"What My True Love Really Gave to Me"

Scripture: John 15:9-17
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: May 21, 2006

I love the words of Mother Teresa (1910-1997) who said:

I don't remember that the Lord ever spoke of success.
He spoke only of faithfulness in love.
This is the only success that really counts.

These words cut right to the heart of our passage.   There are no words in the context of this text that indicate that our lives as Christians are to be judged on our great accomplishments for Christ.   There are no words in the Bible to say that if we give our lives to Christ, we can depend on the great things we do to earn our place in God's favor.   It's not about what we do as though these things will make us successful in the Kingdom of God.   The only way to measure success is to follow Jesus' command to remain faithful.

I want to speak about a man named Clarence Jordan this morning and a place called Koinonia Farm.   Clarence was a gifted and educated man.   He had two Ph.Ds; one in Agriculture and one in Greek and Hebrew.   He was Bible scholar.   Clarence could have had his pick of any prestigious position in the Christian or agricultural world.   Instead, he chose to serve the poor.   In the 1940s he started a farm near Americus, Georgia.   It was an unusual farm, different than probably any farm that ever was.   It was a farm where black people and white people worked together in the fields cultivating and harvesting as though there was no difference. Each person, no matter the color of his or her skin received the same wage for the same work.   It was a great experiment.   But it was also a dangerous threat to the South.

Most everyone in the 1940s town of Americus, Georgia, was against this farm.   It upset their way of life.   It had the potential to shatter their status quo and the way things had been done for a few hundred years.   The people tried to stop Clarence and the people of Koinonia Farm.   For fourteen years the farm faced vandalism, boycotts and even slashed tires when they came into town.

In 1954, the Ku Klux Klan paid a visit to the farm at night.   Of course, like any cowards who hide behind terrorist masks, the KKK came with their hoods and cloaks, arrogantly and self-righteously.   They came with guns and torches and set fire to everything in sight.   They riddled the property with bullets and almost every person on the farm, save one black family and Clarence, fled.   Clarence could hear the voices of the hooded cowards and he recognized two of them as people in his own church.   He heard another voice and recognized it as the voice of the local newspaper reporter.   Koinonia Farm was destroyed.

The very next day, the local newspaper reporter, the same one who hid behind his cloak of terror, paid Clarence a visit.   Clarence was out in the field, hoeing and planting.   "Clarence, I heard the awful news and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing."   Clarence just kept on hoeing and planting.   The reporter continued, trying to poke at Clarence, "Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you've but fourteen years into this farm, and there's nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you've been?"

Clarence stopped hoeing.   He turned to the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes and said quietly but firmly, "About as successful as the cross.   Sir, I don't think you understand us.   What we are about is not success but faithfulness.   We're staying. Good day."   From that day onward Clarence and his friends rebuilt Koinonia Farm.   Later, when a very special family, the Fuller's were tired of life the way they knew it and wanted to find a community where Jesus Christ's teachings could be lived out, they came to Koinonia Farms.   The son of the Fullers was a man name Millard.   He was so impressed that he would create his own organization, Habitat for Humanity. Millard Fuller later said of Clarence, "Clarence said if you are going to be an authentic disciple of Jesus, you have to take Jesus seriously, try to understand what his message really was about and incorporate it in our daily lives.   (for a more complete version of the story, see Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat , Word Books Publisher, 1987, pp. 188-189 or the video, Briars in the Cotton Patch, the Story of Koinonia Farm ).

Jesus calls us to be faithful...but faithful to what?   To God and to each other.  

The vehicle of that faithfulness is love.   As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.  

Abide! That word is one that seems to have dropped out of our vocabulary.   Certainly we can translate it "remain".   But the word abide conjures up a plea.   Abide with me, O Lord, abide with me.   Don't go.   Stay.   Do you remember the words of the great hymn?:

Abide with me, fast falls the even tide; the darkness deepens; Lord with me abide!

When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with you at hand to bless; ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.   Where is death's sting?   Where, grave, your victory?   I triumph still, if you abide with me.

Hold now your cross before my closing eyes; shine through the gloom and point me to the skies; heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;' in life, in death, o Lord abide with me.

What I love about that hymn is the fact that it pleas for the promise we have in Jesus.   Jesus said he would never leave us.   He would abide.   He would remain.   That's a promise we have from God.  

Can you imagine if Jesus abandoned us?   Where would the world be if Jesus had given up on the world?   And...where would you be if Jesus ever gave up on you?   It won't happen.   It is impossible.   God will not give up on you so don't you give up on God.

It is the very thing that prompts Jesus to ask of us, perhaps, to return the same.   He will abide.   He will remain.   Now, in our passage He asks us to do the same.   He uses the image of a vine and branches.  

"I am the vine; you are the branches.   If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.   If anyone does not abide in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.   It you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.   This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (vv. 5-8)

In this relationship, Jesus as the vine, we as the branches, there are certain expectations.   People always wonder, "What does God expect of me?"   I am going to list four expectations Jesus commands of you in our passage:

1) That you remain in his love.   Is it possible to forget that God love's us?   Look around.   The world's greatest sin is that it does not remember God's love.   The Christian's greatest threat in life is that he or she forgets that God loves them, beyond their wildest expectations, beyond their greatest dreams and beyond their finite understanding.   God so loves you that you drive Him crazy when you forget.

2) That you love others as Jesus has loved you. This is my command, that you love one another.   Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  

3) That you come to believe that you are not just a servant of God but that you are a "friend" of God.   I don't know any greater title anyone could be given than "friend" of God.   Abraham in the Old Testament held this title.   Now God gives it to you.

4) That you bear fruit...but fruit that will last.   Anyone can bear fruit.   Anyone can do something.   Anyone can do something good.   But Christians do good things permanently.   Yesterday at Lisle Stoner's memorial service I was struck again by how little I notice the eternal things in this life.   What really matters?   When we look at the end of a person's life, only the goodness that has passed down from that person into the lives of others, making this world richer for his or her presence is all that matters.

Work for the fruit that lives forever.   What is that?   It is whatever is done for another person, not for a job or a position or an award.   The real fruit is doing good to and for other people.   That's what matters!

Let me end this message with a word in the passage that often gets left out.   The word is "As".  

AS

Take a look at verse 9.   "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." It is not to be taken as "Since the Father has loved me, so I loved you" as much as it is taken as "In the same way the Father has loved me, I have loved you."

This is why the Father will give us what we ask for.   He sees us the same way AS he sees His Son.   I don't think we realize how very fond the Father is of us. He loves us AS much as He loves His Son.   The most precious thing in all the world is the love between the Heavenly Father and His Son.   But so fond of you is He that He sent His Spirit to make us look exactly as He is and hold the same dear relationship as His Son, Jesus.

The goal of our lives, as we abide in Him, is to be perfect reflections of His Son.   There shouldn't be any difference.   If Jesus exchanged His life for yours and you accepted that exchanged (have you?) then the Spirit of God is at work, right now, transforming you into His image. Stop making excuses "I can never be like Jesus."   You will be like Jesus so start becoming like Him.   Drink from the cup of life as God the Father pours it out into each moment to transform you.   Take the good when it comes.   Take the bad when it comes.   But let the Father have his will done in you.

My prayer life has changed over the last month.   My new daily prayer in the morning, afternoon and evening is this: Oh God, let your will be my will.   Transform my desires to be yours.   Let me be just like you.   Let my heart break for the things that break your heart.   Let my eyes see the things you see.   Let my joys be the things that bring you joy.   So make me an image, perfect image, of your Son.

The Father is transforming you into a perfect reflection.   Let the process continue.   Do you feel like your life is a log-jam?   Let Christ break the river free and move you on to be just like Him.   That's what our true love gives to us - THE GIFT TO BE JUST LIKE HIM IN ALL WAYS.

I would like to offer a way for us to do that.   If you will come forward this morning, Don Reese and Joanne Oemig have oil that they will put on your forehead as a blessing.   Perhaps some of you came needing a physical healing.   You can be healed.   God wants to heal you.   Come forward and receive God's touch.   Perhaps some of you came today with a wound that needs healed.   Come forward because God knows what it is and how to heal it.   Perhaps you just need to come forward because you need a healing of the image of God within you.   Maybe you don't know how the Father sees you and you need to see what He sees in you.  

The True Love of our Souls, Jesus Christ, is ready to give what you need to become a perfect reflection of Him.

Maybe the love that you experienced in your life, somewhere or sometime, was not complete.   Maybe you were abandoned by a mother or father.   Maybe that happened by a spouse.   Come forward and receive the abiding love of Jesus who calls you to abide with Him.   He won't let you down. Come.   Receive God's love.   And, in the same way, make a commitment to abide in Him.

Amen.