How Would You Respond?

Yesterday I preached on the second lesson 1 John 3:16-24, kinda avoiding "Good Shepherd Sunday" as the 4th Sunday of Easter is often called, but I think this was the more needed sermon for Bethlehem.


Enjoy!

I want us to rewind a little and look back on our second lesson from First John.  John 3:16-17 gets so much attention about being the gospel in a nutshell, but in a lot of ways 1 John 3:16-17 is an equally important verse, maybe the commission in a nutshell:  We know love by this, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? 

It is a beautiful verse but can become a little overwhelming.  In fact this passage is not good news.  Because no matter who we are and how much or how little we have there are still times when we have refused to help someone in need.  No matter who we are and how willing or unwilling we are, it is hard for us to want to lay down our lives for one another.  And so this passage, this commissioning to us to go out and be like Jesus, becomes an impossible standard. 

And when people hear an impossible standard they often react in one of three ways.  The first is to not even try.  Why should I help, or love anyone when there will always be more people to help and love than I can possibly help or love.  The other option is to be overwhelmed. To try and help and love each and every person but then start worrying about those who one cannot help or love, which then causes us to not help and love ourselves, which makes us more worried about helping and loving others so that soon you are out of control in this downward spiral unable to actually help anyone.

The first two options – doing nothing or being overwhelmed – means that you look focus on the numbers and the quantity.  Let’s try a specific example – church growth.  In either mindset, church growth is just a numbers game.  Either you think there will never be enough church members or active congregation participants to fund the budget or do the ministry that you are call to do, so why even bother fighting this losing battle.  Or you see church growth as something that can never stop until you have reached each and every person and until you have reached each and every person you have not yet done true ministry and Jesus true flock is not yet formed and so you have to keep striving and going and well, eventually you just burn out, because there will always be more people you need to reach out to. 

The third option is – to do what you can and be content that you are doing what you can and loving and helping those who God has called you to love and help.  But it takes a different mindset to be content doing what you can. 

When you can be content doing what you know you are called to do, doing what you are doing, you can know that it matters to God.  In that case church growth is not about numbers, quantity, but about quality.  Have you made a difference?  Has one person learned about God, or was helped, or felt loved or served because of the efforts that you did?  If you can answer yes to that, even If that one person was you, then you can be content knowing that God’s will has been served and you can continue to do what you are doing, knowing God’s love is being shared.

The author of First John asks us to lay down our lives for one another just as Christ did.  And that is a scary thought for us.  We see Jesus has laid down his life and died for us so we assume that laying down one’s life must mean that we too must die.  But that is not what laying down one’s life means.  Jesus does not want us to be martyrs, Jesus wants us to live for Christ.  Laying down something means giving it up, so that another might use it.  We are asked to lay down our lives, get out of the way, so that our lives, ourselves may be used by another.

Now going back to our three options of how to respond when one is faced with this impossible task love and help all.  We can do nothing, which is not giving up our lives.  We can strive to do everything, which may seem like we are allowing ourselves to be used by others but instead we are allowing ourselves to be USED UP by others.  Or we can do what we are called to do, make a difference in this world, even if it is just one person’s life and it is then that we are laying down our lives, getting out of the way, so that God may use our lives to help, serve and love another. 

So how will you respond when you are faced with the impossible standard of First John: How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?