I wonder how many of us who saw this sermon title have this song playing on an endless loop in our heads right now.
“What the world needs now. Is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”
It’s such a simple melody that even I can sing it!
It’s a song that was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and was sung by Dionne Warwick back in 1965. And what is so amazing about this song is that they didn’t think it would be well received, but it made it all the way up to #7 on the record chart that year.
And the reason they didn’t think the song was going to be a hit is because it was written during the Vietnam War era which was dividing our country at the time. The lyrics could easily be heard as anti-war and unpatriotic.
The popularity of this song just goes to show how much the world is longing for there to be more love despite our many disagreements and differences. Love is a universal language. This song came to my mind as I was reading over our appointed scripture readings for today because they both are appealing to our universal desire for there to be more love in our world.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus is preparing his disciples for when he would be leaving them. Of course they don’t fully understand that Jesus is referring to when he will be dying on a cross and then rising to new life. So, Jesus is offering this long farewell discourse to them, to not only instruct them but to also comfort them.
Jesus uses the word, “love” several times in our Gospel reading for today. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”
And then a couple verses later, he tells them, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Jesus isn’t just telling the disciples to follow all of his teachings and commandments. He is using this time to remind them why it’s important to follow all of his teachings and commandments. These commandments help us to remember that the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus is to know that we are loved by God, that we are to love God, and that we are to love others with God’s love.
That’s why our discipleship strategy here at Athens First United Methodist Church is for each person to grow in having a Loving Faith, a Learning Faith, and a Living Faith. We grow in having a Loving Faith by loving God and others with our hearts through Sunday worship, through our small groups where we care for one another, and through our fellowship together.
We grow in having a Learning Faith by learning more about God and our faith with our minds by going to Sunday School, participating in a bible study, and by attending confirmation classes.
And we grow in having a Living Faith by living out our faith by serving others with our hands through the ministries of the church like feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, going on mission trips, and blessing others by offering our time and resources.
All of this is what helps us to be disciples of Jesus. We are called to be growing in what it means to have a Loving Faith, a Learning Faith, and a Living Faith.
Jesus is encouraging his disciples to keep loving, keep learning, and keep living out their faith even after he will be leaving them. And notice that Jesus also tells them that they will not be alone even after he leaves them. He will be sending them an Advocate, the Holy Spirit who will continue to help them to grow in being the loving people that he has called them to be.
We are never done growing in our faith. I think this is what Jesus is trying to get across to the disciples. This is something that we have shared with our confirmation class. We are never done growing in our faith. It is a life long journey in becoming more and more like Jesus.
This reminds me of the old joke of the three pastors who met for lunch one day. The one pastor goes off about his problem with bats at his church. “I’ve tried everything to get rid of them, they just won’t leave.”
The second pastor added, “We have a similar problem at our church. We’ve tried cats, sprays, noise, light. They just won’t go away.”
The third pastor says, “Well, this is what worked at our church. I baptized them and confirmed them and I haven’t seen them since!”
This old joke reminds us in a cynical kind of way that confirmation and baptism are only the beginning of our walk with Jesus. As much as I loved my 3rd grade Sunday School teacher, I can’t imagine what my faith would be like if my faith stayed at a 3rd grade level. And actually, it would have been a disservice to my 3rd grade Sunday School teacher if I felt that was all I needed for the rest of my life.
I also needed other mentors, and pastors, and friends, and family members to continue to guide me in my faith through my youth and college years, and into my adult years. I needed more spiritual faith formation groups to help shape me and encourage me along the way.
I needed bible studies that would challenge my theological assumptions. I needed to hear other Christian voices who I didn’t know even existed who helped to help me see the scriptures through other lenses of faith rather than simply through my limited perspectives as important as they are.
Our confirmands will appreciate what I’m going to say next because this is one of the many things they learned about being a Methodist which I also learned during my confirmation class way back when. We talked about the Wesleyan quadrilateral where we interpret scripture by using church tradition, experience, and reason.
In other words, there is no such thing as a plain reading of the Bible that is totally objective because all of us interpret scripture through our own personal lenses. The Wesleyan quadrilateral is what reminds us to be open to other ways of looking at scripture.
And this is not an overnight process. It requires a lot of wrestling, questioning, digging, praying, reading, and having conversations with other Christians who view the scriptures in ways that we had never really seen.
This doesn’t mean that our own experiences aren’t important. It just means that we don’t have the only perspective. The Wesleyan quadrilateral is what helps us to stay humble when reading the Bible because what may appear to us as the obvious meaning of a scripture passage may reflect more about our biases and assumptions.
In an article written by Kelly Edmiston, she talks about reading the Bible in context which can make all the difference in the world for how we interpret it.
In this article, she encourages us to “look behind the scriptures to discover the historical background, authors, sources and literary characteristics of it, not to mention how words that had one meaning at the time a scripture passage was written might not have a good equivalent in today’s English language.”
In her article, she adds, “think about sitting down to watch your favorite TV show, either on Hulu, Netflix, or on live TV. Before you watch the TV episode, you watch the “flashbacks” from the previous episodes and hopefully receive enough information from the entire season to have a good idea of what is about to take place in the current episode. In others words, you take in the background information before you watch the show. If you watch a random episode in the middle of the season of a TV show that you have never seen before, and without any of the background knowledge, you would likely be very confused.”
She says that “this is what it is like to read the bible without any knowledge of the time the Bible was written. Reading the bible with no knowledge of its history, authorship, culture, sources or literary characteristics will give you a very limited understanding of the bible. Without any sort of biblical background, you will have a limited perspective on what you are reading. And there will be lots of things you miss.”
And she concludes by saying, “This process of learning to think critically about scripture can be disorienting for some and outright offensive to others. But without it, we can get into some really deep trouble when it comes to interpreting the bible.”
The Wesleyan quadrilateral of using scripture, tradition, experience, and reason helps us to interpret the Bible in new and fresh ways. And I think that this is why Jesus is telling the disciples in our Gospel reading for today that he will be sending them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who will help us to continue to discover, explore, ask questions, and rethink our faith throughout our lifetime. We are never done growing in what it means to have a Loving Faith, a Learning Faith, and a Living Faith.
It’s this willingness to be a lifelong learner that helps us to love Jesus more and more every single day. And the more that we love Jesus, the more that we will also share God’s love with those around us.
This past December, singer, Amy Grant announced that she & her husband Vince Gill are going to host a same-sex wedding on their farm for her niece.
She received a lot of criticism for announcing this from several evangelical Christians and ministry leaders especially since Amy is known for her evangelical music ministry over her long music career. I don’t know if Amy would have announced that she would be hosting a same-sex wedding earlier in her career, but her understanding of the scriptures and who God is has grown over these many years as it should, as all of our faith should.
In defense of her decision to host a same-sex wedding, Amy offered these words, “Jesus - you just narrowed it down to two things: love God & love each other.”
And this brings us back to what I said earlier in the sermon. The whole point of being a disciple of Jesus is to know that we are loved by God, that we are to love God, and that we are to love others with God’s love. And that’s a good thing because…
“What the world needs now more than ever is love sweet love.”
What the World Needs Now
The song, “What the World Needs Now” was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and was sung by Dionne Warwick back in 1965. And what is so amazing about this song is that they didn’t think it would be well received, but it made it all the way up to #7 on the record chart that year. And the reason they didn’t think the song was going to be a hit is because it was written during the Vietnam War era which was dividing our country at the time. The lyrics could easily be heard as anti-war and unpatriotic.The popularity of this song just goes to show how much the world is longing for there to be more love despite our many disagreements and differences. Love is a universal language. The first words of the song are, “What the world needs now is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”
Do you agree with the song lyrics that say that “love is the only thing there’s just too little of?”
These song lyrics tie in with our scripture reading from John’s Gospel where Jesus was preparing them for when he would be leaving them. Jesus was encouraging the disciples to continue with his ministry by following his commandments and teachings that will help them to love God and others. Notice that Jesus tells them that God will be sending God them the Holy Spirit to help them.
How does the Holy Spirit help you to love God and others?
Our discipleship strategy here at Athens First UMC is for every person to grow in having a Loving Faith, a Learning Faith, and a Living Faith. A Loving Faith is where we love God through worship and love others through fellowship and small groups. A Learning Faith is where we learn about Jesus’ teachings so help us be loving as God is loving. A Living Faith is where we love God and others by serving and helping others.
Share an example of how this discipleship strategy has helped you to love God and others through having a Loving Faith, Learning Faith, and Living Faith.
Since Jesus was telling the disciples to keep his commandments, it’s important for us to grow in our understanding of the scriptures. Our Wesleyan quadrilateral is a tool that can help us to interpret the scriptures in new and fresh ways. The quadrilateral includes interpreting the scriptures through the lenses of tradition, experience, and reason. These lenses open us up to new ways of understanding the Bible.
In what ways has your faith perspective and understanding of the Bible changed over time? Who or what helped you to see the your faith and the scriptures in a new light?
Pastor Robert shared a recent quote from contemporary Christian singer, Amy Grant. In response to a lot of heavy criticism she received from several evangelical Christians and ministry leaders regarding her decision to host her niece’s same sex wedding ceremony, she said, “Jesus - you just narrowed it down to two things: love God and love each other.” Amy’s faith perspective has evolved over the years. Her quote picks up on the theme of Jesus’ words to his disciples to love God and others through his teachings.
What helps you to keep love at the center of your faith?
Close your time by praying this prayer from last Sunday’s worship service:
Nurturing God, thank you for your love which always reminds us that we are your blessed, beloved, and beautiful children. Like a loving mother, reassure us that we always belong to you. Open our hearts to receive your love and share it with others. Speak truth to us, even when we would rather hide from the truth of our mistaken ways. Forgive our foolishness. Unveil our sins and shortcomings, that we might be clothed with your mercy and covered with your grace. With hearts open to receive your love anew every day, finish then thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be. Amen.
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