To Love in Truth and Action
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
May 7, 2006

I’ve spent the last three days with 8,000 United Methodist Women, including about 10 from our congregation, at their great National Assembly in Anaheim. It is an incredible gathering, full of faith and purpose and joy. The worship and the speakers are outstanding. I led workshops on Friday and Saturday on Methodist doctrine and how it is that we can live with a great deal of theological diversity within the broad arms of The United Methodist Church.

It’s clear that our United Methodist theology, since its beginnings in the Anglican church and in the writings of John Wesley, grows right out of the passage from 1 John that we just heard. We Methodists, right along with the earliest Christians, are people who put more stock in what we do than what we think. Not that using our minds to love God is unimportant. John Wesley was a product of the Enlightenment after all, and all our theology should bring to bear the best scholarship and reasoning we can offer from every discipline.

It’s just that for Wesley, as for the writer of today’s Epistle, how we live is in fact where the rubber hits the road. Remember back to Jesus, his whole life and teaching, and even that last fateful night when he gathered the disciples all together before his arrest. How did he use those last hours with them? What emphasis is revealed by what he did with them that night?

Do you remember? They shared a meal—this very meal which we share this morning, now a sacrament for us. And what did he say to them? Did he say…you must believe a, b, c and d, in exactly this way? Did he ask them to recite an oath or a creed or a statement of faith? No. He washed their feet. And he gave them a commandment. “You must love one another,” he said, “as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus binds them together with the binding love between friends, a love willing to give all for the well-being of the other.

This is the love of our Great Shepherd—a love that is always doing for the other, a love that is selfless, compassionate, generous to a fault. The love of the Shepherd is the love always seeking nurture and living water for the flock. The love of the Shepherd counts the one as important as the ninety-nine. The love of the Great Shepherd is the love of the one willing to place oneself in harm’s way, if need be, to protect the flock. (continued...)

"To Love in Truth and Action" by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 7, 2006

As the Epistle writer put it: “We know love by this, that he 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 help? Little children, let us love, not in word or in speech, but in truth and action.”

You see, laying down one’s life might prove to be direct and literal. For most of us, no doubt, it will mean something of a different order. To lay down one’s life is the compassionate offer of who we are and what we have to others in the community of faith.

There are so many ways that we do this through the life of this congregation, that I can list only a few of them this morning. You can read of several in the current issue of the Sentinel, our newsletter. Our Lay Leader, Ron Theile, describes the impact of our loving actions on the life of a young girl in his group of bell ringers in whom faith in God has been awakened through the love and warm hospitality of this congregation. Other stories testify to the sustaining power of our prayer for them, and others of the tangible prayer of our Prayer Quilts.

You know already the witness of our Gulf Coast Work Team and our on-going partnership with the Bethany UMC in New Orleans. And today, members of our Missions Council and others join more than 8000 volunteers from synagogues, churches, schools, offices and clubs across the greater metropolitan area in community service and community-building at over 150 non-profit agencies. We are there because we are putting love into action.

Today we lift up our youth and all the hours and effort and talent they’re putting into their production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” to raise funds for the next work team service project. In a couple weeks, we will give special recognition to all of our great choir members and musicians who give of their gifts weekly to enhance our worship of God. And as confirmation approaches, we also remember our confirmands, each of whom has done a service project as part of the work of preparing for church membership.

The list could, and should, go on and on, of course—the Sunday School teachers, the small group leaders, the ushers, the coffee hour providers and cleaner-uppers—in so many ways, through the life of the church, we lay down our lives, gladly giving generously of ourselves and of our possessions, to contribute to the life of others. And many among us give generously of our time and our resources through a variety of civic and community groups.

The point in saying all this is not to be prideful, of course, but just to state the obvious, really. The Epistle writer is dumbfounded by the very thought that someone might have God’s love within and fail to meet the needs of others. It’s in our DNA, as Christians and as Methodist Christians. We’re part of the great on-going story of (continued...)

"To Love in Truth and Action" by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 7, 2006

God’s love in Christ Jesus. It’s love known in truth and action. As St. Francis of Assisi put it: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words only if necessary.”

Even so, I’m quite sure that most all of us have some growing to do in this area. Maybe we’ve grown complacent with a generalized feeling that we’re “willing” to love generously, but secretly hope that we won’t be asked to give too much. Maybe we give something financially, but nowhere near a level of sacrificial giving that causes us to really limit what we spend on ourselves. Or maybe we give our time, but are miserly with our feelings. Or maybe we give our love through “churchy” things, but can’t translate it on the job. Maybe we go through the motions, but know, in our heart of hearts, that real conversion is yet to take hold of us.

The Word of God is for each of us this day, wherever we are on our journey of faith. It comes to us in the voice of the Good Shepherd, knowing us and calling us by name. It is the great love from the heart of our God saying “You, friend, are part of this Easter people. You are special and gifted. And your response matters. I am here, says God’s love, to walk with you and to place you in green pastures and to nourish you with the water of life. I have called you friend, God’s love is saying to us, even now. Fear not! And as fully as possible, my dear friend, lay down your life for others. Open your life to others. Spend your life for others. Let your life show forth my love…”

Let us take a few moments now in silent reflection to listen for God’s voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd, and as we prepare to receive this sacrament, catch a new glimpse of what it might mean in our lives to love more fully in truth and action….