{"id":302,"date":"2014-06-01T12:36:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T12:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=302"},"modified":"2020-12-02T02:52:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T02:52:30","slug":"cherishing-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/cherishing-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherishing Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John 14:15-21<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 1, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read in a Christian magazine recently about a pastor visiting someone in a nursing home when he heard one of the residents saying a sweet, odd rhyme: \u201cI love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig.\u201d This woman was not the person the pastor came to visit but while he was sitting in the atrium, he noticed her staring out the window and saying those childlike words: \u201cI love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig.\u201d She repeated them again and again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the pastor was trying to focus on the man he came to visit, he caught himself wondering about their neighbor and her whimsical rhyme. Did she ever say anything else? Of all the words to remember, why these?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the pastor was leaving the nursing home, his curiosity got the better of him. He searched for a nurse and, feeling a little sheepish about interrupting her work, approached her. \u201cCould I ask you an odd question? The woman who sits in the atrium. She says this little rhyme over and over. Do you know why she does this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nurse smiled and repeated the words with a dramatic flair: \u201cI love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig!\u201d She had obviously heard the rhyme thousands of times\u2014and she wasn\u2019t the least bit tired of it. \u201cThat\u2019s Thelma,\u201d she explained. \u201cShe taught first grade for more than 30 years. Her little rhyme was her own special way of greeting the children each morning. As she helped them remove their coats, she would whisper those words in every little ear. It was her way to let each child know that each child possessed a special place in her heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our passage for this morning, Jesus said, \u201cI am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you\u201d (John 14:20<\/a>) means the depth of loyalty and commitment that is typically reserved for the closest members of one\u2019s family. This kind of love is what Thelma had for her first grade students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church Love<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Matthew, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Jesus teaches us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. ln our Reception Ministry, we are to love our neighbors. We take the \u201cgreat commission\u201d in Matthew 28<\/a> where Jesus commands us to go into all the world and make disciples through baptism and teaching. Clearly, we are to love people and the world beyond our church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus is telling us to love one another. In John 13:34-35<\/a>, Jesus said, \u201cI give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this sound too inwardly focused on internal concerns? Or is this \u201clove\u201d among believers a great part of our witness to a world full of nonbelievers? I think the latter. When the church fails to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit and thereby fails to live together with one another in love, it suggests that Jesus may not have fulfilled his promises to us here in John\u2019s Gospel. Yet when the church shows the world a quality of loving community that is nothing short of miraculous, the world sees solid, institutional evidence that Jesus is indeed Lord, the Son of God, the light of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the song we used to sing as youth, \u201cThey\u2019ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love?\u201d While it\u2019s a bit sappy to say that we\u2019ll love one another, it reveals a great truth. When we love each other, we would implicitly be going out into the world to make disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before his crucifixion, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit who gives us what we need to be obedient to Jesus\u2019 command. He doesn\u2019t expect us to love on our own. Jesus reminds us that if we believe that he is Lord, then we ought to live like it, particularly in our behavior with fellow Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church Fights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have found that, in some of our efforts at evangelism, that the greatest impediment to reaching the world and making disciples for Christ is the church. How often have you shared Christ with someone only to have that person counter, \u201cAfter I experienced a horrible fight in the church in which I grew up, I haven\u2019t been back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would hear their stories of congregations behaving badly. And only after you do, you might say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry that happened to you in a church. We are sinners who are being saved by Jesus and sometimes our sin gets the best of us. Are you willing to give Jesus\u2019 people another try?\u201d Now maybe not in those very words but something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes people can\u2019t see the love of Christ because of the unloving behavior of those whom Christ has clearly commanded to love one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first apologists for the Christian faith, Tertullian, says that this was the major reason why the church defeated the Roman Empire without firing a shot or raising up a single army. The world looked at the church and exclaimed, \u201cSee how these Christians love one another.\u201d But today, I\u2019m afraid that some people are saying, \u201cSee how these Christians fight like cats and dogs with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Martin Luther King\u2019s movement was challenged by assaults from the forces of racial injustice. King said in a famous sermon that the church would respond by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

out-loving its enemies, out-suffering the perpetrators of violence, out-loving those who would show hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cherishing One Another<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was thinking about what Thelma was feeling in her heart when she whispered in each little ear of her first grade students: \u201cI love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig.\u201d This kind of love is not given out of duty in a job or expected out of obligation. This love is more like: \u201cI am behind you\u201d or \u201cI am standing with you.\u201d We may say, \u201cYou are in my heart and mind.\u201d It\u2019s a kind of cherishing love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we say, \u201cI cherish you,\u201d we are sharing a kind of love that inspires deep commitment and stubborn loyalty. It is about a merging of heart, mind and will. All this may be difficult to put into words, but it is immediately recognizable to those who have experienced it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thelma gave this kind of love to her students. That is, she gave them a sustained cherishing love, not mere mindless repetition. This is why she greeted every student with a hug and a rhyme\u2014and it\u2019s why, even now, she can\u2019t stop greeting them. Her students reside in her. And for those who accept this rarest of gifts, she resides in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig.\u201d Does she always do that?\u201d the pastor asks the nurse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, no!\u201d she replied. \u201cOnly when she is very happy.\u201d The nurse paused. \u201cBut then again, Thelma has had a good life, and she\u2019s happy most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he gives us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit so that we may learn how to cherish one another with love. The world will continue to see Jesus when we love one another because he lives in us. God feels an eternal joy, a joy that arises out of cherishing love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, God has not seen fit to give the church a great deal of power, as the world judges power. I believe this is a good thing. We are not the richest or most influential organization in Chinatown. We are given one gift that the world finds elusive. We are given one thing to demonstrate to the world why Jesus Christ makes possible a family that the world cannot produce by the world\u2019s means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just take a look at each other. If we all had a say about who should be here this morning, I bet you that we would want them to be just like ourselves. There would be no disagreements or different opinions or contrasting viewpoints. If we had our way, we would not be together this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To us is given love, and an Advocate, the Holy Spirit that prods and pushes us, empowers us forward in love, particularly to love one another in the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Thelma, let\u2019s be happy with one another and follow Jesus\u2019 command that we love one another. Just as he has loved you, we also should love one another. By this everyone will know that we are Jesus\u2019 disciples, if we have love for one another. (John 13:34-35<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love you little. I love you big. I love you like a little pig!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ Jesus, you promise to send your Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to empower us and to lead us to walk in your path. By the power of the Holy Spirit, teach us to love one another, particularly to love one another in our congregation. Help us to be compassionate with one another in our differences and disagreements, to try to listen deeply to one another, to share one another\u2019s burdens, and thereby to witness to the world that your Advocate makes possible a loving, caring, cherishing community of love, even among people like us. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 14:15-21 June 1, 2014 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. I read in a Christian magazine recently about a pastorContinue readingCherishing Love<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,13],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-fcbc","tag-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}