May 6th:
He Desires May 6, 2012 Call: 1 John 4: 7-21 Text: John 15: 1-8 Read: Canticle of Love (646) He Desires Raise your hand if you are familiar with WWVA I am too! Until about twenty years ago, it was the most famous four letter combination that began "WW." For WWVA were the call letters for a powerful AM radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia While I was growing up, An apparently unique combination of geography, atmospheric conditions, and radio waves (That probably someone at Clarkson can explain) Created the situation that no matter where I was at night When I played with the radio dial trying to get a station Even if nothing I wanted to hear came in clearly I could always get WWVA And WWVA played the old twangy country music That I didn't want to hear I can remember lying in a canvass tent Camping on some wooded land that my Dad owned near Brookfield, NY And having other stations going in and out But WWVA would continue to come in strong As if it were Putting its thumbs in its ears Waving its fingers And saying "Na na, na na na" to those other stations And to me But about two decades ago Another four letter combination that began with "WW" Became even better known than WWVA This more recent phenomenon was, of course, WWJD These letters were not the call letters of a powerful radio station But rather an acronym for a powerful mantra which many Christians adopted as their approach to things "What Would Jesus Do?" For some time there was an abundance of Bracelets, tee shirts, and placards reading simply: WWJD And there was an abundance of people Repeating the phrase those letters represented Either because they meant something to the speaker Or Because they were mocking the speaker Today the WWJD letters and the phrase they represent have become somewhat old hat or out of date although the sentiment still has meaning. But we remember it. We remember it Like I remember WWVA - but more positively. But I think that old phrase fell a bit short For any time we ask ourselves "What would Jesus do?" And get an answer we think is too hard for us to handle All we have to do is invoke the built in escape clause and say, "But I'm not Jesus." In saying that, what we are saying is Jesus could do that, but I can't He could go to the cross, but I would have been like the disciples and run away He could stand before Pilate but I would have been like Peter and denied knowing him He could speak with the crowds after learning of JTB's death But I would have shooed them away And felt sorry for myself. Thus, I think the better question would have been "What would Jesus desire?" That too has the same acronym - the same call letters, if you will - But this time WWJD does not let us focus on What Jesus himself would do This time WWJD changes the focus to ourselves, asking "What would Jesus want me to do? This way, there is no built in escape clause. This morning's two scriptures give us an understanding of the process of answering such a question. We were called to worship by Cassidy's (my) sharing a passage from John's first letter. It is one of my favorite passages. In it, John tells us not only to love one another But explains that we need to do it because love is from God! He tells us that God's love was revealed by God's sending his son that God sent his son not because we loved God but because God loved us He says that it is a simple thought process: Since God loves us so much We also ought to love one another And he even goes so far as to add That those who do not love one another Are lying when they claim to love God. Not one of us should have any trouble understanding that God desires that we love one another. Hand in hand with this is the image found in our text from John's gospel: [John 15: 1-8] God the father is the vine grower Christ is the vine You and I are the branches Christ tells us that he wants the branches to bear fruit. The branches cannot bear fruit, however, if they are detached or separated or disconnected from the vine The branches that do bear fruit will be pruned and trimmed So that they can bear even more fruit Thus from these two scriptures we learn That love comes from God And is the way we love God And That the ability to bear fruit comes from God And our connection to God And in these two scriptures we find: that Christ desires that we love one another and that Christ desires that we increasingly bear good fruit An algebraic equation might read 2X = Y Thus, "2X" and "Y" are different ways of saying the same thing And when we understand that both scriptures are saying the same thing We can write them algebraically as well But here we have no unknowns. Our equation and proof: What Jesus wants/desires = increasingly bearing good fruit What Jesus wants/desires = loving one another Therefore, Increasingly bearing good fruit = loving one another It's not too hard for any of us to understand what Christ desires. It is simple Christ desires that we bear the good fruit of/by loving one another And since loving one another is the way we love God By simply doing what Jesus desires We demonstrate our love for God Who already loves us so much that he sent Jesus in the first place. And so when we meet a challenge and ask the revised WWJD question "What Would Jesus Desire?" Or "What would Jesus want me to do?" We should be able to grasp immediately That that the answer is for us to take the approach that reflects Loving one another. Unless we don't want to increasingly bear good fruit Unless we don't care if we disappoint Jesus. And as we talked two weeks ago Disappointing Christ hurts us worse than any punishment could So you and I need to allow the new WWJD to come in as clearly as WWVA came in when I was playing with those old radio dials. And unlike WWVA (for the younger Jim Barnes anyway), The revised WWJD is the station we should want to hear.