SUNDAY MAY 9, 2021

Reflection:  "Mothers and Fathers"

Psalm 98   

Acts 10:44-48

John 15:9-17

1 John 5:1-6

I guess most of us have things that we would say we “love”.It may be our friends and relatives, a new car, or other large purchase, it might be ice cream, or something else.
My weakness is chocolate. 
Yum……chocolate!

But when I say I “love” chocolate, is that really love, or is it just that I really, really like the taste? 

On this special day, when we remember our mothers, I’m sure that most of us would profess to loving our mothers. 
Mothers are the epitome of self-sacrificing love toward their children and we really should be treating every day as our mother’s day, rather than just on the second Sunday in May, when the gift card makers, the chocolate and the flower sellers, make a fortune. 

But in this reflection, I’m going to talk about a slightly different kind of love. 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that he chose us, not the other way round and that, if we follow his commands, he will love us forever.

Sometimes we talk of God as “the Father”, but I think that it’s better for us to think of him as a parent, because God has many motherly qualities as well.

Some people today even refer to mother/father God - because God is not just a fatherly figure. 
The ancient Israelis had a fixation on men and fathers, but we’re much more enlightened these days. 

Many Christians like to tell others that they’ve made a decision to follow Jesus, but in our bible reading, Jesus tells us that he’s already chosen us and that he’s just waiting for us to wake up to that fact.
That sort of puts a different complexion on our relationship with him, doesn’t it? 
We’re invited into a friendship with him. 

And how happy the psalmist was in Psalm 98!
He exhorts us to celebrate, with joy, the righteous reign of the Lord.
We’re told to sing a new song to the Lord.
And it’s not just us that he tells to make music, but all the earth – the sky, rivers, seas, all of God’s creation.
We need to be joyful for his love of everything he put here on earth. 
When we’re filled with so much joy, we naturally want to share it with others, and the first ones we think of are our relatives and friends. 

Speaking of friends, there’s a lot of noise being made these days about a computer program called Facebook.
You’ve probably heard of it, even if you aren’t actually a Facebook user. 
To participate in Facebook, you need to have a computer, connected to the internet and then, in the Facebook program, create a “user profile”, with as much, or as little personal information as you choose to enter.
You can then link to your “friends”, if they’re also on Facebook, by sending out a “friend request”.
The other person can then choose to either “accept” you as a friend, or ignore your request.
If they get sick of you down the track, they can also “de-friend” you!

Aren’t we lucky that God never denies our “friend requests” and, no matter what we do in the future, he’ll never “de-friend” us! 

But these are a very different sort of friends to those that Jesus is talking about in John 15.

He says that God loves us like friends, not like servants, because servants don’t know their master’s business. 

When we begin to follow Jesus, we are shown how he wants us to live and behave.
God gave us free-will when he created us, so we don’t always follow his commandments as well as he’d like us to.
Even when Jesus made it as simple as he could, by saying “This is my command: love each other”, we still manage to break that one.

Sometimes it’s in big ways (like declaring war on other people, committing murder, etc.), but mostly it’s in little ways (like harbouring bad thoughts about another person). 

Jesus then tells us that all the rituals, sacrifices of animals and strict adherence to the Jewish Law are as nothing.
What matters is how we treat one another. 
We are also told that obedience to God’s commandments will bear fruit.

The first fruit of abiding in love is that we have joy.
The joy of knowing that we are loved by God – which is not an earned emotion, but a state of being.
Joy comes from the conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God. 

Paul also lists the “Fruits of the Spirit” in his letter to the Galatians.
These are the conclusions of a man who had suffered immeasurably because of his love for Christ.
And yet because he knew that he was one with Christ, abiding in his love, the fruits that resulted were these:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Such attributes spring from abiding in Christ’s love – otherwise, a man who had suffered as much as Paul, would have been filled with bitterness.
But Paul had nothing but love in him and he shared it with those he met. 

Jesus also says that a real friend is one who will lay down his life for you.  
Of course, Jesus could say that, because that’s exactly what he was about to do at Calvary. 
He gave his life to atone for the sins of the people, even though he had committed no sin. 
By giving up his life willingly, we are able to freely enter the Kingdom of God when it’s our time to join him. 

I’m sure that some of us may feel that way about another person, or have friends that we think would do that for us, but let’s pray that we’re never put in that situation, where we have to find out. 

Jesus says that when we show love for one another, the fruits will soon be seen in our lives and in the church.  

He doesn’t guarantee that we’ll all become instant billionaires, as Mark Zuckerberg and the founders of Facebook have become, but he does guarantee that our lives and our relationships will become rich and fulfilling.  

That still sounds pretty exciting to me! 

Do you think that’s how people in the Lane Cove community, or other parts of Australia, or even the world, know us?
Do we send out a message of love and forgiveness, or are we just cocooned in our own lives and issues and don’t have time to reach out and influence others? 

When Lynne & I arrived at the church, 9 years ago, we certainly found that this community of God is a very welcoming and loving one.

We encourage you all to continue that good work, so that people who join us for Sunday worship, or come into contact with us at any other activity, can experience the love that Jesus gives us. 

I’d also like you to consider just what you, either personally, as a small group, or as the church in Lane Cove, could do to let people know how much better it is to be God’s close friend, rather than just a Facebook-style friend. 

“Friendly” blessings be upon you all. 
Pastor Rick