Twenty-Third Pentecost, Proper 25, 2005:

      I love the answers children give to certain questions.  A group of kids between the ages of 4 and 8 were asked, “What does love mean?”  Some of the responses were:

--Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving lotion and they go out and smell each other.

--When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.

--When my grandma got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails.  So my grandpa does it for her, even when his hands got arthritis too.  That’s love.

--When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.  You just know your name is safe in their mouth.

--Love is when mommy makes coffee for daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him to make sure it’s not too hot.

--Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

--My favorite is about the 4 year old whose next door neighbor was an elderly man who had just lost his wife.  The little boy went over onto the man’s front porch, climbed on top of the man’s lap, and just sat there.  When his parents asked him later what he had said to the neighbor, he said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

     Out of the mouths of babes!  I hope and pray we will listen to our children more. 

     It is a vital part of our theology that says only love will endure.  All else fades away, rusts, dies, and decays.   Apparently, heaven is so saturated with love that only love is needed.  Love is the crowning glory of life.  Not the jealous type of love that is sometimes a part of life, but the kind of love Jesus talks about in answering the question, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

     The answer Jesus gave is the shortened form of the “Shema,” the ancient creedal statement said every morning and every evening by the Orthodox Jew.  “Sh’ma Israel, Adonai Eloheynu, Adonai echad,” “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  Rabbi Jesus adds his own interpretation to the meaning, “and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul.  And the second commandment is of the same substance.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments everything depends.”

     There are three things in this passage from Matthew that can be of benefit to us as we strive to remember that we are to love God and to love others as we love ourselves.

     The first thing to remember is that love is about power.  We live in a culture that abounds in love-talk.  Most of the time that talk centers around the erotic manifestations of love, with a liberal dose of “Hallmark Greeting Card” love thrown in.  Popular songs, from yesterday and today, tell the story of “love, sweet love.”  The risk with the overuse of such a powerful emotion is that saying the words “I love you,” can become just a series of three words strung together devoid of truth. 

     Love is beautiful and powerful.  There aren’t many problems in the world that couldn’t be solved with the proper application of love.  Love is not just the common meeting ground between people, but love is also the point where we meet and are met by God.

     Anything that powerful might lead to the second thing about love; love can be painful.  It is not a spectator sport.  We cannot remain on the sidelines putting in a good word now and then for love.  Only when we become involved in life’s experiences does love come alive for us, in us, and through us.  The proper model for that kind of involvement comes from God himself who, in God’s love for each one of us, got involved in the mess of the world.  The common expression is that God got his hands dirty.  God took a great risk in loving us enough to be like us, but we too must risk suffering pain if our love is to mirror that of God.  Contrary to the sentiments so often expressed in our contemporary culture, love isn’t simply passion, affection, close-ties, and friendship.  It is more accurately described by words like unconditional and sacrificial.  That moves us beyond a narrow view of love as easy and natural. 

     Love costs!  It causes pain and we strive desperately to avoid pain.  Love requires that we sacrifice and we attempt to avoid sacrifice.  Love demands an unconditional commitment and by nature we fear committing ourselves so completely.  We search for a way out; we hedge our bets.  Love exposes our fragile nature and we do not like to be exposed.

     What is it then that can move us beyond fear so that we may love properly?  Remembering that love is action may be the place to begin.  If perfect love casts out fear then we can depend to God’s love because that love is perfect.  God’s love is uniquely personal, as if there were only one of us to love.

     We can learn a dependence upon God as the one who can teach us to love.  God’s love can infuse our lives, provide renewed purpose and vision, and be the reality out of which we mold our dreams.  That same love helps those dreams come true.  As long as we think we can love on our own, there is a distance between us and God.  There is no way to abide in God’s love but to do it.  There is no way to understand the freedom of dependence upon his guiding except to do it.  There is no way to understand the wonder of loving another person in the power of the Spirit except to do it.

     Some years ago and frequent flyer on Delta Airlines was taken back one day when he called to make flight reservations.  A voice said, “Thank you for calling Delta.  Our automated answering system is out of order at the moment.  This is a real person speaking.” 

     Remember as you go about living your life this week that all those others out there are not automated answering systems.  They are flesh and blood human beings just like you.  They have every right to be who they are and where they are.  They are your equals in every conceivable way.  They must be the objects of your love, for Jesus did not say, “You should love,” but, “You shall love.”

     It occurred to me this week as I was working on this sermon that I have gone a long time without telling you how much I love you.  This is such a special place.  You are such special people.  I cannot imagine being anywhere else.  Shirley and I are so deeply grateful for your love and we want you to know how much we love you.  We hope you know your name is safe in our mouth.  Amen.