Jesus: The Great Lover
John 15:9-17
Some of you are aware that I have written a few hymns. We have sung a few of them here, and the choir has sung some others – including our anthem this morning. I don’t really know if they are any good, when judged against history. I am not sure if anyone else will ever sing them, though they are published on the United Methodist Discipleship website. Last year, I did get third place in a hymn writing contest sponsored by the Charles Wesley Society. Of course, there may have only been three entries, as the Charles Wesley Society is not a very large or well-known group.
Last September, I attended the Charles Wesley Society meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, on the campus of Asbury College and Seminary. There was a dedication of a new statue of Charles Wesley, several workshops on Charles Wesley’s hymns and theology, and of course, a hymn sing.
One evening, a few of the students of Asbury College decided to entertain us by sharing the songs they had written for their worship leadership class. For the most part, the songs were like a lot of other contemporary music songs written by college students – a few chords, a short confession, a simple affirmation, and all of it repeated several times. The emphasis for this kind of music is often more on having a catchy hook for group singing, than it is about teaching and affirming the deep truths of our faith.
The exception was one of the women who wrote a song about how much she loved Jesus. It was evident that the lyrics were the important part of this song, so I paid attention to the lyrics. Paying attention to the lyrics is usually the best part of a good hymn.
The song took an uncomfortable turn for me, however,when she shifted from how much she loved Jesus to how much she wanted to be loved by Jesus, in return. At this point, if she had substituted the name of her boyfriend in every place she sang “Jesus,” the song would have had all of us blushing and squirming, as the language became very intimate.
In her defense, I don’t think she was consciously aware of this imagery. She may have genuinely been so focused on Jesus that her song was only a means of expressing her feelings, rather than a hint at what she may have been repressing. Her professor certainly gave her the benefit of the doubt, encouraging her to share the song with us. As did most of the students on campus, who had heard her sing this song in worship the week before.
Or, it may have been that this student is part of a new ministry, in some churches, that I had been unaware of before. While doing my research this week, I discovered there is a movement for women to set aside time for a “date night with Jesus.” In this ministry, women are encouraged to prepare an intimate dinner for two by candlelight, to get dressed up, and to imagine that Jesus is sitting in the empty chair.
But if that is a little outside of their comfort zone, these women can choose to participate in a “prayer, praise, and pampering” retreat. The woman author writing about this says that “although God certainly loves us even with unshaven legs, no makeup, and a bed-head hairdo, he also deserves to occasionally have his princess sit at his feet while she is looking and feeling her best.” She casts these retreats as exciting dates with Jesus, explaining that “you are running away with your Lover, not confining yourself to a convent.”
In another book, this same author assures her readers that “you are the one that overwhelms his heart with just ‘one glance of your eyes,’” quoting from the Song of Solomon. “His gaze is fixed on you,” she writes. “He is captivated by your beauty.” Apparently, in this Christology, Jesus is all man, and he needs his woman to make him happy.
As human beings, we all like to be told that we are loved. We like to be shown that we are loved. We like to show others that we love them. I suspect that many of our mothers today will be pampered and praised, and that is a good thing. But if we approach our relationship with Jesus as special“date nights” necessary for an intimate relationship, it is not hard to imagine a predatory pastor taking the next step and substituting their own name for every reference to Jesus. And then you really will have a scandal.
Charles Wesley was certainly focusedon Jesus with his hymn, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” If he was simply substituting repressed feelings for a special woman in his life, I suppose I should point out that this hymn was written nine years before he married Sally Gwynne, who was 17 years younger than he was. I supposethat it could be argued that there were some repressed feelings involved in writing this hymn.
In Wesley’s defense, I don’t think he was consciously aware of this possibly intimate imagery. Or for that matter, neither was his brother John, who published the hymn; or most of the people who came to Methodist meetings to sing it.
Long before Sigmund Freud introduced his theories about repressed feelings, many people were simply scandalized by the hymn’s opening line, which didn’t seem repressed at all. On the face of it, the title seemed too personal, too intimate, too sexual for proper church singing. Those who were offended argued that there are lots of other ways to sing about loving Jesus that didn’t ever get close to crossing that line, so we should be singing those hymns instead.
I never understood the scandal of this hymn because I like to pay attention to the lyrics. Many times, the pay-off in a hymn doesn’t come until the middle or last verse. That is true for this hymn. Once you get beyond that opening line, this hymn is an excellent treatise on the love of Jesus Christ for all God’s people. It is a hymn that defines the love of Jesus as a love for anyone facing a challenge in life. It is a love for people who are lost and defenseless. It is a love for people who are fallen, faint, sick, and blind in their sin. It is a love for sinners with no claim of goodness or righteousness.
This is not a love that would ever be confused with eroticism. This kind of love is not about laying down our bodies, but about laying down our lives. That’s what Jesus said in verse 13: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
This is not a love dependent on any feelings we may have towards another person. This kind of love is not about finding our pleasures, but about finding our joy. And godly joy is found in our loving and faithful service to others. That is what Jesus said in verse 14: You are my friends if you do what I command you.
This is not a love that feels the necessity of proving itself to others. This kind of love is not about earning the right to be loved, but about responding to the love we have already received by grace through faith. That is what Jesus said in verses 15 and 16: I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you.
This is not a love that divides the world into those we root for and those we root against – which is exactlywhat Jesus says to us in the next two verses after our reading. “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world the world would love you as its own.”
Now, I have said before that you need to be leery of people who can only tell you what something is not, or who can only tell you what they are against. And I have just told you a whole lot of what the love of God in Jesus is not. But on this occasion, I am simply following the rhythms of John Wesley, who often had to clear the field before the good news could be planted in the hearts and minds of the people. So now it is time to tell you what the love of God is – and the hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” is a good place to start.
Charles Wesley lifts upthat the love that abides with us is the love of Jesus. It is a love that fulfills the commandment of Jesus – which is to love one another as he has loved us, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Instead of temptations and trysts, the abiding love of Jesus is a commitment to the value and worth of all God’s children. Instead of feelings and familiarity, the abiding love of Jesus is the perfect love of God and neighbors. Instead of merit and mission, the abiding love of Jesus is source of our joy and love for others.
John Wesley helps us see what this abiding glove looks like in practice. What he called “Christian perfection” is nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else than the love of God and love of neighbor. After the example of Jesus, this love works out of humility and meekness, because we are not God but only the servants of God. This love works without regard for pleasures, because it is not about pleasing ourselves but about pleasing God. This love works without regard for ultimate outcomes, because we trust our God who holds the future. This love works with a thankfulness which knows the abiding presence of God through the Holy Spirit.
Wesley went into more detail on what all this abiding love means when he talked about the Methodists, whom he believed that God called into being expressly for the purpose of showing the world what it means to live in this abiding love. In his words, a Methodist has the love of God shed abroad in their heart by the Holy Spirit given to them. We are to be happy in God, giving thanks in everything. We pray without ceasing – whichdoesn’t mean that we are always on our knees but that we are always aware of the presence of God.
Wesley continues that we love our neighbors unconditionally, because we are pure in heart, seeking only God’s will. His description ends with some examples which have been cobbled together to become what is known as Wesley’s rule: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can. And that, I think, is just about the best definition of abiding love there can be!
Jesus isn’t interested in dating us, because the Church is already the Bride of Christ. Jesus already loves us. Jesus has already chosen us. What Jesus wants is to abide with us, and for us to abide in his love. Jesus doesn’t want a special night or a long weekend – Jesus wants to love us for all of this life, and for all of the life to come.
We are going to sing Charles Wesley’s hymn now. For some, the scandal is still in the title. For others, the scandal is that the tune doesn’t have a catchy hook and is too hard for them to sing. But I believe the real scandal is that we have tried to make the love of Jesus Christ so much less than what it is. The scandal is that we have tried to limit the love of Jesus Christ to those who look like us, who think like us, who worship like us, and who act like us. We have tried to limit the love of our neighbors to those who excite us, or to those who we want to be excited about us.
Yes, Jesus loves me – which we will also sing today – but it is with a love that welcomes the children and the weak, and is extended to all who live. It is an abiding, perfect love, revealed in Jesus Christ. And it is a love we can have, and we can share, through the Holy Spirit.
This is what it means when we say that Jesus loves you. And this is what it means to be in love with Jesus! It is time for us to abide in this love!
UM Hymnal 479 “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”