Hello Friends,
This is Mike Gladman.
Also known as Brother Frederick James or Friendly Neighbourhood Monk in dogs.
Welcome to our ninth session in our series,
How Deep In Your Love.
As we consider what love looks like in John's first letter.
Now today I want to invite you to begin a little differently.
To how we usually might.
Before we read the scriptures today,
Before we reflect.
Just simply sit quietly for a moment.
Notice your breathing.
Notice the chair supporting it.
And feel the ground beneath your feet.
And the air filling your lungs.
Now there's a little truth hidden.
In all of this.
And that truth is that you are being held.
Not just by the chair or the floor or gravity.
But by the presence that's been holding you since before your first breath.
So in a couple more moments of just stillness and quiet.
I invite you to breathe in praying love holds me and out praying I rest in your love.
Love holds me.
I rest in your love.
Love holds me.
I rest in your love.
Amen.
So over the past eight days,
John's been leading us somewhere.
You've probably sensed it.
Every reflection's been quietly preparing us for today.
We began by discovering that God is the source of life.
Then we saw that God is light.
We learn to abide.
We learn to see ourselves as God's beloved children.
We learned that love.
.
.
Becomes visible through ordinary acts of compassion.
We learn to discern the voice of love.
And now John speaks a sentence that lies at the very centre of his letter.
And maybe even at the centre of the Christian faith itself.
So let's listen as we read from 1 John chapter 4,
Verses 7 to 12.
John writes.
Let us love one another because love is from God.
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God,
For God is love.
God's love was revealed among us in this way.
God sent his only son into the world.
So that we might live through them.
In this is love,
Not that we loved God.
But that God loved us and sent their Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved,
Since God loved us so much,
We also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
If we love one another,
God lives in us.
And God's love is perfected in us.
Now there's some sentences in this passage that are so deep we could spend a lifetime learning to hear them.
And the one that at the core of everything is God is love.
It seems elementary to point it out,
But it's worth doing.
That John doesn't say,
God's loving.
Or that God loves us,
Although both statements are true.
John goes much further,
Much deeper,
Saying God is.
Love.
So love isn't something that God does.
Love is what God is,
And friend,
That changes almost everything.
Imagine someone asking,
What's water like?
You could describe its temperature,
Its movement.
Its colour,
Its power,
I suppose,
But.
.
.
I mean,
Eventually you just have to point to the ocean and say,
This is water.
John is kind of doing something similar here.
If someone asks,
Well,
What's God like?
John doesn't point first of all to power or holiness or judgment.
Or even wisdom.
Points to love.
Saying this is what God is.
And that means that love is alter ego.
Than the universe before there were stars?
Love before there was time.
Love before there was creation.
Love.
Love isn't something that appeared when human beings came into existence.
Love is the eternal life of God.
Creation itself springs from the mind.
Love,
Redemption springs from.
Love,
The Incarnation springs from Love.
Everything begins from Love.
Love and this is why John's words really are revolutionary because if God is love then love isn't simply.
.
.
One part of reality.
It's the deepest.
Reality that there is.
It's the foundation beneath everything else.
Maybe we've spent so much of our lives thinking of love too small.
As humans,
We've reduced it to affection and romance,
Kindness.
Warm feelings.
I mean,
These are beautiful expressions of love,
But they're not.
It's fullness.
John invites us to go way deeper,
Loves the energy.
By which forgiveness becomes possible.
It's the courage.
To remain present when suffering is there.
It's the strength that refuses to take revenge.
Loves the freedom to bless those who can't repay us.
Loves the reason that the universe exists at all.
And it's interesting that the early church fathers and mothers were actually delighted in this mystery.
And they called this mystery.
Trinity.
They taught that God's always existed as an eternal communion.
Of self-giving love.
Love that doesn't begin.
When there was someone else to love.
But love that's always existed within God's own life.
This means relationship is woven into the fabric of reality itself.
We're not accidents.
Living in an indifferent universe,
We've been created by love,
Within love.
For love.
This also changes how we understand ourselves.
It changes how we understand everything else and everyone else,
The person who's serving your coffee.
The colleague who's sitting beside you,
The stranger walking past.
The family member who knows exactly how to test your patience.
Every person exists because love desired their existence.
And imagine what would happen.
If we truly believe that.
How differently we'd speak.
How differently we'd disagree,
How differently we'd forgive.
And then.
.
.
John says something that's almost equally as surprising.
He says,
No one has ever seen God,
Which sounds almost disappointing,
But then he continues,
If we love one another.
God lives in us.
Did you hear what John just said?
The invisible God becomes visible through love.
Not through arguments or impressive sermons or grand religious performances,
But through love.
Every act of genuine compassion becomes a revelation of God.
Every forgiveness,
Welcome.
Patient conversation.
Every hidden kindness.
Through it all,
The world catches a glimpse.
Of God.
We don't have to explain God perfectly because love becomes visible.
And that's why Jesus said,
They will know you're my disciples by your Love.
Not by your apologetics,
Your arguments,
Your influence,
Your success,
But by your love.
And there's one more phrase that we need to notice.
John says God's love is perfected in us.
Now,
That word doesn't mean flawless.
It means being brought to its intended purpose,
Completed,
Fulfilled.
Love reaches its goal when it continues flowing.
Imagine sunlight pouring through a window.
Now the purpose of the window.
Isn't to keep the light,
It's to let the light pass through.
And maybe our lives are like that.
We're not meant to possess love.
We're meant to become transparent to it.
And the more transparent we become,
The more clearly the world sees God.
Maybe this is the greatest calling that any human could ever receive,
Not just to believe in God.
But to become a living window through which God's love shines into the world.
So now just move into a time of silence.
And as you notice your breath,
With every breath in,
Receive love.
And with every breath out,
Share love.
Participating in that flow.
Let's pray.
Eternal God,
Love beyond all telling.
Thank you.
For revealing your heart to us.
Thank you that beneath all things,
Before all things and within all things,
There is love.
Help us to trust that reality,
That truth more deeply than we trust our fears.
Help us to see every person as someone created and sustained by your love.
Make our lives transparent to your presence.
Where there's darkness,
May your love shine.
Where there's loneliness,
May your love welcome.
Where there's hurt,
May your love heal.
And wherever we go today,
May those who meet us catch even the smallest glimpse of the God who is love.
And may grace,
Peace,
And love flow through us and be revealed in us today and always.
Until tomorrow,
Friend.
God be with you.
Bye for now.
