"The Story, and the Glory of Love" May 13, 2001 (Mothers' Day)

Revelation 21: 1-6, Psalm 148, John 13: 31-35

As I was studying today's gospel lesson I was struck by two words: glory and love. At the end of the Last Supper Jesus is anticipating the great crucible of dying and rising through which he must go. He says "Now, the Son of Man's glory is revealed; now God's glory is revealed through him........" That "now" seems pretty significant, as Jesus is saying "Now, in all that is going to unfold - arrest, trial, dying, rising - you will see the glory of God expressed through me....... And then a few lines later he says "And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another......" Glory and love......

As I was mulling on these words, "glory" and "love," I had a vague recollection of an old song. From some deep corner of my brain came the phrase "That's the story of, that's the glory of love......." That's all I could remember, but I thought "Maybe the song will shed some light on this passage; maybe it will be a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was talking about......." Music tends to be a well-trodden path for me, one of those channels through which God can come to me, to remind me of things, teach me things, inspire me. Words of songs, hymns and anthems often arise within my mind, and I have learned that this is one of the ways that the God within me communicates. Was this such a God-directed impulse? I couldn't remember any more of the song, but I began asking people if they knew it. Kathy Gregory was subbing in the office, so I asked her "Do you know a song that includes the phrase, 'That's the story of, that's the glory of love'"? She sang it right back to me, but when I asked "Do you know any more of it?" she was stumped. Claire was in the Education Office, and Richard, our maintenance man, came by. They knew the phrase too - but when I asked for the rest of the song - in effect, when I asked "What is the story and the glory of love?" they also drew a blank.....

"This is really interesting," I thought to myself. "We've all heard about the story and glory of love, but nobody remembers what it is!" At Kathy's suggestion I went down to the Senior Nutrition Site, where 20 or so senior citizens were having lunch and I posed my question to them. As I sang the phrase several joined right in, and a few remembered a bit of the rest but it was pretty sketchy. All I could get was sort of like this: "You've got to something a little, something else a little, la la la la..... a little...... That's the story of, that's the glory of love........."

It struck me as an interesting commentary on life. We all know something about the importance of love - but what about the content? What is the story of love? What is the glory of love? What does it mean on this Mother's Day for a mother to love her children, or for a children - small or grown up - to love their mothers?........ What do we mean when we quote our church mission statement and say "Under the Lordship of Jesus Christ we are a worshipping community, seeking the will of God, teaching the Word of God and sharing the love of God."?......... What is the expectation when a couple stands before the altar and they promise to "love and cherish" one another "until we are parted by death."?..... What does Jesus mean when he says "Love one another as I have loved you."?

I really thought I was on a roll, and the next day, when one of the women who works at the nutrition site, brought me a recording of the song "The Glory of Love" I thought maybe the mysteries of life were about to be answered. No such luck. There's nothing wrong with the lyrics, which were written by somebody named Billy Hill in 1936, but if you looking for the wisdom of the ages it comes up a little short. In case I've aroused your curiosity, here's how the song goes:

You've got to give a little, take a little, and let your poor heart break a little,

That's the story of, that's the glory of love. (OK - there's something significant about sharing, and being willing to suffer with others......)

You've got to laugh a little, cry a little, until the clouds roll by a little

That's the story of, that's the glory of love. (Now, we're getting a little more sentimental, and - it seems to me - stretching for words that rhyme)

As long as there's the two of us, we've got the world and all it's charm,

And when the world is through with us, we've got each other's arms

(As a preacher, I have to say that I certainly hope we have more to look forward to than that when the world is through with us!)

You've got to win a little, lose a little, and always have the blues a little (Now I feel like we're really getting sappy and stretching to make rhymes)

That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

If that's your favorite song of all time I hope I haven't ruined it for you, but there's really not enough there to build a sermon on, much less to build your life on. So, having come up short there, let me go back to the preacher's old stand-by; a three point sermon on the Bible passage in question. What is the story and the glory of love according to Jesus?

Jesus says "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." In one sense, the commandment to love is anything but new. The teaching that we should love God with all our hearts and that we should love our neighbor as our self is central to the Hebrew scriptures - not new at all. Jesus had talked about love many times before this - including the challenging commandments that we should love our enemies, love those who persecute us, love the stranger (in the manner of the Good Samaritan), love those who don't deserve it......"

Perhaps what is new in this particular context is the emphasis on loving one another - not just the stranger, not just the undeserving, not with the amazing, heroic, sacrificial kind of love, but the ordinary, daily, humdrum kind of love. "Love one another" Jesus was saying to his followers, and by extension I believe he is saying the same to people who live in families, to folks who are in a circle of friends, to people who are a part of a church, etc.... "Don't just love the stranger across the seas who is receiving the missionary gift you are sending..... Don't just love the prisoner you promised to pray for..... Don't just love the enemies you will forgive, and then probably ever have to deal with again....'' Jesus says "Do all these things, but also love one another other."

That sounds easy, especially compared with loving enemies, but is it? I saw a cartoon in a preacher's journal in which the pastor's wife says to her husband "Why don't you switch things around today? You can be cheery and supportive and charming here at home; and be worn out, irritated and cross with the church members...." Pastors or anybody else - sometimes we treat the people around us worse than anyone else, don't we?....... Dealing witht he people in our daily circles we may identify with Charlie Brown of Peanuts who once spoke the classic line "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand!" Sometimes - believe it or not - it is easier to love the stranger, the enemy, the outsider, than it is to love our family, our neighbor, our co-worker, our fellow church member.

The story and the glory of love, according to Jesus, is the intention, and the determination, to truly love the ones who are right here: "Love one another......" That's what we are commanded to do.

But the content of love is sharply defined by Jesus' next words: "as I have loved you..." Love as defined by this world is often pretty selfish. We often love in the hopes that we will get something back. We often love in a conditional way, and if people disappoint us we may pull our love back, but Jesus models an unconditional love. He was willing to love God and love the world with no restrictions - a love which in his case led to death on the cross. It wasn't his choice to suffer - and I think that it needs to be said that someone who opts for intentional martyrdom, or wants to suffer so they can say they have fulfilled Jesus' commandment, has things out of balance. Jesus didn't love suffering, but he loved God and us enough to live and love in a way that accepted suffering.

And here's an interesting paradox: Love that is trying to fill itself often is thwarted, but love that is willing to give itself away often finds fulfillment. Jesus gave away his life, but he found it, received it, in resurrection. In one sense we could say that he denied himself, but in another sense he fulfilled himself.

Here's a folk tale about loving and selfless giving in the manner of Jesus. It seems that there were two brothers who inherited a farm from their father, and over the years they operated this farm in partnership, sharing the work and the profits on an equal basis. They each had their own house on the farm, but one brother had a wife and several children, while the other brother remained single.

Now one day the single brother said to himself "This 50-50 arrangement isn't really fair. I'm all by myself, but my brother has a wife and several children to feed." So he filled a bag of wheat from his share of the harvest and by the dark of night he snuck over to his brother's storage area and poured it in. This seemed so fair and right that he began doing it every night...... But the other brother said to himself "This doesn't seem fair. I have a wife and children, and when I get old my children will take care of me, but my poor brother is all alone. He needs to build up his fortune so that he'll have some resources to fall back on someday...." So, he began the custom, each night, of secretly transferring a bag of wheat from his supply to his brother's.

Each brother was amazed that his sacrifice didn't seem so costly, that somehow he had all he needed no matter how much he gave away. And then, at last, there came the night when they happened to be doing the transfers at the same time. They ran right into each other, and when they realized what was happening they threw their arms around one another in an embrace of brotherly love.

Loving as Jesus loves us means loving without strings attached. If we want to be parents so someone will love us we are doomed to unhappiness. Selfish love just doesn't work If we want to find a husband or wife, or friend, or community, just so someone will care for us, we are dooming the whole enterprise from the start. The glory of love, as Jesus reveals it, is unconditional love. We give ourselves away - but by God's grace, in such giving - like the two brothers - we often receive as well.

What's the glory of love? First, it's a love that begins with the here and now - that we love one another. Second, it is love with a self-giving content, as we love one another as Jesus has loved us. And then Jesus makes one additional comment, which could apply to your family, to a group within our church, to any fellowship that claims to be Christian. He says "By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

I recently read about a guy going on a business trip who realized, quite belatedly, that he needed his best suit cleaned. He remembered a store called "One Hour Dry-Cleaning" and he took his suit there. As the clerk took his suit she said "This will be ready next Tuesday." The man said "But I need it in an hour. Your sign says "One Hour Dry-Cleaning," to which the clerk said "Oh, that's just the name of the store, not what we do....."

We gather here beneath the sign of the cross. We take the name "Christians" - people who model themselves after Jesus. Do the people around us, the people who come to visit us, think that we are being faithful to our sign and our name? Will people who have interactions with our church community find in us a love that is modeled on Jesus? Will they say "Those folks really seem to love each other, they must be followers of Jesus."? God forbid that they should think our claim is like "One Hour Dry-Cleaning" - all hype and no substance.

What about your family? Would someone look at it and say "It's obvious they are Christians, they care about each other so much."? What about your circle of friends?

What marks a fellowship as being Christian? It's pretty simple, actually. It's not a Church with a big budget, or a list of how many souls you can prove you saved, or a massive church building, or a purity of doctrinal teaching. It's not necessarily a family where no one ever got in trouble, where church-going is more common that eating, or where the Bible is the only book anyone reads. No, here's the basic mark. "By this all will know that you are my disciples - that you love one another."

On this day of love, as we give thanks for love we've received, from mothers in particular; on this day of love as we remember Jesus' commandment to us, his disciples; I remind you of the story and the glory of love.

The story is told in a million ways, but the pattern was set by the God who came to us in Christ. The glory of love? The glory of love is seen when people love one another, when they do so in a way that emulates Jesus' self-giving, and when this love is so obvious, so clear, that it shines as a light, a light that identifies us as followers of the almighty God of Love.