Love is a Commitment of the Will
This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 24-25, 2025.
Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Taylor's point about how we sometimes say we love someone but don't always do what love demands reminds me of picking up my socks in the living room. My wife often says, "Well, pick up your socks." It's not easy for me to remember. I don't know how she manages with the five of us being so scatterbrained, yet she loves us. She cares for us, and we strive to do better than we once did.
Today, we are faced with a similar dynamic in our readings. This prophecy from St. John in his Revelation describes the New Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. He's not describing it in literal terms for us to understand what it will physically look like. It's amusing when I see people drawing pictures, insisting everyone needs to understand this is exactly what the New Jerusalem will be.
This is figurative language, but it's intended to show us something true. If you look at your bulletin, the picture on the front is an Armenian illuminated manuscript from around 1645. It depicts a literal drawing of what we see described there. We have God the Father, the Holy Spirit as the dove in the middle, and in the center of the city, the Lamb on His throne with the streams of the river of life flowing out to the whole city. It's a beautiful thing because it teaches us something true and literally true for us in what God has promised in the coming New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem
There's not going to be a temple building in the New Jerusalem. Why? Because Jesus Christ is our temple. He was then, and He is now too. There will be no sun or moon because the glory of God lights up every corner of it, and the Lamb is the lamp.
If you would see the glory of God, where do you look? You look to the Lamb of God. You look to Jesus. If you want to understand where the glory of God is and what it does in the world, the way that God illuminates the universe, then you must look to Jesus Christ.
I appreciate the detail that the gates never shut by day. Why would you shut gates in the day? Because there's something dangerous or threatening outside. But there's nothing dangerous or threatening that remains after God cleanses the world. So there's never a reason to close the gates.
The gates never close by day, and it's never night. These gates are always open and available to those who would come and present themselves at the gate to enter.
There's an important detail for us to grasp. Nothing unclean will enter this new city, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
- Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life?
- Do you follow this One who is God made man?
If so, you will be welcomed into the city. This beautiful stream, this river of life that flows throughout the city from the throne of grace, will be yours to drink from and live forever.
It's a scene of perfection where nothing tainted or unclean or unsafe will ever enter into it. How good it will be for those of us whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life to be welcomed into this eternal kingdom where there will never be any crying or suffering or pain or disease or death.
How awful it would be to know that such a city will exist and to choose not to participate in it. To know that such a thing is coming and then to say, "I want nothing of this beautiful place because I want nothing of its king, this Jesus Christ." Worse yet, to know that such a city is coming and willingly choose not to be a part of the people for whom it is being prepared.
Choosing to Be Absent
There are plenty of people who do exactly that. They have heard of the New Jerusalem. They have heard of this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yet they choose willingly to be absent from the gathering of His saints—not just once or twice for a trip or vacation or because they're ill, but weakly choosing to be absent from the celebration of the Word of God.
To these, Jesus says in our Gospel reading today, "If you love me, you will keep my word." What does this mean? It means that we will willingly, eagerly hear the Word of God and obey it—not just to hear it, but to put it into practice; not just to hear it, but to believe it and act like it is true because it is.
We hear the law of God explained so that we are governed by it, guided by it, and convicted by it, realizing our sin and our need for God's grace. We also hear the Gospel proclaimed so that we might be filled with trust in this God who loves us and saves us, filled with gratitude for the gift of grace which God has given us in Jesus Christ.
Having heard the word of judgment and the word of God's peace, we then receive the Word made visible and tangible in Holy Communion to praise the God who gives these great gifts. This is what it is to participate in the New Jerusalem—to be connected to the Lamb of God, to be written in the Lamb's book of life.
Love as Participation
If we love Jesus, this is what we will do. It makes no sense whatsoever to say that we love Jesus if we do not keep His word. I've said before that I don't particularly care when people tell me they believe in God. Not because it's not important to believe in God, but tell me what you believe about God.
Jesus says it this way: even demons believe and they tremble. But let me go a step further. Those who say they love Jesus Christ but regularly choose not to be among God's people are liars.
Now, we have no law in the Lutheran church that dictates how often one must attend worship. For example, in the Roman Catholic Church, they have holy days of obligation where if you don't show up, you are sinning against God. We say this is up to individual conscience; we make no law concerning this.
But we must be clear about it—that doesn't mean it is an indifferent thing to worship God. This doesn't include people who can't attend due to circumstances or health. We're not talking about people who miss worship once or twice or even three times in a row because of circumstances beyond their control.
Even those who are sick and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ reach out to their pastor and ask for the ministry of visitation so they might have the body and blood of Jesus Christ brought to them regularly and faithfully. I encourage everybody to do that.
How is it different to promise to love and follow Jesus Christ and then not participate in the central means by which He has given us to do exactly that? People of God, we've been given the promise of a beautiful city to come. Of course, we should participate.
Love is a Commitment of the Will
Too often in our society, we think that love is a commitment of our feelings toward someone. While I hope for everybody that love is something that comes from the heart, something we feel toward the people around us and toward God, that is not how Scripture primarily describes love.
Love is not about our feelings. Love is a commitment of the will. It is a commitment for us to say not only that I will follow you, Jesus Christ, and I will do what you command—not in some effort to earn grace which we can obtain through other means, but because we trust that what the Word of God has proclaimed in Jesus is true.
If it does describe reality and the way we ought to live, we should willingly, gratefully, urgently, and excitedly follow this Jesus Christ and do what He tells us to do.
Entering the Beautiful City
How then do we reach this beautiful city? Where do we find it? How can we be a part of it? Especially knowing if you're serious about what you've listened to in the Scriptures—not just today but every time we gather for worship—you will hear reminders of a saint set apart by God, healed by holy baptism, brought into His kingdom, loved by God forever, but also at the same time, a sinner.
Not just you, but me too. All of us here gathered are sinners. So how can we be a part of this beautiful city where nothing evil can enter it, where nothing sinful is welcome in it, where no darkness will be permitted through its gates? If the standard is that nothing unclean will enter it, that rules me out—and it rules you out too.
But thanks be to God that our actions are not what make us clean. Rather, what makes us clean is to have your name written in the Lamb's book of life—that is to say, to love Jesus and to follow Him, which means to be about the work of a Christian.
Some of you who’ve been paying attention might be thinking, "Pastor, you just told us that we are supposed to receive this as a gift; it's not about what we do. Now you're telling us to do something." Thank you for paying attention.
The important key difference here is that to be about the work of being a Christian is to be about what God gives you. Consider these steps:
- Repentance: It begins first with repenting of our sins—saying, "God, I was wrong about my actions. My socks have been sitting on the living room floor, and I admit it. I said I wouldn't do it, and now it's time for me to go pick them up and make it right."
- Belief in Forgiveness: Next, believe the Gospel that we are forgiven these sins for Jesus' sake—to be freed in our conscience, saying, "Oh devil, you can't do anything to me about these anymore because I've been forgiven by Jesus Christ's blood on the cross."
- Following Jesus: Then, knowing we are clean and restored, seek to follow Jesus closely every day—not because our good deeds save us, but because our seeking to obey is a sign of love for God which the Holy Spirit has put in our hearts.
This is the pattern of a Christian life; there is no other. The pattern of a Christian life is intimately connected with repentance and faith. It calls each one of us to be about the work of God's kingdom.
Without this pattern of life—of repentance and belief, of being convicted of our sin and turning to God, of violating commandments yet receiving forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ—this is not a Christian life. Without this pattern of repentance and renewal, we are distant from Jesus.
But with this pattern of life, you can be assured of life and peace. Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You can always be confident that no matter where you go or what you do, as you live in this pattern of sin and grace—being a sanctified saint and a sinner at the same time—you may confidently trust the promises of God and live.
When that last day comes, you will be welcomed through the gates of that beautiful city. You will drink from the streams of the water of the river of life. You will eat of the fruit of the tree of life and live forever. You will join the people of God on the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the meantime, in this world in which we walk, take heart. Your Lord remembers you. He will send you His helper, His advocate, His Holy Spirit. Jesus promises us that soon—in fact, just two weeks from now as we celebrate Pentecost—we will be rewarded for our patience with the coming of the promised Holy Spirit.
He will teach us how to live faithfully to our Lord in this life. He will strengthen and equip you to love and serve the people around you. In so doing, He will make you His and remake you every day so that you become more and more like Jesus Christ Himself.
Then the world will see the way you live and the grace and trust of our God. They too will see that and say, "I want that joy too." They will turn again also to Christ and live.
May you be filled with the peace and love of Christ and be about the work of the Christian every day. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord to life everlasting. Amen.
