The Missing Link- I John 2:7-11  9-13-09

⁷Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and^(I) walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Jordin Sparks, the American Idol star, has a song that has been on the top 10 the last five weeks that says over and over, “Why does love always feel like a battlefield?”- and “go on an get your armor.”   I think this reflects our culture.  Human love that is not centered in God’s love is often a battlefield.  Tina Turner had a similar song not too long ago called, “What’s love got to do with it?”  Our world defines love as sexuality- and there is so much more to love.  There are tons of songs about love that really have very little to do with real love.  Here John talks about real love- that it springs from God as He commands it, God shows us how to love, and love’s power to give meaning and direction in life.
I. GOD OF LOVE COMMANDS LOVE_John talks of love here is an old command from God- Yet it is a constant, relevant command.
We assume that everyone knows it’s better to love than hate- but that is not true.  There have been some cultures such as the Aucus us Equator, the headshrinkers in the Amazon, the former cannibals ofFiji, many of the tribes of New Guinea, and actually some of the pre-Christian tribes of ancient Europe- including the Vikings- who have often promoted hate over love.  Never assume people will just love.  I believe God has put deep, deep inside of us a realization that love is better than hate, but we do not always get in touch with that. 
I believe that when we leave the Christian God out of the equation we have a natural tendency to deteriorate back to hate- and especially back to a “me first” or “my family/tribe first” kind of idea.  In America, it is no accident that the two fastest growing religions- as we have decided to forsake the God of the Bible- are Black Islam- which emphasizes love only for black muslims (and sometimes hate for others).  Malcolm X’s hate stood in stark contrast to Martin Luther King’s non-violent preaching.  The second fastest growing religion is the  New Age beliefs- with their “I am god”- which is a spiritual form of self-centeredness.   I would invite you to remember what happened in Nazi Germany- who were deeply influenced by a combination of a degrading of belief in the scriptures with a rise in the following of Friedrich Nietzsche- and his super-race idea.   Nazism is a modern form of tribalism.   Communism talked about comradeship but they killed millions.  My point is when we get further away from the God portrayed in the New Testament, we move further away from love. 
John clearly says he is reminding them of an ancient commandment- to love one another.  Love is not just an emotion (as the world defines it) , it is a matter of the will- of the spirit deep within us.  God is calling out from deep within us the best of ourselves.   Calvin would say we cannot love consistently on our own power because sin and self-centeredness keeps getting in the way.  We are called to love our brothers and sisters because they are part of our spiritual family.  We are called to love them through our differences, our problems, our joys and sorrows.   But we are also called to love all human beings.  All human beings have the image of God in them- God made them and in that sense they are worthy of our respect and even our love.   Of course, Jesus in his life and especially in his death reminds us that many refuse our love and God’s love.  There would be no cross if people didn’t refuse love.   God never said love-real love- would be easy.  In fact, the cross is the most visible example that love will be hard- even sacrificial.  It is because love is so hard that the God of love calls us, elicits from us, and commands us to love- and we must constantly have our ears tuned to his voice. 
II. TO BE WITH THE GOD OF LIGHT MEANS BEING WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE LIGHT
A. THE CHRISTIAN GOD TELLS US HOW TO LOVE- God tells us that love is best, and then He tells us how best to love.  On our own, we are left in the dark.  There is not even a basic instructional manual about how we ought to love one another- only guesses by “experts” and some of these advice books on love are self-destructive.   But God has not left us in silence about love.  What God tells us sometimes flies in the face of what we want.  He tells us to turn the other cheek when we may want to strike back.  He tells us to love those who hurt us.  He tells us to love our enemies.   There are times when just about everyone acts as if they are your enemy.  Even family members may rub you the wrong way or cut you down.  Love is not restricted to when it is easy.  The good news is that love is possible here, but it is limited by sin.  Jesus showed us how to love when he walked on this earth.  He showed us we should help the sick (even though he was for the most part healthy), the children (even though he fathered no children), the needy (Jesus was a person in need his whole life).  Freud told us the greatest motivation is sex.  But love of God is stronger- if that were not so there would be no nuns or monks.  Love is a much more powerful, more lasting in every age- pre-teen and adult

B. A GREAT PART OF THAT LOVE IS TO BE WITH THE PEOPLE OF LOVE- Love is never just tribal, or just limited to ourselves or our family.  But love must start with the ones God has placed around us.  This is the problem with the hermit-monks.  There were people who went off to live all by themselves- Jeremiah Johnson like- because they really couldn’t get along with anyone else.  Now there are times to be by ourselves.  Jesus went into the wilderness 40 days before beginning his ministry.  But if our goal and chief end is to be left alone so no one can hurt or harm us- then we are in disobedience to God.  There is a part of us that always wants to be away- and never wants to be intimate- or to make friends or to love.  But God calls us out of our shell.  In the last twenty years there are gated communities popping up in resort areas- the coast, the mountains, and one or two on the lake.  The rich are especially tempted to get away from those who always have their hand out for help or are always asking for a favor.  But whether we are rich or poor, God calls us to not retreat from others.   I do not have a problem with gated communities as long as the people within them reach beyond the gate.  I will say it is harder to do that- but I have seen it done.  One of the great things about GOoDWorks is it is a way for anyone- rich, middle-class, or poor to help someone in need.   It is a way to get out of ourselves.  The Church is constantly looking to provide opportunities for us to get away from self-centeredness and to do something for someone in need. 

On the coast in Georgetown there is a huge gated community called Debordieu, and another called Prince George, and several others.  There are huge plantations where people can go and be totally isolated.  There are also large gated communities at Hilton Head and even Myrtle Beach.   The church was often the link between these very rich and the very poor communities that lived inland.   I can tell you now, that we had one of the wealthiest guys in the state a former CEO of a fortune 500 company out there rubbing elbows with some of the poorest people in the state renovating a house.  The church was the link- and the church is supposed to be God’s voice calling us to get outside of ourselves to help and love others.   It is too easy to love only those like us- it is too easy for the elderly not to care about the children, and for the children not to care about the elderly.  It is too easy for one race not to care about the other.   When God has placed us next to each other, we need to continually look for ways to reach beyond ourselves- and always, always recognize that our first tendency is not toward love, but toward selfishness.

III. TO NOT LOVE MEANS TO LOSE DIRECTION AND MEANING (vs. 11)
A. TO NOT BE WITH THE GOD OF LIGHT- Means to walk in the darkness.  Ever tried that?  When there is no moon, no street lights, clouds are covering the stars?  When we are not sensitive to the One who made the world, it is like we are really blind to that whole part of life.  It is like my dog who can only see black and white.  It is like we can only see a slight bit, but not the whole picture.   I can remember going to my first haunted house as a kid.  We were fairly little, and looking back it wasn’t really that scary- it was mainly teenagers yelling and wearing masks.  But I was scared enough at the time.  They had all the little kids holding onto a rope.  As long as they held onto that rope they would not get lost in the Halloween- scary-maze.  But if we let go of the rope (as one kid did), we could hear screams of bloody murder, and they had to stop the whole thing to try to calm this kid down.   Love of God is the rope we hold onto through the darkness.  As we hold onto that rope, we are also holding onto one another. 
Love gives us direction in life.  It calls us away from ourselves to follow God.

My prayer for those who will be elected today is that they will be elders and deacons of love- calling us as a church to love each other, to love our community, and show Christ’s love to the ends of the earth. 
Several years ago I served a small church, and we had a playground to attract kids.  But the fence around the playground had broken down, and someone had donated money to fix the fence.  The men of the church were going to put up the plastic chain link fence themselves.  We worked for two weeks- tearing out the old, cementing posts, stretching the fence- it was great- except there was a missing part- It was a hinge for the gate.  It was out of stock- and it took 6 months to get in.  The fence ended up keeping stray animals more in than out.  It definitely didn’t keep the little kids in- all because of a missing part- a missing link if you will.  Human love without God’s love is like that fence- it may look great- and may help a little- but human love needs God’s love to be complete.  You and I need to love as human beings, but we need God’s love to motivate us, direct our love, and empower our love to be what we need.