April 26, 2015
Love is a Verb
- Acts 4:5-12
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
My sermon title is also the title of a song by John Mayer. I wouldn’t call myself a John Mayer fan, but I do love this song. Here are the basic lyrics of “Love is a Verb.”
Love is a verb
It ain’t a thing
It’s not something you own
It’s not something you scream
And then the song goes on to say that since love is a verb you’ve got to show me that you love me. Besides the words, the melody of this song is pretty cool too. But in the interest of good choral music in worship at Northminster, I will not subject you to my rendition of this song.
John Mayer is talking about romantic love, and our scriptures are talking about a different kind of love – the kind of love we have for our neighbors – our brothers and sisters. But the message is the same. Love is a verb. Love is known in action. How do we know God’s love? It is through God’s action in sending Jesus Christ into the world, and through Christ’s action of laying down his life for us. The actions of God show us what God is like.
The same test applies to our love. How do others know what is in our hearts? It is by our actions. Just as God’s love is known to us through the visible action of Christ, so our love is known to others through concrete actions that mirror Christ’s own. Christ laid down his life and we too are to lay down our lives.
So is this going to be a sermon about being a martyr? No, although I can often be accused of playing the martyr card when I feel unappreciated or ignored. Most of us are not really willing to be burned at the stake, shot at or even crucified as the result of speaking truth to power. But for Christians, self-sacrifice should be ordinary, not extraordinary. The Christian life is a life laid down for others – a life built on self-sacrifice. This is what John is asking us to do when he says, “let us love, not in word or speech but in truth and action.”
If we are going to love in truth and action, if love is going to be a verb for us, and if we are going to lay down our lives, what does that look like? Laying down our lives, at its core, can simply mean the number of ways in which we lay aside our claim to our own lives. We lay down our lives when we put others first. We lay down our lives when we live for the good of others. To love others is to lay down our life for them. When we lay down the completely normal human desire to live for our ourselves, and instead allow the love of God to orient us toward the needs of others, we are laying down our lives. When we as people who have the resources and goods open our hearts to people who have need, we are laying down our lives for others. Laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters is simply responding to people in need.
But there is so much need and we are only this one faith community, this one person on this charitable board, this one person in the neighborhood, or this one person in the church office when someone comes for assistance. We get so many requests in the mail for help – how do we spend our money wisely and in a way that makes a difference? We are so busy with our jobs and families and even our church obligations, how do we find the time to help with a Habitat build or with the Back to School Extravaganza for children in Washington Township. Or what if you are older and cannot physically help a brother or sister in need – what do you do then?
I don’t have an answer to these questions – although my Tuesday morning bible study ladies wish I did. We know we can contribute to the missions of this church and make a difference. But on last Tuesday we kept asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” and then realizing that to compare Jesus’ time and ours was like comparing apples to oranges. But we did remember that Jesus always erred on the side of kindness and compassion. And we remembered that the people Jesus hung around with were sinners, adulterers, tax collectors and dirty, sick and hungry beggars and those with incurable illnesses.
And if I am being honest, I need you to know that I too struggle with this call to love in action as well. We have had a gentleman who has come to the church at various times over the past year looking for help. He wants a ride to somewhere. He needs a prescription filled. He needs money for food. This man has been in and out of the hospital a lot. The last time he was here it was obvious he was very sick and we called an ambulance for him. He is hungry, he is dirty, he smells, he is a big man and he is physically intimidating. To be honest he is kind of scary. He comes to the church during the day and he has come to the church at night. He is one of the reasons why the church doors are locked during evening activities. He makes us uncomfortable and we worry about the safety of the children in our care. So how can God’s love abide in us if we have the world’s goods and see a brother in need and yet refuse to help? Once again I am not answering that question; I am just putting it out there and asking you not to harden your hearts to those in need. If I learned anything from the One Paycheck Away experience last week, it’s that homelessness and poverty are complicated and one little thing can tip the scales in the wrong direction.
I am going to share a story that many of you may have heard before. To me it exemplifies the commandment of Jesus to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. It exemplifies that call of John to respond to a visible need with the opening of our hearts. It helps me understand that love is a verb.
In a small French country village before World War II, there was a beautiful marble statue of Jesus with his hands outstretched before him, standing in the courtyard of a quaint little church. During the war the statue was bombed and broke into pieces.
When the fighting ended the village members of the church set about to find the pieces of the statue to reconstruct it. As they patiently set about their task, even the scars seemed to add to its beauty in their eyes. But, to their dismay, the fragile hands had been pulverized. “A Christ without hands is no Christ at all,” someone said sadly. Indeed, we want Christ’s tender, ministering hands outstretched to us! So someone suggested that they try to get a new statue. Then another person came up with the idea that prevailed. He suggested that a plaque be attached to the statue’s base that would read: “I have no hands but yours.”
Or as Teresa of Avila, a nun and theologian in the 1500’s put it:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
By our loving actions and participation in the work of love, we can know that we are living in a true relationship with God who knows our hearts and knows everything. When we do not harden our hearts, when we reach out in love we are one with Christ. And then as John tells us – we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us. And love becomes a verb.
Amen.
Sources:
A great deal of this sermon comes directly from Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, Fourth Sunday of Easter.
www.sermons.com, “Candidates for God’s Candid Camera,” by Leonard Sweet.