God Loves You” the Reverend Robert M
“God Loves You” The Reverend Robert M. Zanicky
March 12, 2017 First Presbyterian Church Wilkes-Barre, PA John 3:1-16
John’s Gospel is big on Love – on God “Being” Love, and “Loving”. In fact what is called the Johannine Community which developed this literature is permeated with a Loving God! I continue with further elucidation from this ancient community from the letter of First John chapters three and four (selections).
Listen to “this way of looking at life” – that is presented, declared – a thoroughly Judeo/Christian belief, conviction of God and the way life is to be lived. A starting point! A foundation: Individually and culturally!
John 7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
God is Love! God Loves You!
Realize how powerful that truth is!
God Bless! Thank God! If God Wills! God Knows!
There are multiple invocations to the, a, Deity (Deities). Of course, there are a plethora of ancient and modern God, gods. They vary greatly.
Among the major conceptions of God/gods; - Polytheism – a belief in many gods. Often there is a hierarchy involved; such as the Ultimate Being/Zeus/The Unmoved Mover; and lesser gods: Demiurge/Monad/Aphrodite - Henotheism – belief in one primary God (of a tribe, locality) that the group worships. There is also the acceptance that other gods exist. This concept is believed to be an evolving from Polytheism (many gods), to Henotheism – one local god, among many) to… - Monotheism – belief in one God! There is no God, but God! Other entities exist, such as angels, demons, intermediaries, but they are of a different and lesser essence/existence.
1 In addition to the number and hierarchical status of gods/God; the attributes of Deity(ies) is also fundamental!
What kind of God do you believe in? Here’s the rub!
As to our Christian God, imbibing from the wells of Hellenistic philosophical thought; we see the One God: as Eternal, Omnipotent (all powerful). Omniscient (All knowing), and Omnipresent (Everywhere present). This is just for starters.
Religious scholars often speak of Ethical Monotheism – when referring to the early development of the one God of Israel. This God is not arbitrary! He is so constituted – that an ethical system is within his being. He is moral! The God is also rational; for He is so essentially constituted! Human life is Moral! (Parenthetically: This rational divinity – greatly added to the pursuit of scientific discovery in the Middle Ages.) For God was consistent, and so too His creation! There are laws for the universe!
This Judeo/Christian God (as historically realized) posits order, out of chaos; rationality out of confusion!
And here is another magnificent manifestation this Divine Creator; encapsulated, essentialized, enfleshed:
God is Love!
This God loves!
(That yearning you have, crave, to be loved, comes from great parentage – God, your Father!)
If you take away anything this morning, consider this fundamental declaration – God loves you!! It is in the very nature of this Deity to love!!
Keep in mind that the God of the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures), is this God of Love. The developing realization of this God, from three plus millennia back, expresses many attributes, and love is a primary one!
Consider for example the prophetic book of Hosea. The story is of how Israel is unfaithful to God. Israel is adulterous! Hosea is ordered to marry Gomer, a prostitute. This is the symbolic picture in real life for Israel to see – its sin!
His unfaithful wife bears children: A son Jezreel – is a direct reference to a valley where much blood has been shed in Israel’s history. Then there is a daughter Lo-Ruhamah – which means Unloved. How about son, Lo-ammi, which means “Not mine”.
God is so hurt, he waits for Israel’s repentance. He so wants to love his bride!
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity… I will heal their faithlessness: I will love them freely… (Hosea 14:14)
How God loves his people! 2
This is a particular God – that we embrace, or rather are “embraced by”. This is a God that relates to his creation, is connected, is involved. I can only scratch the surface of this conception, this adherence of the divine, this morning. But, my friends – to believe in such a God – a God that is defined in a primary way as – love, loving – makes all the difference in the world, and in your (our) lives!! It must! If we truly believe this! It will make a tremendous difference in how you live your life!
There is much we each want out of life – a home, food, clothing, a vocation, a job, transportation, vacations, iPhones, iPods, iPads…(you get what I mean).
But, if we look deep into our souls, our hearts, we sincerely seek and desire “love”. Love in its multiple manifestations – intimacy, familial, friends, neighbors – God (meaning/purpose, fulfillment)!
Love!
A simple/complex word. (Google “Love” - .14 sec. – 23,700,000 hits. There’s something about Love.) Filled with intensity, desire, hope, vision, comfort and security. No human being will find his/her purpose, meaning, without venturing into the realm of love. And that Love is transcendent!
This morning I want you to focus on your spiritual self and your relation to divine love, God’s love. Friends, to truly believe in a God of love, to truly take that proposition into your worldview, into your interpretation of your life and the life of our (your) world, will change your life!! Perhaps you just need a little reminder this morning. God loves you! Again, believe this and you can’t help but see your world differently.
Not an absent God. Not a mercurial god who delights in our sufferings. Not a deistic divinity. (Starts things and then disappears) But a personal God – who loves you!! You! You! You!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God so loved!!
God loves you! Believe this and you can go through any hardship, traverse any barrier, overcome any obstacle!!
When life is throwing all it can against you, recite – envision – God so loved! God loves me!
My friends, this is a way of life, I’m talking about. This is a way of living, defining your existence! From waking to sleeping, “God so loved!”
The Bible is filled with this way of life, in both Testaments. For those who think of the Old Testament as just about law and an aggressive God, think again! “Love” is mentioned over 500 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, over 360 times in the New Testament.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 shares about God’s love; “The Lord set his love upon you and chose you…the Lord loves you…”
Jeremiah 31:3 “I (the Lord) have loved you with an everlasting love.” 3
Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
An ancient and contemporary mindset, God so loved! God loves you!
But, how could God love me? Jesus says – remember the Prodigal Son – he leaves his father, wastes his time, talents and wealth – comes to his senses and makes his way back home - his father has never, never stopped watching for the return of his wayward child. “But while he (the Prodigal) was yet at a distance, his father saw him…and ran and embraced and kissed him.”
God so loved!! This is the way to see and live your life!
“But, there is so much to keep me from this belief, this worldview!” Yes, the bottom line is your choice. It’s easier for some, harder for others.
Chose to awaken to each new day declaring, “God so loved” – your life will be wonderfully different! Amen.
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