“Stay in Love With God” Part 1
“Do Good”… conclusion.
This week, we conclude our lesson about “doing good” and begin exploring what it means to “Stay in Love with God.”
We’ve spent quite a bit of time investigating what it means to do no harm and to do good. I believe we can all say the challenge issued by God, and echoed by John Wesley. Just so we don’t think John made up the part about doing good… here are just a few of God’s references to “do good.”
18 Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said. Dt 6:18-19
14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Ps 34:14
3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:3-4
27 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
28 For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. Ps 37:27-28
12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. Ec 3:12-13
27 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you Lk 6:27
This is hard work!
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Ro 7:19
We need never give up!
10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:9-10
-MOVE -
Can we all agree that our culture today teaches each of us the we….me, myself and I are the most important person in the world, and so, I must take care of me FIRST! Remember the “I want it all and I want it now” advertisements.
Never mind the needs of others, let’s take care of ourselves first! Let’s take a hard honest look at our culture today. We’ve seen corporate executives rob shareholders and force employees into poverty. We live in a climate where which it’s easy to turn away from the social and economic injustice that does immense harm to many and provides rich benefits to few. We live in a culture tending to be destructive to the very self worth and dignity of every child of God.
If I’m honest, I have to admit that at times, I have contributed to a competitive culture that encourages greed and selfishness and discourages compassion, sharing, fairness, and commitment to the common good. How about you … honestly? It appears to me, we live in a culture in which anything goes as long as it is to my personal advantage…. And I don’t get caught!
Do you really believe the purpose of this campaign is for our well being? Of course not. This mentality, this cultural teaching… that bombards us through all kinds of media isn’t about our well being, it’s about marketing some new product. It’s about getting into our pocket books, it’s all about money! Don’t misunderstand. We still live in the greatest country in the world. Without a doubt! But don’t you think that as God has blessed this country with such grace we should be doing a better job of “Doing Good?” Thinking about the good others, the good of the community, the good of the world before we think of what’s best for us?
Now, all that being said, we need to understand that taking care of self and living selflessly are not opposites. Instead, both are essential elements of a healthy and productive life.
To love God with all life and to love neighbor as self does not mean to put down, deny, or devalue self. Instead taking appropriate care of self is to proclaim the heart of our theology as Christians and to place enormous value on self and on neighbor. God loves each of us very much and we love our neighbor as ourselves we are living in God’s will and we choose to live in the reign of God NOW. God continually invites us, woos us if you will, to live as a citizen of a new order in which God’s love for all creation is recognized and proclaimed in word….and deed.
Nowhere does God suggest that living in this new way, a way foreign to today’s culture, is to mean that self care is unimportant or unnecessary. Loving oneself demands caring for oneself in a culture and systems that are often destructive to self.
We must always know and remember each one of us is the object of god’s love. Each one of us is embraced in the unlimited, saving, and transforming love of God Each one of us is the “apple of God’s eye” and is always and ultimately safe in the strong arms of God.
How many of you have now, or every have had a picture of your favorite person stuck up on the door of your refrigerator? It could be a dear friend, brother or sister, child or grandchild. Whoever it was, it was someone very important to you. Someone you thought of often. Someone whom you would be willing to sacrifice for.
Understand this, if God has a refrigerator, your picture in on the door!
If we cling to this knowledge, know it to be true, then we are better able to see the distinction between denying self, and caring for self. Knowledge of my true self can free me from having to control everything and can place me on a path of greater trust in God and greater capacity to live fully and faithfully. Will it free me to do good, all the good I can? Well, surely, it is a great place to begin.
These first two rules are important, and bring immediate results; but without the third rule, the first two become increasingly impossible. Staying in love with God is the very foundation to all of life. It is in a vital relationship with God we are enlivened, sustained, guided, called, sent, form, and transformed. The writer of Psalm 127 declares, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”
We practice the rules, but God does the transforming, the renewing, and the building of the house, the house of our lives, the house of our church, and the house of our world.
While these first two rules are indeed essential, the truth is, we cannot fix on our own much of what ails us. No committee, no legislation will solve our woundedness, our brokenness or our divisiveness. Only living in the healing, loving, redeeming, forming and guiding light and presence of God will bring the redemption, healing, transformation, and guidance so desperately needed. That is why “Staying in love with God” is the essential third simple rule.
On Staying in love with God:
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Dt 6:4-9
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. Mt 22:36-38
Ordinance… to a military man, ordinance means firepower, weapons and munitions. But to John Wesley, it was a word that described the practices that kept the relationship between God and humans vital, alive, and growing. Wesley names public worship of God, the Lord’s Supper, private and family prayer, searching the Scriptures, Bible study, and fasting as essential to a faithful life. While we may have different names for our essential spiritual disciplines, these practices can become a life-giving source of strength and guidance for us. Wesley says these disciplines are central to any life of faithfulness to God in Christ.
Living in the presence of and in harmony with the living God, made know to us in Jesus Christ, and who companions us in the Holy Spirit is to live life from the inside out. This is the “secret” of life. All our material things, all our jobs, our education, money, cars… all these things come and go, change and disappear, turn to dust between our fingers says author Joan Chittister. All we truly have in life…..is life.
Living with God is to find our moral direction, our wisdom, our courage, to gain our strength to live faithfully from the One who authored us, called us, sustains us, and sends us into the world as witnesses who daily practice the way of living with Jesus.
Spiritual disciplines keep us in that healing, redeeming presence and power of God, that forming and transforming power that moves us more and more into the image of the One we seek to follow.
We may call our spiritual disciplines by different names, but we too, just as those of Wesley’s day, must find our way of living and practicing those disciplines that keep us in love with God… Practices that help keep us in that place where we may hear and be responsive to God’s slightest whisper of direction and receive God’s promised presence and power everyday and in every situation.
It is in these practices that we learn to hear and respond to God’s direction. It is in these practices that we learn to trust God as revealed in Jesus Christ. It is in these practices that we learn of God’s love for us. It is where our love for God is nurtured and sustained. Making these practices an integral part our way of living will keep us in love with God and assure us of God’s love for us in this world and the world to come.
This “simple rule,” this…”staying in love with God” rule will look different for each of us because each of us is unique. Still, there are some common essentials for all. Beginning with a daily time of prayer; reflection upon and study of Scripture; regular participation in the life of a Christian community, including weekly worship and regular participation in the Lord’s Supper; doing some act of goodness or mercy’; and taking opportunities to share with and learn from others who also seek to follow the way of Jesus. It is through these practices we find the courage, strength and direction to walk faithfully and with integrity in the way of Jesus.
Jesus was, and is yet today; accused of many things, but no one can accuse Him of neglecting His relationship with God. He must have learned early how important it was to stay close to God if He was to fulfill His mission in the world. He must have learned early of the power available to live the faithful, the fruitful, the good life and this power meant staying connected, staying in touch, and staying in love with His trusted Abba.
36 “Abba, ” Father, he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mk 14:36 Jesus found not only His strength and guidance, but His greatest joy in communion and companionship with His loving Abba.
Perhaps these experiences prompted His teaching about prayer and faithfulness and conceivably gave birth to His question to Peter.
From Henri J. M. Nouwen’s book, “In The Name of Jesus:”
"Look at Jesus. The world did not pay any attention to Him. He was crucified and put away. His message of love was rejected by a world in search of power, efficiency, and control. But there He was, appearing with wounds in His glorified body to a few friends who had eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand. This rejected, unknown, wounded Jesus simply asked, “Do you love me, do you really love me?” He whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God had only one question to ask, “Do you love me?”"
The question Jesus asked of Peter in John 21: 15, “Do you love me?” reveals a great deal about the essentials of OUR relationship with God. Three times Jesus asked, “Do you love me?” and three times Peter answered yes. Staying in love with God was the primary issue of a faithful life then, and it is today. For from such a life of love for god will flow the goodness and love of God to the world,
One who is deeply in love will be constantly formed and transformed by that relationship. And such a transformed life will be a natural channel of God’s goodness, power, and presence in the world.
It can be no other way.
