Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Christ Church, Alexandria
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
Day: 5Easter, Year B
“Sharing God’s love”
I read about a couple who held a yard sale and put out a wedding gift they had been given years ago. The gift was a big mirror, a mirror they had never used due to its hideously ugly aqua-blue frame. A young couple readily forked over $10 for the mirror. “It’s a GREAT find,” the young man exclaimed. “This mirror will be perfect in our living room. And,” he added, “it’s in great shape. It even still has the protective plastic on it.” At which point the man ripped the plastic off the frame, revealing a beautiful gold-plated frame below.
Have you ever had that kind of experience? Getting right below the surface of something and finding unexpected treasure? Getting right below the surface of someONE and finding unexpected treasure?
We enjoy movies about finding unexpected treasure in things or in people. There was a fun movie, for example, called “National Treasure.” Nicolas Cage discovered a huge cache of treasure underneath a, um, “somewhat historic” church in Boston. I wonder if you thought of checking the basement here at Christ Church…
Actually, I KNOW where your treasure is at Christ Church: right here in this room and in the rooms here in which you help people. Because PEOPLE are our ultimate treasure.
Did you see the movie “The Blind Side?” A teen from the projects became a professional football player. All this transformation needed was some love, love to rip off his protective coating, love, freely given, greatly risked.
I know that YOU know about these kinds of treasure finds, these treasure-people finds, here at Christ Church. I read your newsletters. I have seen your new outreach brochure about the many other ways you help people in need, sharing God’s love.
I even know what motivates you to help others. Our second lesson today, from First John, spells out your motivation in clear and repetitive ways:
- “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” AND
- “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
So, I get a clear picture that this is a place filled with people who know God, who abide in and share God’s love. Our epistle lesson says we who live in God’s love can’t help but love others, can’t help but put God’s love into action. This is because having so much God-love, we naturally love others.
Actually, there’s nothing NATURAL about loving other people: such love is all divine gift, given by God.
- How can we love ourselves, even, until we know and truly accept that God loves us each beyond measure?
- Then, knowing that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve such absolute love, aren’t we compelled to share God’s love with others?
- Don’t we have to look beneath the protective plastic to perceive the treasure within each person? Within ourselves?
I started a lively conversation last week at Church of the Resurrection by saying what I’m going to say next (but this needs to be said). We CANNOT simply do good deeds. If we don’t name Jesus, how will people know what motivates us? If we share God’s love and don’t say that the love we share is from God, how will the people who receive our love know who to thank?
But I digress. What I have shared today is easy to do only IN THEORY. The comedienne Ellen Degeneres tells about being “one with the universe,” loving absolutely everyone IN THEORY until someone grabs the last parking spot from in front of her. Theoretical love fades fast in times like these. Theoretical love fades fast when the real test of love is asked: our time, not just our resources, but our time.
See, I can love someone “by check” better than “in person.” A check is more efficient. A check doesn’t risk complications. When someone wants my time, that’s when the moment of truth arrives: Do I truly love?
We all make tradeoffs between time and money. But, having “enough” money, the true test of love for me IS time. Because, TRUTH IS, hands-on, direct one-on-one face-to-face loving others changes me even more than it changes the recipient of such love.
I see this time and time again. I am privileged to be Rector of the wealthiest church in our city. Maybe you haven’t thought about Church of the Resurrection in this way. We are, by and large, older than average. We are, by and large, tired-er than average, especially if you judge us by our building. This is because we give away what we are given. We are very wealthy in love, because the more we give away, the more we get to keep. We don’t have much cash, but every week we pray, “Please Lord, make this money enough, like you made the loaves and fishes enough.” And every week, we give away what we have, and we miraculously get more.
Right now, Resurrection is demonstrating its name to our church and our city. We gave away our beloved preschool away, our 40-year gift of love to allow children with differing developmental abilities to play together. We turned the space into a food pantry.
You all helped. Maybe you don’t know this. But that’s why I’m here today, to thank you. Your incredible Outreach Ministry helped begin this ministry in 2016. Together we have now fed almost 6,200 people in 1,900 families. And we collect things other than food that people need: dental hygiene products, toilet paper, laundry detergent, feminine hygiene products, school supplies, books, diapers. You name it, we collect it, bless it, and give it all away. Helping others by giving away God’s love has revitalized our congregation, has shown us our wealth.
I could give you lots of other examples. For instance, Resurrection is waiting to hear if it will receive the tax credits we need to gift our city with 113 units of affordable “work force” housing. We hope to get a small, 5,000 square foot new church building from the project, one we envision as the city’s largest food pantry, in which we plan to worship.
Sharing God’s love truly affects the giver more than the recipient. And at the end of the day, at the end of our life, we each must account for how we have used what God has given us:
- Our very life: true treasure, a gift of love from God,
meant to be shared with others. - Our abilities and resources, on loan to us from God.
- The time we have been given to share God’s gifts with all in need,
in the name of Christ Jesus.
The questions being asked of us today all boil down to this one: “How will we share what God has given us with others?”
