Sermon for Quinquagesima, February 14, 2010
“ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. ”
YOU'LL have to forgive me for this, but one of my most un-favorite things ever were the cartoon cuties known a Precious Moments . Balloon-headed, goggle-eyed baby-adults posed in lovey-dovey situations, supposedly illustrating some sugary sweet emotion under the banner “Love is…” well, they make me queasy. If I'm sentimental, it might be about animals or music, personal memories of my own special times with my loved ones, but not the doll people who show us what love is. In pastel splendor, these drawings became 3D figurines lining shelves and haunting me with a meaning that I couldn't share. If they're your favorites, forgive me. I preferred Snoopy's happiness messages: Happiness is a warm puppy . Or the sixties LOVE stamp issued by the US Postal Service. Or the Beatles admonition in their song “All you need is love.”
Certainly my generation wanted to be known for its discovery of Love, but we all know now that Love was a continent which was already well populated when we arrived on its shores. And I'm not sure we did it any favors when we found it, either. The many broken marriages and single-parent families that followed in our wake have proven we didn't know enough about love to instruct anyone.
Still, love draws us and love eludes us. It's the real thing that drugs were a counterfeit for. It's the reason people leave their homes, searching for that other soul, someone who is searching too, and we hope that it's us they seek to find. To be found, and to be found worthy of love, is the greatest thrill of a lifetime. When you find real love, the rest of your life takes on meaning. What is the power of love? Why does everything else pale in its light?
Loving puppies or ice cream, sunsets and Big Band music only touch our basest emotions. Romantic love gets much closer to the reason love is. Another human being, much like ourselves, risks everything for the chance of building a relationship. They, and you, are no longer alone. There's a chance at lasting happiness, a reason for being, a life together, growing with each other until a family trails after the both of you. Love like that points to something even greater, which, if we find that, makes all else make sense.
St. John wrote, “we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16 If God is love, then the love we discover in another human life echoes the love we were all meant to experience in the divine enthrallment, the creature ever adoring the Creator. But it's even better than that. When St. John also says, “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.” 2 John 1:5 the apostle is not saying that love is simply being obedient and following the rules. That sounds to us like the image of the Sunday School boy in tight uncomfortable clothes, slicked-back hair and bored out of his mind. No , the commandment John was referring to was Christ's own special new commandment, something unique about Christians that marked them in this world.
For it was John also who recorded Christ's words in the upper room, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 This may sound like it's back to human love, but we're talking here about loving the way Christ loves. That man didn't stand there on that cross out of resignation or defeat. That , my dear friends, was the ultimate act of love for you and for me. In the most painful manner, He demonstrated what love is: doing good for another to the complete denial of your own safety, your own benefit, and even your life.
I've been writing songs lately, something I'm really happy about. Happiness is writing a new song. A line from a recently penned song goes, “O You Bethlehem Son, getting help from no one, You stood there on the cross ‘til you died. Heaven sighed its relief, for its Chief had just rescued His Bride.” You may hear the ¾ time in that, I think, but also the passion Jesus had and still has for you and me. He means for us to share that passion with Him. It's how we start in this faith, a loving response to love, the great Romance of God's creatures reaching back to Him, and sharing the love with each other.
In His letter to the seven churches in Asia Minor, Jesus first writes to Ephesus, as recorded by St. John in Revelation. He salutes them, affirms their faithful work and their resistance to evil, but then He says, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Rev 2:4
This is a sad word, and a symptom of what ails us many times. The thrill of being loved by God, the joy of new-found faith, the excitement of new realizations fade in the grim realities of daily living, daily disappointments; and we end up going through the motions, doing it because we've always done it, and while staying in the Church, we have no idea where the big draw was that we thought it had at first. So often it's our sins that cool the fires of our first passion, and the cold hand of guilt that causes us to draw back from the One who so valiantly saved us and brought us into the fellowship of believers. I'll have to warn you that I'm about to read for you another song lyric, based on that letter to Ephesus. Are you ready?
You'd think by now I'd learn my lesson To give all I am to Him, hold nothing back. It occurs to me I have been too selfish That I want so many things my poor heart lacks. What's so important ‘bout the things I can't have That I'd sell my soul's salvation for a dime? Yet I find myself still staring at the image Of these dumb and wicked idols one more time.
I see you standing at the center Of those seven golden lamps all burning bright Ah, You know me and my efforts just to please you And that all my finest deeds are not quite right. Everyone who claims to serve you You will test to see if they are true or not I've worked so hard for your name sake, and it's cost me; I grew tired and guess that I forgot
Now hear me praying that I'm sorry I'll come back and hear your wise and apt advice Let me taste of that tree that I so long to see That stands stately in the midst of Paradise.
Call me back, I give up all that I'm ashamed of Please return me where I left the path I left my own first love.
On this strangely named day, the very funny word Quinquagesima , we read St. Paul's testimonial about love. If anyone ever wrote the truth on what love is, this is it. He compares what some may consider the signs, the proofs of their powerful faith—various miraculous abilities, costly sacrifices—yet done without the love, so they are useless, a meaningless noise, empty boasting. The King James renders the word as “ charity ” here, perhaps a poor translation of a word meaning a godlike, sacrificial love, giving all one has and all one is for the other. This love is willing to suffer, bears up under all burdens, believes, hopes, and lasts for all time. This love isn't jealous, proud, rude, selfish, suspicious, or easily angered. This love is the reason we're alive at all, the reason God made us, and this love's first proper object is God Himself. We were made to love Him. But ironically, we're not programmed to do so, caused to love Him without our consent, for if we were made so, it couldn't be love at all that we give Him.
Love is voluntary. Love is a decision. Love is a gift of yourself, and no gift can be forced or prearranged or preordained or predestined. God took a great chance in making creatures who could say no to love as well as yes .
And He didn't stop there, but went on to give us love for each other. Again, we could deny it, keep it locked up, let it atrophy. People fail to love when they've been hurt too much, when they've never been loved or felt love, or haven't had their love returned. As children we might grow up crooked, in a hostile or sterile world where love never flows. And if that's the case, love becomes a fantasy, a fairy tale, something childish to us, a beguiling but phony dream. Cynical people can't love and they may call that handicap being mature, grown up. That's wrong. A Child's love is simple, and mostly responsive to parental love. But when we grow older, we find out that love is so much more.
St. Paul says, “when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” He didn't mean that he grew up and stopped loving—never! Instead, he put away the selfish love of a little kid and became more and more like God, more Christ-like in his loving. He concludes that the greatest gift of the Spirit is that kind of love.
The Gospel reading today tells of Jesus turning to head for Jerusalem where the death He had to go through, as foretold by prophets of old, was waiting for Him. As we are about to launch into the season of Lent once more, here is the reason we face this forty days of self-denial and discipline. Not just because He died and we need to respect His sacrifice— which we do —but because He did it out of love for us. That kind of love requires a response.
Let all your stupid theories, the tired old saws about why love doesn't work for you go out with the trash this morning, and now know this with the core of your heart and soul. You have a Savior who loves you , and who will never disappoint your love if you will trust Him and love Him and go to Him by faith, hope and love.
This is the real thing that all the great tales were mere whispers of—the heroic battles and valiant quests, ladies in peril saved by noble and courteous gentlemen in bright armor, dragons slain, strange and fabulous treasures found, curious spells broken, wicked sorcerers defeated, and the pain of loss evaporating at the sight of the Beloved, alive beyond all hope.
These stories from our childhood were ways of telling the truth to us, truth about something called Love . We need to yield to it, or should I say, yield to Him , for the love we're speaking of is God. God is love , and we need so badly to love Him, and to love one another as He loves us.
PFH+