Stay in Love with God

This is a sermon I preached this morning. It's the third in a series on Wesley's three simple rules. The scripture passage is John 21:14-17. Click here to read the scripture passage first.

Stay in Love with God

I have a confession to make. I am uncomfortable with the phrase “saved.” I’ve often come across people on the sidewalk outside a busy shopping center or outside the student center on a college campus who are kindly asking people whether or not they are saved. And I must admit, that in those situations, I’m one of those people that suddenly finds the sidewalk quite fascinating, and I suddenly happen to have a period of momentary deafness where I can’t hear people around me, and I just generally try to become as invisible as possible.

It’s not that I mind having a conversation with people about life and faith. In fact I love that. It’s not that I haven’t accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I’ve done that. It’s not that I think other people shouldn’t have a relationship with Jesus, I absolutely think they should. But I think it’s the question itself that makes me so uncomfortable.

The question itself seems to make the underlying assumption that being saved is the end, that accepting Jesus into your life is the end, that this one time profession of faith is the end. But that would be like saying a wedding is the end of a marriage. It’d be like saying that giving birth to a child is the end of your parental responsibilities.

That sounds ludicrous to us because we all know that relationships are work. We know that you need to put time and energy and effort into a relationship if you want it to be a relationship that is close, healthy, and full of life. We know that our marriages wouldn’t be very healthy if we didn’t spend time with one another. We know our relationships with our family wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t communicate with them. And our relationship with God is the same way.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we have to do anything to earn God’s love and forgiveness. I’m not saying that at all. God offers us love and grace, acceptance and forgiveness through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we could never earn or buy or deserve. But God wants us to be in relationship with God so badly that Jesus would willingly die to make that known to us. All we have to do is accept God’s gift freely offered.

But if we want to make the most out of that gift, if we want to get the full benefit in this life time of the incredible gift of love and grace that God offers us, then we have to nurture our relationship with God. Someone could give me a wonderful house for free but if I don’t live in it, I’m not getting the full benefit of it. Or someone could give me a fantastic new car but if I don’t ever drive it, I’m not getting the most out of it. It’s the same way with the gift God offers us.
God offers us the gift of being in loving relationship with God.

Accepting that gift is like telling someone you love them for the first time. It’s often a powerful and emotional experience. It’s an experience that stays with you and often molds or shapes you in some way. But our goal as disciples isn’t simply to fall in love with God, it’s to stay in love with God.

In Wesley’s three simple rules, the third rule is to stay in love with God. There were six things Wesley said we should do as often as we could in order to nurture our relationship and stay in love with God. The six things Wesley said we should do are: Public worship, The Lord’s Supper (which we call communion), Searching the Scriptures, Pray privately and with family, Study the Bible, and Fast. Public worship, the Lord’s Supper, Searching the Scriptures, pray privately and with family, study the bible, and fast.

That’s a bit of an intimidating list to look at. We all have certain things that we already do pretty well. And we all have certain things that we don’t do so well at. I look down that list and think, “public worship. All right! I’ve got that one covered. I’m in public worship practically every week!” But then I look down the list again and see fasting. Fasting! We all know how much I like food! I really struggle with fasting. I try to fast, I really do. But I never seem to make it very long.

Some of these are just more natural for us than others. And we will all be good at different ones. But Wesley believed that these six things helped convey God’s grace to us in our daily lives. In other words, these things help keep us in love with God because they help us to know and experience God’s love and grace for us. They help keep us in love with God because we are reminded everyday of God’s love for us.

Public worship is a way that we offer our love and praise to God, but it’s also a way that we experience God’s presence in our lives. Searching the scriptures and studying the bible keep us connected with God as they tell us of God’s ongoing activity in the midst of human history. It’s through the biblical story that we come to see the lengths and depths God will go to to be in relationship with us. Praying helps keep us in communication with God, as we talk to God and as God talks with us. Communion helps us experience God’s grace in a tangible way. Fasting helps us to depend solely on God.

That’s the irony of it all. The more we receive and experience the love and grace of God in our lives, the more we grow in our love of God. That’s exactly what happened with Peter in our gospel lesson for today.

Our scripture passage today, takes place after Jesus has been arrested and killed. Only moments before Jesus’ arrest, Peter professed that he loved Jesus so much he would do anything for him, including die for him. But Jesus informs Peter that actually Peter will deny even knowing Jesus three times that very night. And Peter does just that. After Jesus is killed, the disciples are devastated. Now we find Peter, right where he was the first time Jesus found him. Peter’s out fishing with some of the other disciples.

The Resurrected Jesus finds them and calls out to them from the lake shore. Once they recognize him as Jesus, Peter rushes to him. Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” This is the same Peter that had this incredible moment of divine revelation and professed Jesus as the Christ, the messiah. This is the same Peter that so eagerly wanted to follow Jesus that he gets out of the boat and walks on water. And now Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”

Those of us who have read this story before, know that Peter loves Jesus. We know Peter has professed his love for Jesus, that he committed his life to Jesus, that he had literally given up everything to follow Jesus. And yet Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” Not “Did you love me?” but “Do you love me?” Jesus wants to know if Peter still loves him.

Peter says, Of Course I love you. Jesus says, “Then feed my lambs.” And Jesus asks Peter again, “Do you love me?” and Peter says, “Yes I love you.” Jesus says, “take care of my sheep.” And Jesus asks Peter a third time. And a third time Peter declares his love for Jesus. Jesus once again says “feed my lambs.” Three times Jesus asks Peter if he still loves him. Three times Peter professes his love for Jesus and Three times Jesus tells Peter how to live out that love of Jesus.

Staying in love with God involves worship, the lord’s supper, prayer, studying the scriptures, and fasting but it also involves feeding the lambs, caring for the sheep and tending to the needs of others. Rueben Job says staying in love with God “not only includes practices that bind us to God every day, but [it] also includes actions that heal the pain, injustice, and inequality of our world. “ I like the way he says that. Staying in love with God includes practices that bind us to God every day, but also shares that love with the community.

Terri Charlton shared with us earlier in the service a little bit about stewardship. I know stewardship can be a touchy subject, in part because we equate stewardship with money. But that’s not what stewardship is supposed to be about. Stewardship is supposed to be about the practices that bind us to God every day. Stewardship, whole life stewardship, not just what we do with our money, is about staying in love with God.

That’s why we’ve provided these questions in the bulletin for you to be praying about. There’s no one size fits all way for us to stay in love with God. We are all unique individuals and so our relationship with God is going to be unique. We want you to be praying about what are the practices that bind you to God? How do you connect with God? How do you feel present with God? How do you communicate with God? How do you learn more about God and God’s plan for your life? Basically, How do you stay in love with God?

It won’t happen by itself. We have to work at our relationship with God if we want it to be fruitful. Start with the six things Wesley suggests. Come to worship. Answer the invitation Jesus offers us to share a meal with us. Search the scriptures and read all about the love God has for you. Talk to God and listen for God’s words to you. And fast, from particular foods or certain activities so you can rely more on God.

Jesus asks us, “Do you love me?” Not “Did you love me?” But “Do you love me?”

Amen.