I was watching Holby City earlier in the week and there was a touching story line about a man whose wife had early onset Alzheimers. He was upset and was talking to one of the doctors about what it would mean. Then he shared with this doctor something that his Dad had said to him on his wedding day. “Love is a verb not a noun. It is something that you do, not something that you have.” For him it meant that his love meant that what he was going to do was to love and care for his wife, whatever happened. Love is a verb, it is something that you do.
It seems to me that one of the reasons that Remembrance Sunday is so important is that it is an expression of that truth, that love is a verb, it is seen in action. It is seen in the actions of those who defend those that they love. It is seen in the actions of those who died in the defence of those they loved. It is seen in the actions of those who remember with love those who have died. Love in action is also seen all the way through both the Bible readings that we have just heard. In those readings we see three different loves in action. We hear about the love of God the Father, we hear about the love of Jesus, and we hear about our love in response.
In the first reading, from the apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Rome we heard this, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”
This is the love of our Father God in action. Our Father loves us so much that he gave his son, Jesus, to die so that we could be God’s friends. Some of us here today will have insight into that kind of love. We know, either from personal experience, or from seeing it in others, the cost of seeing those that we love go off into danger, in response to a higher call, maybe to die. We know how painful it is, how much we miss them, how we suffer in the separation. God the Father loved us enough to send his beloved Son, to die for us. That is the Father’s love in action.
Paul continues, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
And here we see the love of Jesus in action. But, how can we know that these things do not have the power to separate us from the love of Jesus?
We know this because Jesus chose to come to earth, to leave the glory and comfort of heaven for the humiliation and poverty of earth, so that he could die. There may be those of us here today who have an insight into this kind of love, from their own experiences of being sent far from home for the sake of others. Of going to a place of danger, pain, and suffering. Of leaving behind safety and security. That is what service men and women do in times of war. It was what Jesus did in the battle for us.
But Jesus didn’t only do that, he was also raised to life. He demonstrated that death could not hold him, and promised those that followed him that they would not be held by death either. That is Jesus’ love in action.
In the second reading, in John’s account of Jesus’ life we read that Jesus said this to his followers, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
And it’s here that we find out what our love in action is to be in response to the love shown to us. We are to be people who love others. We gather here today to remember those who laid down their lives in the extraordinary circumstances of war.
We show our love for those who have died in the actions of gathering to remember them. What we find Jesus saying to us is that all of his followers are called to lay down their lives in the ordinary circumstances of everyday live.
We are to be the people who love others as we have been loved. As Jesus showed this in his actions, so we are to show it in our actions of generosity, kindness, patience, humility, faithfulness, that is our love in action.
We have gathered here today especially to remember and honour those who have died in conflicts for the sake of others. A little later we will gather round the table, as we do every week, to remember the one who died in the greatest conflict of all.
This is an expression of our love and thankfulness to God for His love shown in the action of giving his Son, Jesus whose love in action won the greatest victory of all, the victory that brings life to all those who love him.
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