“Love = Truth + Action”
Pastor Dave Carlson
First Presbyterian Church
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 15:4-8, 10-11
New Testament Lesson: 1 John 3:16-24
Here’s one for those of you who wish March madness hadn’t ended – as opposed to
those of us who sometimes feel it never seems to. For many years, UCLA basketball
coach John Wooden, who died two years ago at the age 99, defined team spirit as
“the willingness to sacrifice personal interest or glory for the welfare of all.” But
something didn’t quite seem right to the coach about this definition. And one day it
dawned on him. It’s not the willingness, but the eagerness to sacrifice personal
interest for the sake of all that truly defines team spirit. To which a seasoned pastor1
once added, “It is this spirit of eagerness, of excitement and possibility, that we are
called to display as we strive to lead Christian lives. Right? Right? WRONG! Oh,
okay, there’s nothing really wrong with saying we are called to display eagerness and
excitement as we strive to lead Christian lives. But come on, being a Christian is hard,
isn’t it? “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you,” “if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek
also,” “if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt (take away your property), hand
over your coat as well (handover whatever they want and more)?”2 It’s hard. It’s hard
enough to think about doing any of these things for real not to mention doing them
eagerly and with excitement. Sometimes we can muster only a reluctant willingness in
life, if we can even muster that when it comes to act on our Christian sense of service
and self-sacrifice. And this isn’t because we’re bad people. We just live in a world
where life comes at us like water out of a firehouse – the good, the bad, and the ugly –
and it’s hard to stay focused on what really matters. You know what I’m talking about
when I say life can get out of control. You know what I’m talking about if…: When
you’re heating up dinner in the microwave, you accidentally punch in your password.
Or, you haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years. Or, you have a list of 15
phone numbers to reach your family of three. Or, you text message the person at
work while he’s sitting at the desk next to you. Or, if the reason for not stay in touch
with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail and – worse yet – they’re not on
Facebook! Or, you turn into your own driveway and pull out your cell phone to see if
anyone inside can help carry the groceries. Or, you get up in the morning and go on
line before getting your coffee – or even talking to your spouse or to your children. It’s
not easy living by 1st Century morals in a 21st Century world. But I’ve got a secret for
you – it wasn’t easy living life as a 1st Century Christian, either. We all think we need
to be eager Christians, gung-ho about setting aside our lives to get out there and
serve and care for others. But that’s a little unrealistic, isn’t it? Nobody is that eager
all the time to sacrifice his or her down time, her goofing off time, his kids-activity time
or sports practice. And even those who seem to be that eager to serve others all the
time aren’t. They’re just in the habit of giving of themselves in service to God, of
showing sacrificial love for another human being, whether it’s convenient or not,
whether they feel like it or not. If you’ve got such eagerness in you at all times and in
all place, stand up. Nobody? Come on now, if you do you can take the morning off.
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2
Bob Kaylor, Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.
Matthew 5:39-43
Because this morning is for those of us who aren’t always eager to do the right thing;
to love the unlovable; to help our neighbor in need when it’s just not convenient and
quite frankly I’m tired, busy, cash-poor, angry, frustrated and I don’t really feel like
helping anybody right now. We’ve all been there, right? Well, the secret I have for
you today is that moving beyond being tired, busy, cash-poor, angry, frustrated, etc.,
etc. in order to help someone anyway actually ends up helping you, and often more
than the other person. First John calls to us, saying, “Little children, let us love, not in
word or speech, but in truth and action.” There’s a formula in that verse for living life
as a Christian, even in the midst of overwhelming and confusing times, or even when
we’re more committed to arguing, or political posturing, or defiant behavior, or bad
choices. And the formula is not found in trying to be excited and eager about doing
the right thing, particularly when doing the right thing is the last thing you want to do.
Because the formula isn’t designed to make us excited and eager Christians. Instead,
the formula is designed to unlock God’s grace; to unlock God’s grace precisely when
we aren’t excited or eager Christians. The formula is found in verse 18 of our second
reading (and in our sermon title in the bulletin / and in a moment up on the screen).
The formula is derived from First John, where it says, “Let us love ... in truth and
action.” The formula is: Love = Truth + Action. In this formula – as in life – love is
God. Love represents God and our relationship with God and our relationship with
one another when we are being true to God, and true our calling as children of God.
And the other two things in the formula – truth and action – in this formula, as in life,
truth and action are … hard. Truth means setting aside our egos and looking at
things from the other person’s perspective, and then asking God what we ought to do
in midst of the situation. And “action?” Action is what gives “truth” any power at all.
We can know that we’ve done something wrong, but if we don’t act on it to make
things right, then the “truth” that we know deep down inside never sees the light of
day. That’s not to say that it goes away. Actually, the “truth” of our wrong doings lives
on; Our wrong doings live on deep inside of us – festering and causing us stress and
anxiety and illness and disease – both physically and spiritually. Because, like any
good formula, the formula for God’s grace is also true in the negative sense. In other
words, the formula gives us both a way to open ourselves to God’s grace, and a way
to shut ourselves off from God’s grace. If Love = Truth + Action, then the reverse is
also true: “Truth” without “action” does not equal “love.” And in fact, “truth”
without “action” equals death. Because, by not acting on our Christian calling as
children of God we shut ourselves off from God’s love, and a life without God’s love is
no life at all.
But, luckily for us, God had a plan. God had a plan to reach out to us even in the
midst of our failure to do the right thing, our tendency to turn away from right actions,
ignore right thinking, lose track of the right way to go, give up our search for the right
people in our lives. And what’s even better is that God had a plan to reach out to us
even when we’re at our worst – when we actually embrace the wrong people or things
in life, when we let temptation and ego and greed and self-centeredness take over.
First John says that there is a way back from our misguided ways. It says that we can
actually rest assured even when we’re stuck in a bad place. We can breath easy even
when were being pulled in the wrong direction. We can find reassurance in our “heart
of hearts” during such trouble times if we seek divine truth and then act on it. Doing
this – seeking divine truth and then acting on it – “will reassure our hearts before
(God). That’s what it says in First John, even when “our hearts condemn us.” In other
words, even when we know we’ve done wrong and that we’re in a bad place, it’s no
excuse to not seek the truth and to not act on it.
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In fact, First John says that seeking the truth and doing the right thing will actually pull
us out of the dark places in life – you know, those times when you just know in your
heart that you are hopelessly lost and helpless. Reading First John we can be assured
that, when our hearts condemn our actions, “God is greater than our hearts, and (that
God) knows everything.” And if God knows everything, then God knows a way out.
God knows a way out of the dark places we find ourselves in. Because God will never
stop loving us and pulling for us, even though God knows us all too well. God knows
that most of us find it easier to argue with our opponents than to love them. God
knows that most of us are more comfortable taking a stand on social issues than
taking care of the people society has left behind. God knows that most of us would
rather write a check to a homeless shelter than spend a few moments really listening
to someone who’s living on the streets; that most of us would prefer to make
pronouncements on homosexuality than to do the hard work of figuring out what it
means to be gay and Christian. God knows that most of us find it so much simpler to
define our Christian duty in terms of attending church and giving an offering, rather
than doing the complicated and challenging work of feeding the hungry, welcoming
strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned. And
God’s answer to all of this is, do the right thing anyway, just because God said so. If
you don’t have a sense of who you are as a child of God, go out and serve in the
name of God. And the beauty of how well God knows us is that you don’t even have
to do it for the right reasons; you don’t have to do it with eagerness and excitement.
Remember, God is greater than our hearts and can turn even our selfish motives into
a blessing for others and for us. In other words, don’t go out and serve with
eagerness and excitement if you really don’t feel like it. Go out and serve as you are –
and let God worry about how you’re feeling. Don’t go out and serve for the sake of
those who need food, clothing, medical assistance, or an unexpected-but-oh-so
needed visit if you don’t feel like it. You don’t have to do it for their sake; you can do it
for your own. Because if you go out and serve others – even when you don’t feel like
– God guarantees you that you will come home feeling better. And the beauty of even
such selfish actions as helping others just to make ourselves feel better is that God
works it out for both our benefit and theirs. If we succeed in loving and serving one
another – whether we feel like it and do it with sincere eagerness and excitement or
whether we do it just to get ourselves out of slump – if we succeed in loving and
serving another to make ourselves feel better, the benefit may be ours, but the credit
belongs to God. You see, the love that we show – regardless of why we show it – is
none-the-loss a testament to God’s love. It’s a sign and a signal to all the world that,
yes, God is alive and well and that God’s love is on the rise in the world – even in the
21st Century.
Amen.
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PASTORAL PRAYER
Slow us down, O God. And speed us up. Let us be slow to speak out in judgment and
anger, and quick to offer words of encouragement and understanding.
Enable us to catch the vision of a life in which the creeds and deeds are one, and
make the vision our own.
Enable us to experience life as you do, O Lord, a life with no real shortages, no
scarcity, no lack or deficiency; a life where we share our time, talents, and treasures
as freely as you share yourself with us. You are generous always, unrestrained in the
outpouring of your grace. Your mercy is unending. Your love is relentless. Your
compassion is unbounded. You reveal your truth to us. You imprint us with your
image. You illumine our lives with the light of your presence.
Embolden us to grow into the sons and daughters you have created us to be, and
enable us to catch the vision of lives seeking similarities rather than differences, of
common ground rather than divergent roads. Enable us, O God, to catch the vision of
Jesus, in whom all things are one, and through whom with lift our voice in common
prayer, saying together:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our
debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
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