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Life-giving Love by Rev. Carol M. Simpson, Associate Pastor 21 May 2000 - Easter 5 TEXTS: 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8 © 2000 C.M. Simpson

A year ago this weekend, many of us met a young couple, Gary and Karen Hunt from California. Gary was a bright young executive with a US software company who had won a company sponsored all-expense paid trip on the Orient Express, so he and his 28 week pregnant wife were in Paris overnight on their way to a rendez-vous with a much dreamed-of and eagerly anticipated trip-of-a-lifetime. Well, it turned into a trip-of-a lifetime all right, but they never did make it to the Orient Express. That first night in Paris, Karen went into labor and son Garrett was born a few hours later. He weighed just 3 pounds 4 ounces, and though that is a viable size today, at twenty-eight weeks, he was very pre-mature. The prognosis went from guardedly optimistic the first day to dire predictions of serious impairment or even death over the next few days. The first ten days were an emotional roller coaster

The day after Garrett was born, Gary stopped by the church and from that moment on, this young family was embraced by the love and care and prayers of Christian community. We prayed each week in worship and many of us got to know the young couple well during what turned out to be their two and a half month stay in Paris. We've all heard or read the medical research about infants who are abandoned at birth and who fail to thrive, not just because they lack proper food, hospitals can provide that, but because they lack love. Without bonding, without human touch and affection, without love, they simply do not thrive, and some do not survive. Love is the life-blood of human existence.

Garett has never lacked love. Gary and Karen were at the hospital daily, and he immediately won the hearts of the whole medical team in the neo-natal unit. Despite lesions on his brain, and many other problems common to preemies, Garrett clung to life while his parents clung to hope. Today he weighs 23 pounds, loves to be tossed in the air and has a winsome chuckle. He cannot yet sit unsupported, or crawl, like others his age, but neurologists hold out hope that he will do all those things, and even walk eventually. Gary and Karen, two year old brother Brendan, and Garrett are loved and supported by their home church, and prayers continue to be lifted up for Garrett and his family. Karen wrote in an e-mail last week: "I tell our story everywhere. Anyone that asks how old Garrett is and spends a few minutes gets the whole story. And it's still quite a tale isn't it? What a way to evangelize. We always include the ACP in our saga. So many people will be visiting you-we give such glowing reports."

Today's two scriptures talk about life-giving love, about the kind of love Karen and Gary have given to Garrett, about the kind of love they have received from Christian communities, and about the kind of love we receive from God through Jesus Christ. Hear again the words from 1 John: "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His own Son into the world so that we might live through him. 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." Not only did God breathe into us the breath of life at the moment of our creation, He also, in an incredible act of unselfish love and generosity, sent His only Son, in order that we might have abundant life through Him. Without the life-giving love of God, what or who would we really be?

Today's passage began with these words: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." The love which is within us, the love which we choose to share with another, originates in God's love for us. "We love because God first loved us." Love is not something to be hoarded. We receive God's gracious and abundant love, and we are called to share that love with one another. We are not so much to be vessels to contain God's love as channels through which that love can flow. The writer of I John adds: "If we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us."

We do not exist as isolated individuals. We are part of a human community and as such, live in relationship with one another. Some relationships are casual, while others are deep and profound. Each has the potential to be life-changing. When our interactions with others are governed by love, we become channels for God's grace, and instruments of God's peace. When we visibly, tangibly and genuinely demonstrate love towards our brothers and sisters regardless of race, class or other differences, we slowly crumble the walls of prejudice which divide our society. When we become involved in ministry to the hungry, the homeless, the imprisoned or the poor, when we welcome a family like the Hunts and give them love, prayer, dinners in homes, friendship, and even baby furniture for their 13 month old son whom they eventually brought to join them there, we embody the gospel message and the love of God.

Agape, one of three Greek words used for love in the New Testament, and the form used most often, refers to a love which esteems and values each person. It is not to be confused with eros, erotic love, or with philio, brotherly love. Those two are reserved for special types of relationships. Agape is the kind of love which we are commanded to have for each and every person. We are called to value life itself and as such, to respect all life. We are called not to judge our brothers and sisters, but to love them!

At a conference I attended in Detroit a few years ago, hundreds of stories were shared about love in action. The South Oakland Shelter project in greater metropolitan Detroit takes homeless people off the streets at night and feeds and shelters them in churches. Over fifty congregations had signed up to take the homeless into their churches for a week at a time. Over five thousand volunteers were living the gospel as they shared in this ministry. They were putting names and faces on the homeless men, women and children of Detroit, and as they shared God's love in this way, they were providing much more than food and shelter, they were also providing life and hope.

The title of that conference was Living the Whole Gospel, Ministry in Action. Ministry is by definition social. It is done in the context of society, and it touches the lives of people. We are not called to serve buildings, or institutions or ideas; we are called to serve and to love one another. Living the Gospel means doing ministry. Living the Gospel, means loving as God loves us. Living the Gospel means taking seriously the call to discipleship, putting into practice the beliefs which we confess, and sharing the life-giving love of God..

In order to live the Gospel, in order to do ministry, we must ourselves be fed and nourished and loved. That brings us to this morning's Gospel text. As Jesus sought to hammer home His message to the disciples, He used the image of the vine and its branches, saying, "I am the vine and my Father is the vinegrower....I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them, bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." Picture in your mind a grape vine........ ...meandering, gnarled branches heavy-laden with full clusters of grapes. We know that the grapes could not have developed apart from the vine. In the same way, neither can we grow into the fullness of Christ and Christian discipleship unless we remain connected to the vine.

This text is the basis for a book entitled No Instant Grapes in God's Vineyard. It discusses the importance of spiritual disciplines to our life as disciples, suggesting that prayer, meditation and worship are keys to maintaining our connectedness to that vine. All growth is gradual, hence the title, No Instant Grapes. We need regular feeding and nurture in order to grow spiritually. We need to stay "plugged in", if you will, to the life-giving love of God. When we worship, when we pray, when we study the scriptures, we open ourselves to God and we are infused with an awareness of God's presence, not only in human history, but in our own individual lives, right here, right now. We become channels for the movement of the Holy Spirit, and for that life-giving love of God which is ours not to hold but to pass on.

It is in loving that we become truly alive. When our thoughts and actions are governed by love, genuine agape love, we cannot go wrong. When we look at the person next to us, or the beggar on the corner, or our irate boss, or irritable spouse, when we recognize those people to be our neighbors, in the Gospel sense, then we must love them, as God loves us. Replace anger with love; replace hatred with love; replace disdain with love and what happens? We begin to relate to people differently. When you share a meal and table conversation with a homeless person, as our volunteers in the Friday feeding program at the Cathedral are doing, much the way Jesus shared table fellowship with the outcasts of His day, you begin to see past the ragged clothes and unkempt hair to the neighbor underneath. If you love that person, you will discover the image of God in him or her, just as he or she will see God's image reflected in you. When that happens, both parties are nourished by the life-giving love of God.

Most of us know the pain of broken relationships. Either we have felt that pain ourselves, or we have seen it etched in the faces of friends or relatives. When love is replaced by anger or hatred or disdain, something inside of us dies. We feel disconnected, cut off, alone, and we're not sure how we will survive. But remember the parable: Jesus tells the disciples: "He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit He prunes to make it bear more fruit." We have all suffered losses: jobs, friends, spouses, parents, etc. Those losses inevitably cause pain, but the parable tells us that they are part of life. The key lies in remaining connected to the vine. Pruning is painful; struggle is difficult, but new growth is always the result if we abide in God and allow God's life-giving love to abide in us.

The parable continues: "Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." That's a pretty powerful image and surely a strong recommendation for staying connected to the vine. Without the life-giving love of God, we wither and die. With that life-giving love abiding in us and flowing through us, we enjoy the fruits of abundant life. Jesus says: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

"Ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you." The life-giving love of God makes the impossible possible. It offers hope in the face of despair, shelter to the homeless and food to the hungry; it holds out the promise of peace to those gripped by the horror of war; it binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted; it lies at the very core of all life.

The life-giving love of God comes to us in and through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The writer of I John states: "God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us." We who confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, have the assurance that God abides in us as we abide in God. We are nourished and sustained by God's life-giving love, and as disciples of His Son, we engage ourselves to share that life-giving love with others.

So let us be not just hearers of the Word, but also doers. Let us be fruit-bearing branches of the vine. Let us share the life-giving love of God with all whom we meet. Amen.

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