Advent 1

1 John 4:7-21

1, 2 and 3 John got me in trouble once. In a New Testament class at seminary, we had a long lecture about these texts and their portrayal of a big fight within the early Church about what was real Christianity and what was heresy and the rift it caused. When the time came to raise our hands and question the lecturer, I raised mine, and instead of continuing the theme of my classmates (and professors) of how important it is to draw bright lines between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, I said "maybe the whole thing is an example of what not to do, seeing as it all fell apart in the end. Perhaps we should take this as a lesson and refrain from worrying about who's in and who's out."

To get the full effect of what happened next, I need to tell you that it was a required 101-type course and 200 people were in the class with me. I need to further mention that I came in late, couldn't find a seat and had settled in a window sill.

200 heads turned at once and scowled at me while 200 voices murmured in low, disapproving tones.

Fun.

But all that aside, I do love this first lesson of the story (whether the original audience learned the lesson or not). When in doubt about nearly anything, I remind myself that God is love:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love...

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us...

You can see the entire passage by clicking my link above, but the ellipses cover what is no doubt key to the writer, that the gift of Jesus Christ is proof of God's love. Yet, I don't think that one must believe in Jesus Christ to be called out by this passage. Even in the passage, Jesus is an example of God's love, not the sole substance of it.

In fact, the passage here and further on insists that our only real touchstone for the love of God is each other. And that is the part that strikes me as most important:

Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

"Liars" is pretty strong language to use for people who claim to love God and "hate" their fellow human beings. Who among us doesn't sometimes feel tempted to hate someone? Ouch. Just seeing GW Bush's face on the screen makes me want to throw a brick through my t.v. And to do it makes a liar of me if I claim to love God? Tricky. Pesky. "A hard teaching" one of Jesus's lunk-headed disciples might say. But there it is.

I am cutting and pasting this poor text to death, because really this bit comes between the two passages above, but I wanted to talk about it last because it is another very helpful thing for me to remember when I am uncertain about the right or the wrong of any given decision in life:

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them...

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.

"There is no fear in love." So there is no fear in God. Fear it seems is love's opposite, God's opposite. Not hate so much as fear. After all what is hate but fear? To have fear is perhaps not always uncalled-for. But I gather from this passage that we will find God within the act of moving through and past our fear, we will find courage in God. And I also gather from this passage that to willfully cause fear in others, to terrorize or threaten them is evil.

This is useful to me because many times I fear doing the right thing. Many times, our society tells us that there is something we all ought to get together and fear and perhaps gang up on. Some of the worst evil seems to occur when we heed that fear, eventually letting it lead people to turn around and terrorize those they fear.

So we are called to love one another because this is the only way we can begin to know God. We are called to be courageous in the face of fear, knowing that the love of God will lead us to good things, even when following its call is scary.

Today we are headed to Chicago to spend some time with Mama Fern. We do this from time to time and I will tell you that it can be scary. Not "ohmygodwhatifshestealsthebaby"-scary, but getting to know someone across gulfs and gulfs of difference-scary. And yet we feel quite strongly that it couldn't be more the right thing to continue cultivating and nurturing this relationship.

Wish us well.

Comments

[frog]

Amen.

[Yondalla]

Oh odd it is for me to hear you say you are afraid of meeting your childrens mothers.

I'm afraid, but I have assumed it would be different for you. The mothers of my children did NOT choose me. I expect that they will see me as part of the system that took their children away.

And I guess that there is not comparing any one situation with any other, is there? I suppose it is frightening for all of us, and there is no telling how we experience it.

You do make me think.

[Sakoro]

Thank you for this reading-- advent is my favorite season of the church. I will check back each Sunday for the next readings!!!

[Lisa V]

Luck to you, Cole and Fern- it's not easy to navigate the early days of open adoption. I know I had it a ton easier in so many ways just because Noelle and I were similar in so many ways.

You're right to keep going, and I admire that you do.

[Susan]

Wishing you well--may you turn toward the love as you negotiate this new relationship.

[Lisa]

If I were raised with your kind of Christianity, I might actually be Christian.

I have been thinking of you and Fern a lot and I wish all of you well and hope that each visit leads you all closer to healing and love. You are on the right path in just recognizing the fear and facing it head on. It really is a loving act.

[Meredith]

Thank you, Shannon, for the peace and courage you gave me with that post. What a wonderful meditation to take us all through the week.

[Mayhem]

I do wish you well, as always.

Thank you for this post. To me, this is a reminder that life and God and theology do not have to be complicated and devisive.

[Rosemary]

This post is beautiful. I have been thinking all week (reading Bishop Spong's new book Jesus for the Non-Religious) about how to be alive is to be without fear, or, at least, to be moving toward moving through fear, as you say, and that this is moving toward love, which, maybe is moving toward being fully human--which is where we see the divine most clearly. Too much for a comment. But, I love this post.

[Trey]

Wonderful post...

btw, I just noticed on my own blog (i posted a congrats) that today is the two year anniversary of Nat's adoption!

Wow, time flies.