John 3:14-21
"Friendship Sunday"
My grandmother was an amazing woman...and you know...I always thought that, secretly, out of all her grandchildren, she kind of loved me the best. Oh, she never actually said that, you understand. But there was just something about the look on her face when I'd arrive for a visit...and the tone of her voice when I'd call her on the phone - just a subtle but distinct feeling I got from her that told me I was her favorite grandchild.
So you can imagine my shock when, as I later stood at her grave side and one of my cousins leaned over to me, sighed and said, "I'm really going to miss Grandma. You know, I always thought that, out of all her grandkids, she sort of loved me the best." So, of course, I got to thinking about that. And I remembered my mother, on several occasions when I was growing up, saying, "You know, I think I'm Grandma's favorite daughter-in-iaw.. .and I'm sure your Dad's her favorite son."
And I began to realize that the nature of my Grandmother's love was to be able to make every person in her family feel special...and specially loved...because we were! We were each unique individuals and my Grandmother' s gift was to be able to make each of us feel like we were secretly her favorite...that was the nature of her love.
The nature of love is what I'd like for us to think about this morning. But not a Grandmother's love...or a partner's love...or even, of this "Friendship Sunday," a friend's love. Even in the best of circumstances, those kinds of love all have their limitations. Rather...I want us to consider a love that has no limits. What do we know about the nature of God's love? The Bible says that God's love. But what does that mean? What is this love of God really like? Well, I believe...and I tkink that what Jesus was really trying to teach his generation and us today...is that God's love has four basic aspects: God's love is inclusive...it's individual...God's love is inviting...and it's a love that is involving.
First, God's love is defnitely inclusive. In the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, of which this church is a member, we talk a lot about the "inclusive" love of God...but, unfortunately, that idea often gets reduced to a debate over whether it's O.K. to call God "father" or not. The inclusive love of God means far more than just inclusive language in the church. Understanding the inclusive nature ofGod's love means realizing that God's love is not limited or restricted to a certain group of people...and is never withheld from a certain group of people.
Many of us come from religious backgrounds that either subtly --or very openly...and very painfully --proclaimed that same people...for a variety of reasons...are not capable of being loved by God just as they are. And even though in M.C.C. churches, we've been preaching for over 30 years now that that just isn't true...even we need to be careful to remember that God's love is not restricted to...or from...anyone. God does love us. And God also loves the people we may perceive to be our "enemies!" Every time people - any people - try to draw lines around what or who or how God can love, God just erases the lines !
During the Second World War, a man died and his two friends desperately wanted to give him a decent burial. They found a cemetery in a nearby village. It happened to be a Roman Catholic cemetery and the dead man had been Protestant. When the two friends found the priest in charge of the burial grounds, they requested permission to bury their friend, but the priest refused because the man had not been a Cathotic. When the priest saw their disappointment, he explained that he would bury their friend outside the fence. This was done...but later whgn they returned to visit the grave, they couldn't find it. Their search led them back to the priest and, of course, they asked him what had happened to the grave. The priest told them that during the night he had been unable to sleep because he had made them bury their friend outside the fence. So he got up and moved the fence to include the dead soldier.
God's love is a love that "moves the fence" for anyone that the world would try to keep outside the limits of what they think God's realm must be. God's love is, in the fullest sense ofthe word, and it is also very individual. We read in Psalm 139:
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O God.
For you created my inmost being;"
God is not just some awesome, incomprehensible entity "out there" somewhere. God is right here with us. And God knows each of us...personally...intimately. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, Jesus reminds us of God's knowledge and concern for each of us as individuals when he says, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered, Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
In fact, Scripture is filled with examples of the worth of the individual to God. When Jesus tells the stories of the shepherd who goes out searching for the one lost sheep...and the woman who diligently searches through her house for a lost coin, those are examples of the value of the individual to God. The nature of God's love for us is to seek us individually...not to look down from outer space at this globe of a planet and say, "Oh, yes, world, I love you." But rather God comes to us in inner space to say, "I love you...you, the individual. You, with your one-of-a-kind fingerprints and your identifiable dental work...you with your unique walk and your unusual voice...you with your private dreams and your secret fears...you, with those things you think about that you think nobody else ever thinks of or could ever understand...YOU," God says, "are the one I want to be in a relationship with."
It' s as if God were saying to each of us, "Throughout all eternity I have only created one of you...but I can only fully show you how much you mean to me if you will let me!" You see, God's inclusive love of us as individuals is a love of invitation. That's another aspect of the nature of God's love: it's inviting. God's love is inviting us into an eternal relationship with God. But we must R.S.V.P...we must respond to the invitation. Those of you who are here as guests today came in response to the invitation of a friend. God is inviting us to something, too.
Jesus tells us, "I am the door: enter in and be eternally connected to God." Through Jesus Christ, God has given us a means to enter in and fully receive God's love for us....but we have to make the effort to go through the door.
There was a couple who spontaneously decided to book the fanciest honeymoon suite at a large hotel in a big city. They arrived pretty late at night and were escorted to their room. They went in and saw a sofa, chairs and table...but no bed! With great shock they poked around and discovered that the sofa was a hide-a-bed, with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs. They were so disappointed but it was very late so they tried to sleep...spending a very fitful night and waking up the next morning with sore backs. First thing, they charged down to the front desk to pitch a fit about their horrible accommodations. After listening to their tirade for a few minutes, the clerk finally blurted out, "But didn't you open the door in the room?" The couple rushed back to the suite and went straight to the door that they had assumed to be a linen closet. When they opened it, there inside was a huge room with a gorgeous king-size bed, an elaborate buffet table complete with flowers, fruit basket, imported chocolates and a bottle of Dom Perignon...floating in a bucket of mefted ice water!
Well, you know, in much the same way. the door to a lifetime...and an eternity...of God's love is always available to us. What we have to do is recognize the door for what it is and then willingly open the door and step inside! God does wt come to us screaming and demanding and forcing us at spiritual gunpoint to accept this invitation. God speaks softly...reaches out to us from within our hearts and through the flesh and blood ofthosl around us and invites us, gently, to open the door and come in.
And while God make speak softly, God is also very persistent. That's the other aspect of God's inclusive, individual, inviting love: it's involving. The nature of God's love is that it will not let us rest until we respond to the invitation. Many of us right here in this church have experienced what might be called "The Gnawing God Syndrome." It's sort of an on-going "pull" inside...an itch that can't seem to be scratched...an ache that can't seem to be soothed. And all the Dr. Scholl's, Tylenol and Gas-Ex in the world won't cure "The Gnawing God Syndrome." Oh, we can try to ignore it for a while. Lots of folks try to ease that internal longing with more material possessions or with more nights at the bar err with a job change or 3 new relationship There are a million ways to put of dealing with "The Gnawing God Syndrome."
But what is needed is our involvement...a response to that knocking at our heart's door. If we would ever find relief from that empty ache inside we must say, "Yes, Lord...I hear you knocking...and I accept your invitation."
But please hear me clearly...being involved with God means that we have a choice. We can also choose to say, as the 1950s hit proclaimed, "I hear you knocking but you can't come in!" We make our own choice about whether we will enter into an eternal reeationship with God or whether we will be separated from God. You see, it is not God who condemns us for the choice we make...we can only condemn ourselves to separation by choosing it!
But the nature of God's love is that God wants, very much, to be involved with us. I think of that old hymn that many churches sing: "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me...Patient and loving, God's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me." The nature of God's love is to say to us, "Come home." God is calling us to invotvement.
A great Christian mystic once said, "God loves each of us as if we were the only one there was to love." You see, the one God loves the best...is you...and you...and me...and you. The Scripture we heard this morning sums it up as no other words have ever done: "For God so loved the world (that is, the individuals of the world) that God gave Jesus Christ..." and if we will believe and accept what Christ has told us and shown us, then whoever turns to God will not be separated but will have God's love for now and for all eternity. Amen.
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