1 John 4:7-21

Easter 5 - Year B

Love is mighty difficult to define. Have you tried it lately? If you were satisfied with your definition you may need to be pruned some more since literalism and denotation are not the name of this game.

It appears that love can be seen and recognized, but not programmed. We see G*D's love through Jesus and others. We revel in and reflect that love by passing it on to others. As Eugene Peterson puts it, "Loving God includes loving people."

Even more basic, active love not only values building life but values repelling fear. Can you think about love as a magnet as it attracts differences and pushes away that which would keep us locked into the same old same old?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html

Have you experienced a relationship with G*D? By this is meant more than listening to and following rules from on high. Rules are for kids. As friend and partner there is all manner of give and take with G*D.

A mono-experience with G*D is better than no relationship at all but far short of a vari-experience. As folks who have a well-rounded experience of G*D, our base of evangelism is the good news of new goodness. A key part of this are the possibilities contained within the visions of prevenient grace and perfection. Lets continue so preaching and living.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html

1 John 4:7-21
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
John 15:1-8

To know and to be known, inside out, is a great pleasure and a great threat. As we look at these passages we wrestle with boundarys of intrinsic and shared worth.

What abides in you? An alien waiting to punch through your chest? A waiting prodigal parent? Can you abide being abided in? What then of myself? Do I live or am I but alive when lived through?

As G*D abides in me am I to so abide in others? What does that do to my control of self and others? Does being loved mean I get what I need as an infant, I get to reject it in adolescence, I can always come back to it? Is love contingent upon my response?

Where does this come into play with faithful mothers and over-protective mothers and hurtful mothers? What about the mother part of each one of us, whether biologic mothers or not?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html

1 John 4:7-21
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
John 15:1-8

Four words - one from each pericope:

Baptized - yes, even eunuchs
Family - yes, even Iraqis
Born - yes, beloved of G*D
Abide - yes, G*D in creation, creation in G*D

There is a multitude of ways we interact with the world around us. Among the biggest choices are those of what we prevent and what we nurture.

For those within a Christian tradition, here is a strong statement about choosing nurture over prevention: "Those who say, 'I love God,' and reject non-Jesus people are liars."

To abide, to be born from that abiding, to be family beyond limits, to be baptized into a way of life leaves little escape from a command toward wholeness: "those who love G*D must love their brothers and sisters also - their common environment, their belovedness, their family relations, their belonging past all divisions.

- - -

look - water
rippling with life
reflecting glory

look - enemies
still family
ancestral descendants

look - home
abiding here
abiding everywhere

look - love
born and reborn
and born forever

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

Want G*D to be recognizable within your life?

"Love" another, each other, one another, others.

G*D's love lives in us and our love lives in G*D.

Now, if only we could figure out what this "love" is.

Is it "bearing fruit"?

Is it "shared understanding"?

Is it "happy, happy, joy, joy"?

Is it "participation in a great congregation"?

Is it "confession"?

Is it "response to being 'loved'"?

All of the above and more?
None of the above?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (verses 20-21)

What is the freedom of G*D? Do others have that same freedom? If so, how does that change our relationship with them?

There will be those who claim that only G*D has freedom.
There will be those who claim that everyone has freedom.
There will be those who claim that no one has freedom.
There are other claims as well.
What do you claim?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/05/easter-5-year-b-1-john-47-21-those-who.html