What Does Love Ask of Me?

By Pastor Rey Diaz

Throughout this series, we’ve talked about how Christianity has a branding problem.  Jesus never called his followers “Christians.” He called them “disciples.” That’s a scarier word because it actually means something. A disciple is a pupil or follower. A disciple learns and grows by obeying and imitating his or her master. And Jesus made it very clear how he wanted his followers to behave:

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

If Jesus commands us to love one another, we need to ask: What does love require of me? I don’t think anyone would disagree about the central role love is to play on our lives.  But just like Christianity has a branding problem love has a definition problem because we all define it differently.  So what exactly did Jesus mean by “love one another”?

My main argument this past week was this – if you want to know what Jesus meant by what Jesus said, watch what Jesus did.  In other words, if we want to know what Jesus meant by “love one another”, we have to watch what he did. 

So what did Jesus do?  He walked into Jerusalem knowing it would cost him his life.  He looked at us and asked, “what does love ask of me?”  Love asks me to give it all to rescue people from sin.  Love asks me to sacrifice it all on the cross for the forgiveness of their sins.  These were not idealistic words from Jesus, but words he lived out. 

Once in Jerusalem, Jesus was asked which of God’s commandments was most important. His answer tells us what love requires of us:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37–39, NIV)

Ironically, Jesus not only answered with words but was in the midst of answering with his deeds.  Jesus made it clear – love God.  Love people. 

So what does love asks of me? 

First, love asks that we put God first.  There is a vertical aspect to our relationships.  We were made in the image of a loving God and until we fix our vertical relationship the horizontal will be impossible. 

Second love asks that we put people first.  That we put their interests above our own interest.  I have included a checklist based on Jesus’ actions and the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.  Look at the people God has put in your circle.  Are you really loving them as God has loved you?

Can you imagine what would happen in our families and communities—even our nation—if, for a month, we asked what love requires of us and then responded accordingly?

“Love one another“ Checklist

Matt 22:37-39 and 1 Corinthians 13

Vertical

☐  God is first

☐  God is at the center

☐  I won’t hurt God

☐  I won’t hurt me

Horizontal

☐  I will put other first

☐  I won’t hurt others

☐  Patient

☐  Kind

☐  Not Jealous

☐  Not irritable

☐  Not keeping a record of other’s wrong

☐  Not demanding my own way

☐  Allowing truth to win out

☐  Not giving up

☐  Not losing faith

☐  Staying hopeful

☐  Expecting the best

☐  I will endure everything

"Today I Quit Being a Christian"

By Pastor Rey Diaz

Those were some of the most devastating words I ever heard as a seminary student.  Anne Rice, who had become a hero to me in high school and college, said them.  In her book, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, she shared her powerful personal story about her relationship with Jesus. She grew up in the church, but left as a young adult. In her fifties, she rejected her decades-long atheism and returned to church...for ten years. And then she made this announcement on her Facebook page:

Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.

Rice’s statement stirred controversy (and broke my heart), but let’s be honest: the idea that Christians can be quarrelsome, hostile, and disputatious isn’t exactly surprising. How is it that people like Anne Rice—people devoted to Jesus—sometimes feel driven from Christianity? Why are there Christians on all sides of cultural and political issues, arguing with non-believers and fellow Christians alike? Is this really what Jesus intended for his disciples? I don’t think so.  But somehow Christianity has been branded and associated with this label. 

But Jesus had something entirely different in mind.  In fact, Jesus tells us how his disciples should behave and he makes no mention of hostility or disputation. He says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). The distinguishing characteristic of a disciple was not to be knowledge, belief, or church attendance, but love.  When the early Church started they didn’t have anything except “love one another.”  They didn’t have the New Testament, they didn’t have big churches, they didn’t have videos, media, or technology.  But they changed the world.  Not by what they believed, but how they behaved.  How they treated one another.  The world was drawn into this Jesus community because they “loved one another.” 

By the end of the first century, the apostle John was the last of Jesus’ original twelve disciples still alive. He was an old man who’d witnessed great tragedy. Many of his friends had been killed for their faith. He’d seen fellow Christians persecuted and martyred by the Emperor Nero. He’d spent many years living in the city of Ephesus, taking care of Jesus’ mother until her death.

In the last years of his life, John wrote the following in a letter to young followers of Jesus. It’s his final reminder to them of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. Dear friends, since God loved us, we also ought to love one another.       1 John 4:7–11

He could have given these young Christians all sorts of advice, but he focused on love.  It was the thing he most wanted them to remember. The love that God demonstrated to us through the sacrifice of his only Son on our behalf obligates us to love others.  We owe it to God to love one another. 

What if we put love back at the center.  What if those of us who decided to follow Jesus, approached every person, every relationship, every situation asking ourselves – What does love ask of me?  That’s how we rebrand Christinaity.  If each of us make this our focus in our circle and our world.  What does love look like in the marketplace? In our families? In our marriages? In our friendships?

If we don’t love well, it doesn’t really matter what else we do. So try it. Focus on it. Meditate on it. This week, practice loving the people around you.

That’s what Jesus did.  We celebrate Palm Sunday as Jesus enters Jerusalem.  A few days later, at the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus begged his Father for another way.  Is there another way to save us besides the cross?  The Father told Jesus there was no other way.   So Jesus looked at us, you and me, and said “What does love ask of me?” 

Families are Stronger than Messes

Love is patient.  1 Corinthians 13

Last weekend Pastor Tim messages in the “Not A Fan” series reminded us that in God’s way of ordering things, our relationships are much more valuable than any material thing -- Our relationship with Christ and our relationship with one another.  The importance of that fact became even more apparent as Pastor Tim went on to announce that we had come to the point in our negotiations with our lenders that they were leaving us no other option than to sell our properties and buildings.

  The official statement from the church is: “Washington Cathedral is being forced by our lenders to sell our property.  The good news is the church is not now nor ever has been the buildings.  And our property is worth significantly more than we owe.  So we are headed on a new messy adventure.  However, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  This is Christ’s church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.”  The Pastoral Staff

At first this was shocking news to many of members of the Washington Cathedral family, but after learning more of the facts, most have come to understand that this is not a set-back of any kind, but rather a new opportunity for us to grow and strengthen the ministries of Washington Cathedral.  The church is not the buildings, the church is a family and families are made up of people.  It is the people who Christ gave his life for.  And we were reminded that “Families are Stronger than Messes.”

The facts are that the church currently owes $14.6 million on this property.  The payments are about $70,000 per month and that is way above our capacity to pay at this time.  We have been working with our lenders for over a year now to try to renegotiate the terms of our loans to reduce those payments.  After many meetings, phone conversations and written correspondence, it became clear that the only option that was acceptable to our lenders was to sell our property and pay them off.  The good news is that our property is much more valuable than the amount we owe and when we sell the property we should be able to pay off all our loans and still have a good nest-egg to reinvest in relocating.  God has been so good to us and I feel he will help us find the right buyer for this property.  With the current zoning it will more than likely be some kind of non-profit or a school.

Pastor Tim reminded us Sunday at the Town Hall Meeting that we are never going to give up.  All the ministries of Washington Cathedral will continue on for generations because that is the kind of commitment that we have from the church family of Washington Cathedral.

The response from our church family has been amazing.  I can’t tell you how many people have talked to me and said “Pastor Tim is right.  The church is not the building it is the people and this is our church no matter where we meet.”  Others have told me how excited they are to see how God works this all out. 

You could sense a new powerful closeness among our church in every one of our worship services.  We don't know exactly what is going to happen this year but it is going to be a year of adventure when we see God work in powerful - powerful ways.

If you have question about any of this, please let us know and one of the pastoral staff would be happy to meet with you.