That 4-Letter Word

April 26, 2015

Kim Kardashian at her daughter's baptism.  

1 John 3:16-24

¹⁶We know love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. ¹⁷How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

¹⁸Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. ¹⁹And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before God ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and God knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; ²²and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

²³And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Sermon: “That 4-Letter Word”

I am so excited, y’all.  I’ve found a new role-model in Christianity!  She went all the way to Jerusalem to have her son baptized, and even visited the place legend says Christ’s was buried.  She mentions God sometimes, and definitely knows her Bible: she can quote John 3:16 and everything!

Do you want to know who my new faith role-model is?  Kim Kardashian.  Yep.  That celebrity made famous from a less-than-reputable video once-upon-a-time, whose family is reality show royalty, follows Jesus.  Well, I mean she took an Instagram photo at her son’s baptism, so I think that means she’s a Christian.  It’s really easy in our country to say you’re a Christian in a very public way.  It’s easy to recite John 3:16 like the password to get into a members-only club.

Kim actually is a role-model for many.  (I’ll admit this makes me a little sad.)  She recently released a book called “Selfish” which is made up entirely of 365 selfies (that is a self-taken picture) of her, one for every day of the year.  The first 500 autographed copies sold out in under a minute for $60 each.  That’s $30,000.  She lives up to that title, too, because she recently bought herself a $407,000 2015 Rolls Royce Phantom.  As you do.  But she knows John 3:16 by heart.

Clearly, knowing John 3:16 just isn’t enough.  Our text today reminds us that John 3:16 also needs 1 John 3:16.  You see, if John tells us what the gospel is, 1 John tells us why it matters: how it changes the way we live, now in this life.

We know love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

It’s certainly good to know that God loved the world so much that Jesus would come and die and rise again that we would have eternal life.  But if that knowledge becomes only something we wave like a golden ticket into heaven – or something that gets us more Facebook friends or instagram followers-- we miss the abiding, heart-changing truth there. 

If we are worth Jesus laying down his life for, so is every single person on the planet.  And if God thinks they’re worth dying and rising for, so should we.

1 John makes it clear:  How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

In the Greek it is stated even stronger, asking how God’s love can possibly abide in someone who sees their brother or sister in need and shuts their heart to them.  Not helping when we can goes against the heart of the gospel.  But closing our hearts to need and injustice to the extent that we don’t even see it or feel it: this makes a mockery of the gospel. 

Like a patient teacher wanting to be sure we really get the point, 1 John urges us,

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

It is not enough to say we’re a Christian, no matter how publicly we do that.  Words and speech: our world has plenty of this.  Too much, actually (says the preacher as I preach!).  Truth and action is what we really need. 

All the words we say in this place: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…the peace of Christ be with you, and also with you”…these words have no power if we don’t translate them into loving action.

If we think we can love God without loving our neighbor, we might as well write our own “Selfish” book. 

Embodying that 4-letter word requires much more of us than just reciting a Bible verse (even if it is a great one).  It requires much more than just wearing our Christianity like a label on our ballot or a hashtag on our instagram.  It requires that we actively love as completely as our Risen Lord does: laying down our wealth, our privilege, our pride, our very lives for others. 

Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it?  Sure, I can let someone into my lane in traffic, I can say “good morning” to a stranger and I can even be intentionally pleasant to someone who drives me crazy, but laying down my life?  I’m not sure I could do that for my dearest friends, much less the patronizing person who says scripture reveals that I should, as a woman, be silent in church.  You can all picture that person for you: the voice of criticism and frustration. 

If we’re called to hold John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16 together, as I believe we are, this means being willing to lay down our lives for that person.  For the Kim Kardashians of this world.  For our vocal political opponents.  For those who’ve hurt us with selfishness and for those whom we have hurt with our own.

Loving in truth and action means laying down our lives for them.   Because as 1^st John reminds us, “we know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us”…all of us. 

That is our example (not Kim Kardashian).  And that is our path: the constant reorientation of our lives in every moment away from our own selves to others.  And like flowers instinctually turning toward the sun, we will see that it is in turning to those around us – even the most trying of people – that our hearts are turned to God once more. 

This level of relationship is not an easy task.  For every person who selflessly and sacrificially shows their faith through loving action, there are a hundred others telling us that we should look out for number 1 because no one else will look out for us, that our words and speech matter more than the truth and action of other people’s lives and experiences. 

1 John 3:16 will probably never have the popularity of John 3:16, because it requires so much of us.  It requires everything we have in the service of others.

Amidst all the hateful words and meaningless babble of our time, that call to action rises above it all, urging us to love as we have been loved.  John 3:16 is made complete by 1 John 3:16.  Our abiding faith in God is made complete only when we abide in one another.

I came across a video that I think embodies this sort of selfless love, a counter-narrative to the sort of self-focused faith Kim Kardashian proclaims.  I hope it inspires us all to hold John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16 together, and put our faith into loving action.

Alleluia!  Amen.