NLT John 13
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

Last week's kick-off service got us off to a great start in our 40 Days of Community. In our butterfly cross we had the opportunity to lift up to God our hopes and dreams, in addition to whatever may be weighing heavy on our hearts and keeping them from the hope we have in God. Likewise, in Pastor Rick Warren's video kick-off message we got the big picture for what 40 Days of Community holds in store for us. While God has made us for reaching out, for fellowship, growth, service, and worship, God never intended that we are to fulfill any of those purposes alone. God has made us for community, and in the community of Christ's Body, the church, we are better together in realizing the goals and purposes for which God has created us.

For me, what I took home from last week's kick-off really comes down to one word: love. The essence of life is love. If a person were to go through life without ever learning how to give and receive love, I think we'd all agree that that person's life would be an unmitigated failure. Whatever else that person might achieve, a life without love is a waste - a waste of time, a waste of life, a waste of God's grace and goodness. For God has created us for love. Remember what Paul wrote:
1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13)

That means I can have all the money in the world, but without love still be the poorest man on earth. I can have such power and influence as to strike fear in the hearts of my enemies, but without love still be a 90 pound weakling. I can have wisdom and knowledge sufficient to earn the world's most coveted awards and accolades, but without love still be nothing more than a well-educated fool. It's all about love, giving it, receiving it, expanding and sharing it.

Now if you ask most people if they have love in their lives, they'd say, "Sure."
"I love my mother.
"I love my father.
"I love my husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend.
"I love my kids.
"I love my country.
"I love my dog.
"I love my job.
"I love my big-screen TV.
"I love a hot, steaming bowl of chili on a cold winter's night.
"I love a nice, cold drink after I cut my grass on a hot summer's day.
Ask most people if they have love in their lives, and most people will say yes, of course, sure. But ask people what kind of love they have in their lives, and you'll most likely get back a lot of blank stares.

In English, you know, we have this one word "love" that we use in all sorts of ways to cover all sorts of emotions and relationships. But maybe you remember some pastor in some bygone sermon telling you that in Greek there are actually three different words for love. First, there's the word "eros," which means love as desire or longing. It can mean sexual attraction, but also any yearning, as in, "I really love that car." "I'm crazy about my new I-pod." "I can't wait to get my hands on the latest razor phone." Eros is a very powerful form of love, and the advertising wizards on Madison Avenue have discovered all sorts of creative ways to manipulate and stimulate it so that we buy what they have to sell.

Second, in the Greek vocabulary of love there's the word "philia," which is sometimes translated as friendship or affection. That sounds a little tame, especially compared to "eros," but not really. Philia is the very intense love we often know in our own families, the bond that ties parent to child, brother to sister, kith to kin. But beyond just family ties, philia is also the glue that holds a nation or people together. You know, every blue moon or so, I find myself at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge for an LSU football game. Before the kick-off, the Golden Band from Tigerland takes the field, and they play those first notes to "Hold That Tiger," dummm-dum-dummm-dum! In an instant everybody's up on their feet, screaming, yelling, cheering. And every time this happens, there comes over me this feeling, like, "These are my people!" It's like I'm back home and part of the tribe. And that's kind of amazing, especially since I haven't lived in Baton Rouge for the last 33 years and I'm not really a rabid sports fan, but that's the power of philia.

The third and final Greek word for love is agape. It's self-sacrificing love, and of course, Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that love for you, for me, and for the whole world. Out of either eros or philia, I might be willing to offer my life for my wife and kids, for my friends and family, but agape is that divine love, the love that comes down from heaven, that goes beyond the sacrifice I might make for my own and those like me. Again, remember the words of Paul in the Letter to the Romans:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5)

Agape is the love that impels the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, to forego all divine privilege and to surrender God's own self into the hands of a sinful, fallen humanity. Agape is the love of which Paul sang in the Letter to the Philippians:
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Philippians 2).

This is life-changing love. This is soul-transforming love. This wonder-working, mind-blowing, heart-healing love. This is agape.

Now here's the kicker. We are to love others as Christ has loved and continues to love us. That doesn't mean we have to go out and get ourselves crucified. Christ has already done that work once and for all. But at the very least, it does mean that we have to get out of our comfort zones. I mean, think about it. Christ left the realms of heaven, abandoned his seat at the right hand of the Father, to take up the cross that heals you and me. And for what? So that we never have to reach out beyond ourselves? So that we can stay all nice and cozy and never have to put ourselves out there for anybody but people like us? I don't think so.

Christ has loved us so that we can love others with the same agape that he has showered upon us. And this, my friends, is why we need each other. If love were solely a matter of eros or philia, I could probably do alright without much help from you. Eros and philia have a natural quality to them. If you have a pulse, you know that it doesn't take much to kick start eros. And as I've said before, the nature of philia is such that we can't help but love the people closest to us, even if that love is sometimes conflicted with other feelings. But to love as Christ loved, that's something I can't do alone. This is why God has placed us in community. This is why God has given us to one another. This is why God wants you and me together in the Body of his Son Jesus.

Because without the company of brothers and sisters in Christ, it's just too scary for us to love as Christ has loved us. We're frail and fragile creatures. We sometimes get spooked by even the slightest little change in our habits and routines. "Oh, I didn't get my coffee this morning!" "Oh, somebody's sitting in my pew!" "Oh, we're gonna sing a new hymn!" So how are we going to change the world if we can't handle these little hiccups of daily life? Not by ourselves! Not by ourselves! But joined together in Christ, we can sacrifice some of our comfort for the well-being of another. With my brother and sister in beside me, I can master my fear and step into a situation that's brand new to me. Knowing that I have a spiritual family supporting me with their prayers, I can begin to empty myself of some of the selfishness that keeps me from loving as Christ loves me and you and the whole world.

Ten years ago I was invited into a small group of fellow pastors. I didn't know these people very well, except on a kind of casual basis. We met twice a year for a couple of days at a time, and over those ten years of meetings, we shared all sorts of joys and sorrow, triumphs and tragedies. We talked, prayed, cried, laughed, and challenged one another through more trials and tribulations than I can count: health crises, family troubles, kid problems, church stress, vocational confusion - you name it, we tackled it. We didn't start out to be a support group, but it turned out that we supported one another in ways we could never have imagined.

But that's why we need each other. Christ has loved us to love, and we can't do it alone.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.