A Church That Loves
John 14:15-21
May 1, 2005
6^th Sunday of Easter
First Baptist Church, Wilson, NC

This week I made a pastoral call on a member who is being treated for cancer. The visit turned into a prayer meeting in a kitchen, for there were two other members of the church there too. We all had come to see the friend with cancer, but we all had our own burdens as well. One was worried about a son. Another was worried about a mother who was gravely ill. Whatever our individual burdens were, there was one common theme in what everyone said there in that kitchen: our church is a loving church! Each of us had known what it had been like to be brought to our knees by some crisis, and then to be lifted up into the embrace of this congregation. It is one of the great strengths of this congregation: when someone is in crisis, the rest of us know what to do.

In this congregation are some of the most faithful letter writers you’ll ever know. My daughter Whitney studying overseas in Spain has been touched by your supportive cards and notes. In this congregation are some of the greatest cooks you’ll ever know, who know how to communicate God’s love with a plate full of delicious food for a family about to go to the funeral of their loved one. In this congregation are some of the most dedicated deacons you’ll ever know, who make sure to call and to visit and to stand by whoever is in crisis. This is a loving church.

But how did it get that way? The short answer is: it became a loving church because it loves Jesus. If that sounds trite to you, let me ask you a tougher question: how is it possible to love a person called Jesus that none of us has ever seen? There was a boy in church who had a problem with being told about things he didn’t see. He was going to Sunday School. Unbeknownst to his momma, he had parked a wad of chewing gum behind his ear, to be chewed some more because he hadn’t gotten all the flavor out. One older lady in the church saw him get that gum and start putting it in his mouth. "Oh no son! That gum’s got germs! Throw it away." The boy grumbled, "Germs and Jesus, that’s all I ever hear around here, and I haven’t seen neither one!"

None us has physically seen Jesus, yet we talk about how he loves us and how we love him. We say it is because of Jesus that we can become a loving church. How can a person, or a congregation of persons, become more loving because of a single man who walked this earth thousands of years ago? How can you love someone you can’t see anymore?

That was the question in the scripture I am about to read to you. In John 14 Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciples. In a couple of days he would be crucified and buried in the ground. Even after he was raised, his disciples would see him only for a while, until Jesus ascended to be with the Father. So in John 14, Jesus was saying goodbye and preparing them for the time they will not see him again. He told them how to keep on loving him even though they would not be able to see him:

HOW CAN WE LOVE SOMEONE WE CAN’T SEE ANYMORE?

By keeping his commandments. Some of you have had the experience of making a promise to a loved one who has died. Before your mother or father or beloved teacher passed away, they made plain to you what they wanted you to do when they were gone. And once they were gone, you dedicated yourself to do what they asked because you love them.

So it was with the disciples and Jesus. How would they keep on loving him after he had gone to be with the Father? They would love him by keeping his commandments. The same has been true for every generation after those first disciples, including our generation. We haven’t even seen Jesus, but we love him. And the way we show our love for this One we cannot see is: we keep his commandments.

• Love your neighbor as yourself: because we love Jesus, we keep that commandment.

• Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you: because we love Jesus, we do that.

• Take care of the least of these my brethren, the sick, the naked, the imprisoned, the hungry: because we love Jesus we do that too.

• And most of all, my little children, love one another: because we love Jesus we do that too.

We love Jesus by keeping his words, and we keep his words because we love him.

This love is very concrete and specific. We are not loving Jesus by nostalgically clinging to a cherished memory of him. We are not loving Jesus by retreating into some private mystical experience and saying, "Just you and me Jesus and the rest of the world can go down the tubes." No, this love does not turn us in on ourselves; this love propels us out into the world.

This is the kind of love that cooks a delicious dish and takes it to a family in crisis. This is the kind of love that befriends a family at Hope Station and helps them figure out how to get through another month. This is the kind of love that seizes the moment with a friend and says, "Have I told you my story of what Christ has done with me?"

Though we cannot see Jesus, we can still love him, by keeping his commandments. That’s one way we are becoming a loving church.

HOW CAN WE LOVE SOMEONE WE SEE ALL THE TIME?

Of course, it is one thing to love the Jesus I cannot see through obedience to his Word and through the Holy Spirit. But it can be quite another thing to love the jerk next to me who I see all too often!! It can be hard to love one another at the workplace when you and your coworker are convinced that each other is an incompetent fool. It can be even harder to love one another at home. If we have a hard time with someone at work, we have the comfort that we can go home. But if we have a hard time with someone at home, what then? Once Mark Hatfield, the Republican Senator of Oregon, was asked "What is the greatest challenge for you in your life as a Christian and a Senator?" He replied, "Being Christian at home."

But I am convinced that there is an even harder place to love one another: church. Why? Because we have the both familiarity of family here, plus the higher expectations of being the family of God. When we have a family spat at home it is no fun, but we know such things happen in families. But when we have a family spat in church, we think we have utterly failed, because we are in church. Thank the Lord that God is easier on us than we are. God does not expect us to be free from conflict and anger. God expects us to keep on loving each other through conflict and anger.

This week marks the 145^th birthday of our church, which was founded in 1860. But this church almost didn’t make it past fifty, for it had a major split in the early 1900s. We don’t know what it was about. But we know that somehow, by the grace of God, the church found a way to keep on loving each other. In 1910 the church minutes record the reinstatement of the members who had split away. And then the minutes bear a unique witness to that reconciliation. The church agreed to destroy the minutes and records of their past strife — a powerful symbol of their determination to move on. Entered into the minutes are these words: "We enter upon the duties of the new year, forgetting the past, uniting our forces."

How could our church, or any church, be able to love each other despite all our human failings and disappointments? By obeying the words of Jesus. Because we love him, we keep his commandments. Because we keep his commandments, we love each other. It is not a matter of mushy feelings, but of concrete acts of obedience. As we do the Word of the Lord in obedience, we begin to enjoy the experience of living so close to the Father and the Son that we feel we are living in the midst of their love.

And so, you see, by loving acts of obedience to Christ, it is possible to love Him whom we have never seen. And by that same obedience and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, it is even possible to love those whom we see all the time, namely our coworkers, and our family, and our family in Christ.

HOW CAN WE SEE AND LOVE STUDENTS?

Now let me take a turn in this message, for it is Barton Baptist Student Union day. If obeying the words of Christ and enjoying the presence of the Holy Spirit are making us into a loving people, then that love will overflow beyond this fellowship. As we keep on growing into a loving and forgiving people, then that love will spread beyond us, from Judea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth, or, at least to Whitehead Avenue and Barton College!

Or put it this way:

• If we can love a Jesus we’ve never seen by obeying the commands of Christ,
• If we can love people and family and church family we see all the time by obeying the commands of Christ,

• then we can certainly love college students whenever and wherever we see them, for that also is obeying the commands of Christ!

Again, I am so glad for the revival of Baptist Student Union this year. I am so glad for that hardy bunch, mostly freshmen and sophomores, who have a great dream for a positive and winsome witness on campus. I am so grateful for all that Tom Riley has done to support you students. I am so proud of all you members have done with food and other kinds of gifts (but especially the food). And by the way, did we thank you for the food?!

Your witness as students among us, the way you set about obeying the word of Jesus and the way you embody the presence of the Holy Spirit -- you help us to feel closer into that abiding presence of the Father and the Son that this passage promises. We thank you for being who you are, for you help us come closer to God through your own faith. And we would count it a great privilege now to share with you a sign of that close communion, through sharing the Lord’s Supper with us today. Let us draw near to the table of Christ…

-- Douglas E. Murray