Make A Deposit!
1st John 4:7-21
I read an article this week that stated merchants take in over $13 billion in bad checks[1] every year.[2] $13 billion! Since 1996, that number has risen 2-4% each year and is expected to continue at that rate until 2020. At least $51 million per day of bad checks work their way through our financial systems. When banks get a bad check, they will charge the customer and that revenue is at least $7 billion a year for banks.
When I meet with engaged couples, I probably spend more time talking with them about managing their money than anything else. I’m always amazed at how many engaged people either don’t know how much money is in their checking account, or don’t balance their account against their bank statements every month. I suspect this practice is not just characteristic of engaged couples. When you don’t have any inkling of how much money you have in your checking account, you’re susceptible for writing a bad check.
Have you ever heard of a bank calling up a customer who has written a bad check and saying to them, “You just wrote a check you can’t cover. Since you don’t have enough money in your account, we’re going to make a deposit into your checking. You don’t have to pay it back. You won’t be charged anything for it. It’s a gift because we like you.” Does your bank do that? No, that’s not the way our financial systems work. Banks would go broke if they did this and if word got out a bank was doing this, the staggering bad check amounts would become even more stunning. Our system works because you make a deposit, you write a check, and the amount is covered by the bank.
When’s the last time you didn’t cover a check with what’s in your account? Some of you right now are thinking back to that embarrassing moment when you had to re-issue a check, or scramble to the bank to make a quick transfer. Others of you are sitting there in your pride saying, “I’ve never written a bad check in my life!” Well, I did some background work this week and discovered that each and every person here today should have received a notice of insufficient funding. (Do you suppose that’s why the budget is looking so good this year because people have been giving more to the church than they can afford?) I came to the conclusion that all of us are overdrawn after studying this text. Let me explain.
Last week we studied 1st John and the emphasis was: stay inside the box and love one another; keep on doing what the church was called to do and does well – love each other. This week’s passage may seem to echo the same theme and it does to some extent. But there’s a difference that’s notable.
1st John was most likely written to a group of people who were feeling the affects of a church split. A group left the congregation, and those left behind were hurt, disappointed, angry, and questioned themselves. Those who left saw themselves as “super-spiritual” elitists who claimed their relationship with God was a cut above. They believed they had an exceptional love for God, great devotion, and a super-charged piety. They were proud of their achievement.
Those who stayed behind in the original church began to wonder: Am I really a Christian? Am I thinking about this correctly? What if I got it all wrong and they got it right?
1st John was written to those who stayed in the original church and they needed a boost in their spiritual confidence. They needed to be assured of their authenticity in their relationship with God.[3] Essentially, they needed to know that God had made a deposit to their accounts. A deposit of love. That’s sounds like a love song title by someone like Barry White doesn’t it? A deposit of love.
Here’s where I think the group who left the church got it wrong – they failed to see that before anyone can love God or love anyone else, they need to know that God loved them first. The source and strength of our ability to love each other finds its genesis in God’s deposit of love in our lives. And the reason why we’re all overdrawn is that we don’t grasp the magnitude of God’s love for us. We don’t draw upon it. We try and serve and love out of our emptiness rather than God’s fullness.
There’s a progression of steps we need to remember in loving one another. Most of us skip the first step. Preachers tell folks all the time, “Love each other.” You hear me say that. “We should be patient, kind, and forgiving,” is a reoccurring theme from preachers. Where preachers, including me, fail is that we too often tell people to love without reminding them enough they are loved. This is just like writing a check without making a deposit. It’s no wonder so many relationships are overdrawn.[4]
Please notice what it says in verse 8: “God is love.” If you look at the parts of speech in this phrase in Greek, the word love is not a predicate adjective but a predicate noun. When you see a predicate noun in Greek, it’s making a much stronger statement than if there were a predicate adjective used.[5] What does all this grammatical gibberish mean? It means that love is central to the character of God and not a secondary characteristic. Saying “God is love,” reminds us that every part of God is gushing with love. All of God’s being is running over with love for humanity. God says to us, “Open yourself to me, I’ll make a continual deposit of love into your life. I’ll deposit more love than you could ever hope to doll out to others.” Yet, despite this offer, most of us don’t take God up on it.
A few weeks ago after it rained, I took Ainslee and Eli outside. We’d been inside enough that weekend and they wanted to go out. There were puddles everywhere…and oh, yeah…mud. I told them to stay out of the water because I didn’t have the energy to do any massive cleanups that day. Well, I went back to the carport for about 5 seconds and when I turned around, Eli was right in the middle of the biggest puddle. I didn’t say anything…and soon his sister joined him. Wading evolved into jumping and jumping resulting in falling. Mud was in every nook and cranny in their little bodies before long.
As I thought about the clean up job that awaited me, I wondered if it might be easier to get new children than clean up the ones I had. But that thought quickly left because I love them.
Each time we fail God, when we sin, God doesn’t go out and get new children, God simply cleans us up through our confession and forgiveness…and mostly God’s grace…and we go on with life. The big difference between my story and God’s is that God doesn’t get tired of cleaning up our messes. God’s love is limitless. Each one of us needs to hear clearly today that God has a big deposit of love just waiting to be dumped into your life…no matter how messy you might be right now. God is love. God has love for you. If you want to love others, you must first try and come to grips with the fact that you are loved deeply by God.
Amen.
[1] This “check” imagery that I’m using in this sermon comes from a quotation in a sermon by Max Lucado, “The 7:47 Principle,” Preaching, January-February 2003, pp. 36-37.
[2] See www.ckfraud.org for statistics from 1996.
[3] Thomas F. Johnson, New International Biblical Commentary, 1, 2, and 3 John (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), pp. 101, 109.
[4] Max Lucado, “The 7:47 Principle,” Preaching, January-February 2003, p. 37.
[5] Thomas F. Johnson, New International Biblical Commentary, 1, 2, and 3 John (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), p. 102.