John 14:1-7 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Jesus saw the world as God sees it— through the lens of love. He saw the love of God in all of nature. He saw every person through the lens of love. When he saw fear he planted seeds of faith. When he saw potential he planted seeds of hope. His life was the embodiment of divine love for the whole world. His love had no limits or end
Paul’s tribute to love, (1 Corinthians 13), describes Jesus. He was patient, he was kind; he was genuine. He saw the good in people. He expected the best from people. He didn’t give up on people. Jesus’ love was constant and strong. It didn’t have an end.
When Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, (John 14:6), he meant, Love is the Way, Love is True, and to Love is to really live. Love is like a mirror through which we see the world. We have a dim view at first, but as love grows our vision improves.
Jesus came to give sight to the blind. His prescription for spiritual and moral blindness was love. Love of God, love of self and love of neighbor. Love is the corrective lens that help us locate the path of truth and authentic life. The more love grows in our hearts, the more we are able to see what was once invisible to us. That is the theme of Amazing Grace. The slave ship captain, John Newton wrote of himself, “I once was blind but now I see.” His love of God and love of neighbor were the lenses that finally enabled him to see the cruelty and injustice of slavery.
Imagine life without your glasses. The world is suddenly unfocused, smaller, more difficult, and more frightening. Good vision is crucial to our wellbeing. All of us suffer from blindness to some extent. Three out of four people on this planet wear corrective lenses, and the figure climbs to nine out of ten for those over 60. Corrective Lenses are one of the greatest innovations for good in world history.
The first person to mention the invention of eyeglasses was a monk who lived 700 years ago. In 1306 he wrote, "It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision... I saw the person who first discovered and practiced this new art, and I talked to him. At first he was unwilling to share how they were made, but when told us his secret, we at the monastery began making them and shared them with everyone with a cheerful and willing heart."
It was love that compelled those monastics to share the secret of eyeglasses with the world, and eyeglasses have opened our eyes to new worlds near and far. The loving spirit of those monks gave the gift of better vision to the world, and our lives were transformed.
It’s amazing how blind we were before eyeglasses. When we looked at the night sky with our naked eyes we saw the sun, moon and only five planets. With the aid of powerful telescopes, we saw Uranus for the first time in 1781, then Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930. Now earthbound telescopes enable us to see 1 billion light years into space, and the orbiting Hubble Telescope enables us to see stars 13 billion light years away. We once were blind to whole worlds that now we see.
Without God’s love we see only a small fraction of the world. We are blind to what our world needs the most—the Love of God. Jesus said, "If we only love those who are like us and those who love us, we are blind." A world where love extends only to those who live us is a small and fearful place. Our mission as the church is to be like those monks 700 years ago who shared the secret of corrective lenses to everyone who needed them. In the same spirit, let us show God’s love to everyone with cheerful and willing hearts.
Love of God and neighbor enables us to see the world as God sees it. It enables us to see the world through the lens of an ever expanding Circle of Love that extends to the whole creation.
You ask, where does love end. My answer is: As far as I can see, it doesn’t have an end.
Pastor Norm Erlendson