The Reverend, Dr. Jeffrey G. Guild

“Relentless Love”

05/18/2014

First Presbyterian Church of Port Richey, Florida

15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They 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.” 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

[1]

The Bible is a library of sixty-six books written by at least that may authors, if not many more, and bound together into one volume. Every book in this library shares an experience of God, individual, in community, or cosmic. So many books, and so many authors to tell but ONE Story. The Bible is a collection whose central theme is to describe God’s relentless love.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” begins the Bible in the Book of Genesis. Genesis is a Hebrew word meaning the beginning, and in this book God is described as the Creator who by the power of his love creates everything. God’s final act of creation is humanity. He creates us for no other reason than for love.

In fact, God loves us so much, that, the story goes, God imbued humanity with the gift of free choice. You might have experienced falling in love with someone who did not return that love. Perhaps you tried to manipulate, force, beg, bribe, cajole that person to love you. It didn’t work, did it? In fact it drove that significant other farther away. God does not make that mistake. God gave us free will so that we can chose to love or reject. Love without choice is no love at all.

That work for a day or so before Adam and Eve rejected God’s love and decided they would fare better on their own. And so they left the presence of God, and presumably God’s love. The biblical account tells us they were driven from the garden to the wilderness of the world. But before they were banished God made a promise to defeat evil and heal their broken relationship with God. The promise was a message of love and of hope. God’s love would be relentless. Although Adam and Eve rejected God’s love, God did not stop loving them.

The first murder occurred when Adam and Eve’s son Cain killed his brother, Able. Blood was spilled, and humanity moved further away from God. The story of God’s relentless love takes a turn when he decides to destroy evil humanity by sending a great flood to cover the earth. However, Noah and his family and every species of animal were saved. After the rains stopped and the waters subsided, God promised never to destroy the earth by flood again. A rainbow was given as the sign of the covenant between God and Noah.

Of course, humanity broke the covenant and turned to evil. God, true to the promise made with Noah, made a promise to Abraham. God had chosen to fulfill the promise of creation by calling Abraham to be the father of a chosen race, the Hebrews. Through the Hebrew nation, God would demonstrate his relentless love for his creation. Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac fulfilled the promise of God’s relentless love and to Isaac twelve sons were born, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

In Egypt, the Hebrew people were enslaved for four hundred years. It was through Moses, God led his people Israel out of slavery to the Promised Land, fulfilling his promise of relentless love. Although the people rebelled against God and broke their side of the agreement, God continued to love them, and give them signs of hope in dark times. The people of Israel settled in the Promised Land, where judges led them, then prophets and finally kings The greatest of them all was David who unified the twelve tribes into one nation. God continued to love them, but the gift of free will led the people to do much evil. The final fulfillment of God’s relentless love, would be the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. The Messiah would be a man who would reunite Israel as did King David, and restore Israel to a position of blessings and power. God’s kingdom would be fulfilled on earth.

When Jesus of Nazareth appeared on the scene, he was proclaimed as the Messiah. In fact the name Christ is the Greek name for the Hebrew name Messiah. In fact the name Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua, which means savior. Yet, Israel failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus was not like David. He was not a political leader. He was not the long-expected warrior king. In fact, Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. He said love your enemies, he weak are strong, the servant is the true leader, and the first shall be last and the last first. He criticized the establishment, both religious and civil, and was finally tortured and executed on a Roman cross. Yet God’s love was relentless. Even after God’s only Son was killed, God demonstrated his love for his creation by raising Jesus from the dead.

In four thousand years of biblical history, God kept his promise to save his people. He never gave up his love for us. You could say God was relentless in his love. In today’s scripture passage for this sermon, Jesus is in an upper room celebration his last Passover with his disciples. He announces to them that he will soon die, but they are to carry on his mission of proclaiming God’s love and salvation. Jesus promises not to leave them orphaned, for he would return, but in the mean time, they would receive the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Advocate to be with them in all the time. God’s love would never end for them and for us. As we seem to be alone in our trials and sufferings, remember that God’s love is relentless. Love never fails. As we seem to be alone in our struggle as a Church, we would do well to remember that God’s love is relentless.

God’s love has been shown in creation, banishment, floodwaters, patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s love is in his chastisement and punishment. God’s love is manifested in forgiveness and sacrifice. God’s love shines through in rainbows, prophets, priests and kings, and in the promise of Messiah. God’s love triumphs over evil, rebellion, betrayal, lies, hate, murder, blasphemy, and any other sin you can read about in the Bible. Even when we sin, break our promise, fail God and each other in our frailties, God keeps his side of the bargain to be our loving and forgiving God. Through it all, God’s love is relentless.

27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

[1]The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jn 14:15–31). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.