This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:10-12) One of the most foundational gifts that God has given to us is his love embodied in Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Just a few verses before this, John goes so far as to say that "God is love." But again, as Pastor Michael said yesterday—God's love is not given only for our own good.  God's love does not make us selfish.  It is given so that it might be shared.  Here again are those two movements from yesterday—the vertical and the horizontal.  We receive God's love vertically, and we share it with others horizontally.  Being a community "Together, in Faith" embraces both. Of course, love is an easy word to say.  It is a much harder word to live. Firstly, we must receive God's love for us in Christ.  Many of us have a hard time with this.  Many of us hold on to our guilt or an imposter syndrome that continually whispers things into our heart, like: "you don't deserve it," or "if God really knew what you were like, he wouldn't have anything to do with you."   Your own inner voice might whisper something different than that—but most of us are likely familiar with the dialogue. Of course, the offensive thing about our God—is that he does know what we're like.  He knows our secrets, our sins, our shortcomings—and yet has loved us anyway.  Picture Jesus in his passion: he faces the spitting, the mocking, the slapping, the betrayal, and the beatings and yet still loves and forgives and dies for these very same people who are crucifying him—these ones who stand in for you and me.  Jesus knew exactly what was in the human heart.  He faced it, received it, and in return offered not judgement, but love.  An unconditional, no-strings-attached, opened-handed offering of love.   It is so offensive and embarrassing to be offered such a pure form love as this, that they killed Jesus in order to avoid his love.  It was easier to be rid of this confrontation with love's embodiment, than to humbly and thankfully receive it.  It is no different today.  God's love is offensive.   But in order to step forward together, in faith—receiving the love of Christ that loves you exactly where you are—full of all the sins and failures and broken realities that you are—this is the first step.  You must receive his love.  God sees you and knows you—all of you, including your darkest shadows—and yet he loves you still—will you receive it?  In truth—it takes practice to receive this love.  The way we have been given to practice is by loving one another.  How far dare we go in extending God's love to the unlovable person?  To the enemy?  To the person who leaves us?  Disagrees with us?  Is different than us?  Despises us?  Sins against us?  Or sins against God?  We can only go as far in loving someone else as we have been able to receive God's love for ourselves.  If we cannot accept that God loves us despite our faults and failures—we will not be able to love someone else in theirs.  If we cannot accept that God loves us even when we sin—again—in that very same spot as we've been stumbling and sinning in for years already—then we'll not be able to love the sinners around us either.   But: to the extent that we receive God's unconditional love for us in Christ, and enact that love of God through our love for others—to just that extent—the love of the invisible God is made visible in us and through our church.  Indeed, in our love for one another, God's very life is made visible in us.  In just this way—the word still takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us for the sake of the world.   To Gather, in Faith, in just this way is the very heart of God.    

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