The only thing I’ll say about this sermon is that I did get a few grossed-out looks from the congregation when I talked about where the water we drink has been.
Today I felt like talking about something new. So that’s the theme of today’s sermon: Something New!
So let’s start by looking at what it says in 1 John 4:15: “God is love”. Now wait: that’s nothing new. That’s an ancient, an eternal truth! Yes, I agree—this is an ancient, eternal truth, but I say nevertheless that this is something new. New, because God’s love constantly makes everything new, constantly opens up new possibilities, again and again restores and refreshes and revives and renews.
Here’s a good analogy: when somebody offers you a glass of pure cold water on a very hot day, and you drink it, you never say, “Phew, that’s old water!” Even though, in fact, it is… very old water. That water has been here on the earth from the very beginning of the world. Nowhere on earth is there any such thing as “new water”; no new water is being created. All the water located on our planet has already been drunk by countless people, animals, insects, trees, plants and has also been returned over and over again into the ecological system where it’s purified and refreshes and revives us yet again. And every time you pick up a glass of that fresh, clean, cold water, especially on a sweltering summer day, it seems to you that you are the very first living being in the whole universe to taste this particular glassful of crystal clear life-giving water, and it fills you with satisfaction and gratefulness. That “old” water is just about as “new” as anything you could ever wish for!
Of course, this is a limited, physical analogy for a spiritual truth. In fact, divine love unimaginably exceeds this analogy because, unlike water, God’s love actually does increase and grow; there is more and more of it; it unceasingly comes into new being, in God’s desire to bring about good for the objects of His love. It is always new, and… it has always been. It never grows old, and yet… there’s nothing older than it! God’s love is always able to open a new door for us in life, especially when we feel worn out, empty, useless.
In the Gospel of John 13:34, Jesus Christ speaks this command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is a new command precisely because the life of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ unceasingly makes us new and capable to love in a whole new way, in unity with His desire to love through us. (Verse 35) “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
If we go back to the first epistle of John, in the fifth chapter we read the following words: (5:1) “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” The whole secret of love—if it really is a secret—unfolds itself in this verse. In this one short verse is exposed the whole Gospel, the news of salvation, the meaning of life, new birth, even a glimmer of the eternal mystery of the Holy Trinity—from which proceeds all divine love. Imagine: all that in one verse! Let’s take it apart….
“Whoever believes...” Here’s faith, the key to reconciliation with God. For us it all starts with this, when by faith we receive God’s gift of eternal life.
“…that Jesus is the Christ...” Here’s the content of our faith, the central fact of history that changes our whole past, present and future.
“…is born of God.” Here’s new birth; it’s an enlivened spirit, a new, living relationship with the living God in mutual knowledge.
“Whoever loves the father…” Here’s love for God; in the heart of the born-again person love is born for the Father who bestowed the new birth. This is love, born in the image of the eternally loving God, and the proof of that love is love towards His children, as it says, “…and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well” and we read further (v.2) “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”
I hinted that a lesson about the Holy Trinity is found here, so what is it? The lesson is that our new birth arises exclusively thanks to the only-begotten Son of God. Thanks to the Only-Begotten of the Father we become “begotten” of God. Moreover, thanks to the eternal love ceaselessly communicated within the Holy Trinity, without beginning or end, the possibility is made real for us to taste and know and generate genuine love. Genuine love will always be love in the image of Him who loved and gave Himself for us, Jesus of Nazareth. Genuine love will always be a response of joy toward God the Father, with that same joy with which the eternal Son of God unendingly exults in the presence of His Father. And genuine love will always be the cause for obedience to the Father’s will, the natural consequence of a desire to bring Him pleasure. (Verses 3-4) “This is love for God: to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
The psalmist says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” “Taste!” “See!” That means, “Find out for yourself! Experience it!” Taste the fresh, clean, enlivening water of God’s love; it is water for the soul. This water is always new.
In Samaria on one hot day, Jesus, tired after a long journey, asked for water from a woman whose sins and griefs were totally open to him. Encountering her suspicion and curtness, and still not having gotten even a drop of water, God’s Son Jesus in all love offered her living water (read Jn. 4:13,14). These words sounded out to this woman on that miraculous day when she found God’s love and forgiveness, sounded out from the lips of Him whose love redeemed God’s creation, of Him whose Father one day will say, “See, I am making all new” and in His incomparable love He will wipe every tear from the eyes of His children. That’s the kind of love that sounded from the lips of Jesus to that poor woman on that hot day so long ago in Samaria.
Let that love sound in our hearts every time we draw near to God and each other. Let it reveal itself through us to those around us, in forgiveness, in patience, in help, in compassion and joyful fellowship. And let God's always-new love become for many the refreshing, enlivening water of new life in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
