Authentic Love - Marissa Rohrbach

7/29/2019 Authentic Love - Marissa Rohrbach

1/4

I tried to resist the urge to spend the next few minutes talking about love.

But I just couldnt help myself.

Because I tend to get sort of annoyed with our society at times because we seemingly loveeverything.

Oh I LOVE that movie. Oh I LOVE that restaurant.

Its hard to tell what exactly LOVE even means anymore.

We sing about it. We talk about it. And we throw the word around a lot.

Its even the month of love isnt it? Surely youve seen all those little red hearts everywhere.

We talk about love, especially romantic love, as if it is something that happens to us.

We fall in love. Or we realize we love someone. It happens to us.

Seemingly requiring no special effort of us. And thats really only partially true.

Love features in all of our texts this morning. But its not the of the oops I slipped and fell in lovekind.

The agape sort of love that Paul refers to in our letter to the Corinthians is about somethingentirely different.

It is about a love that is made known in action.

Gods love may happen to us a gift we are freely given.

But when we love, because we are not God, that love is a choice. Love that is a vocation.

When we commit to offer our love to others we commit to relationship to making the effort timeand time again.

We do not love like God. For us it takes work and practice.

Paul makes two very bold statements in this text about this four-letter l-word.

He says first I am nothing without love. Nothing.

Nothing I have is of value nothing I do is of value if I do not have love.

In fact if youve ever had to listen for any period of time to a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal you know that actually the excess noise created is distracting and annoying.

Paul says to us this morning that we are nothing without love except a further distraction fromlove for the rest of the world.

This part is about his ability to love his commitment to love. In Pauls opinion if he does notchoose to love; he is nothing.

And so it goes for being a Christian. Without love, we are nothing.


2/4

And you can think of this love as the Biblical kind the kind Jesus talks about when he saysThere is no greater love than this than to lay down ones life for ones friends. (John 15:13)

So he starts with the hard work of what it is when we choose to love. Because we can only seepart of the picture.

And he says there is nothing I do that is of value if I do not try to love like God.

And then he tells us about Gods love for us.

In the hope that we will try to take it on as best we can and offer this love to others.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Gods love never ends.

Paul tells us that we see only in part. We know only in part. Which means we can love only inpart.

But God loves fully. Completely.

And Gods love bears all things all of the things we throw at it. Our frustration. Our doubt. Ourfaithlessness. Our failure. Our sadness.

Our grief. Our sense that we dont deserve anything better.

Gods love bears ALL things.

And even in the midst of that Gods love believes all things for us.

Gods love believes for us in our best selves. In our faithfulness. In our hopefulness. Gods lovebelieves we are better than we think we are. Gods love even believes that we will learn to seek

justice to live better to love more fully.

When you cannot believe in yourself, in love, or even in God God believes in YOU for you.

And so God hopes in you as well. Knowing you can be better and do better God hopes that youwill. Knowing that you are GIVEN the opportunity to know Gods love here in this place and inthe love of those around youGod hopes that you will Stop.

And look. And wait. And commit to it. Take part in it.

God believes in you and hopes for the best for you. Gods love sets up more good things for youthan you can possibly imagine.

And God hopes for the world in you.

And most of all Gods love endures all things. Love never ends.

Love never ends. It really is that simple.

Gods love is with you and for you in every moment.

Our text from Jeremiah is filled with faith and hope and promises of love for us all.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.


3/4

And before you were born I consecrated you.

Do not be afraid for I am with you to deliver you.

So, too did God know you before you were formed.

And so, too, did God consecrate you a prophet an apostle a disciple of the good news.

So, too, does God send you into the world in the name of this love. Hoping that you will live intoit.

God hopes that you will make time and make the commitment not only to love each other butto love God back.

As we near Lent, actually Lent begins the day before Valentines day you might think aboutyour Valentine plans for God.

Perhaps youre planning a dinner. Or to send cards to those you love. Or to buy a special presentfor a partner or spouse.

What have you planned for God? For Valentines Day? For Lent?

Like all relationships, our relationship with God needs tending. Plans to be together; to set asidetime to be alone; to share the contents of your heart. To share a commitment to love.

How will you give this love back to God and to the world?

How will you lean into the truth that we are forgiven, loved, and free?

I think for many of us the idea that we are simply loved beyond our understanding withoutany hope of ever earning or meriting this love it can come as something that is hard to believe.Hard to imagine.

And this is where your faith and your hope come in.

Our faith teaches us that this text from Jeremiah is truethat God knew us and loved us beforewe were even formed.

Our faith shows us, through scripture and tradition that there is nothing in the world more

important to God than us.

That our God loves us so much that She sent her only Son to die for us. To redeem us. And aSpirit to live in us and enliven our work.

This we know from our faith.

And hope hope in the Gospel message gives us something to hold onto especially on the baddays.

Jesus isnt having a great day in our Gospel text, actually.


4/4

Hes gone home and no one believes in him.

No one believes the good news he offers. No one wants to see it. Certainly, no one wants toparticipate in the work of love.

He calls them to a deeper understanding of God but they dont want it -- And they get so angryabout it they actually try to kill him.

Noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Distractions.

But Jesus had placed his hope and his faith in God. He knew that God loved him and loves us so much that there will be justice. And renewal. And peace.

And like Jesus and Jeremiah, God delivers us from the world, too. Frees us from the bonds andthe chains that limit our imaginations

Showing us a new way to love and a new way to live in the knowledge of Gods love for us.

A well-tended, carefully built, thoughtfully sustained relationship with God allows us to claim andexperience this love so that we grow into a deeper understanding of it so that we are able toshare it with others.

Like all other relationships in your life this one needs your time and attention.

Like Jesus and Jeremiah, the fruits of our efforts to build such a relationship with God are thefaith and hope to believe even in the difficult times that Gods love is ALWAYS there.

Even when we are unsure. When we feel alone. When we find it all just to be terriblyoverwhelming.

Like Jeremiah, we begin with faith knowing that God has formed us and loved us. Knowing thatGod has a special purpose for us.

We hope that God will tell us what to do will teach us how to love and how to witness to Godslove in our own lives.

A love that never ends.

For without love, we are nothing. Without love our hope fails. Our faith fails. It is this self-sacrificing, unconditional love that makes us who we are.

For this is God living through us giving love to the world that has not yet come to know this

love.

So, these three remain. Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Amen.

Documents

Authentic Love - Marissa Rohrbach