Trust and Love (Sermon)

“Trust and Love”

1John 3:16-24

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

4/26/15

         New Testament scholar David Bartlett says that the first epistle of John and the Gospel of John were written by different people. Bartlett also says that the letter was almost certainly written as an early commentary on the gospel. In an effort to invigorate a new generation of disciples, First John continually addresses the two great Johannine themes of believing in Jesus as the Logos, the Incarnate Word of God, and loving one another as we are loved by Jesus.¹ In the third chapter of First John, the writer joins the themes of Belief and Love at the hip.

“And this is [God’s] commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another…And by this we will know that we are from the truth.”

Belief and Love precede, accompany, and derive from each other. And the continual practice of each leads to the ever-deepening of both.

         Before going further, let’s substitute the word Trust for Belief. It conveys the intent of both the gospel and the epistle far more accurately, because Trust demands more than “belief,” more than mere intellectual assent. Trust implies a relationship, and a history of vulnerability with the person or thing trusted.

If my only concern is whether you “believe” certain things in certain ways, I will prescribe formulas for you to regurgitate. I will create categories to determine whether you are in or out. Instead of loving you, instead of listening to you and honoring our kinship, I keep my sword of judgment ready to cut you off as wrong or to demean you as unintelligent. If I am consumed by the differences between what you and I believe, then whether conservative or liberal, all I trust is my ability to condemn those who disagree with me. In that case, I love noting more than my hopelessly idealized projections of things like my religion, my denomination, my country, my political party, my GM vs. your Ford, the bold red and black of my GA Bulldogs vs. the white and orange crème of your TN Volunteers.

The writer of First John lives in a world that is just as uncertain and dangerous as our own, and yet his concern is that followers of Jesus not lose sight of those whom Jesus sees. He knows that when we live by superficial divisions, we go blind and bankrupt. When we define all that is true and good in the world through fear and prejudice rather than through God’s indwelling Spirit, we lose sight of the humanity in one another, and we lose sight of the human beings around us, particularly those who are in need.

When we define all that is true and good in the world through fear and prejudice rather than Trust and Love, our wealth is purely material and self-serving. Aware of this, the writer asks: “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?”

         Trust grows when we learn to recognize God’s abiding Love within us, and when we learn to give ourselves away in Love. And Love grows the more we Trust the sure and certain, yet unprovable God.

         In the luxuriant dance of Trust and Love, we experience God, and the experience is subjective and interpretive. It becomes a matter of memory and hope. The immediate things: health, wealth, and happiness are wonderful. In a perfect world we would all enjoy these things all the time. That world does not exist. Neither Jesus nor his disciples experience it. And he certainly never promises anything even approaching perfection – not for this life.

“If the world hates you,” says the Johannine Jesus, “be aware that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18)

The beatitudes of Luke are stark and sobering: “Blessed are the poor…Blessed are you who are hungry now…Blessed are you who weep now…Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on [my] account.” (Luke 6:20-22)

It seems to me that the only way to live as faithful witnesses to the kingdom of God in a broken world kowtowing to idols of wealth and power is to try to live in community with the whole creation according to the ways of Trust and Love. And since it really can be a scary and unjust world, there is only one way to do that. As the writer of First John says, we “lay down our lives for one another.”

The phrase “laying down our lives” conjures up particular images in many minds. For us, as followers of Jesus, those images are not the images preferred by Caesar. When laying down his life, Jesus never causes another to lay down his or her life in any violent fashion. And Jesus does not “lay down his life” for us on Good Friday alone. He lays down his whole life. He lives and breathes, eats and sleeps, works and plays as God’s fullest expression of self-emptying, unsentimental Trust and Love.

Some years ago, a friend of mine named Don went on a mission trip to Uganda. He went because his daughter was going. It was a well-organized, group trip, but he still felt uneasy about her making the trip “all alone” to a place which is surrounded by volatile countries like Sudan, Congo, Kenya, and Rwanda. During the visit, Don spent some time talking with a group of Ugandan pastors whose ministry took them back and forth across the boundaries with some of the countries I just mentioned. These were high-risk journeys, and the pastors traveled in the safety of prayer, not armor.

“Don’t you worry?” Don asked. “Isn’t that extremely dangerous?”

One pastor looked at Don and said, “You must understand, my American friend, we are laid down lovers of Jesus Christ. We go wherever he calls us.”

I would paraphrase the pastor’s response this way: We Trust Jesus because we Love him. And we Love him all the more for Trusting him to lead us, even in the face of death.

Trust and Love. These are the seeds and the fruits of far more than belief. They are both the parents and the offspring of “truth and action.” Through the gift of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, we are capable of this holy and holistic Trust and Love. We are capable of seeing those in need and sharing with them the spiritual blessings of welcome, and the material blessings of enough.

Learning to live according to the demands of Trust and Love takes years of trial and error. It ages us. But with faithful effort comes a wisdom we cannot generate by ourselves. On this Senior Adult Sunday, I call our attention to the book of Proverbs: “The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair.” (Proverbs 20:29) “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” (Proverbs16:31)

God alone is righteous. And because it is God’s Spirit who animates us, we all have the capacity to Love one another as God Loves us. God calls us to Trust this promise. It is resurrection’s daily miracle for us and through us.

What do Trust and Love demand of you today?

Where will Trust and Love lead you tomorrow?

¹Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, Lent through Eastertide, David Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008. “Exegetical Perspective,” David Bartlett, p. 443.