23rd Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on October 19, 2008

2 John 1:1-6 The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth-- and not I only, but also all who know the truth-- 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love. 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Walking in love

A few years ago at the Los Angeles Special Olympics, a large crowd of spectators was prepared to watch the participants run the 50 meters race. At the sound of the starter’s gun, the contestants began running. As they rushed toward the finish line, one boy left the track and started running toward his friends standing in the infield. A track official blew his whistle, trying to get the boy to come back to the track, but with no success.

Then one of the other competitors noticed, a Down syndrome girl with thick bottle glasses. She stopped just short of the finish line and called out to the boy, “Stop. Come back. This way.” Hearing the voice of his friend, the boy stopped and looked. “Come back this way,” she called again. The boy stood there, confused. The runner, who was the boy’s friend, realizing he was confused, left the track and ran over to him. She linked arms with him and together they ran back to the track and finished the race. They were the last to cross the finish line, but were greeted by hugs from their fellow competitors and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

That Down syndrome girl with the thick glasses taught the competitors and the crowd that day what it meant to walk arm-in-arm in love.

The apostle John was writing about walking in love when he wrote to the chosen lady and her children. This lady was one of the congregations in Western Asia Minor that John supervised as a pastor. Her children were the members. “To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth-- and not I only, but also all who know the truth-- 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever.” These church members were loved – loved by John and loved by all who know the truth of the Christian faith. Love was the reason John expected them to listen to his words, and love was the reason he expected them to act on his words.

John wrote, “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us”. These believers were walking, moving about, actively exercising their faith by using the truth. Like trading in a pair of shoes that pinch your toes and cramp your arch so that you can’t walk for a pair that hug your toes and support your arch so you can walk around with proper posture and for a long time, these Christians were “walking in the truth.” They were able to make decisions about relationships, handle difficult ethical dilemmas, and discuss their Christian faith with posture and poise because they were walking around in properly engineered truth, not some sloppy imitation truth slapped together by someone who might be sincere but ill equipped for the task.

They were “walking in truth.” God’s truth is not an abstract collection of data for playing religious trivia games or a dusty volume of dead dogma for display in a dusty museum. God’s truth is a spiritual force, a living power that reveals God as He really is, reveals the world as it really is, and reveals us as we really are. It converts us to the saving faith and empowers us to choose wisely, act rightly, and believe confidently. We connect with this truth not in some vague or cloudy introspection but through the plainly printed Word of God – the Bible. “Your word is truth,” Jesus once spoke in a prayer to His Father. (John 17:17) As a living force, then, this truth prompts real live action.

Jesus taught truth in action when He said that the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) We listen to God’s truth, apply that truth, and obey that truth. God initially created us to be holy, in His image, to be His reflection, to find delight in what is good and to shun what is evil. Obedience to God’s will is not is not slavery and drudgery. Obedience to God is the process of becoming more like Christ ourselves, and it brings joy – joy to us, joy to others around us, and joy to God.

Every once in a while an off-beat news article catches my attention. A while ago I came across an Associated Press story that told of a new bridegroom who was in prison. At first the man had my sympathy. A jail is not the place a new husband wants to spend his honeymoon. Then I read the article. My sympathy stopped when I found out James Olwine, who had been married in Las Vegas on March fourth, used his car to run over his wife.

The article told how the Salt Lake couple, who were still on their honeymoon, had argued. That wasn’t a shock. Arguing isn’t unusual for a couple who are still discovering each other. The article then related how the very upset bride had stepped out of their car. That’s not unusual either. Many people who are arguing find it wise to take a few minutes to cool off. What was unusual was the fact that the groom drove off the road and hit his wife with their car. Although the article never listed the reason for the argument, the groom’s reaction seemed to be more than a little excessive.

Repeatedly the Bible tells us to love others. Yet you know how difficult it is to love. Jesus knew how difficult it is to be obedient to God’s commands and live an authentic Christian live of love. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39) It is difficult to treat others in love. It is easy to be mean, seek revenge, listen to and spread gossip, slander fellow employees, employers or politicians. It is effortless to show favoritism to the wealthy, popular, and athletic, to judge unfairly, and be a liar and a cheat.

However, when we allow the power of God’s truth to live in us so that we put love in action, it does several things: it pleases God, it gives expression to our faith and helps us grow and mature, it makes other people’s lives better, and it sends a powerful message to the community that God’s power is real and working. Religious talk can be ignored, but a loving community cannot be faked, and it will have an irresistible appeal to people who long for the true God.

John continues, “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning his command is that you walk in love.” John reminds his readers that love is a walking, moving about, active exercising of faith. Love isn’t a treadmill of feelings spinning around a person’s inner desires centered only on self. Love is a reaching, seeking, walking around action – action that is determined by truth in the form of God’s commands. Love is God’s truth in action.

See love in action in Jesus Christ. See Him heal the unclean leper and put His love between an adulteress and a crowd set on stoning her. See Jesus deal with the frustration of fair-weather disciples during a storm or two on the Sea of Galilee, but Jesus loved them enough to calm the storm on the sea and in their hearts. See the all-powerful Son of God knocked to His knees in Gethsemane's dirt as the weight of the world’s sins was laid upon Him. Look at Him as He is put on trial for His life. Men lie as they try to tarnish His perfection, but He doesn’t defend Himself. His love for us is the motivation which keeps Jesus from escaping; from demanding justice. His love for us is why He doesn’t strike His accusers and His false judges dead with a stare; He doesn’t pull the nails out of His hands and send them flying into the hearts of those who placed Him upon the cross.

Even though He knew that you’d someday spit in His face with your refusal to love, He bled desperately for you. Jesus endured all this because He loves us. Jesus suffered all this so all who believe in Him might be forgiven. Jesus came to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He came to save us. He came to love the unlovable. He came to walk this earth in love.

In 1972, a two-year-old Chinese boy, Hu Jen-chuan, fell from a table and went into a coma. When he woke up after six days, he wasn’t able to talk or move. Like any parent, his mother, was terribly distressed. Yet her distress was multiplied by the fact that she couldn’t afford to place her son in a nursing home.

Instead she has cared for Hu Jen-chuan herself, and her care has shown the unfathomable depth of her mother-love. You see, because he is unable to move Hu Jen-chuan is liable to get terrible bed-sores. So for the past thirty years his mother has done the unbelievable – she has carried her son on her back. In May 2002 Liu Kuei-lan was 65 years old and weighed 82 lbs. Her son, now a grown man, weighed 188 lbs. On many occasions Liu has fallen and fractured bones while carrying her son. Yet she continues to carry him. When asked how she can do it her reply is simple: “He isn’t heavy, he's my son.”

Sometimes it is hardest to love those who are closest to us – who make life so difficult for us. They can seem like such a heavy burden. The children who spill grape juice on your new furniture or who hide their notes from their teacher; the teenagers who sit around sulky and lazy and don’t want to talk to you, until it’s time to go to a football game or party and then they are eager to talk to you to ask for permission to use the car; the spouse who knows what buttons to push; the in-laws who are so aggravating; the fellow church member who never say things the right way; they can all seem like a such a burden.

Jesus could have felt that way, too. Who would be upset if Jesus had stopped loving those men who tried to keep little children from His blessing, who fell asleep when He asked them to pray, who refused to believe the women who told them of His resurrection victory?

It is hard to love. It is hard to love anybody, but sometimes it’s hardest to love those who are closest to us. Yet Jesus carries these burdens for us as we walk through life. When asked how we can go through life carrying such burdens, we reply, “It isn’t heavy, because I am walking in Jesus’ love.” Amen.