Scripture Reading: John 14:15-21
Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! While our years of marital bliss have not yet surpassed the single digits, each year when May 17th comes around, I feel a sense of pride and affection for who we are becoming together and how far we have come since we began this adventure. Along the way, we have learned many important lessons that have strengthened our partnership and deepened our appreciation for each other; one such example relates to communication. You would think that two fairly articulate, caring people would be able to communicate well with each other, especially when it comes to expressing feelings. What we didn't realize early on, though, is that we spoke different love languages. Figuring out how to express just how much someone means to us can be a fun exercise in creativity, but it can also be a source of stress, confusion, or flat-out miscommunication if we do not speak the same love language as our significant other. Recently this topic of love languages came up in a Bible study, and we chimed in our collective knowledge of Dr. Gary Chapman's book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts. In brief, we recalled that there are five possible love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. Each of us has a primary love language that we use most often to demonstrate love for someone. For example, we may be more likely to communicate our love by giving a hug if our primary love language is physical touch. Or if it is acts of service, we may show someone we care by making them a delicious meal. This idea of each of us being oriented to expressing love in a particular way can be an eye-opener in itself, but the concept that seems really revolutionary for many relationships is that we are more likely to perceive love from someone else when it is shown to us in our love language. Many couples find that once they understand this idea, they realize how they have been "miscommunicating" their love for each other by not using their partner's primary love language to show they really do care. Our Bible study leader posed the question to us, "What if obedience is God's love language?" We all sat in stunned silence, considering this thought. Obedience is not a word that usually comes to mind when I think of modern ideas of love. It can carry negative connotations of inequality, abuse, domination, and punishment. How many of us remember times in childhood of being told to obey a parent, "or else..."? And perhaps some of us have an unhealthy relationship in our past where we were expected to obey unreasonable demands from a partner. There are many examples we could offer of instances where obedience is distasteful, or even harmful. However, I don't think this is the kind of obedience that God has in mind. "For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess." (Deuteronomy 30:16) Moses is speaking to the Israelites here at the end of their 40-year wandering in the desert on their way to the promised land. They were a chronically disobedient group of people, much like us, and Moses is giving them instructions on how to live faithfully in this new era of their life together. There is a clear connection Moses makes between obeying God and receiving life, prosperity, and blessing which I think still holds true for us today. This is not to say that we will avoid all pain and suffering by being obedient. We live in a broken world where evil exists and causes havoc in our lives, and Christians are not immune to this reality. And we must be careful not to reduce our relationship with God to a focus on wish-fulfillment, expecting wealth and good fortune because of our faith. But God promises that we will receive good things by obeying His commands. In the larger passage from Deuteronomy, a choice is offered to us to obey or not obey, and the consequences for each are laid out for our consideration. Lest we think that God is only concerned with our compliance, though, we should also consider a passage from the New Testament that explains the connection my friend noticed between obeying God, showing our love for Him, and the good gifts this will bring about in our lives. At one point in John's gospel, Jesus is talking with his disciples about what to expect after his death and resurrection, and he describes how he will send the Holy Spirit to help guide them in their lives and ministry. In order to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples must show their love for Jesus and for God by obeying the commands Jesus has given them. As Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever--the Spirit of truth... Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." (John 14:15-17, 21) Along with connecting the ideas of obedience and love, Jesus is introducing an idea that we refer to today as the Trinity - we know God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (three persons in one God). This is a very challenging concept to wrap our minds around, so for more explanation, click here. Jews in Jesus' time were familiar with God the Father, and Jesus established himself as God's Son through his life of ministry, death, and resurrection. Here Jesus is teaching the disciples about the third element of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. As followers of Christ today, we are able to be in a close relationship with God the Father because of the sacrifice of Jesus the Son on our behalf, and we have communication and connection with God the Father and God the Son through the gift of the Holy Spirit. In this passage from John, though, Jesus makes it clear that in order to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit, we must show our love for God through obedience to his commands. This, Jesus seems to say, is God's love language, the way He will know that we love Him. How good are we at obeying God's commands? We may feel like we are showing God our love in many ways, but are we speaking His love language by obeying the commands He has given us? When I think about my own faith life and how I show my love for God, I think of the time I set aside to study scripture, my efforts to pray regularly (this one is a struggle for me!), and attending my church's worship services. I look for ways to serve others who are in need because I appreciate how God has lovingly met my needs. Personally, I also enjoy singing hymns and praise songs, and I feel like that is a way I communicate my love for God as well. These are all good things and important practices of the Christian faith, but the Jesus' words cut across all of these things and stop me in my tracks: "If you love me, keep my commands... Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me..." If obedience is God's love language, then I must ask myself: Am I obeying God's commands? This is a very tall order when I consider what all of these commands include! For a quick refresher on one major example, the Ten Commandments, click here. There are many other commandments in the Old Testament, and Jesus gives many commandments in his teachings in the New Testament. To "walk in obedience" to God is no easy task! When I look over the Ten Commandments, for instance, I notice some that I feel I am good at keeping, like verses 13 and 14 that tell us not to murder or commit adultery. Surely I can say with confidence that I have never broken these commandments, right? Well, that is where another reading this week from the gospel of Matthew makes me question just how obedient I really am. In this passage Jesus breaks down the deeper implications of these two commandments against murder and adultery: "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. ...You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28) Now the bar has been raised and I am no longer sure where I stand. I have not physically murdered anyone, but I have definitely been angry with many people many times. (Being impatient and short-tempered is a real struggle for me.) According to what Jesus is saying here, any time my frustration at someone has erupted verbally or even in my heart, I have become a murderer. Likewise, any time I have admired anyone physically other than my husband (which is hard to completely avoid in our media and entertainment culture today), I have committed adultery. If I am being honest, I am guilty as charged. I know these commandments are given for our good, and I want to keep them to show my love for God and receive God's blessing. But who could possibly live up to such standards? No one. In fact, it is impossible for any of us because as humans we are imperfect, flawed and fallible. We will inevitably fall short of all these expectations and fail to keep God's commands. Where does that leave us then? What hope do we have of expressing our love for God through obedience if we will always at some point disobey? How will we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we may have a long life in the Promised Land? How will our broken love and unfaithfulness be restored? Through Jesus. If we confess our shortcomings, seek forgiveness, and ask for another chance in the name of God's Son Jesus and his sacrifice, it will be given to us. So we pray with the psalmist: "Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart-- they do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me." (Psalm 119:1-8) There are many commandments named in the Bible. As followers of Christ we are expected to obey them to show our love for God and receive the blessings He has to offer us in this life and for eternity. We cannot do this on our own, though, and God offers us help and a way to overcome our failures through His Son Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God who we obey out of love and who never forsakes us. Amen. What are your primary love languages? How are you at speaking God's "love language" of obedience? Does it change your attitude toward God's commandments to think about keeping them as an act of love? Which commandments do you struggle with the most? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to share them here or on the Contact page.
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I love to be surrounded by nature. Long walks in our large arboretum-style public park revive my soul and reconnect me with a sense of what is good, honest, eternal, and God-created. Every time I visit the park, I conclude I should do it more often. This then leads me into admiring others' landscaping in their yards on the way home and thinking about how I would like to have such well-tended greenery at my own home to give it a park-like feel. I give up on this idea pretty quickly, though!
Although I appreciate the presence of plants and trees, I am very unskilled at growing and maintaining them. Even some of the hardiest perennials have inexplicably withered under my care with no reappearance the following spring. As we transition from April to May, I am looking at my flower pots from last spring - the ones that were given to me filled with a beautiful variety of vegetation already nurtured and blooming - and wondering if I dare hope and invest in a new round of growth this year? You see, I am aware of my non-green thumb, and logic tells me to conserve my resources and not to give time, energy, and money to cultivating my own plants. It would just be wasteful, fruitless, and frustrating. Reason and experience tell me I'm better off focusing my attention elsewhere. But still, I wish...I wonder... There are many analogies I could draw from my experience with growing (or not growing) houseplants. One particular verse from the passage in 1 Peter that stands out to me, though, is at the end when it describes how we are born anew in Christ: "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Peter 1:23) This reference to imperishable seed caught my attention. What if I could plant with seeds that were imperishable? Then, no matter what I did, however many or grievous mistakes I made in the care of my plants, they could always be restored to health again? I imagine the brittle brown leaves I forgot to water or the puffy, yellow leaves I lovingly over-watered slowly transforming back into the vivid, nourished green they were intended to be - over and over, time and again, restoration and a fresh start. This, I think to myself, sounds a lot like grace! Through Christ we are given the gift of grace that lives and endures, as the verse says, through all kind of trials and circumstances. As Paul's letter to the Romans explains, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 5:37-39) From Paul's message here we can infer that neither can our own sinfulness separate us from the love of God as demonstrated through Christ's sacrifice which has imparted grace to us. There is no sin in our lives so great that God's grace through Christ will not heal our brokenness, wash us clean, and make us new. This is the gift of repentance and restoration. This is the gift of imperishable seed that blooms again and again. And thank goodness! We have this assurance that gives us not only hope for ourselves, but the ability to live and endure all kinds of circumstances through the help of Christ, the Word of God, the author and perfecter of our faith. It is this sense of gratitude and this assurance of our capacity to endure that allows us as followers of Christ to give of ourselves to others with a generosity of spirit that points to our Creator God. By sharing radical love with others through acts of kindness, justice, and hospitality, we are glorifying God and helping to spread the imperishable seeds of hope in Christ. "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart." (1 Peter 1:22) Because of grace, we can be "purified" in our faith. If we are obedient to God's commands for our lives and the reality of Christ crucified, it will create a new heart in us that is capable of sincere love for others. As followers of Christ, we are called to "love one another deeply, from the heart" as he did, and we are capable of it through his spirit which lives in us. It is this love that transforms the world. In my current state as a gardener, I know that the plants I tend will wither and die. They will not bear fruit. They are perishable, and I am not adequately skilled for the task of caring for them. Likewise, in my human state, my ability to love others is limited. Try as I might, my human love inevitably dries up and withers to a state of being shallow, selfish, and insincere. I may start with the best of intentions, but they will ultimately fail me, and I will come up short in a time when more love is needed. Do I have experiences of genuine love for others? Absolutely! But loving others deeply and from the heart is an exhausting, painful, discouraging, and unsustainable experience without the help of God through Christ. If I only draw on my limited human abilities to love others, my efforts will come to nothing, and any growth that comes of it will fade and pass away. As Jesus says in the gospel of John, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5) If we instead draw on the imperishable seed, the deep well, the living and enduring Word of God which is Christ Jesus, we will have the ability to truly love others deeply and from the heart. Though people will disappoint us, hurt us, turn us away, we will be able to love them sincerely anyway. Though we are pulled in many directions and distracted by our own selfish desires, we will be able to love them deeply anyway. Though loving others can be demanding on our time, energy, and resources, through Christ we will find we always have more to give. And our shared experiences of this love will transform us, those we are loving, and indeed the whole world until it reflects the restored beauty of the image of God. This spring as we tend our gardens, flower pots, and houseplants - or maybe just admire others' from afar - may we remember to tend our inner selves as well. Let's plant the imperishable seeds of Christ in our hearts and minds so that God's deep and abundant love will overflow from our spirit and spread the seed of His saving grace wherever we go. And if we stumble along the way, let us return to God with repentant hearts and rejoin the vine of Christ to be renewed and replanted. How wonderful to imagine the beautifully transformed life this will create here on Earth and the beauty of a life perfectly restored with God in eternity! Thanks be to God! What spiritual practices help you tend to your inner self? How are you planting imperishable seeds in your life? Do you have times when you have struggled to love others deeply, from the heart? How has your faith helped you love others? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to share them here or on the Contact page. |
AuthorRachel is a wife, mom, and follower of Christ. She is active in lay leadership in the United Methodist Church. Archives
October 2017
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