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If You Love Me by Rev. Carol Simpson, Associate Pastor 9 May 1999 TEXTS: Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-31 © 1999 C. Simpson

In the gospel of John, we read Jesus' words to His disciples as He prepares for His upcoming death. He says to them: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And in the passage from Acts which Tad read earlier, we have Paul's address to the Athenians in which he says, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, "To and unknown god." These two passages come together today in a dramatic way. Yes, we are called to love God and to obey his commandments, but before we can love Him and be inspired to obey Him, we must know Him!

The Greeks worshiped many gods and goddesses, and Paul is surely aware of that fact when he stands in the Areopagus addressing the crowd. Having observed in his travels around the city, an altar with the inscription "To an unknown god," Paul seizes the opportunity to proclaim to them the one God, whom he has come to know and to love through Jesus. Imagine their astonishment when he declares, "The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands as if he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things." These are radical ideas which Paul is proclaiming: One god who made all things; One god who has no need for shrines and sacrifices; One god who alone gives life and breath to all things....And as if that is not enough revolutionary thought, he continues, "From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us." Still more truly radical ideas! And then Paul adds,......"For in him we live and move and have our being......For we, too, are his offspring."

Paul is proclaiming a personal God. A God who plays an integral role in our birth, a God who lives not in some fancy stone temple, but among the people, a God who is not far off but close at hand. He is quick to point out that if we are God's offspring, we ought not think that God can be contained in silver or gold or stone images. God is greater than the mind and the imagination of mortals.

Paul proclaims these things to the Athenians with confidence because he has come to know and believe them through Jesus, the Christ. Paul's dramatic conversion experience on the road to Tarsus left him with no doubts. He had heard for himself the voice of Jesus, and his eyes had been opened to the love and power of God. No longer could he persecute those who followed Christ, but instead he became an ardent witness, eager to share and to proclaim the good news.

Christianity does not call us to worship blindly some unknown god, but rather invites us to enter into an intimate relationship with a God who knows us and loves us and who calls us to obedient service. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments...." In other words, If you love me, you will make me proud to call you my children. If you love me, you will not discredit my name by your behavior. If you love me, you will obey my commandments which I have given to you for your own good and for the good of humankind. Sounds a little like a lecture from a parent to a teenager! "Don't do drugs, because if you get arrested, you will bring shame on the whole family." "Don't engage in improper behavior which will reflect badly on your parents." "We made these rules for your own good!" There is in fact a very good parallel here. God loves us as a parent loves a child. God wills for us to do good, and God grieves when we choose wrong over right. God suffers when we suffer, just as a parent suffers for his or her children when they are hurting, or when we fear they are making bad choices..

Jesus has spent intensive time with His disciples, teaching them, mentoring them, guiding them, enabling them. Now it is time for Him to leave them; He will no longer be physically present for them to come to, for them to rely on. But Jesus offers them these words of reassurance: "I will not leave you orphaned." "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.".... The Holy Spirit will come to them, will abide in them, and will be with them forever as Advocate, Comforter, Guide and Friend.

We could think of this like a child leaving home for the first time to go off on their own to college, or to the Army. The parent cannot go along, but we know that the parent's heart and spirit will be with that child. We, as parents, hope earnestly that the teachings and learnings have been sufficiently internalized that they will stand the child in good stead while he or she strikes out on their own. For those who believe in Christ, we have the assurance that the Holy Spirit will be with us wherever we go. One of the reasons why we as parents seek to give our children a firm faith foundation is so that they can call on that faith when they cannot call on us. We trust God to care for our children when they are near and when they are far.

Jesus also tells His disciples: "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father." Again, we could draw a parallel. If we truly love our parents, we will respect them and abide by the rules which they establish for our lives, and they in turn will love us. When rules are disobeyed and trust is broken, love feels somehow compromised. But God doesn't stop loving us when we disobey, or disregard, or ignore His commandments. God grieves and mourns when we, his children, turn away, but God leaves the door open for our return, and God never stops loving us. One of the ways we come to know God is by acknowledging God's presence in our lives, by experiencing His love, and by recognizing His role in our lives as Comforter, Guide and Friend.

I have known the pain of having a child turn away. When Jennifer came home engaged one weekend during her senior year of high school, Mike and I struggled to understand what had driven her to make that kind of hasty commitment. She had broken up with a boy-friend of three years, just a week earlier, and we had never even met the young man to whom our daughter was now engaged! When she told me the news, I managed a weak laugh and a glib "You're kidding!" to which she replied by holding up a ring-decked hand and saying defiantly "Does this look like I'm kidding?" She soon moved out and into his home, then they got an apartment together, and a year later they purchased a trailer. In the meantime, Jen went off to Syracuse to begin college; but she dropped out after five weeks, and announced that she didn't need college, an intentional, well-aimed kick in the pants to her parents who hold a combined total of seven graduate degrees!

I can tell you that Mike and I agonized greatly those first few months. We wondered what we had done wrong? Where had we failed her? How could she so casually dismiss all the values we held dear? Needless to say, communication was at a real low point! But by that next January Jen had re-enrolled in college, and gradually dialogue resumed. She thrived on the intellectual stimulus which her father so readily provided. Two years later, at my ordination council, she let us know in a dramatic and touching way that she did both know and respect our values.

By the third year, trust was sufficiently restored for Mike and me to share with her some of our concerns about her relationship, and together Mike and I formulated a prayer which was on our lips every day: "Lord, if this relationship is not right, let Jen and Fred discover it before it is too late, and if it is right, convince us."

Jen and I now share a mother-daughter relationship made all the more special by the pain of several years of brokenness. We seem to hug with extra intensity to make up for the missed years of hugs....After five years, she left that relationship (sticking us with a trailer to sell!) and headed off to graduate school in Colorado where she has rediscovered the joy of living and of loving. We rejoice in the good things that God has been doing in her life and in ours, Why did I tell you all of this? Maybe because it's Mother's Day back home and no mother could be prouder of her two children that I am, or more grateful for the loving, supportive spouse and father which Mike is. But this is more than a tale of stress and strain and reconciliation. This experience was, for each of the four of us, evidence of God's love. We knew God intimately in the midst of that crisis! Each of us saw God's hand in the events of those five years, helping us keep the door open, helping Jennifer to hear love not judgment, helping Rob make his own choices in the midst of the chaos, and above all else loving, always loving. God loves us unconditionally, and that is how we are to love our families. I believe that through the pain and the anguish, the frustration and the hurtful words, we never stopped loving one another, and that allowed healing to occur.

We are so much more fortunate than the Athenians who worshiped an unknown god. We worship a living, loving God, who knows us and calls us by name. God sent Jesus so that we might learn of His love and understand His will for us. Through worship, Bible Study, prayer and the witness of other Christians, we have opportunities every day to encounter God and to know Him. We are invited to become disciples of Jesus Christ, and when we do so we enter into an intimate relationship with God. Our God loves us, cares about us, desires good for us, and offers us both forgiveness and salvation. In addition, God seeks to be part of our daily life if we are willing to open the door and let Him in.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments..." There is a challenge for each of us in those words. For if we truly know God, and love God, we bear a responsibility to live as He calls us to live and to love as He calls us to love. How fortunate we are to know Christ as our Lord and Savior. How wonderful to believe in His promise that God will send an Advocate to lead and guide us after his death. How awesome to know the Holy Spirit and sense the Spirit's presence and activity in our lives. Through Bible Study, worship and prayer, we can grow daily in our love and knowledge of God and of Jesus. But it is not enough to know and to love, we must also live according to the will and commandments of God. Reflect back to the words which Paul spoke to the Athenians. He emphasized to them that "from one ancestor God made all the nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live." Surely if God created us all to be brothers and sisters, made in His own image, He never intended for us to build walls that divide, or to declare one race superior to another, or to engage in ethnic cleansing. If we know God, and love God, then one of our primary responsibilities becomes that of loving one another.

One of the particular joys of being part of the community that calls itself The American Church in Paris is the opportunity to know people of so many races and nations. When you know someone as your brother or sister in Christ, when you have shared faith stories in retreats or small groups, when you have praised God together and prayed together, you can no longer make sweeping generalities of the type we've all heard, like: "All Americans are rich snobs," or "The French are cold and unfriendly," or "Blacks are dumb and inferior." When we get to know one another, we come to appreciate our diversity and to value the differing gifts God has bestowed on each of us. If the love of God reigned in all human hearts, there would be no more Kosovos. If we love, then prejudice becomes impossible. If we all loved one another as God loves us, then the world would surely be a happier and more peaceful place. If we love Christ, as much as Christ loves us, then we will obey His commandments, and love will become the operative principle in all our relationships, both with God and with one another.

- Let us give special thanks this day for those whom we love and for those who love us enough to show us their love. Let us give thanks for our God who loves us enough to send His Son to suffer and die for us. Let us love Christ as Christ loves us and let us keep His commandments. Amen.

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