Easter 5: Love Abides

Scripture can be found here…

Late in the first century, a Jewish group of Jesus’ followers were gathered somewhere in the ancient world—maybe in Ephesus, Turkey; maybe in Judea, Palestine. We’re not sure. A beloved eye-witness had given testimony to Jesus’ ministry, and that, combined with their own experience of following Jesus in the world, gave rise to what we know as the Gospel according to John. The gospel was unique, unlike any other. It offered the world a Jesus who spent less time healing and casting out demons, and far more time reflecting upon his own identity, offering intriguing hints, such as, “I am the good shepherd,” “I am the true vine,” and “I am the bread of life.” The gospel described Jesus as the Word, present with God from before creation—and suddenly believers everywhere began to contemplate an even deeper, more mysterious connection between Jesus and God.

Over the course of the next decade, and out of that same community, came three letters. Today in the first of those letters, we read an extended passage about love.

Beloved, let us love one another, the author writes. Because, apparently, the community was having some difficulty with love in that moment. It seems self-evident that a group of people following Jesus would love one another, but it’s also the case that sometimes we disagree, sometimes we don’t or won’t or can’t understand one another.

This community, which gifted the world with breathtaking new understandings about Jesus, was fighting about those very understandings.

There were some in the community who didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah—the Christ, God’s anointed one.

There were some in the community who didn’t believe that Jesus was really human—they thought that God had come as an apparition.

And so, there were some in the community that didn’t believe that Jesus had actually died, or been raised from the dead... they thought it was all an illusion.

Most likely, that original eye-witness had long since died when these controversies were stirring. But the memory of that eye-witness was very much alive, and the rejection of their testimony hit the community like a sandstorm in the desert. The storm was powerful; the damage was real; and relationships suffered.

Beloved, let us love one another, someone wrote, because love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.

Into an atmosphere of anger and accusation is introduced something that everyone, no matter their belief, knows well. Love is from God. When we love, we are participating in God’s most well-known project—which the writer describes. God sent Jesus to be among us. Not a vision. Not an apparition. Not a parlor trick, but a man, who is also, somehow, one with God. (In the gospel, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”) 

God IS love, the writer insists. 

And we may take that to mean that God is the most loving being that exists, and we should imitate that love—and that would be great! So may it be! 

But if God is love, then there’s even more to it. If God IS love, we are participating in bringing God’s presence into the world each and every time we extend ourselves in love to one another. Each and every time. And… here’s the challenge for us all. There are people whom we find it easy to love. They may be our parents or our children, our intimate partners or our colleagues. But there are also people for whom we must make a choice for love. Love is usually used to describe feelings, but, truly, the love that brings the presence of God into the world is a choice, an action. This love doesn’t come as easily to us—it’s a love that invites us to step out of our own comfort zones and into what is new, what is unfamiliar, what is unexpected.

Many of you are aware that my young adult children are living locally these days. And may I just say, there’s nothing like having smart young people around. I mean, it’s because of them I found out about the sea shanties! So, I mentioned to my daughter that I had talked about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs last Sunday. And she replied, “Oh, you mean that it’s nonsense?” Except, she didn’t say, “nonsense.” And I said, “Oh! No! Tell me!” And so, she sent me a Tik-Tok video, which drove me to an article, and then to another article, and which I’m now going to share with you.

In 1938, Abraham Maslow spent six weeks with the Siksika Nation in Alberta, Canada, a part of the Blackfoot Confederacy of the Niitsapi, or Original People. Maslow, it turns out, borrowed generously from the Siksika, who represent their philosophy of human development as a tipi whose topmost portion reaches into the sky. In the model I shared with you last week, Maslow’s idea of basic human needs being foundational is usually depicted as the bottom of a pyramid, with self-actualization, reaching one’s full potential, shown as the top. But for the Siksiki, self-actualization is the foundation of the tipi—it’s just the beginning. In the middle you find community actualization, in which the members of a community are responsible for caring for one another, helping one another, and teaching one another. At the very top we find something called cultural perpetuity, in which the community assumes the responsibility of ensuring that their descendants learn to live in harmony with the land and with one another.

It’s a stunning model for human growth. It lifts up loving one another, loving, even, those who are not yet here, by ensuring resources will be available to them, as well as the wisdom passed down from their elders

To be fair, Maslow revised his theory a number of times, ultimately deciding that self-transcendence was the goal. In a 1966 paper he wrote, “Personal salvation and what is good for the person alone cannot be really understood in isolation…The good of other people must be invoked, as well as the good for oneself…”

Because God loved us first, we are invited to take part. God IS love. That first eye-witness who followed Jesus throughout his ministry was sure of it, and loving one another was woven into the DNA of the community that brought us these words, perhaps the most important, most revolutionary words in all of scripture:

God IS love.

Thanks be to God. Amen.