1 John 3:16-24 – Debbie Abbott – Love: The Act of Receiving and Giving
/Lectionary Readings for April 25, 2021 Fourth Sunday Of Easter, Year B
Acts 4:5-12 Peter Addressing the Sanhedrin
Psalm 23 v1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
1 John 3:16-24 v18 Little children, let us love, not just in word or speech, but in truth and action.
John 10:11-18 v11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep in His care.
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell [people] of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” ~ Hudson Taylor
This reminds me of the old saying, “If God calls you to it, God will get you through it.” When we deeply believe that we are precious children of a God who loves us and wants the best for us, we can follow God’s leading with an equally deep belief that God will provide for us as we need. Those beliefs should give us great confidence in fulfilling our call to serve others.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
Today we are honored to hear one of our long-time members, Debbie Abbott, share today’s message. She did a practice run with our Thursday night “Coffee with the Pastor” crowd, and I must say, it’s a great message. I’m looking forward to hearing her wit and wisdom once again.
Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we hear today’s readings.
Read 1 John 3:16–24.
I would love to know what letter, what news, had come to John when he wrote this in response to Jesus’ early followers. Was it some news of actions taken or maybe some inaction on their part? Whatever it was, it was something that moved John to engage in this reassuring yet educational moment. Hopefully it was reassuring to these believers that whatever challenges they faced on their faith journey, sticking to Jesus’ commandments to “Love God and Love One Another” (Matthew 22:34-40) was just as true in this moment as it was when they first believed.
We each have opportunities in our daily living to wander from those simple yet powerful commands. But as we live out Jesus’ commandment to “Love God and Love One Another,” we can help each other along the way.
I had a bit of a problem selecting just one example from my own personal struggles with 1) living out Jesus’ commandments and 2) John’s statement that following Jesus’ commands allows us to love ourselves. To stop the negative narrative that seems to play in our minds every time we come to a challenge we can’t seem to overcome. Or when we feel lacking in some skill that seems to come so easily to others. In this experience my ability to ‘Self Love’ took a hit.
I kept coming back to one particular set of verses in today’s scripture:
v18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
I have a confession to make. After 46 years of marriage, I have accumulated a vast amount of clutter/stuff. I’m starting to feel like I’m living in an episode of “Hoarders.”
I REALLY don’t like cleaning and organizing. I like it when I experience success but getting started??? Well, that’s another thing altogether. My closets are a prime example of my inability to start OR start and then quit when I become overwhelmed.
I’m one of those people that will stuff things in a closet and close the door, FAST! Then I stand around looking at my house thinking… that wasn’t so bad… until I return to the closet months or years later.
Then begins the internal conversation where I ask myself question like these:
I don’t know where to begin.
Why did I ever think this was a good idea?
I’m lost.
There’s too much stuff.
Where do I put this stuff?
Do I use boxes or bags?
I should have started weeks ago.
I can’t part with this item because it has personal memories!
There MUST be something WRONG with ME.
Looking back at this conversation with myself, I can see where I had been engaging in the “debilitating self-criticism” mentioned in the Scripture reading for this week.
A friend of mine had been listening to me talk about my situation for weeks (or was it more like months?) when it was apparent that I couldn’t see a way out of my situation, she knew she had to help me get started.
She started out by having casual conversations with me about how she was working through her own home and her very real sense of failure. In her frustration she had called one of her sisters and related her problem. Her sister came out to help her make a start. It took them about two weeks of ruthless tossing and generous donating to see a very real transformation. It was a transformation of not only decluttering but of seeing the possibilities for giving away her excess stuff to others.
She was able to see that she had been blessed with material things. But the blessings had outlived their usefulness at her house. She could now bless others with the very items that were weighing her down.
As she spoke, I wondered, “Was this the kind of intervention I needed?”
My friend could see my anxiety and struggle to get started, and shared her story with me to demonstrate what had worked for her. She clearly stated what her challenge had been and how the actions of a loving family member had helped her to see a way out.
As good girlfriends often do, she suggested that we set a date to take a load to the thrift store. With a deadline in place, I knew I had to make a start.
As I reluctantly began gathering my things by putting them in bags and boxes, I started down the same negative conversations I had always had with myself. So, I started small. One bag… well, that was easy enough. Then with that achieved, I started on a box… OK, I can do this… If others can get started, surely I could as well?
As I stacked each item or boxed items, I wondered why I had taken so long to part with these things. Surely my prom dress was something I would never wear again and had outlived its usefulness decades ago. At that point I realized that I needed a third stack… a throw away stack. Little did I realize that most important item on my throw away stack was all debilitating self-criticism. It was OK to toss things. No one would want or could use these items. Then I realized that I didn’t even want or need these items anymore. I could leave the items that were weighing me down.
With each decision I became stronger in my conviction that I could do it! Stopping the negative internal conversations, realizing that with the care and concern of a friend, I could now engage in self encouragement… what a difference it makes!
It was such a liberating feeling to drop our items at the thrift store, that we celebrated by treating ourselves to lunch and vowed we would do this as many times as it would take us to get through our respective baggage. Both internally and externally.
Having learned self-love in her own experience, she was able to share that concept with me. Now keep in mind that she had been having these conversations with me for some time. This transformation or enlightenment took place over time, but she never gave up trying. She knew I needed some help and acted on her concern. She gave me encouragement and demonstrated how to begin my decluttering process. In other words, she demonstrated her love for me by helping me get started on my own path to success. I have a long way to go but she remains steadfast in her loving support.
Sometimes it’s hard to start talking about love with someone outside your close family circle. Finding the right words can be a struggle. Overcoming the fear of saying the wrong thing. But as I look back on this experience, I can see that love shining through a friend’s words as she put her love into action.
Let’s remember that our greatest witness and testimony about love are not only one of words… but of action.
Love in Action:
Listening with your heart and head is an action.
Comforting and relieving someone’s anxiety is an action.
Kindly encouraging, both in word and deed, is an action.
Sincere (heartfelt) praise as you witness each milestone, is an action.
Patiently repeating the action as often as it takes to reenforce growth, is an action.
Putting others before self is an action.
Instead of envying others, celebrating others, is an action.
Relating your own personal struggle without bragging about your success is an action.
Celebrating your friend’s success and not keeping score card of failure, is an action.
Not looking back but moving forward, never giving up is an action.
When the God’s truth is lived out by your example, that is an action.
12) Not trusting yourself, but trusting that God is guiding your footsteps is an action.
The Bible talks about God’s love as defined in human terms. One of the best-known texts about love is in 1 Corinthians 13. I took some liberties with the with those verses in this list above.
When we think about what love is… well, it’s a lot about doing. In our Wednesday night study based on the book “Jesus, An Historical Approximation,” we’ve discussed how Jesus talked about God’s love and then put some shoe leather into living it. He left us with His Commandments to Love God and Love One Another (Matthew 22:34-40) – a ripple in the space-time continuum that is reverberating 2,000 years later. 1 Corinthians 13 has more to it than a definition of what love looks like. It’s a guide on how to fully live.
In our Bible Study on Tuesday last week, one participant offered the following idea: “Love of self and love of others is essential to healing the world around us. I’m not necessarily talking about the big picture… but just living ‘in love’, one person/situation at a time.”
A smile, a regular phone call, serving at our HOPE Food Pantry, a ride for a friend to the doctor, sending a quarterly greeting card, there are so many things we are doing. Love is universal. It transcends race, language, faith tradition, economic status, handicaps, and is the great equalizer. Is it possible that if love is in the room, can we truly find equity and balance for all?
I would like to read this next section of the 1st Corinthians “love chapter:” 1st Corinthians 13: 8-10
“Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
We cannot bring about change in our community only by what we preach. Our actions must portray what we say and believe.
You can fulfill some commandments like “Thou shalt not kill,” by avoiding violent confrontations and ceasing to plot harm against others. Not doing evil can have an end if we choose to stop. But doing good, by its definition, is never complete. God’s love is a never-ending stream that we can tap every day.
All of us have a role in both receiving and giving love. It’s ironic that when dealing with these positive commandments, we don’t ever come to a point when we can say, “I’m done.”
Let us pray:
God thank you for ALL the people you bring into my life. Help me to see You in each one. Let me receive Your love through them and be able to share Your love abundantly by giving love in return. Help us to live fully in You, acting on Your promises. Amen!