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 1st 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.
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