June 19, 2005 Sermon

NLCC III: the Love of Christ
John 15:12-17

Jesus made a clear statement in the passage from John we just read: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” At the Northern Lakes Community Church we mean to love like Jesus loved.

Later this morning we will baptize a grown woman. She has only recently started to believe in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Jesus loved her into her decision to get baptized. I believe we can honestly say that he did so through this church. One of her neighbor families belongs to Northern Lakes ; he is an elder and she, a deacon. Their sons have been friends for years. Her son and her daughter both serve in the Marine Corps. He has finished one tour of duty in Iraq and may serve another. Their neighbors have called upon our entire congregation to pray for him from the day he volunteered. That started the love.

The love continued when another elder spearheaded our congregation’s offering of the 40 Days of Purpose program. This woman joined one of the 40 Days small groups. Jesus’ love began to become real to her through the authentic yet humble Christianity of the people she met there. She began worshiping with us. The love of Christ became more real for her. She even commented that the sight of all those teens sitting in the front row and enthusiastically praising God really got to her.

The love of Christ grew stronger for this woman when she participated in our First Place Christian weight loss program. Led by a woman who at that time even have joined our church, First Place offered her Bible study and support. And the day finally arrived when the love of Jesus grew so large within her she just had to get baptized.

All of which brings us to this very morning. The woman in question is Viola Sherman. The family with the elder and deacon and friend that first connected her with our congregation is the Rosenbergs . The elder who made the 40 Days of Purpose happen in these here parts is Pat Thompson. The woman who initiated First Place is Sue Rice. The teens played their part; I suppose I did, too; so did all of you. Together we have become the Body of Christ, a spiritual family for Viola.

It has worked. Jesus often communicates his love through the church. We put it this way: (The Northern Lakes Community Church) prays that all we do will reflect the love of Jesus. Jesus put it this way: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” Jesus has given us the job of loving like he loves so more and more people will know his love. Then they can repeat the process all over again.

But how does Jesus love? Unconditionally. Self-sacrificially. “Great love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus laid his life down on the cross. He did it for his “friends”. Who are his friends? “You are my friends,” he says, “when you do what I command.” And what does he command? “That you love one another as I have loved you.”

Does it seem impossible that human beings could love unconditionally, that mere people could risk their lives for one another out of some over-wrought, emotional illusion like love? Consider the case of [ ] . His tank waded ashore on Utah Beach in the first wave of the D-Day assault, June 6, 1944 . It clanked up the sand berm, fired off a couple of shots at a German artillery gun, and then took a hit right on its track. The tank was disabled. [ ] and his men climbed out with their rifles and moved forward with the foot soldiers.

The Germans had invented a diabolical type of land mine the Americans called “Bouncing Betties”. Instead of detonating immediately when stepped on, as most land mines do, Bouncing Betties had little springs that sprung them up to about the height of a man’s, uh, well, just below his waist and then they exploded. Engineers later reported that the Germans had placed over 15,000 Bouncing Betty mines in the less than one hundred yards of beachfront that faced [ ] and his crew. The private in the lead stepped on one. It mangled his legs but he somehow survived and lay screaming on the sand. [ ] and his men faced a choice: try to rescue him or be safe and smart. [ ] rescued him. He walked out into the minefield, picked up his suffering buddy, and carried him to safety on his back. “It was the kind of behavior I expected of myself,” he told historian Steven Ambrose in a 1998 interview.

It was also the kind of self-sacrificial love that Jesus expects of all his people. When preachers leave churches they occasionally warn the ministers who follow them of certain people in the congregation. These demanding, difficult people talk about each other (and the preacher) behind their backs. They make trouble. Believe it or not, in the ministry field we call these people “unexploded land mines.” They have the potential to blow up, to cause injury, even to kill churches.

Should preachers speak of certain people as unexploded land mines? Should preachers—or any Christian—speak so bitterly about anyone? We should not, but we do. But what if we were to heed the call of Jesus instead? What if we were to love one another?

We do so much damage in our families, our churches, our marriages, our friendships. Then we compound the pain by talking about other people’s sin while ignoring our own. Jesus calls us to love one another sacrificially, to go out into the mine field and rescue our injured brothers and sisters, not to blow up in their faces.

At Northern Lakes Community Church we say we want to live out the love of Jesus. The statement in the bulletin, “We pray all we do will reflect the love of Jesus,” part of our church’s mission statement, means we will keep on trying to love like Jesus loves. Often, we succeed. Often, we fail. But this does not absolve us from the responsibility of continuing to try.

I call upon this church to take concrete steps to love like Jesus loves. First, pray for one another. As others have observed, it is very hard to stab your brother in the back while at the same time you have your hands folded in prayer for him. But pray not just to avoid injuring your brothers and sisters. Pray for the good it will do them—and you. Pray for their healing from whatever ails them. Pray to thank God for their presence in your life. Pray for peace in the church. Pray, pray, pray. Then pray some more.

Second carry one another. When others falter, do not grumble about the added burden their weakness places on you. Carry it—and carry them. Tommy, a guy I knew at Mayflower Van Lines, used to say, “Work is fascinating. I can watch it all day!” Do not let the other guy carry all the furniture. Do the work assigned to you and when others break down do their work, too. You can be sure some day somebody will have to carry your load. Besides, Jesus did it too.

Pray for each other. Carry one another. Northern Lakes Community Church does these things rather well at times. At times, we totally drop the ball. Let us take on the challenge of loving like Jesus loves for everybody, all the time. Jesus calls on us to do so. We call upon ourselves to do so! Let the baptism in which we are about to participate renew our love, love like Jesus’ own love.