“Love Everyone”
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
5th Sunday of Easter (Youth Sunday)– May 6, 2007
Rev. Robert J. Brink
[Text: Acts 11:1-18; John 13:1-17, 34-35]

Two kinds of Christianity exist in America today: the faithful few who fill the pews, and those other people, who feel a connection with God, but refuse to join a congregation. They like Jesus; not church. Of course, you and I know that’s just an excuse. We don’t like church either! Being a member of a church is hard! It means being accountable, caring for each other, and forgiving each other. It means putting up with each other’s baggage and choosing to love each other anyway.

It’s easier to be a “spiritual person” than a church member for the same reason that it’s easier to shack up than have a real marriage. If the other person gets annoying, you leave. Everyone knows it’s not the best option. Even today, most people think marriage is a good idea; they just don’t see it working out so well in real life. They know way too many people stuck in loveless, boring, or even abusive marriages.

I know this might come a shock, but God did not intend marriage as punishment; it’s for our benefit and enjoyment. We’re just good at turning God’s gifts into responsibilities, annoying intrusions on our self-determination. But not always. Sometimes we recognize God’s gifts. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen is the love that existed between my grandfather and my grandmother. That love still lives between them. I can feel it when I walk in the room. I can still see it in her eyes. I want that for my marriage. I want that for my boys. I want that for this church.

Not some weak love that doesn’t even qualify as commitment, not some lifeless love that’s half boredom and half obligation. Jesus talked about a living love that bubbles up inside like springs of fresh water. He talked about transforming the world. God has given us the greatest mission of all time: love everybody, even the people that don’t deserve it, especially the people that hate our guts. What would that actually look like if we lived it?

Once upon a time, a spoiled little rich boy fell in love with God. He told his father, who threatened to disown him. The young man gave up everything he owned, right down to the clothes he was wearing, and he founded a brotherhood of equally crazy friends. They owned nothing. And everywhere they went they preached love, first with their actions, and then, if necessary, with words. Rich people were amazed by their faith and the poor people loved them because they were just as cold and as hungry as they were, and yet they still loved. The young man’s name was Francis of Assisi, and we still honor him.

Once upon a time, a band of Irish pirates captured a young Englishman. He was forced to live as a slave for years before he escaped. But even though he was safe again in his homeland, his sleep was troubled by dreams. He heard the voices of his former captors calling to him, so he got an education and went back, teaching them about the love of God. His forgiving love transformed the island into a center of Christian worship and scholarship. Today we remember him as Patrick, patron saint of the Emerald Isle.

Of course, it’s not just young men who make take God’s love in new directions. Once upon a time, a young woman, a Congregationalist, wrote a book that set America on fire because it forced people to see slaves as human beings. Her book brought new credibility and converts to the cause of abolition. Her name was Harriet Beecher Stowe and the book was Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

What about Mother Theresa? What about Gandhi? What about Tyndale and Huss and Luther? What about Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King? What Corrie Ten Boom or Dietrich Bonhoeffer? What about the saints who chose to die rather than disown Jesus? What about the Amish parents who forgave the boy who gunned their children down as they sat in school?

These few examples, and there are thousands to choose from, show that giants of the faith don’t find ways to do Christianity well; they find whole new ways to be Christian. I believe that every good thing we enjoy in this life is the fruit of someone finding a new way to love.

We worry about bringing in new members. We talk about it a lot. That wasn’t always the case. Most don’t realize how difficult it was to join a first century church. They might turn you away at the door three times before they let you in. They might force you to go through a full year of training before your baptism. On Sunday morning, just before they served communion, they might ring a bell and make all the non-baptized guests get up and leave the service. Not very seeker friendly. Yet they grew by leaps and bounds… because they loved.

They saw children living in the street, so they adopted them. They saw widows with no one left to provide for them, so they fed them. They saw people sick and suffering so they cared for them. They saw people in prison so they visited them. They didn’t do it out of some grudging sense of obligation. They did it because they were so enthralled in the love of God that it had to overflow into their lives, and their homes, and their neighborhoods. And they didn’t do it for those people out there. They did it for each other.

People looked at these Christians and said, “These people know how to live! Whatever it is that they’ve found, I want that for myself, I want that for my family.” So they joined, no matter how many roadblocks church members placed in their path, no matter the social stigma or the persecution that might follow. They joined the church, and together they transformed the world.

God gave us a vital mission against desperate odds with nothing but faith and a few misfit friends to see us through. How we accomplish that mission will be different than how others have, because we are the only church in the world to exist in this place, at this time, with this particular band of misfits.

So how do we show love as a church? You know better than I do. Who have we wronged? Who has wronged us? Who would be really happy if this particular church and all its members simply ceased to exist? That’s who we need to embrace.

How do we love this neighborhood? You know better than I do. Where are the boundaries? Where are the false walls that divide us from them? That’s what we need to destroy.

How do we love this city? You know better than I do. Where are people in pain? Where are human beings, created and loved by God, being treated like so much trash? You know. That’s where we need to be.