Service of Dedication to Christian Family Life Prayer: Shannon Cook Hymn of Grace *Jesus, Lover of My Soul* The Witness of Scripture: John 14: 15-21 Anthem *Jesus Loves Me* arr. Michael Hassell. FCC Chancel Choir. Anna Fitzgerald. Sermon * Love Is the Way-The Way Is Love* David Spain
Recorded on May 14, 2023
Dear A.J. and Joe, Fletcher, Noelle, Adeline, this letter to you was also a sermon preached on the Sunday in May when you were dedicated at First Christian Church of Norman. You were there when we celebrated your dedication, but you may not remember it!Most likely there are pictures you can enjoy when you get a bit older. Just so you will know, your parents were there and even your grandparents were there, and your church family was there as we celebrated the gift of your life and the joy of blessing you in the spirit of God’s love. It was a wonderful day, and we are joyful beyond words that you have come into this world!
In your young life, some of you now almost 6 months old and others just over a month, you have already received so many gifts. Amazingly, you are already starting to grow out of some of the clothes you have been given, and that is a good thing. May growing always be who you are —in body for the first 18 years or so and then in mind and spirit for all the days of your life. It seems right, on this joyful day of your dedication, for the church to share a few words with you with the hope that these words will be another gift to you—a gift that will help and encourage you to grow.
When the church has words to speak, one of the places your mother church goes is to the stories of our faith as told in the Bible. From the very first story about God’s loving creation to the very last story about a tree-lined river flowing from heaven whose leaves are for healing everyone, the Bible tells us of God who loves and cares for everyone and everything that has been created. Jesus gives us many stories about who God is and how we are to care for each other.His stories are wonderful and surprising, and they help us see something we might not have noticed before, which is always good even if his stories might cause us to rethink some things along the way. It is good when faith encourages us to think and rethink, to question and wonder because that is part of what keeps us growing in mind and spirit. One of the reasons Jesus was eager to take children in his arms and bless them is because children love an adventure and love to wonder about life, and they are eager to ask questions. Jesus told everyone that is a great way to be!
A long time ago—maybe we can even say ‘once upon a time’ as long as we remember that with the Bible once upon a time can also have something to say in our time, Jesus was with his disciples. Jesus and his disciples had been on many adventures—they had been at a wedding where Jesus helped people continue to celebrate; they had heard Jesus tell an older man named Nicodemus he could be fresh as a newborn baby; they had watched Jesus talk with a woman others talked about badly, and as a result of their conversation she became one of his first preachers; they helped Jesus feed people who were hungry; they watched Jesus heal a man who could not see and give life to old Lazarus who was too long gone; and they watched Jesus take a towel and wash their own feet because as he told them caring for others is the best way to show God. But now, Jesus was telling them he was about to go away, and the disciples were sad about that and were wondering what would happen to them when he was no longer there.So, Jesus gave them his very best words that would hold them when he was gone, even as those same words hold all of us all these years later.
Jesus gave them three promises, the first of which seems odd because he put two words together that might seem strange to us—love and commandment. What he was saying when he said that is that love is the way Jesus works. Everything Jesus does is done with love; so, to love Jesus is to do what Jesus commands with the kind of love Jesus gives. If loving Jesus means keeping his commandments, then we might ask ‘what are his commandments.’ You will learn, because your families and this church will teach you, that Jesus said the most important commandment is to love—to love God and there are many ways to do that, and to love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself which means when it comes to loving, receive some for yourself but don’t keep that love only to yourself—love other people too. The second promise Jesus made was that they will never be alone.He will be with them in the Spirit, which is difficult for any of us to understand no matter if you are 6 months or 96 years. But Jesus promised he will never leave us, even on those days when maybe we don’t feel him close, and there may be days like that. What he is telling us is that nothing is more powerful, and nothing will ever outlast his loving presence with us, both now and forever…nothing keeps God from loving us. And the third promise he made is that the best way to keep the second promise in mind is to show and live love every day. Love something, love someone every day because the more you do that, the more you are a person through whom love flows, then the more love you will see, and the more love others will see. Love’s formula does not seem to add up; but with love, the more you give away the more love there is, not only in the person who receives love but also in the person who gives love. So, Jesus said, the way to know God is to love, and to love as God loves.
We received a graduation invitation this week in the mail, a wonderful picture of a young person who is completing school. Seeing that picture reminded me of a conversation that happened years ago with this soon to be graduate, who must have been about 7 or 8 when we met and who had come to see me because of what someone had said about children and God.My young friend and all those children were told they were unworthy and bad people who were separated from God unless they were baptized and made clean. This beautiful child was understandably frightened. I don’t know why some religions say those terrible things to children, but I want you to know that this church will never say anything like that to you. You are born into God’s original blessing, you are born a beloved child of God, you are born precious in God’s sight, you are born in love and meant to grow in love all the days of your life. This doesn’t mean you are perfect, and if you are like every other person who grows, you will make mistakes along the way. But God’s love is never gone from you, and God’s love always desires for you to live in love, because what and how we love is what defines us. We are born in love, and we get to share God’s broad love for the world all the days of our living.
A long time ago, there was a man named Dostoevsky—that is probably the first time you have heard that word in your young lives! In one of his books he wrote, “Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day.” (The Brothers Karamazov) What he was saying is what Jesus is telling his disciples—that love helps us see God and helps us see God in others; and even when we don’t see, God is there.Love is the way we are able to see God, for as a scripture called I John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (I John 4: 7, 16b)
You will learn soon enough that sometimes some people and perhaps on occasion all people don’t always remember and live God’s love. That’s hard and sad because life does not have to be that way. But sometimes, you and someone else will want the same toy at the same time. When that happens, it is always good to remember that God’s desire for you to love and be loved does not change. God puts us with one another so that we can have a way to live that love and share that love in the same ways that your families are surrounding you with God’s kind of love right now. Even though about all you know to do right now is eat and sleep, cry and smile, you are also learning that God’s kind of love embraces and feeds you, because that is what love does for you and for your neighbor; and as we grow up, that is what we do as those who share God’s kind of love.
Jesus tells us stories about God’s love, and in this story he tells his disciples, Jesus starts with love and ends with love. The beginning is love and the end is love. I was reminded of this when we were in Waco last week with my father who is 100 years and 4 months old…you start counting months at the other end of life too! While we were there, we had a Facetime call with family, including the one born two weeks after his 100th birthday. The next day, there was a picture that appeared on our phone from that conversation showing my father’s face and at the bottom right the inserted picture of the little one at the other end of life—100 years and two weeks his junior. In the beginning is love and in the ending is love…it is what bridges the centuries.
Well, A.J. and Joe, Fletcher, Noelle, Adeline, that is a long letter—and it is not likely the bedtime story you will be read anytime soon! But, your being with us today is a joyful reminder of what we hold deepest in our faith and in our lives. Without your realizing it, you are already reminding us of what matters most. As we have already said, and it is worth saying again, “as your church family, we covenant to love you as Christ loves all of us, and to help you grow as children of God.” We do that because ‘Love is the Way—the Way is Love.’