Messiah Lutheran Church:

Dear friends:

He was a broken man. A few years before, he had met a girl and fallen in love. Deliriously happy, he planned their future together. When the war finally came to Paris, he made plans to flee with the woman he loved. But when the time came for them to flee, she didn’t show. Heartbroken, he moved to a small corner of northern Africa and tried to go on with life.

Imagine his surprise when one day she walked into his place. Do you remember what he said when she did? (Casablanca fans, here’s your chance!) "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." Humphrey Bogart was totally surprised that she chose his place.

That same sense of surprise is often experienced by us when we realize that Jesus chose us to be saved. This morning, may we rejoice that "HE PICKED ME!" He picked me to love and to love others.

Why does Jesus have to teach us about love? We know what it is, don’t we? We know how to show our love to others. We hug our kids, kiss our marriage partners and help our friends. And yet, we so often forget what true Christian love is. Our sinful hearts get in the way. We want things our way. We don’t want to expend time and energy on someone else. We want what we want first and foremost. So often we are tempted to think of our love for God as an employee boss relationship. He chose to love us because we provide something for Him. There’s that sinful prideful side to all of us that whispers "God chose you because you’ll be a good believer." Or, we think we can choose to believe in God. After all, we choose our jobs, don’t we? We choose the kind of cereal we eat and the kind of soda we drink. We’re always making choices. Don’t we have the freedom to choose to believe in Him and love Jesus? That’s common sense. Right?

Wrong! Listen to our Savior as He states the truth: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last." That’s why Jesus needs to teach us again and again about His love for us. We so often are tempted to get it wrong. Here’s the truth about God’s love for us. He chose to love us in spite of ourselves. He chose to love us even before He created this universe. He chose to love us without taking into account any future good thing we might do as a Christian. There’s no quality in us that sparked God’s interest and had Him say "Boy, that person would be a good addition to my kingdom. I’ll pick him to believe." No. Jesus chose believers simply because He chose believers. There’s nothing in us that moved Him to do it. He simply picked you.

And oh, how He showed you His love! He gave himself to us totally. Look again at verse 13: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." He laid down His life to pay for our sins and give us the gift of heaven. He washed us clean so we can stand before our God perfect and spotless. Even more than this, Jesus calls us His friends. This isn’t an employee boss relationship. This is a totally giving relationship, a loving relationship, a relationship that we don’t see often if at all on this earth.

How often do we see this kind of love in our lives? How often do we see it in others, even our close friends? Try borrowing $20 from your closest friend. You’ll usually get it. Now, try borrowing his truck for the weekend to haul wood or to move. Umm. Well, maybe, on second thought - no. Or, try borrowing your friend’s house for three months. Would he willingly become homeless for three months so that you could have a home? I don’t think so.

Jesus did. He gave us everything He could - His life, His time and His friendship. Our friend, Jesus Christ, has taken us into His confidence. He has shared with us all the truths about our salvation. Look at verse 15: "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." We are Jesus’ friends and He picked us to love.

How do you keep a good friend? You do things with them. You spend time with them. You talk to them. We remain in Jesus’ love when we walk with Him and talk with Him. We remain in Jesus’ love when we spend time in the Word and think about what He says. We remain in Jesus’ love as we talk to Him in prayer, focusing our lives on the One who has given us His love and friendship.

And oh, the blessings that we receive as we remain in His love! We have the joy of knowing our God. We have the joy of knowing our sins are forgiven. The guilt in life is gone. The peace of God is present. We have purpose, direction and confidence as we go about our lives. Such great blessings, blessings that are ours simply because He picked us to love.

It is that all-encompassing love that moves us to love one another, as Jesus commands us to do.

Today is Mother’s Day, a day we remember all the things our moms did for us out of love. So often, it’s a picture of sacrificial love. We remember the diapers she changed, the booboos that she kissed, the hugs that chased away the monster under the bed. We remember her help with our homework, her advice about our dates, her comforting voice when college got tough. So often our moms are the ones that taught us the most about loving others, aren’t they? They showed us what sacrificial love really means in life.

Our moms knew we needed that kind of love. Our Savior knows that we need it even today. All of us have had "those" days, days when a hug or a comforting voice would have made all the difference. He reminds us that others need it, too. They need it from us. They need our patience, our love, our perseverance and our forgiveness. They need our ability to love others.

Look around your life. You see people that are carrying some heavy burdens. Some carry the burden of loneliness. Others are struggling with a fractured relationship and others are battling the demons of substance abuse. Some are jobless. Others are feeling as if their lives have no meaning, no purpose and no hope. They need your shoulder, your ear or your helping hand in their life. Jesus picked you to love others, remember?

Another way we can show love to others is by bearing their weaknesses. Don’t get mad and then get even if someone is tactless or mean. Don’t get upset if someone is scatterbrained and forgetful. Don’t get upset if someone is obsessing about one thing and ignoring everything else. Jesus doesn’t take His love away because you can’t be perfect. Don’t take your love away from others because they aren’t. Be understanding. Be kind. Be forgiving. Be loving.

By doing so, you will find joy. Joy in knowing you are doing what pleases the Lord. Joy in knowing that you are helping your neighbor. Joy in knowing that you are doing what you were chosen to do. Yes, Jesus picked you to love. He picked you for His love and to love others.

So, how will you show love this week? Will you reach out to a friend who hurt you with words or actions this past week? Good. Will you give some time in prayer for a friend struggling this week? That’s good, too. Will you give a bit more of the treasures God has given you to support the healing work of the Gospel? Wonderful. And as you do these things, your joy will increase.

As you do these things, just remember where the strength to love your neighbor comes from. It comes from Jesus’ love of you. Remember where the opportunities to love come from. They come from Jesus. Go ahead, pick out someone to show your Christian love to. He picked you. Now, it’s your turn to pick someone to love.

The movie Casablanca is all about love and sacrifice. Rick sacrificed his happiness with Ilsa because he loved her. He let her go out of his life. Nice story, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Jesus’ love for us. He loves us and will never let us go. He will always be our friend, our Savior, our Redeemer. He is ours, because "HE PICKED ME" to love.

AMEN