As the foundation for our
exploration of love, I will use John 15: 9-15.
This passage is part of Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” John 15 begins with
Jesus invoking the metaphor of a grapevine.
In this metaphor, Jesus is the vine and his followers are the branches
on the vine. In verse 5a, Jesus says, “I
am the vine, you are the branches. Those
who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…”.
In our passage, beginning with verse
9, Jesus explains that the way in which his disciples “bear much fruit” is
through our love for God and one another.
He tells them, “‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you.’” Then, foreshadowing
his own crucifixion and death, Jesus adds, “‘No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’” (vv. 12-13)
The film, Frozen, revolves around the relationship between two sisters, Elsa
and Anna. Even though Elsa and Anna fundamentally
love each other, their relationship has become fractured and broken through
estrangement. Throughout the film, Anna
seeks to heal her sister and restore their relationship. In Frozen’s
climatic scene, Anna literally lays down her life for Elsa, when she steps
between her sister and the film’s villain, as he attempts to kill Elsa. In the Disney movie, Anna’s act of supreme
love ultimately heals both her sister and herself, as well as restoring their
relationship.
Most Christians are never asked to
lay down our lives and die for our friends, as Anna does in Frozen.
However, in my message this weekend, I will suggest that we do not have
to literally die in order to lay down our lives for our friends and loved
ones. For instance, most parents make
sacrifices and sometimes defer their own life plans in order to provide critical
opportunities for their children to grow and achieve. Similarly, grown children frequently make
sacrifices and sometime defer their own life plans in order to care for aging
parents. Although less dramatic than
literally dying for the other, these are ways in which we can “lay down our
lives” for those we love.
Frozen
fits in the musical genre and it has many powerful songs. One of the best numbers is “Fixer-Upper.” Part of the words go like this:
“True love brings out the best
Everyone’s a bit of a fixer upper
That’s what it’s all about
Father, sister, brother
We need each other
To raise us up and round us out
Everyone’s a bit of a fixer upper.”[1]
Although a secular
film, intended for a non-religious audience, the lyrics to this song do capture
an important assumption underlying Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” From a Christian perspective, all of us are,
indeed, “fixer-uppers.” That is, we all
are finite, sinful persons who stand in need of forgiveness and healing through
God’s love. The lyrics from the song
continue by claiming that:
“But when push comes to shove
The only fixer upper fixer
That can fix a fixer upper is
True Love.”
From a Christian
perspective, this “True Love” comes only from God whose love for each of us is awesome
and beyond our mere human comprehension.
Only true love can fix the fixer upper, but ultimately only God is the
source of that true love, which “fixes” each of us.
In his “Farewell Discourse” in John
15, Jesus asks his followers to keep his commandments. At the heart of keeping Jesus' commandments is loving as Jesus first loved us. That is, we respond to Jesus’ supreme act of
love for us by loving God and by loving the other “fixer uppers.” We love because he first loved us. We love in grateful response to
Jesus’ love for us.
Come, join us this Sunday, June 22nd, as we explore what it means to
love in response to God’s love for us. Our
church is located at the corner of Main and Dawson Streets in Meriden,
Kansas. Our classic worship service
starts at 10 am on Sunday mornings. We
will also watch and discuss Frozen Sunday
afternoon, beginning at 5 pm.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.
[1]
“Fixer-Upper” from Frozen, Walt
Disney Studios, released 27 November 2013.
Lyrics obtained at http://www.disneyclips.com/lyrics/frozenlyrics9.html,
accessed 20 June 2014.
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