Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome,
As we continue to look at love through the lens of John's statement,
God is love,
In 1 John.
As we begin today.
As always,
I invite you just to stop,
To pause,
To become aware of your breathing.
Just notice each breath arriving and see it as a gift,
The gift of life that flows in and through you.
And as you breathe in and out,
Just notice those gentle rhythms of receiving and releasing.
Receiving,
And releasing.
And today,
Just move into a little breath prayer for a short moment.
Breathing in,
Silently praying perfect love.
And as you breathe out,
Casts out fear.
Perfect love.
Casts out fear.
Yesterday we arrived at the heart of John's letter.
We heard those extraordinary words,
God is love.
Everything that we've reflected upon has been leading us there.
Today.
John asks the obvious question,
If God truly is love?
Then what happens to fear?
So let's listen to John's words in 1 John chapter 4 verses 13 to 21.
By this we know that we abide in God and God in us.
Because He has given us of His Spirit.
And we've seen and do testify.
That God has sent his son as the saviour of the world.
God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God and they abide in God.
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love,
And those who abide in love abide in God,
And God abides in them.
Love has been perfected among us in this.
That we may have boldness on the day of judgment,
Because.
.
.
As he is,
So are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
But perfect love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment,
And whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
We love.
Because God first loved us.
Those who say,
I love God and hate their brother or sister are liars.
For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen.
Cannot truly love God whom they have not seen.
The commandment we have from God is this,
That those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Now as we've gone through this letter we've talked about how there's certain things in the scripture that become so familiar.
We stop hearing how astonishing they really are.
And perfect love casts out fear is probably one of those.
Maybe we imagine that those words describe an emotional state,
A life where we never feel anxious or worry.
That we're never uncertain,
But if that were true,
Then even Jesus.
.
.
Would fail the test.
In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus experienced deep anguish.
He knew sorrow,
He knew grief,
He knew what it was to tremble before suffering.
John can't possibly mean that love removes every difficult emotion.
Fear as an emotion is part of being human.
It can even be a gift.
It helps us step back from danger.
In that way it protects us,
It alerts us.
When something matters.
Now I think John's speaking about something much deeper.
I think John's speaking about living.
From fear.
And there's a difference between experiencing fear.
.
.
And allowing fear to become the place from which we live.
A lot of us spend our lives.
Organized around fear,
Fear of failure,
Fear of rejection.
Fear of not being enough.
Fear of losing control,
Being misunderstood,
Being forgotten even.
Sometimes those fears become so familiar that we don't end up noticing them anymore.
And then they start to shape our decisions,
Influence our relationships,
Determine how we spend our time,
And even affect how we imagine God.
So if we believe God's primarily disappointed with us,
Then we're going to approach God with fear.
If we believe love has to be earned,
Then we'll spend our lives trying to earn it.
If we believe that our worth and value depends on success,
Then.
.
.
Will keep striving after success and never truly rest.
And so John here is gently dismantling all of that.
He says,
We love because God first loved us.
And again,
Notice the order.
Always the same,
God moves first.
Love begins with God,
Not with us.
The Christian life is never about trying to persuade God to become loving.
It's about awakening to the love that's already here and embracing us.
Imagine a small child learning to swim.
At first,
They'll sit there clinging tightly to the edge of the pool.
They feel uncertain,
And then a trusted parent.
Or swim instructor steps into the water,
Arms open,
Smiling.
And patiently saying,
You can let go,
I've got you.
Now,
The child doesn't become fearless because the water changed.
The water's exactly the same.
But the child becomes courageous because they trust the one who's there to hold them.
And so maybe this is what John means,
That life doesn't become suddenly easier.
Storms will still come,
Loss will still happen.
Illnesses still visit us,
Questions remain but they're gone.
Underneath all of that.
There's a growing trust.
Love is holding me and this changes everything.
The opposite of fear then in John's vision isn't bravery,
But it's trust.
Trust that God's love is deeper than any failure that I might happen to do.
Trust that God's presence is stronger.
Than even my loneliness.
Trust that nothing,
Not even death.
.
.
Can separate me from the love.
In which I live.
And this is why John says fear has to do with punishment.
And I think he's speaking about a particular kind of fear,
The fear.
.
.
That God is against us,
The fear that we have to constantly prove ourselves.
The fear that one little mistake.
.
.
Will cause God to withdraw from us.
John's telling us that that fear has no place in the life of someone who's truly encountered love.
We finally understood what holiness is about and understood God's holiness.
Holiness that isn't opposed to love.
But a holiness that is love in its purest form.
And this is one of the great transformations that happens in the spiritual life.
The moment we stop asking,
How do I keep God happy?
And we begin asking,
How do I remain open to love that's already being given?
And they're very,
Very different questions.
The saints often radiated an extraordinary peace.
And it wasn't because their lives were easy.
Most of them didn't have easy lives at all.
They suffered deeply,
Grieved.
Faced uncertainty,
Real persecution.
But beneath everything else,
They trusted.
They trusted love.
And that trust in love became their freedom.
And there's another phrase in today's reading that deserves our attention.
Those who abide in love,
Abide in God.
John keeps returning to this word because he knows how easy it is that we can drift.
We drift back into comparison,
Into condemnation,
Into fear.
But abiding is simply returning.
Again and again.
Whenever fear begins telling its familiar stories,
We come home.
We abide.
We return and abide.
When anxiety convinces us that we're alone,
We come home,
We return.
And we abide.
Whenever shame whispers that we're unworthy,
We come home,
We return.
We abide.
We come back.
To love.
Not back because love disappeared somewhere,
But because our awareness wandered away just for a moment.
And it's a beautiful truth that love never moved,
Just our attention did.
And love patiently waits to welcome us home every single time.
Now let's just be still for a moment.
And as you notice your breathing,
As you breathe in,
Imagine receiving God's unconditional love and as you breathe out,
Imagine releasing one fear.
That you've been carrying,
Just once.
And as you release it simply place it gently into God's hands.
And may behold as a breath prayer.
Your love is greater than my fear.
I rest in your love.
Your love is greater than my fear.
I rest in your love.
And as you hold that fear within the light of God's love.
Just see love surrounding it completely as we pray.
God of perfect love.
Thank you that your love reaches us before we ever reach for you.
Thank you,
That we don't need to earn what's already been freely given.
When fear begins to organise our lives,
Call us home.
When anxiety becomes louder than trust,
Help us remember your presence.
When we're tempted to believe that we stand alone.
Remind us that your love has never left us.
Teach us to live with open hands.
Open hearts and open lives.
Remembering to always come home.
To return,
To abide and to rest.
And so may your perfect love gradually loosen fear's grip upon us.
May we become people whose peace points others towards you.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
Friend we love because God first loved us.
Walk with that truth today as you go.
And may peace be with you.
Till tomorrow.
Bye for now.
