Meditation on I John 4:7-19
For the
funeral of John Feldman
Oct. 5,
2013
***
“Beloved, let us love one another, because
love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever
does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed
among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might
live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved
us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since
God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever
seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us.
By this we know that we abide in him and
he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do
testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God
abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in
God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love
abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in
this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so
are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out
fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.” (I John 4:7-19)
***
I don’t remember when I first visited
John and Donna’s little white house on the corner of Main Street and Highway
212. But I remember the visit well.
I came to encourage them; John, a
lifelong member and faithful attendee of Ebenezer, had been too sick to make it
to church.
Donna greeted me with a bright
smile. She struggled to her feet to give
me a hug as a little dog barked fiercely and ran toward me oh so briefly,
before climbing back into John’s lap to resume chewing on a bone.
They told me the story of Coco the dog.
Donna began the story, but John filled in the necessary details naturally and
easily—as if only one person were speaking.
I could tell that Coco enjoyed not just the bones, but being stroked in
John’s lap.
Coco, John said, was his $40,000 dog. He wouldn’t
sell her—not ever—for less than $40,000. Coco had been their son and
daughter-in-law’s puppy. But since they
worked outside the home all day, no one was there to housetrain Coco. An
undisciplined, untrained puppy is hard to love when you have a new home and
you’re worried about your carpets. Bruce and Sandy gave Coco to John and Donna.
And Coco grew into the ideal house pet, the story goes, as John and Donna
lavished attention on her and enjoyed her as if she were their 9th
child.
I left after my first visit to John and
Donna’s feeling as if I had known them all my life. I knew about their 8 kids
and quite a few things about their grandkids and great-grandkids. I knew Coco the dog. I knew that John had
been a farmer, bus driver and mechanic before he retired from the school
district. And that even in his late 80s,
he still mowed and sprayed many lawns every summer—including the lawn of our
church.
I learned something of John and Donna’s
courtship that first visit—how the country boy and the city girl met when she
was visiting with a friend here one weekend.
More of the details would be revealed as time went by.
Donna was 18 when her friend Shirley,
whose aunt lived across the street from Donna in Minneapolis, set her up on a
blind date with John so they could go to the movies in Monte on a doubledate—Shirley
and her boyfriend, John and Donna. John,
who was older than Donna and worked on a farm, was asked at the last
minute—when his younger brother Tim wasn’t available.
Did I get the story right?
But John didn’t mind. He said, “Sure, but
let me finish my chores first.”
They were married in March 1951—when Donna
was 19 and John about 28.
When I asked Donna what she saw in John,
she said with a twinkle in her eye, “I thought he had a lot of money. I thought
farmers were rich! After we got married, I discovered he didn’t have a cent!”
But that isn’t what John said. When I
asked him at that first visit, John looked over at Donna with happy tears
filling in his eyes, as they often did when something touched his heart. Perhaps
he was remembering the early years and all the difficulties they had come
through. Maybe he was thinking about the
more recent health difficulties they were struggling with. John’s declining health led eventually to him
moving into a nursing home, Donna into an apartment, and their selling the
little white house, the only home they ever owned, bought in 1971 for
$8,000—after 20 years of marriage and 8 kids.
“We loved each other,” John said,
simply. “If you have love, you have all
you need.”
John lived his life working hard at many
different jobs. He was good at them all. But he is not one who came to realize
the importance of family later in life—after the kids were all grown and moved
out of the house. He always loved and
enjoyed his family—especially the grandchildren. And did his best to serve God
and other people.
When John, at the age of 89, went home to
be with the Lord on Wednesday, I posted a note on our church’s Facebook
site. A record numbers of visitors—more
than 1,000 people—read that post. Some responded--sharing memories of his
kindness and faithfulness during his 37 and a half years as a school bus driver
and mechanic. Former students recalled him always getting them safely to school on
time. He never got stuck in a snowbank. One said he let them listen to music on Q102, if they were quiet.
They may not have known that John leaned
on the Lord for his strength. And that his favorite song was “One Day at a
Time.”
The chorus
goes like this.
“One day at a time sweet
Jesus. That's all I'm asking from you. Just give me the
strength to do everyday what I have to do. Yesterday's gone sweet
Jesus. And tomorrow may never be mine. Lord help me today, show me the way. One
day at a time.”
***
John, although he may not have known it,
sought to live like we are instructed in I John. In today’s reading, we find
the familiar verse, “God is love.” And
we are told to imitate Him! To love one another as God has loved us, a love that
has been revealed among us when “God sent his only Son into the world so that
we might live through him.”
God’s love is merciful and gracious beyond
our understanding. We don’t deserve his love, but God loves us still. The Lord
has made a way for us to be forgiven through belief in the atoning sacrifice of
His Son.
God accepts us—just as we are when we
come to Him—undisciplined, disobedient, and selfish—but what’s more, He doesn’t
leave us in the undisciplined, disobedient, and selfish state in which he found
us. I John tells us that His love has
been perfected among us—in the Body of Christ.
So we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as Christ is, so are we
in this world.
This means we do not have to fear death or
judgment in the world to come. Nor do we have anything to fear in this world,
because perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment.
In a way, we are kind of like
Coco—responding to God’s love for us like she responded to John and Donna’s
love. Before she went to live with John and Donna, she was undisciplined,
untrained and selfish, doing whatever she wanted to do. But after she came to
live with John and Donna, their love and enjoyment of her changed her
character. Changed her life.
But sometimes, we might not feel loved in
our households. We might feel unappreciated in our family of faith. Or maybe we
just find it hard to love and forgive ourselves. We can’t see the new thing that God is doing
with us, the new creation that God is making in us. We may begin to doubt that
God is with us still.
First John provides a three-fold test to
determine if we are abiding or living in the Lord and He in us.
Number 1. Do we have His Spirit to
strengthen and guide us? Yes! God’s Spirit is a free gift to all who seek
the Lord.
Number 2. Do we confess that Jesus is the
Son of God? Yes, Jesus is our Lord and
Savior.
And 3. Have we known and do we believe in
God’s love for us?
Yes, we have known and do believe in God’s
love.
Friends, if you have said yes to these
three with me, then you do live in the Lord and He lives in you.
We truly have all that we need for abundant
and everlasting life—now and forever. We
need not fear. We have God’s perfect love.
And the Lord will help us
today, show us the way.
One day at a time.
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