him, his followers found love and
as they found love, they lived his commandments and they loved one another and
they lived in love with one another.
A week ago Thursday evening, May 19, I attended the
YMCA’s annual meeting as part of the delegation from the Jamestown AM Rotary
Club. We had been invited to receive
their Partner with Youth Award for this year. In
his commendation, Mark Eckendorf, the YMCA’s CEO, noted that while the
connection had begun with constructing the play ground at the East Side Y on
Second Street, Rotary members have gone on to play with the kids, decorate
cookies, sing carols, play games with them at Christmas parties, skate with them
at Ice Arena outings.
Three years ago, the AM Rotary members agreed to
assemble and install the play ground equipment at the Y site on
The task was not easy. Rubble
from the building that once stood on the lot had been used to fill the basement
cavity making it impossible to bore the holes to set the playground supports. Plan
B. Cement mix to anchor the posts
had not been ordered so was not on site, requiring ordering and pick up from a
local supplier. Instructions printed
in color - some lines in yellow on white paper were nearly impossible to read in
sun light. A passing thunder storm
forced a delay that made an already longer day even longer.
Why then, do we continue our connection with the
East Side Y. Simple. We
fell in love with the boys and girls there. They
worked beside us, handing bolts and tools. They
thanked us profusely. Their eager
anticipation of this safe place where they could play and be was contagious. The
stereotypes of kids from that neighborhood were swept away. Love
happened, so we love one another.
Love. The
Greek language has three words English translates as love. The English
language has multiple and far ranging definitions. We
puzzle how to know if we are in love. Love
finally defies our comprehension.
Jesus says, Believe
in God. Believe also in me. Believe
in God, take the leap of faith, trust in the forgiving, acceptance, peace,
grace; and we move from a heart that could be troubled not only to a heart at
peace, but to a heart of love. We
are loved and we love with commitment and passion and devotion.
Part Two of what Tom began last Sunday - I really
have only one purpose in mind this morning and that is to encourage you to allow
your life to be steeped in Love that is God-- to love and live in the passion
and compassion, the cared for and caring, the redeeming and renewing that warms
our hearts, stirs our spirits and moves us at the very core of our being; to
love one another.
Believe in God. If
you love me, keep my commandments. . .love one another.
Amen.
(1) Believe in God, (TAS)