Let's Talk About Love
John 3:16
Romans 8:31-39

Rev. Dr. George Hollingshead
October 21, 2007

This is indeed a special message today -- special because I want to speak about love.  Everything else is in life is unimportant.  And when we in the Christian church wish to speak about love we have to begin by thinking about God’s love.

God’s love is the first love of all loves.  Before there was anything, even when there was a great void, God showed love in that he created all things and then declared that all that he had created was good. God loved what God created and God still loves all that God created.  That is one of the reasons why we have to be smarter about how we care for this planet on which we live.

This God of love has shown love to humankind through out the ages.  We have spoken in past messages about how God saved the Israelites in the desert.  God also saved Noah and the animals from the flood. He gives the Hebrew people the Law – those Ten Commandments – not to chastise them but to show them a more loving way to live as his covenant people.

Beyond all the examples of God’s love that we could name in the Old Testament, the best and finest examples of God’s love is seen in the New Testament.  Here we see that his love was, and still is, a gift.  And that gift is best summarized in that one verse from the Gospel of John.  We know that verse.  Many of us have memorized is as a child and our hearts are warmed when ever we hear those words.  Whenever the verse is set to music our hearts and minds ring out in joy.  “For God so loved the world that he gave…”.

George Appleton once wrote, “Jesus Christ is the supreme gift and is the word of God.  He is the beginning and the end.  In him the timeless love of God is disclosed in terms of the created order in which human life unfolds…”.

God so loved…  That means that God greatly loved.  It was a love beyond the ordinary love that we would normally attribute to God.  God greatly loved. God wholly loved.  He loved so much that God gave.  God’s love is a giving love.  To know God is to know about love.  To believe in God is to believe in the one who have given and who still gives with a great and eternal love.

We say that we love, but that does not necessarily mean that we show that love.  Take a survey and ask fathers if they love their sons.  How many fathers would easily say, “Of course I love my son.”  Then ask the son if he knows and feels that fatherly love and you may get a very different answer.  But God has a love which is so giving that it is a demonstrated love.  It is seen and it is felt. It is a giving love that has no end.

God so loved this world that he gave himself.  It is the gift of the babe of Bethlehem.  It is the cross of Calvary.  It is a sacrifice of love. It is God in the flesh. 

Thus knowing about God’s love we are now prepared to ask, “What about our love?”  Does our understanding of our love and the way we show love, does it reflect God’s love?  We are not thinking about all those different kinds of loves that we have.  It is unfortunate that in our English language we have only one word for love.  In the ancient Greek there were several words for the different kinds of love.  But the scriptures speak of God’s love as agape.

It is not like the kind of love that we have for our favorite desert or that ideal vacation spot.  We are thinking beyond those loves to a deep love that we have those relationships that are hugely meaningful to us.  God’s love challenges us to an even deeper love.

And it is beginning to be that time of the year that we spend hours thinking and planning on how we are going to show our love and affections.  Already the catalogues are daily in the mail showing what we can buy as gifts for Christmas. We do not expect that those gifts to exemplify the depth of our greatest love. 

I can remember when I was a child of about five or six years old our family would drive off the visit the grandparents on Christmas Day.  I, like any child, was excited about the gifts I would receive.  And like most children of my age I was into toys, candy and perhaps even money.  My one grandmother who wanted to show me not only her love for me but also her concern for my welfare (that for now seems like three years in a row) her gift to me was long winter underwear. You know that old kind with the “trap door” in the back!!! That was not the expression of her love for me for which I was hoping.

Lots of the best love gifts are not those which are purchased at the mall or found in catalogues.  Love can be expressed by the giving of ourselves – like going to help with the rebuilding of destroyed homes on the Gulf Coast, or by tutoring a child, taking time to coordinate a blood donor drive, committing your self to the choir, visiting bedridden patients, committing your self to take fifteen minutes each day to pray for those in need like those printed in the church’s bulletin.

It is indeed right and proper that we give in love wholly as God has given.  To give all our love wholly to all those who are dearest to us is a Christian outward expression of that love we have in God.  So it is not right to say to one child of your family, “I am sorry that I can only give you a small portion of my affections because I have to give so much love to your brother or sister, to your mother or father, to other so that you can only get a small slice of my love.” We would never think that.  We give wholly to all our children and to their special needs.  We give to our spouse, to parents and to others who are dear to us.  We can do that when we love with the love of God.   Down deep in us there is no limit to the love we can give, as there is no limit to God’s love for us. 

Do you see how all this makes sense to us when we think of our relationship God’s community of faith here?  Truly this is a sacred a place and this place is as important to a relation as is your relations to other people. Here we are particularly aware of the love of God and of the God who sacrificed his only son.  For us Christ is a love gift.  Christ dies a sacrificial death because he loves.  When we gather here for the celebrations of Christmas and Easter and even Good Friday we come here to celebrate God’s love.

We know that this congregation is about to enter a new era. In February you will have a new Interim Minister who will be working very hard with you to the day when you will call a pastor.  You can welcome these new leaders into a loving and committed congregation.  You can help demonstrate to these leaders that this is a congregation that is willing to show them that it wants to flourish, and that it is committed to the mission of Jesus Christ.  You can show that clearly because in a few weeks you will receive your 2008 Financial Commitment Cards in the mail.  They will know by these results that even before you see them, before you know them, that you want them. 

When a mother and a father are near to the time when their child is about to be born, they scurry around trying to find all that is necessary to have that child come into their home where there is love, and where there are all the necessities for the new child to have great comfort, protection and love.  No one would ever say, “I’ll buy that new mattress and that crib after the child comes and to see if that child fits into our home or to wait to see if I will love that child.  As a mother and a father you commit yourselves to do what ever it takes even before that child comes into you home.  When you get your pledge card, that is the time that you are asked to show your love and your commitment even before those new leaders come -- even before the New Year comes.

Soon we all will be caught up in Christmas shopping. We want to express our love.  I would hope that you will express your love of God, your love of this place, your love, your sacrificial love on that card.

Today I am asking you to consider stepping up in your giving for next year.   Let me give you one reason for you to go beyond anything you might well have considered.  I will speak of Karen Nelson but also I could speak of Marcel Barbezat and Susan Quinn.  I know that you love Karen Nelson.  I know how effective she is in her ministry here.  I have seen your affections to her.  In all the years that she has been with you, loving you, and you loving her, she has not had one single pay raise!!  How do you demonstrate your love to her?  And to Marcel and Susan?  When you get your Commitment Card you can show your sacrificial love.  November 11th  is the day when we not only will talk about love but we will clearly demonstrate it. We will sacrifice in joy.  We will sing and praise God.  And we will welcome our future.  Amen. 

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Last modified: September 28, 2008