God Is Love

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Roger Scott Powers at Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, on Sunday, May 14, 2006

I John 4:7-21

When someone tells me they're not sure they believe in God, I'm tempted to ask if they believe in love. If they believe in love, they can believe in God, because (as this morning's scripture reading tells us) "God is love."

It's perfectly natural to have doubts about God. After all, as the writer of I John readily points out, "no one has ever seen God." And for many of us, seeing is believing. Not only is God invisible, God is neither matter nor energy. Consequently, God cannot be measured or quantified. And in this scientific age of ours, we question the existence of anything that can't be measured or quantified. God, therefore, remains a great mystery to us.

Of course, like God, love, too, is a mystery. Love, too, is invisible. Love, too, is neither matter nor energy. Love, too, is difficult to measure or quantify. But for many of us, it is easier to acknowledge the reality of love as something we have experienced at some point in our lives than it is to acknowledge the reality of God.

Here, I'm not talking about romantic love or erotic love so much as I am speaking about brotherly or sisterly love, or the love of a parent for a child. For most of us, our first experience of love was being cradled in our mother's arms and nursed at our mother's breast.

It is our experience of love -- of loving others and being loved ourselves -- that offers us a stepping stone to God. As the scripture tells us: "Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."   "Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them."

"Love is from God." God is the source of love. So, by following love back to its source we find our way back to God.

This morning's reading from I John is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. I like the simplicity of its message: "God is love." It gives me solid ground on which to stand as a Christian. It's easy sometimes to get so wrapped up in theological debates, disputes about biblical interpretation, and divergent views of Christian doctrine, that one can lose sight of what is central, of what really matters. When that happens to me, I come back to this fundamental truth, which is at the core of my Christian faith: "God is love." It's something I can hold onto. It is my anchor, my bedrock. It grounds me.

It speaks of the essential character of God. Some Christians view God more as a law-giver and judge. In that view God lays down requirements for our belief and behavior that we must live up to or face judgment and punishment, either at the end of our lives or at the end of history. Such a view of God leads to a Christianity rooted in fear -- fear of God's judgment, fear of God's punishment.

By contrast, this passage affirms a God of love and grace over against a God of law and judgment. "There is no fear in love," says I John, "but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love."

God's love is unconditional. It does not depend on our believing certain things or doing certain things. God loves us just as we are. God accepts us just as we are. That is the meaning of grace. We are saved not by works but by grace. There is nothing we can do to earn God's love and acceptance. It is a free gift from God. And yet, we find it hard to accept God's unconditional love. We tend to think that God will love us IF we believe x or IF we do y. But in doing so, we place conditions on God's love and it ceases to be grace.

God's love is also universal. God loves all people -- male and female, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, abled and disabled, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat. Our nation is fond of the phrase "God Bless America." And it is a fine sentiment. I want God to bless America. But I want God to bless every nation! I want God to bless Cuba. I want God to bless Iraq. I want God to bless Iran and Sudan and Malawi and the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And God does! God blesses every nation, whether we ask God to or not. God loves the whole world, not just our corner of it.

Moreover, God's love is not limited to Christians. Yes, our passage says that "God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God." But that is different from saying that God abides ONLY in those who confess Jesus is the Son of God.   To say that would be to make God's love conditional. And that we cannot do. No, if God loves the whole world, then we must affirm that God loves not only Christians but Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people who profess no religion at all. To claim otherwise would be to put limits on God and God's grace.

As Christians, we know that God loves us, because God revealed it to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. "God's love was revealed among us in this way:" I John tells us, "God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him." It is through Jesus that we see God's love for us fully revealed. It is through Jesus that we see God's love lived out concretely in the world. Jesus models God's love for us.

I'm fond of quoting the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, former chaplain at Yale University and senior pastor at Riverside Church in New York City, who died just before Easter. He had a wonderful way of turning a phrase. Coffin used to say: "If Christ is God's love personified, then the Church is God's love organized."