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Love is the answer

May

In my sermon several weeks ago, I focused on the Greek word for love: agapo, agapi;
English agape; translated as charitable love. John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you.” (NRSV). Agape is not eros: erotic love. Nor
is it philos: brotherly/sisterly love for friends. Nor is it storge: family love. Agape love
is love for people who can’t pay you back. Agape love is like grace, a free gift for others
which is undeserved, unearned or unmerited. It is a free gift for those in need. Agape is
love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity. I ended
the sermon, “If we are to be Jesus’ friend, we are to love one another.”
I’ve always thought of ‘agape love’ as loving with your whole heart, but in our
society today I rarely witness this kind of love. We exclude people all the time. Even
children exclude other children and make their lives miserable at school branding them
with a derogatory name. God did not intend for this to be the way of the world. Just
think of how the world could be, if we followed Jesus’ command, “that you love one
another.” What joy each of us would experience! But we don’t love one another.
Instead, we seek out our own little groups, so that we can get support from one another -
to protect each other from the bad, bad world.
John Lennon said it right with his song, “All You Need Is Love!” Jefferson Airplane
recorded it a little differently, “When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within
you dies, don’t you want somebody to love?” In November 1976, Freddie Mercury’s
song was on the charts for eight weeks and became #2...then went silver; he sang, “Can
Anybody Find Me Somebody to Love.” Lastly, Waylon Jennings says, “I was looking
for love in all the wrong places, …… looking for traces of what I’m dreaming of ……
Unfortunately, too many folk do look for love in the wrong places. They try to obtain
love by buying those products that the marketers promise through their advertising that
will give them friends, a happy family, and popularity if they drive a certain car, drink a
certain drink, or eat a certain brand of peanut butter.
Mother Teresa said it right when she answered a man who had asked her a question
after one of her speeches, “Mother Teresa, how can I help you?” Her answer to him and
to all of us is: “Go home and love your family!” If we would love all the people within
our reach, it would be a much more loving world. It is the way Jesus meant it to be when
he said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9
NRSV). If we practiced that, we wouldn’t have a bad, bad world.

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