How do you hope people describe you when you are not around to hear?  I was working a little retail job, when a regular customer came in.  The owner happened to be in the office and jumped up greeting the customer like an old friend. After the sale, the proprietor walked the customer to the door sharing one more amusing  anecdote and waving as he drove off.  The transaction completed, the owner rolled his eyes and laughed “Paul, that guy is a first rate jerk!”  I am not sure if that customer knew that his chummy friendship with the owner was completely transactional. 

 In Matthew 12 Jesus tells us like apples denote apple trees we will be known by the fruit of our living and one day we will give an account of the things we said and did.  I am no literalist, but maybe my old boss will have to own that remark, or maybe Love’s light will illuminate in that customer the source of their persistent rudeness. In Matthew chapter 7 and 25 Jesus hints that some even deeply religious people will be surprised when they hear how God evaluated their lives. Like church people sometimes do, they will argue with God saying, “Lord Lord, didn’t we” do the churchy stuff?  We all have moments where life and God  ask us “what are you doing” but if there is one day when we will look Jesus in the eye and give an account for how we have lived our lives, what then are the characteristics of a well lived life? 

The Apostle Paul suggests we have “an obligation or a debt to love each other.” IOU Love, because we all are beloved and anything less than love devalues God and both is us. Paul tells that this obligation is greater than all of the commandments. Indeed, the obligation to love our neighbor, as ourselves, fulfills the Biblical law.  “Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law.” And yet words like debt and obligation land on our modern ears like curse words, for we tend to think of obligations as burdens to bear instead of the bonds of our humanity that  might knit us together. 

If we have an obligation to love, it’s important to understand the terms of our debt to others. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr liked to define love more than once writing “when we are talking about love we are not talking about emotional bosh or merely a sentimental outpouring;  we are talking something much deeper:  Agape (Love) is understanding, creative, redemptive, goodwill to all people. .(adapted from  Love, Law and Civil Disobedience, 1961).  I would add that Love is not some syrupy sweet blanket covering up other feelings. Love can be angry, upset, or sad. Love can stand up for justice and speak the truth to power.  Jesus was angry and sad when looking at the state of the church in Mark 3 and flipped over temple tables on Palm Sunday.   Love is gentle and strong, peaceful and just, kind and truthful. Love is not a sponge that absorbs other people’s bad behavior- Love resists oppression. Love is powerfully complex.   

Do you live with a sense of obligation to love, to seek other’s redemption and do right by all people? Linger over that question for a moment, because living with an obligation to love others is hard and deeply countercultural.  The marketplace treats our interactions with other people as transactional:  we all start out owing each other nothing, our interactions are guided by the exchanging of things of value. We so deeply commoditize our neighbors that we even trade things like education and healthcare.  Paul flips our consumerism script asserting we all start out with an “IOU Love”, because we are beloved and anything less than love devalues God and each of us.  The obligation to love is rooted in Jesus’ greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself.  In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us if we want to live as children of God, we can’t just love those who love us, everyone does that! No Jesus commands us to love neighbors, love immigrants, love strangers, love enemies, and love even the enemies of God- lovingkindness is God’s baseline minimum expectation for all our interactions. Starting with a default position of Love is radical so why do it?  We do it, because God is Love. Jesus tells us God sends the sun to shine on the good and evil and renewing rains to the farms of the righteous and unrighteous.  We love because all people are beloved. We love because faith, hope and love is all that ultimately survives this life (1 Corinthians 13). No matter how much we love our new shoes, one day they will be in the landfill. We love because love is what matters. IOU Love”, because we are beloved and anything less than love devalues God and each of us.  We love because loving others releases the power of God’s Love into our lives.

This obligation to love is so challenging and radical, maybe we need to hear it again: Don’t be in debt to anyone, except for the obligation to love each other. Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law.  any and all commandments, are all summed up in one phrase: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love fulfills the Law. 

In my third year of being a Methodist and my first year of seminary, we read John Wesley’s A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.  Tuesday, I re-read parts of it along with my own  disagreements with Mr Wesley that I jotted in the margins.  At one point I wrote: “why (quote) a hymn instead of scripture?”  Despite moving away from my literalism, its lingering effects at times made me a harsh critic. In another I scribbled “poppycock”!  Wesley’s theology of Love was wooing me.  I put big stars in the margins highlighting: “The heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect nothing else; if you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal (kindom) way.” 

In our baptism vows Wesley’s idea of striving for perfection by showing love to others pops up as the celebrant charges us: Members of the household of God, I commend Virgina or Amy to your love and care. Do all in your power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love!  IOU LOVE.  Our congregational charge to perfect one another in love is rooted in Jesus’ command to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  I love how the Common English Bible renders back to the context of loving even enemies, translating it as “Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.” 

When trying to show love to everyone becomes our way of life we will be much closer to being complete.   There is nothing higher in religion than love, there is no higher commandment than love.  Paul tells us without love we are nothing, earn nothing  and achieve nothing (1 Corinthians 13) There is nothing higher in life than love.  A lifestyle rooted in showing love, not the market values of being loved, liberates us from transactional living. It breaks the cycle of always seeking to gain an advantage over others or get a better deal in our interactions with others. (Luke 6) Love abides, love is content, not dependent on being Loved for Love is deeply grounded in God’s Love.

Three quick caveats. 1) When we have not been well-loved it is hard to make the leap of faith into loving others. 2) When we have understood God as an angry judge, it is hard to show love, because our image of God is warped away from Love. 3) Love is hard to sustain without a rich prayer life and a lively connection to an authentic community of faith. We will be talking about love for the next 3 weeks, if you have questions about the sermon, reach out, two people at 8:10 already have. Friends, Love is complex but hopefully this week it is enough to linger over the idea that we  trade in a different math than the marketplace transactions: we believe “IOU Love because we all are beloved and anything less than love devalues God and each of us. Amen