Love = Obedience

    Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  Many of us here this morning are a little uncomfortable with commands...or at least certain commands?  We chafe under the seeming inflexibility of “the rules,” we bend God’s commands and sometimes break them and try to explain them away or just plain ignore them.  Sometimes rules seem dusty and  out of date and senseless anyway.  Did you know that in Tennessee, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle?  In Indiana, it is against the law to shoot open a can of food. (So that’s why they make pop tops!)  In Kentucky, it is a crime to use a reptile during any part of a religious service.  “I don’t care if it is testimony time...put that snake away!”
    Christians have the reputation of being big on rules.  I recently heard of a church leader who drew a big line down the middle of a piece of paper...on one side he wrote “world” on the other side he wrote “church.”  He asked the question “What problems are we most concerned about...in the world?”  The list was long: global warming, war, hungry people, crime, poverty, AIDS.  Then he went to the second side of the list and asked: “What problems are we most concerned about...in the church?”  “Who gets to use the church van!  What kind of music should we use for worship?  Should gay people be welcomed in?  Can women be elders?”  Hm.  The world has these crippling problems...and what are we most concerned about?  
    There was an article in Friday’s paper about declining membership in a large American denomination well known for its emphasis on rule keeping.  The leader of this church said that part of the problem has been that this church has in recent years been known more for “what we’re against” than “what we’re for.”
    Christians tend to gravitate to rules.  How many 10 Commandment signs do you see in your neighborhood?  Don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with the 10 commandments.  But if you wanted your neighbor to know one thing about God, is it really “Thou shalt not commit false witness?”  
    Kathleen Norris says that for years she dreaded hearing the 10 commandments read aloud in church.  “They seemed overwhelmingly negative,” she said.  They made her think of her grandfather, who gave up alcohol and chewing tobacco when he became a church member.  He later became a preacher, but Norris says he still kept a box of cigars in the house.  “He didn’t dare smoke them,” she says, “as the lingering smell would have given him away.  But he would chew on them as he worked on his sermons.”  The kids were sworn to secrecy, as grandpa had once been fired from a church for playing hymns on the banjo and teaching church kids to play dominoes.  Sometimes church people have trouble distinguishing between “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not play dominoes.”
    All those rules made Kathleen Norris nervous...and they make us nervous too. Many of us grew up with the notion that God is some sort of cosmic rule maker who spends most of his time patrolling the church looking for violaters.  When you grow up like that, your faith either matures a bit, or else you’re apt to just dump the whole Christian experience overboard, rejecting it as a hypocritical, moralistic burden designed to keep people in line.
    Norris’s faith matured.  As she began to let the family ghosts go, God’s commanments began to actually make some sense to her.  She realized that there was a difference between what God had said and what people who spoke for God said; she realized that God’s commands were not burdensome, but they serve to safeguard people from themselves and from others, and they provide an inner compass that helps us resist negative traits like greed, hatred, and selfishness.  Norris says, “I’ve begun to see the commandments in the light of an underlying covenant,” a living love-relationship that God established with Israel, and with us.
    Take this command, for instance: “You shall not bow down to idols or worship them, for I the Lord am a jealous God.”  Some sneer at such a command.  Why would God be so touchy?  What’s he afraid of?  Jealousy makes God seem like one of those crazy people you see on the talk shows.  But God’s jealousy for us is more like mother love, more the protective zeal of a lioness or a mother bear for her young.  God’s possessiveness of us hints at the great worth God assigns us, and the seriousness with which he takes our relationship.  “Who, after all, would trust a God, a parent, a spouse, or lover, who said to us, ‘I really love you, but I don’t care at all what you do or who you become?’” (Norris) God’s commands for us provide a framework that protects us and helps form us in his image.
    So how do we respond to God’s commands?  In this morning’s gospel text from John, Jesus told his disciples: “If you love me, you will obey what I command....Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.”  Sometimes we follow Jesus only by a force of will.  Have you ever done something you knew to be right even though your heart wasn’t in it?  You went to visit an ailing relative when you wanted to stay home and watch a ball game.  You came to worship on a beautiful Spring day when what you really wanted to do was hang out at the lake all day.  You gave money to a missionary when what you really wanted to do was buy a new 58" wide screen TV.  You kept your mouth shut when what you really wanted to tell that guy off
    Sometimes we keep the command to love even though our hearts are not totally convinced.  Sometimes we carry through with the action because we know it is the right thing to do.  But sometimes, when we do that, much to our surprise, our hearts catch up to our actions and after some initial hesitation we end up feeling really good about doing the right thing.  CS Lewis says that the thing to do when you don’t feel loving is to love anyway.  The thing to do when you don’t feel like speaking kindly is to speak kindly anyway.  Sometimes acting like you know you ought to act begins to generate the kind of change that deep down you really want to see.  Sometimes we can act our way to real transformation.  Loving someone is really a matter of the will.
    A few years ago, a Milligan student named Bethany displayed this picture in a show.  It’s a picture of a man’s hand, resting on a newspaper folded on the man’s lap.  The fingers are long and wrinkled.  I was intrigued by the picture, and by the caption:  “The most important thing about marriage is loving someone else more than yourself.” The young woman who took the picture said she met the man outside a grocery store.  The man’s wife had just died, and he couldn’t stop talking about her.  They were married for 52 years.  Bethany asked if he had any advice about marriage and he said:  “The most important thing about marriage is loving someone more than you love yourself...”  That’s pretty good advice.  And are we not the bride of Christ?  “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command.... Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who love me.” What did Jesus command?
    When the law expert asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, didn’t Jesus respond: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  Do you really love God like that?  With all your heart, soul, and mind?  How much of your time does God get?  How much of your attention does God command?  What part of your resources are devoted to the Lord of life?  How much do you talk to the Father?  How much do you think about God during the day?
    “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command.”  Wasn’t the second great commandment of the law like unto the first?  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  How are you doing loving your neighbor?  Your suite mate?  Your sister?  Your wife or husband?  (I know you’re married to them, but you’re still supposed to love them) Do you love your co-workers, your parents, the guy who sits six rows from you today?  Jesus wants you to care for their needs as you care for your own.  Are you harboring any resentment at all?  Are you kind to them?  Do you pray for them?
    “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command.”  Did Jesus not say to the rich man, “Go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, then come follow me?”  Did Jesus not command, “Take up your cross and follow me?”  Did Jesus not say, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men?”  Are you following Jesus anywhere?  Or do we just ask Jesus to bless what we’ve already decided to do?  Does Jesus lead...or do you make all the decisions?  Does Jesus make decisions about where you work, what you buy, how you live?  Is Jesus leading you anywhere?
    “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command.”  Did Jesus not command us to go, to teach, to baptize, to make disciples?  Are we obeying his commandment to make him known; do we ever speak of his goodness to others?  Are you a witness for him?
    “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command....And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you...Those who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
    Responding to God’s commands brings more love from God.  The order of this verse is very interesting.  The disciples are told that love leads to obedience, then the Spirit comes. When we show our love to God and to others we are opened to receive more of the Spirit.  We love, even when we don’t feel loving.  We visit, even when we don’t feel like visiting, we pray, even when we struggle to find the words, we witness, even when we don’t feel like witnessing...and these actions open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, who flows into our lives with God’s love and presence.  Jesus himself will come to people who act like that and he will “Show himself to them.”  Be obedient to the commands of Jesus and he will abide with you...he will come to live in you...he will make his home with you.
    What is it that Jesus commands you to do this morning?  Close your eyes.  Think.  Is there something that Jesus wants you to do?  Something he wants you to say?  Somewhere he wants you to go?  Is there a relationship he wants you to repair?  Is there a gift he wants you to give?  Is there a sin he wants you to forgive?
    Ask him, right now.  Jesus, what do you want me to do?  How can I show my love for you.  Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.  Teach me your ways.  Send your Holy Spirit down to help me.  Lord, today...what do you want me to do?