Rooted In Love, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, for Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/6/2012

Rooted In Love By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/06/2012 Based on John 15:1-8 and 1 John 4:7-21 “10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us…(V) 11 Dear friends,(X) since God so loved us,(Y) we also ought to love one another.” 1 john 4. This past week, I received an article on Facebook that I found quite disturbing. The first paragraph of the article reads: A virulently homophobic and anti-gay preacher on Sunday derided parents who don’t “squash like a cockroach” the gay out of their children. Pastor Sean Harris told parents they are “authorized,” and that he was “giving them a special dispensation” to attack their children. “Give them a good punch,” and “crack that wrist,” Harris told parents, if their four-year old boy, for example, “starts acting a little ‘girlish’.” Pastor Harris added that parents should tell their four-year olds to “man up, son, get that dress off you get outside and dig a ditch because that’s what boys do.” By David Badash, May 1, 2012, The New Civil Rights Movement In light of what 1 John is writing about “love”, I have to call “bull pucky” on Pastor Harris and anyone else who promotes this type of behavior. It matters not whether you are in agreement or disagreement with a person’s sexual orientation, or their politics, or religious affiliation as for examples, liberal or conservative, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or nationality or the type of fashion one chooses to wear, no one has the right or privilege to promote violence and hate. When those who feel like they have the responsibility to do so and also call themselves Christian, then they have violated not only the commandment that Jesus gave, “love one another as you love yourself…” but they most seriously misrepresent God! Yet many pulpits would condone such rhetoric. After the initial shock of the 9/11 attacks by terrorists on our shores, many pulpits started hate campaigns against peoples whose religion is Muslim. Anyone who wore a cap or a scarf on their head, if their skin color wasn’t white, became the objects of this same type of hate that Pastor Harris preached this past Sunday. From many pulpits, we were being told this type of violence against us was punishment from God for practicing acceptance of our children who were gay. I have titled today’s reflection, “Rooted In Love”. The two lection readings for today, speak about what “Love” produces and what happens in the absence of “love”. Continuing on in 1 John 4, verse we read: 12 No one has ever seen God;(AA) but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.(AB) So, what are some of the attributes of “love”, so that we might have some sense of whether our actions and our thoughts are in line with how scripture teaches about “abiding” in Jesus and thereby “abiding” in God? The word “discipline” often is misunderstood. Some of us were raised with the teaching by our parents that “if you spare the rod, you spoil the child.” So, spanking your child was condoned as an appropriate way of administering discipline. Maybe that’s what Pastor Harris is referring too. In the 1950’s, a new approach was introduced by the physician Dr Spock, challenging the former idea of discipline, and whether or not accurately interpreted, millions of families began to think of discipline as a negative tool in their children’s up bringing. Many parents stopped not only spanking their children but hesitated in setting boundaries in fear of “damaging” their children for life. In the Gospel of John we read starting of chapter 15: “I am(A) the true vine,(B) and God is the gardener. 2 The gardener cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,(C) while every branch that does bear fruit(D) the gardener prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.” I do apologize for “text proofing” but when I see the concept of being a vine and of producing fruit, and this vine because it is producing fruit gets pruned, I cannot help but relate it to the concept of Discipline. The idea of discipline is to develop a foundation of habits, skills and/or principles that will enable one to navigate through life experiences with desired out comes. This is a broad set of skills, such as language, mathematics, science, psychology, philosophy, manors. Most anything that we learn can loosely be labeled under the idea of discipline. The unfortunate thing is that somewhere we have understood discipline only in the negative and forget the positive aspects. Pruning is another way of presenting the understanding of discipline. Discipline is an act of love. There are people who think that it is okay to break a child’s arm as a form of discipline, as a way of trying to make a child be someone other than who they are, whereas we can read in both sets of today’s scripture that the act of pruning is done in order that more fruit may be produced. It is not done to change, but done to enhance. Parents are not alone in having preconceived ideas as to what is right and wrong for their children, the church also has preconceived standards of right and wrong, not only for it’s members but for the rest of the world as well, and because of these preconceived ideas, feels that it has the right and obligation to try and alter everybody’s behavior. As Christians, it is not our job to decide how a person is or is not to be. Our job is to do the activities that nurture others into becoming who they are meant to be. A dad wants his boy to be a quarterback in pro football, the son however dreams of becoming a concert pianist. The father who loves his son will put aside his dream , and will do whatever is necessary to help his son develop into that concert pianist, so that through the son, many others will receive the gift that the young man can provide through music. Somewhere in Christian philosophy, we have altered the message of God’s love toward humanity. In the story of the prodigal son, we see God’s love acted out in a father running out to greet and welcome the son who had left home. Most of us however, too often act more like the son who never left home, refusing to rejoice and understanding the concepts of God’s grace. In Rob Bells book, “Love Wins”, Bell states: Grace and generosity aren’t fair; that’s their very essence. The father sees the younger son’s return as one more occasion to practice unfairness. The younger son doesn’t deserve a party – that’s the point of the party. That’s how things work in the father’s world. Profound unfairness. Pg 168, Love Wins So just possibly, the fruit that we as the vine are supposed to produce is “unfairness.” The most profound understanding that anyone of us can have about love comes in the realization that “God first loved us” – Period! God’s love for us isn’t because we love God, but rather our love for God comes because of God’s love for us! And how do we know if we truly practice the love which God shares? By practicing “unfairness” toward others. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” Let us live not in fear but in love! Amen