The Love Languages by Intern Sissel.

Good morning.

My name is Sissel, and I am an intern with Anne-Grethe here at the church. Many of you, I already know. The ones that I don’t, I hope to get to know you after the service.

So.

I gave up on becoming a millionaire a long time ago - when I chose to study theology. I will get a great job, but it most likely won’t make me rich.

Nevertheless, I am an ambitious person. I have goals and dreams. I hope to one

day become a good pastor, one with a congregation, who like what I have to say and how I say it. I hope to have a big congregation, and a beautiful church. I want

to succeed. And I think we all do.

Whether your goal is to conquer the business world, get promoted, get better at something, or achieve something new – we all have goals. We all want to succeed, to be acknowledged.

In Danish, we have a saying: “Enhver er sin egen lykkes smed” – Everyone is the maker of their own happiness.

The world is built this way; if you work hard for something, you might make it – you might succeed in life.

But the problem with this way of life is that it is centered around ME. And that is exhausting. Because then it is only me, who is fighting for me. Everybody else is working for themselves, and their own goals.

And then the world, at the worst, becomes a tyranny, as it was with the Gentiles, as we have heard in Jesus’ example.

Today’s text offers us an alternative. I really like the text. I like how it talks about serving, and about love.

In it, we meet Jesus as a teacher – as he corrects his disciples yet again. They just don’t get it.

And I really sympathize with them a lot. Imagine the excitement. You are one of the new king’s closest friends. He has come to save you and throw the oppressors out.

He will surely make you rich and famous. Your ambitions rise, because you have it all in sight.

And then Jesus takes all the air out of your balloon – and he turns it all upside down.

Everything the disciples thought they had worked for – gone. Because that is not who Jesus is.

The disciples haven’t been paying attention. For Jesus is trying to teach them how to serve.

When I sat at home, reading through the text, I thought about, what it means to serve, and to be a servant.

And then something came to my mind –Maybe you have heard of the 5 languages of love? They were developed by a couple’s therapist named Gary Chapman. He believes that everyone has a primary love language out of 5 main categories, that are:

1. Acknowledging words

2. Physical touch

3. Time

4. Gifts

5. Favors

So, I got to thinking – what was Jesus’ primary love language?-It could be Gifts. Because in church we learn of all the gifts that he has given us – The Holy Spirit. Redemption. Eternal life. But it could also very well be physical Touch. For in the Bible Jesus has a healing touch; when he touches you, it is always out of love.-Or it could be Time. For he often shows his love by spending time with all kinds of people, also the sick and those excluded from society. I suppose it could be any – or all – of them. But my favorite is Favors. Jesus is all about doing things for others.

In the last verse of the text, we are reminded of the biggest gesture of love that Jesus did for us: That he died on the cross to take our sins and save us from death. Serving is a language of love. Doing something for the benefit of someone else, to help and support them. This is how He wants us to be ambitious –

This is what we should work for. Because it offers us another way to live. Because it can set us free from the stress and exhaustion and loneliness. And Jesus tells his disciples this again, when they get caught up by their own ambitions –

That he lived to show us what it is to love and serve others – and that he died to save us, so that we can live (in) his kingdom, as his people, and live by his example.

So, I hope that you will go home today and ask yourselves: What is your love language? How can you serve others the way Jesus has served you? And we can be thankful, because even as we love our neighbor, Jesus loved us first. AMEN

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