Acts 8:26-40; I John 4:7-11, 19-21; John 15:1-5 This is Love 4 29 18

Beth Babbitt and I were in high school together and were blessed to perform in a
production of Fiddler on the Roof. Beth played the role of Golde, Tevye’s wife.
There was a marvelous conversation between Golde and Tevye about love:
"Golde, I have decided to give Perchik permission to become engaged to
our daughter, Hodel."
"What??? He's poor! He has nothing, absolutely nothing!"
"He's a good man, Golde. I like him. And what's more important, Hodel
likes him. Hodel loves him. So what can we do? It's a new world... A new
world. Love. Golde...Do you love me?
Do I what?
Do you love me?
Do I love you?
With our daughters getting married And this trouble in the town You're upset,
you're worn out Go inside, go lie down! Maybe it's indigestion
"Golde I'm asking you a question..." Do you love me?
You're a fool
"I know..." But do you love me?
Do I love you? For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes, cooked your
meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow, after twenty-five
years, why talk about love right now?
Golde, The first time I met you Was on our wedding day I was scared
I was shy
I was nervous
So was I
But my father and my mother Said we'd learn to love each other And now
I'm asking, Golde Do you love me?
I'm your wife
"I know..." But do you love me?
Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him Fought him, starved with
him Twenty-five years my bed is his If that's not love, what is?
Then you love me?
I suppose I do
And I suppose I love you too
It doesn't change a thing But even so After twenty-five years It's nice to know.1

1 (Fiddler on the Roof, “Do You Love Me?” sung by Golde and Tevye, written by Joseph Stein)

1
 So we ask God – Do you love me? And God says, do I what?? Do you love
me? And God answers us in countless ways. We have three examples in our
readings this morning of how YES, God loves us.
First, from the Gospel of John we learn about how God’s love is the vine
from which we gain our sustenance. We kid ourselves when we proclaim that we
can worship/love/thrive on our own. The image of the vine and branches is
essential to God’s message of love to us. Stay connected to that source/vine, and
you will be able to flourish and continue loving. We who go to church and are
connected regularly with a faith community often hear from co-workers or
children, I don’t NEED to be at church all the time.
Of course, God is in all places, yes, God loves us as we are, however, we
also know that God is experienced more fully when we are together. When we
try to jump off the vine to go about our loving on our own, we find it is
unsustainable and we are more likely to wilt.
Second, from the First Letter of John we hear another affirmation of God’s
love for us. The core message here is that we were loved by God first. Before
anything else happened, we were loved. We didn’t have to do anything, prove
our value, measure up, hit the mark, be good enough, fill the bill, or fulfill any
requirements. We don’t have to be worthy to receive God’s love, the fact that
God loves us is what gives us worth. We are valuable because we are loved.
Even so, we doubted that. Along the way, we as a people doubted whether
our Creator, Yahweh, loved us. So God made an even grander gesture, more
deep than divine love – God sent us Human love. God sent Jesus to us to love us
with human love. That was the highest and best love that God could express to
us. Seems a bit backward – we imagine (and we sing) that divine love excels all
other loves, and yet, the culmination of holy care came to us in human love.
2
 This love, initiated by the Source of All Things, is the way we should also
love. This is the love we emulate – to go to where the hurt is the deepest, where
the benefits are the fewest, and where the isolation is most devastating. Our
human love is the BEST expression of God’s love, and we are equipped to do it.
We don’t have to be anything different from what we already are to be recipients,
bearers, and givers of the greatest love there is.
Third and finally, we have another scriptural example of God’s answer to
our question, “Do you love me?” From the collection of the Acts of the Apostles,
we see how the Spirit of love is at work in both the apostle, Philip, AND in the
Ethiopian eunuch. It is a story that encompasses how both men are connected to
the vine of God’s eternal love, and how human love can change us.
This is really one of my favorite stories in the Bible. The encounter of the
apostle Philip and the Ethiopian official is a concrete example of how Love
transcends even the most arbitrary barriers we can put up. Philip is a man filled
with the spirit. He is on his way through the world with a message of good news
for sinners (not a job you and I might take, given a choice). It’s challenging, to say
the least, to go from town to town calling people to take responsibility for their
most grievous transgressions, repent, make amends, and receive new life through
this amazing human/divine savior who is still with us, whose name is Jesus. Philip
had no money, no means of transportation, but a heart full of love.
The Ethiopian was by faith, a Jew, and he was a man of means. He worked
for the Candace/the queen, and came to Jerusalem to worship. The irony is that
despite his long journey to the center of the Hebrew faith, because he was a
eunuch, he was banned from entering the temple. This kind of mixed messages
still run rampant in our culture today. Yes, you are welcome, but not in worship.
Yes we can interact, but not in my home. Yes, I’m your friend at work, but I’m not

3
going to extend my care for you beyond that context. Whether the barrier is
physical or emotional, economic or social, gender or culture-bound, it is only by
love that we are able to cross over and engage with each other as fellow branches
of the vine, and sister humans offering care.
The Spirit of Love was alive and working in the life of the man from the
African continent. By that spirit he was studying and struggling with scripture. In
one verse from Deuteronomy he may have read that anyone who was sexually
mutilated was banned from the worshiping assembly, and in Isaiah read a blessing
for those who are marginalized, “eunuchs who keep my sabbaths will be welcome
in the house of God and will receive a name better than sons and daughters.” So
when the spirit moved in Philip to ask him “do you understand what you are
reading?” he said, How can I understand this when it contradicts itself?
The Spirit of Human love, tethered to the eternal vine of God’s love, led
Philip to extend an invitation to help. The Spirit of Human love, tethered to the
eternal vine of God’s love, led the Ethiopian to receive the invitation and
participate in bringing down the barriers.
This is Love – This is how we know that when we ask, “Do you love me?”
the answer from God is a resounding YES:
 God loved us first and keeps us connected to the eternal vine.
 God loves us with human love that we know in Christ.
 The Spirit of Love empowers us to cross barriers to encounter each
other genuinely.
Hear again the words from I John: The commandment we have is this: those
who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Amen.

4
Acts 8:26-40

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the
south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is
a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an
Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the
Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to
Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his
chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to
Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and
heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you
understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless
someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside
him. Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he
proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going
along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said,
“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being
baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them,
Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip
baptized him.

I John 4:7-11, 19-21

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 Jesus into the world so
that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved
God but that God loved us and sent Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice
for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to
love one another.

We love because God first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,”
and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not
love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God
whom they have not seen. The commandment we have is this:
those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

5
John 15;1-5

15”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2

He
removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that
bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already
been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me
as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in
me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do
nothing.