1 John 4:7-21
April 28
Lauren J. McFeaters
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There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;
for fear has to do with punishment,
and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
We love because God first loved us.
There’s a life-time of learning about love, and so many ways to learn.
There’s a life-time of learning about how to love, and so many ways to learn.
I learn a lot about love through music. Maybe it’s having been sung to sleep as a child, or growing up in a house full of music. My father put himself through college by playing the bass-fiddle in a quartet. My mother played piano, my sister the cello, my brother the trumpet.
What instrument did you play Lauren? Well, the joke in my family is that I played the radio – because after trying multiple instruments it was clear I was not – shall we say, adept. But I loved to sing. There’s something about singing and learning about love.
Here’s the music I love: Bill Withers’ Lovely Day; Van Morrison’s Hymns to the Silence; Rhiannon Giddens’ Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.
And we learn so much about God’s love through the music of Hymns, Psalms, and Spirituals. They lift us beyond ourselves and take us to church. And we all have our favorites. For me it’s the Canticle of the Turning: My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout; The Coventry Carol; and Down to the River to Pray. Church music revives us, moves us, tells our bodies to move and sway – especially when we are out of sorts, soul sick, or have lost our way.
The preacher of 1st John knows this. She knows her church is out of sorts, soul sick, and most of all, have lost their way. They have forgotten who they are and to whom they belong. Some have abandoned the congregation; many are whining, complaining, dissatisfied – wanting so much for the Christian life to be without sacrifice and obedience. [ii] There are quarrels and clashes; lack of consideration for differing opinions. Our preacher’s heart is breaking for a church caught up in narcissism and forgetful of the peace that comes from the Spirit. And so to lift them beyond themselves, to revive them, to take them to church, she writes them a song. Rather than snarking back she chooses to sing; she writes them a song:
Dear Ones, stop and listen,
Every one of you is loved by God –
There is no competition.
Every one of you is created to love and be loved –
Not to bully and harass.
This is how God shows love for us:
God sent Jesus into the world
so we might live in peace through him –
to be one in the Spirit.
This way, love comes home.
And we love because God first loved us. [iii]
So often we get this upside down and backward: “Believe in Jesus; keep the commandments; live a moral life; give up your bad habits – and God will love you with an everlasting love.” But it’s not that way at all. [iv]
God’s love is not a reward for anything we’ve done or can do. Rather, God’s love sets us in motion; sometimes to do the very thing, in love, we thought we could not do:
- Reaching out to someone to whom we’ve been estranged;
- Forgiving ourselves the thing that everyday messes with our head;
- Turing from your pew to say to a friend, “I see you’re hurting. What can I pray for?”
- Moving across the bedroom to say, “I’d like to talk about what’s keeping us apart.”
Sometimes I can’t get over how patient God is with us. Patient too, because ultimately in the life of faith, love is not a feeling; love is a living encounter with our Loving God who knows our deepest need: And our deepest need is not proof there is a God somewhere, who exists to give us love. What our heart seeks is the love of God, who is right here, knee-deep in the mud and mire of our existence — a Risen Christ who comes to us every day to give life and hope. [v]
In last week’s sermon, Dave preached Psalm 23 and about the mud and mire of the shepherd’s job in leading and protecting the sheep. Dave mentioned John Galloway, a pastor who authored a book on being a pastor. In that book, Galloway describes his leadership style, his protection of his flock, not as a shepherd, but as a rancher. Galloway says, I am better leading from the front – not the rear. My congregation calls Associate Pastors to serve our church because they are better shepherds than me. [vi]
Well, I laughed out loud. I laughed because Dave Davis is not a rancher – leading from the front – out ahead of all of us. Dave Davis is a shepherd. I am too. So Nassau Church – you called two Pastor Shepherds to lead.
I want to say something about being an Associate Pastor.
- Being your Associate Pastor is a delight and a treasure.
- An Associate, however, is not someone who plays the second violin to a Senior Pastor’s first violin.
- Being an Associate Pastor is not about being a Junior Pastor hoping one day to be Senior Pastor; a novice awaiting a larger role.
- Nor is it someone in training for something more distinguished and illustrious. No way. No how.
- Because in our Presbyterian tradition, we are not called to titles or position – we are called to functions of the church, where hopefully our gifts match a need, and a need blossoms from a gift, and then together we serve because God, in God’s infinite wisdom, equips us to serve.
- I’m your Associate Pastor because together we’ve had had songs to sing, and care to give, and compassion to plant, and grief to trudge through, and loved ones to bury, and children to baptize, and marriages to bless, and anxiety to manage, and relationship betrayals to cope with, and aging to contend with, and faith to mature, and it’s seeds to sew.
Here’s the thing about being one of your pastors – and I’ll go ahead and speak for Dave – our job – our one and only job – is to love you. To love you through the knee-deep mud and muck; the joy and adventure; the mire and slog; and the wonder and exultation of the Christian life. And most of all – most of all to remind you that our Risen Lord is ready each day to love you with a perfect love.
A love that can:
- Cast out your fear and dread; your horror, and dismay.
- A perfect love that sets in your heart a song to sing;
- an action to take;
- a mantle to pick up;
- a courage to find;
- a truth to tell;
- a reason not to stay;
- a path to choose;
- a fresh breath to revive your soul;
- a lesson on love found in a song of tenderness.
We have through the love of God, a Lord who is right here, knee-deep in the mud and mire of our existence — a Risen Lord who first loved us, so we may be free and bold and confident before God – the God who is our Song.
ENDNOTES
[i] 1 John 4:7-21 (NRSV) Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
[ii] M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock. The People’s New Testament Commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, 743.
[iii] 1 John 4: 7-21 adapted from Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress Publishing Group, 2002.
[iv] Russell E. Mase. “God in His Grace.” Day 1: A Ministry of the Alliance for Christian Media, Atlanta, December 13, 1998.
[v] Attributed to Frederick Buechner.
[vi] David A. Davis. “Other Sheep?” April 21, 2024, Nassau Presbyterian Church.