Bishop Richard’s March message
The Church – it’s all about Jesus…so it must be all about love!
Occasionally my non-Christian friends will ask me, why on earth do you want to be a pastor of a Christian church? You are not the judgemental type that those other Christians are. When hearing this I feel both sad but I also see the opportunity we have as church to expose what it really means to be a Christian. Central to our message and who we are is Jesus…and if who we are is all about Jesus…then who we are is all about God’s love for us and the world.
So imagine what your life and congregation would look like if everything you are involved in reflected God’s love.
Many of us have heard the famous passage on love from 1 Corinthians 12:31b – 13:13, which begins and yet I will show you the most excellent way…. concludes and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Take some time to read the entire passage weekly.
Often, we hear this passage as to how we are to approach love. But what if we first understood this passage as what God’s love is like for us and every person in the world. This happened to me some years ago. As an exercise, I was challenged to replace the word love in 1 Corinthians 13, with God. Now there is a good theological reason for this, take a look at 1 John 4:8-16 which reminds us that God is love, and that true love is not that we first love God, but that God first loves us.
God is love is the key and most important message of the church and every Christian (you and me) for everything we are involved in. And any other form of love which we talk about flows from God’s great love for us and everyone.
Remember early in His ministry Jesus shared that God is focused on loving all people, when He said, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ (John 3:16-17)
But is this the message people are hearing from you and your congregation?
When people interact with you and your congregation is it clear that God is love? Or are people hearing something else about God?
Occasionally I have the opportunity to hear people’s stories about why they are worshipping at a particular congregation and not at another. One person told me they are at the congregation they are now even though they were not Lutherans by birth because the place seems to smell of God’s love. When quizzed on this a little more she said people were genuinely interested in other people, people weren’t rushing off or trying to pack up quickly, they had decent real coffee and tea, they made it clear for visitors how things work, God’s announcement of forgiveness was far stronger than the confession, the sermons, the bible studies and even the discussions between members frequently talked about the good God is doing, and most people spoke well of others and the church.
The message of God’s love had shaped that congregation so much that God’s message of love affected everything.
Knowing and focusing on God’s love then helps us understand the purposes of passages that call us to be loving like:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Being loving becomes our main focus and priority simply to reflect God’s love to others and help others connect with Jesus the one lovingly reliable.
Another way to look at is, God’s love for us helps us:
- know we are forgiven and loved by God all the time.
- relate to God as a loving God.
- relate to other members in the church with loving words and actions.
- relate to all people we encounter throughout our lives with loving words and actions.
Regularly I hear stories of people encountering God’s love through our congregations including one congregation assisting an elderly person move home, other person in a congr
egation inviting someone who is new to their area for lunch and over time they have developed a good friendship, another congregation has taken a very deliberate attempt to make their buildings and themselves more accessible to the local community and another congregation frequently leads and gets involved in community events and responses.
So, what about you and your congregation?
Is the aroma of God’s love strong?
Take some time to consider on how you as an individual and your congregation are going in reflecting that God is love, is the creator of all love and the initiator of love in what you say and do. What is helping communicate this message? What is distracting from this message? Also think about is there anything you can do differently to better reflect the message that God is love?
And the great thing about God’s love is that His love never ever gives up on us or anyone, as 1 Corinthians 13:7 reminds us, love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, even when we have not loved as we should have loved.
I pray every day that God’s love is our focus, so we always know we are loved by God because of the actions of Jesus and that in everything we do we reflect God’s love.
Bishop Richard Schwedes
Bishop of NSW and ACT and LCNZ
March 2025
