Sermon from May 3rd - Woodlawn Christian Church

Well, here is the manuscript for the sermon that I gave here at Woodlawn Christian Church last Sunday (May 3rd, 2015).

Gail was here for the service along with my brother Merrill, Jr and his wife Karen.  We all had a good visit over the weekend and went out to eat at the Carnegie Cafe here in Lake City on Saturday night. Hopefully, Jr and Karen will be able to come and visit us here on a regular basis.  It's always great to see them and have some time to spend together.

I had an interesting week last week with getting to help out a stranded motorist, getting to go and visit with all of our elderly up at Shady Oaks (the retirement center here in town), and going to the Upper Midwest Disciples of Christ's Congregational Gathering on Saturday in Newton, Iowa.  I'm looking forward to learning more about the Region which is made up of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.  It's a huge territory and I feel sorry for the Regional Staff for all the miles they have to travel.

With that, I need to work on this weekend's sermon so I'll just post below the manuscript from this last week's sermon.

God's Blessings & Joy to you all,
Roy

Good morning once again.  It was a beautiful week here in Lake City and it was an interesting week.  We were able to help a stranded motorist, Leon took me out to Shady Oaks and introduced me to all of our members who are residents out there.  Also Jeff and I yesterday spent the day in Newton, IA at the Disciples Congregational Gathering.  I was able to finally meet in person Bill Spangler-Dunning and Julie Gibson who were instrumental in getting you all and myself introduced to one another.  

Today we're fortunate enough to not only have my lovely wife Gail with us but also my older brother and favored sibling, Merrill Junior, or JR as I call him, is here with us as well.  JR also brought along his long suffering... I mean, I mean..... his wonderful and loving wife Karen.  In all honesty, Gail is the one that we could most accurately describe as long-suffering. Fortunately, for both of us Karlen boys we married up, so to speak.  Remember as I mentioned last week, to not believe any stories about me that my brother might tell you.  Unless of course they're stories where I was being good and behaving myself.

Sanctuary of Woodlawn Christian Church, Lake City, Iowa
WmRoy Karlen photo

One of my earliest memories, I suppose I was about 4 or maybe 5 at the time, involves my older brother JR.  Who is not only older than I but wiser as well... though I am better looking. Anyways, it was springtime and the snow was melting and the creek near our home was running high.  JR and myself along with my older sister Laura were playing down by the creek.  We decided to have 'stick races' in the creek; we'd throw a stick into the water and then run alongside and see who's stick got to a certain spot downstream first.  Well, my stick got hung up along the bank and I went down to dislodge it... well of course I fell into the creek.  My loving sister came and tried to pull me to safety, which ended up in me pulling her into the creek with me.  

Well, now both of us are in the water and screaming for JR to rescue us.  That is when my wiser and older brother said those words that we'd all do well to remember in times of trouble.  He said to us “stand up”, for you see the water was only a bit over knee deep even on a little boy like I was at the time.  And isn't it so often in life that when we're feeling swept away, that if we'd only just “stand up” we would find that the raging waters are only knee deep.  Once we stood up, we just walked out of the creek.

Before we go any farther though, let's pause and go before the Lord in a moment of prayer and reflection.  

Creator God, Father, Abba, as we turn to your Word let the light of your love, grace and being, be upon us here. That through your love for us we may grow in our relationship with the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord we pray. Amen 

Okay this morning we're going to be taking a look at some verses in the very short but extremely impactful book of 1st John.  As I mention last week, 1st, 2nd and 3rd John are all believed to have been written by the same author, an individual who identifies himself in 2nd & 3rd John as 'The Elder'.  The traditional opinion is that these letters or epistles were written by someone from the same community as the author of the Gospel of John.  The date of these writings is unknown, but 1st John was alluded to in the writings of Polycarp in the year 135 ad.  There is though, no known mention of 3rd John until the middle of the third century.  But the writing style and vocabulary of the three speaks to them having a common author.  Because of the strength of 1st John, all three epistles eventually made their way into the accepted canon.

With that, let's take a look at our scripture verses for today.  If you have the 'Good News Bible' in front of you, you will find these verses on page 327 of the New Testament.

1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Okay, let's go through this now bit by bit...

Verses 7 & 8:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 

Well... I don't know about all of you, but for me 'The Elder' has just put forth what we might call a 'Tall Order'.  
1) Let us love one another
2) Love is from God
3) Whoever loves is of God & knows God
4) Anyone who doesn't love, does not know God
5) God is Love

One of my own personal sayings is this:
"If when reading scripture you never feel convicted, if you never see the hairy hand of God pointing a fat finger right back at you... well then you're not paying close enough attention."

I think these few verses do a pretty good job of convicting all of us.  Is there anyone among us who can honestly say they are filled with love always?  I doubt even the most kindly and gentle among us can live up to the standard that God has relayed to us through 'The Elder' here in 1st John.  If we do not love one another, we do not truly know God.  Fortunately for all of us, God loves us in spite of our struggles to love each other.  The reality is that this is an area that we all need to work upon.  And let us NEVER use the excuse that just because few can live up to this directive, that it means we do not have to try.  We have declared to be followers of Christ, that means trying our very best to walk in His path.  We are to try to model our lives and love around his example.

My late mentor Jesse used to say that Jesus never told anyone to worship him, but he did time after time tell people to follow him.  Jesse was afraid that we've gotten so concerned with worshiping Christ, that we've forgotten  to follow Christ.  Heck, all too often we don't even try because after all Jesus was perfect.  We fail to realize that following Christ is the most sincere and important way that we can worship him.  Will we be able to do it perfectly, no I rather doubt we can... but we sure as the dickens need to give it our best shot.

Verses 9 - 11:
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 

God sent Jesus to live among us not because we loved him adequately, but because he loves us perfectly.  He sent Him to us that we might live through him.  Of course there is the obvious over-tone of the substitutionary sacrifice here but there is also the idea that I just was hitting upon.  We live through Jesus because he has shown us the 'WAY' to live.  As we likely all are aware the early 'Jesus Movement' back when it was just the newest Jewish sect was called 'THE WAY'.

We are called to live like Christ and the first step in that is to 'love one another'.  

Verses 15 & 16:
15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

To 'abide in' means someplace where we reside, where we live, where we are at home.  If we love each other, then God lives in us and we live in God.

Verses 17 - 19:
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

Well that right there, is the basis for a pretty long sermon all on it's own.  Maybe someday we'll come back to these verses.  But for right now... let's just leave it that this pretty much dispels any idea of being scared into a relationship with God.  A relationship with God is based on mutual love and not fear of any kind.

Verses 20 & 21:
20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

If you were here with us last Sunday for the sermon, you might remember that I referenced the ending of the Gospel of John were John instructs Peter, and this directive is to all of us and not just Peter by the way... anyway he told Peter after asking

These verses here today are further proof-texts for my position that really the only way we can demonstrate our love for God is to love his children.

Here God is telling us that if we don't love our brothers and sisters 'who we have seen', that we can't truly say that we love God.  Loving God means loving his creation and that include those among us that are seem to be unlovable.  If we love God we will love our brothers and sisters, in spite of themselves and in spite of ourselves.

Let's please close with a prayer...

Dear Father, Abba, we come to you humbly, and freely accept the grace that you provide to us, grace given despite our sins against you in thought, word and deed.  Lord, we thank you for your love and forgiveness and we cherish above all else our relationship to you, we also thank you for the relationships that you have blessed us with in our families, our friends, our fellow believers and all our fellow human beings.  Truly, all are a part of your grand design and creation.  Dear God, let us always be mindful of your directions in this world and let us be your hands and feet in this place.  Father, we look forward to the day when through your direction all shall be reconciled to you and to each other.
We pray this in your most Holy and Blessed name, AMEN.