Love or Judge
I think one of the great challenges the church faces today is to balance a message of love with a message of judgement – it is perhaps to balance some of the writing of the Old Testament with that of the New – that balance of a harsh, even vengeful God with the God of love portrayed by Jesus.
This evening in our 2 readings we have quite a contrast. In Ezekiel (13:1-16) we heard of the condemnation of false prophets – and this condemnation is fierce. For example ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: in my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath….’
It’s a tough passage which contrasts with our new testament reading from the first letter of John (3:11-24)… So what should we accentuate – what message should we giving to people ? I think much of the church has actually decided on the side of the new testament message, particularly teaching like we have heard today.
‘See what love the father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are’ is how the chapter we heard part of this evening begins – and then in what we heard we are told, ‘…we should love one another’.
Some suggest that this idea of love is great but not enough – that actually people need to be told some hard truths “in love”. That usually means telling someone that we love them but actually we don’t really like much about them at all – and we think they’re wrong on most things !
But as we look through the New Testament we find that Jesus himself didn’t do an awful lot of condemning and he certainly didn’t suggest that his followers should either. Instead he taught them about compassion, about kindness, about love… And he showed them these things – they were not just words…
And he invited others to respond to his call to follow him – either literally by packing their bags and going with him, or in terms of their lifestyle being transformed… And today I think that’s perhaps the message we must emphasise.
God is a God of invitation – he gave us the privilege of freewill – the opportunity to plan so much for ourselves; and he laid in front of us choices. Choices about how we will choose to live, who we will choose to live with and so on…
The first letter of John is an incredible letter of encouragement – it was written probably to counteract some false teaching but it doesn’t explicitly refer to that teaching really, but rather concentrates on the positive aspects of the message of Jesus. In that way perhaps the writer had to make a similar choice to us as to whether to speak of God’s judgement in black and white terms, or whether to offer an encouragement, a kind of invitation, to celebrate God’s love.
He chose the latter – throughout the letter speaking of God as the originator of the blessings of light (1:5), love (4:8,16), truth (5:6) and life (5:20).
And in our delivery of the Christian message to others, those are the sort of things that we need to be showing to people. It is widely recognised that few respond today to a kind of hell, fire and damnation kind of sermon, and that few will respond to people who go around judging others. But what people will respond to is often a message of love…
I have spoken before of David Wilkerson, a preacher who felt called to go to New York and preach amongst the gangs of the late 1950’s. He did incredible work, often by preaching a message that God would be a judge, but also that God loved people. In perhaps his most famous work, he spoke to Nicky Cruz, a violent gang leader – many times telling him God loved him…
As Nicky Cruz threatened to cut him with his knife, Wilkerson responded, ‘You could cut me up into a thousand pieces and everyone would say “God loves you”.’
Though David Wilkerson offered a very blunt and hard message, it was the message of love that broke down Nicky Cruz – it was the recognition that in spite of he’d been and done, God loved him and that another human being in the form of David Wilkerson, cared enough about him to risk everything for him…
It was a message of love that softened his heart… And that message of love as shown by Jesus isn’t a soft message. It’s not a message that’s easy to give, but a message fraught with danger. Jesus did so much to change the perception of what love was all about – he spoke to those who were considered outcasts, sinners and people from different backgrounds to him. He challenged authorities who talked of caring for one another, but didn’t seem to show too much care.
And he invited people to follow him…
Going back to the 1st letter of John and the passage we heard, a little later (v.18), the writer says, ‘Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.’ This letter we believe to have been written by the Apostle John who of course had spent time with Jesus, who knew him well, who understood what Jesus had done for people.
He was writing almost an elder statesman reminding people that Jesus spoke first of love, but never in the sense of love being easy… Today when we talk a lot about love and grace and mercy, some people perceive that we are simplifying a message that should include some more harsh words on judgement, but we are not…
There’s a story told of a man offering to pay his 12 year old daughter to mow the lawn. The girl worked hard at the task and by evening the whole lawn looked beautiful, apart from one patch down in the far corner. When the father said he could not pay her as she hadn’t done the whole lawn, she said she would forego payment rather than cut in that area – curious to find out why he wandered down to the uncut patch and there sat a large toad… It wasn’t that she was frightened of the toad but rather that she didn’t want to upset it’s position…
It was almost a form of love which created disorder in the lawn ! And in many ways true love for our neighbour will create disorder in the world – the sort of love that helps the alcoholic, the drug addict, the homeless person, the victim of crime, the person living in the developing world with nothing…
This sort of love Is disruptive, just as Jesus’ love was disruptive. Even those closest to him couldn’t understand it for a time… Today the church is sometimes seen as soft, maybe a bit woolly – and we should never be seen as either of those things, because we should people trying to live as Christ lived, and as God empowers us to live today.
We are not people who are offering a woolly message – Loving one’s neighbour is not an easy message - we are not offering a message wrapped in sugar coating, but a tough message, that urges people to make a choice in life – that’s what John is doing in his letter, but he offers that message, not as a judgement, but as an invitation, and so let us be people who are offering God’s invitation to join his family – and be people who are seeking the transformation of a broken world, people who are seeking the healing of lives that are damaged by all kinds of different things – people who are seeking to recognise and tell others that we live in the most privileged family of all – we are children of the living God…
I’d like to finish with 3 quotes :
John Newton once said that ‘people are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges’… Sometimes the walls of our churches can be so thick that people have trouble looking or even getting inside… Sometimes the bridges seem to be lacking – but with God’s strength, we can be those bridges…
Mother Theresa said, ‘Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.’
And finally Martin Luther wrote of the 1st letter of John, ‘It is not Christ walking on the sea, but his ordinary walk, that we are called on here to imitate.’
May God give us the strength to be encouragers; and people who love our neighbours, not in words alone but in our actions, and finally people who are offering in those words and actions an invitation to become part of the family of God. AMEN
This evening in our 2 readings we have quite a contrast. In Ezekiel (13:1-16) we heard of the condemnation of false prophets – and this condemnation is fierce. For example ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: in my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath….’
It’s a tough passage which contrasts with our new testament reading from the first letter of John (3:11-24)… So what should we accentuate – what message should we giving to people ? I think much of the church has actually decided on the side of the new testament message, particularly teaching like we have heard today.
‘See what love the father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are’ is how the chapter we heard part of this evening begins – and then in what we heard we are told, ‘…we should love one another’.
Some suggest that this idea of love is great but not enough – that actually people need to be told some hard truths “in love”. That usually means telling someone that we love them but actually we don’t really like much about them at all – and we think they’re wrong on most things !
But as we look through the New Testament we find that Jesus himself didn’t do an awful lot of condemning and he certainly didn’t suggest that his followers should either. Instead he taught them about compassion, about kindness, about love… And he showed them these things – they were not just words…
And he invited others to respond to his call to follow him – either literally by packing their bags and going with him, or in terms of their lifestyle being transformed… And today I think that’s perhaps the message we must emphasise.
God is a God of invitation – he gave us the privilege of freewill – the opportunity to plan so much for ourselves; and he laid in front of us choices. Choices about how we will choose to live, who we will choose to live with and so on…
The first letter of John is an incredible letter of encouragement – it was written probably to counteract some false teaching but it doesn’t explicitly refer to that teaching really, but rather concentrates on the positive aspects of the message of Jesus. In that way perhaps the writer had to make a similar choice to us as to whether to speak of God’s judgement in black and white terms, or whether to offer an encouragement, a kind of invitation, to celebrate God’s love.
He chose the latter – throughout the letter speaking of God as the originator of the blessings of light (1:5), love (4:8,16), truth (5:6) and life (5:20).
And in our delivery of the Christian message to others, those are the sort of things that we need to be showing to people. It is widely recognised that few respond today to a kind of hell, fire and damnation kind of sermon, and that few will respond to people who go around judging others. But what people will respond to is often a message of love…
I have spoken before of David Wilkerson, a preacher who felt called to go to New York and preach amongst the gangs of the late 1950’s. He did incredible work, often by preaching a message that God would be a judge, but also that God loved people. In perhaps his most famous work, he spoke to Nicky Cruz, a violent gang leader – many times telling him God loved him…
As Nicky Cruz threatened to cut him with his knife, Wilkerson responded, ‘You could cut me up into a thousand pieces and everyone would say “God loves you”.’
Though David Wilkerson offered a very blunt and hard message, it was the message of love that broke down Nicky Cruz – it was the recognition that in spite of he’d been and done, God loved him and that another human being in the form of David Wilkerson, cared enough about him to risk everything for him…
It was a message of love that softened his heart… And that message of love as shown by Jesus isn’t a soft message. It’s not a message that’s easy to give, but a message fraught with danger. Jesus did so much to change the perception of what love was all about – he spoke to those who were considered outcasts, sinners and people from different backgrounds to him. He challenged authorities who talked of caring for one another, but didn’t seem to show too much care.
And he invited people to follow him…
Going back to the 1st letter of John and the passage we heard, a little later (v.18), the writer says, ‘Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.’ This letter we believe to have been written by the Apostle John who of course had spent time with Jesus, who knew him well, who understood what Jesus had done for people.
He was writing almost an elder statesman reminding people that Jesus spoke first of love, but never in the sense of love being easy… Today when we talk a lot about love and grace and mercy, some people perceive that we are simplifying a message that should include some more harsh words on judgement, but we are not…
There’s a story told of a man offering to pay his 12 year old daughter to mow the lawn. The girl worked hard at the task and by evening the whole lawn looked beautiful, apart from one patch down in the far corner. When the father said he could not pay her as she hadn’t done the whole lawn, she said she would forego payment rather than cut in that area – curious to find out why he wandered down to the uncut patch and there sat a large toad… It wasn’t that she was frightened of the toad but rather that she didn’t want to upset it’s position…
It was almost a form of love which created disorder in the lawn ! And in many ways true love for our neighbour will create disorder in the world – the sort of love that helps the alcoholic, the drug addict, the homeless person, the victim of crime, the person living in the developing world with nothing…
This sort of love Is disruptive, just as Jesus’ love was disruptive. Even those closest to him couldn’t understand it for a time… Today the church is sometimes seen as soft, maybe a bit woolly – and we should never be seen as either of those things, because we should people trying to live as Christ lived, and as God empowers us to live today.
We are not people who are offering a woolly message – Loving one’s neighbour is not an easy message - we are not offering a message wrapped in sugar coating, but a tough message, that urges people to make a choice in life – that’s what John is doing in his letter, but he offers that message, not as a judgement, but as an invitation, and so let us be people who are offering God’s invitation to join his family – and be people who are seeking the transformation of a broken world, people who are seeking the healing of lives that are damaged by all kinds of different things – people who are seeking to recognise and tell others that we live in the most privileged family of all – we are children of the living God…
I’d like to finish with 3 quotes :
John Newton once said that ‘people are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges’… Sometimes the walls of our churches can be so thick that people have trouble looking or even getting inside… Sometimes the bridges seem to be lacking – but with God’s strength, we can be those bridges…
Mother Theresa said, ‘Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.’
And finally Martin Luther wrote of the 1st letter of John, ‘It is not Christ walking on the sea, but his ordinary walk, that we are called on here to imitate.’
May God give us the strength to be encouragers; and people who love our neighbours, not in words alone but in our actions, and finally people who are offering in those words and actions an invitation to become part of the family of God. AMEN
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