Somebody to Love - Genesis 5: 1-2, Mark 3: 31-35

When you say that you are in a relationship with someone, what exactly do you mean? When I say that I have a relationship with someone I am trying to convey that I love them, they mean something to me, I care about them. Its what I mean when I talk about my relationship with my family, or friends, or you as part of this wonderful body of Christ. 

However, the English language misses the nuances of the word love. In Greek there are actually four different words that can be used for love that translate as affection, friendship, romantic love, and charity. C. S. Lewis explored each of these loves in his book The Four Loves, based off a radio presentation he gave in 1958. Lewis was trying to explain what we mean when we say that “God is love”. That love is so much more than a romantic feeling, and God’s love goes even deeper than the Greek understanding of love, because love is complex.

This morning we started by reading a scripture from Genesis 5. If you read Genesis 5 in its entirety you would see a genealogy that goes from Adam to Noah through ten generations. Ten generations of humans that have been made in the image of God, that then link into our genealogy. When I look at a genealogy like this one, I see two types of love. First, there is Eros, or romantic love. The love that creates and builds families. That builds families for generations in fact. When I read early genealogies like this one, I also hope that the people being chronicled got something about romantic based love that we sometimes forget today. That romantic love is not just about seeking pleasure, but rather about connecting with another person for a sake bigger than yourselves.

But this genealogy also speaks about God’s love for us, as God created us in the image of God. This love of God is agape, also called charity. The type of love that is unconditional, even when we screw up and in all circumstances. This is the greatest love that can exist, and is the love that God showed us not only in our creation but also through Jesus‘ sacrifice on the cross. A few weeks ago I was leading a Bible Study at Mansfield and one of the young men attending described agape love this way - we cannot do anything to make God love us more, and we cannot do anything to make God love us less, for the love of God isn’t based on us, but is a self-giving of God’s own spirit. Agape love is self-sacrificing, and can be seen as the highest form of love that anyone can ever give to another. 

In our second scripture lesson this morning, Jesus shows and speaks about the two other types of love. When he points to his disciples and proclaims, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister” he first is speaking about affection. That fondness or familiarity you can feel between family members or those whom you have known for a long period of time in deep ways. This is the most natural love that we feel. We are loved simply because we are part of the family, not because of what we can bring to the relationship. Jesus is turning the tables on who are family is in the church, by proclaiming that our affection for one another isn’t based on what we do, but simply on the fact that we are all part of one family, regardless of whether we recognize it or not.

But Jesus is also speaking specifically about his disciples. These men who have been traveling with him, being engaged in ministry with him. Those that he would call his friends. Phileo, or friendship, is the love experienced between two friends, sometimes bonded by a common experience or interest. This is the least natural of the loves, but it is also the love that is most freely chosen. Here are men who chose to be with Jesus day in and day out. They are not obligated to, and yet they have these profound experiences with him. This type of friendship, deep and lasting friendship, seems far too rare in today’s society, but Jesus shared such a relationship with his disciples, which makes them just as much his brother, sister, and mother as being in the family of God. 

When you say that you love someone which of these sentiments are you trying to express? And when we proclaim that we love Christ or seeing Christ’s Kingdom expanding, what are we trying to communicate? And how do we grow in love for this community so we can passionately reach out to it for the sake of Jesus Christ?

As Christians we believe that we have a relationship with God that propels us into relationships with other people. In fact, we serve other people because of our love for God. We even love and serve people that others may deem to be unworthy, because our love for Christ beckons us to do so. But this isn’t always easy. It isn’t always easy to love God and love our neighbor. It isn’t always easy to love a family member who doesn’t believe what we believe, or that neighbor who is across the street that we keep inviting to church but they just won’t come. 

We need to start praying for God to give us the love of Christ in our hearts. That agape love that is unconditional. One way that I have found to grow in love for our neighbors is to walk around praying for each house. You may not know what the family inside is going through at a particular time, in fact you may not even know the family that lives there, but praying that God would bless them. Not because they did something good or if they go to church. But praying that God would bless them and that God’s love would embrace them. Praying one neighborhood at a time that God’s love would become known so the Kingdom can spread. 

It sounds really simple, but the act of praying for others can be hard. It requires us to set aside our own agendas and let our hearts be broken open for others. And the longer we pray, the easier it will be for us to see with the heart of Christ. See that we are  part of the same family, created in the image of God, and let our hearts be captured by affectionate love for our brothers and sisters, even if people do not realize that they are part of the family of God yet. And because we are each other’s family, even if people do not realize yet that they are being pursued by the relentless love of God, we need to treat them well. Because God takes our relationships seriously. And Jesus redefines our relationships. No person we encounter is to be taken for grant it. 

Relationships matter. Whether they be family relationships by blood, church family relationships, neighbors, friends, or spouses. Relationships matter because God uses them to shape our hearts and reach out to others. And relationships are never to be taken for grant it. We all have somebody in our life, in fact a lot of some bodies, that we were given to reach out and love. To let our love radiate to them because God loves them. Even if we can’t quite grasp or display the agape love of God, our loves allow us to proclaim God’s sacrificial love. Allow us to speak about our faith. And allow us to remind each other that God designed us to be a people who have somebody to love. Amen.