The Waking Dreamer: Love

Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Practicing Love in Community

Matthew 1:18-25; 1 Peter 2:21-23[1]

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we celebrate the love that we have received through Jesus Christ. We just sang it together: “Love is the gift of Christmas.” As our Gospel lesson puts it, Jesus was born to be the one to “save us from our sins,” and to be “God-who-is-with-us” (Mt 1:21, 23). That’s what “Immanuel” means: “God-who-is-with-us.” That shouldn’t come as a surprise to us. We know that the heart of our faith is about sharing God’s love with others. We know that Jesus came to embody that love in a way that would empower us to put that love into practice. The idea isn’t a new one. And it wasn’t even a new one for Jesus. In our faith tradition, Moses taught it three thousand years ago: “you shall love your neighbor as yourselves” (Lev. 19:18). Throughout the centuries there have been many who have taught the practice of compassion. What was new was the way Jesus embodied it, not just as a human being, but as the one who is “God with us.” He put God’s love for us on display in the way he loved all those he encountered, both friends and so-called “enemies.”

Yes, Jesus embodied love even for his so-called “enemies.” Perhaps the most dramatic way he did that was by praying from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). But he also embodied it by never giving up on anyone, even his “enemies.” And he taught us to do the same. Others have also taught that. They taught their followers to practice compassion for all people and embodied that compassion even for those who could have been considered their “enemies.” However, I believe it’s true that Jesus was the first to say explicitly, “you shall love your enemies” (Mt 5:43-44). It’s probably an understatement to say that’s not an easy path to take. For Jesus, loving even his “enemies” meant giving up his life on the cross. Because showing God’s love even for one’s “enemies” cuts against the grain of everything we do by instinct.

As we continue to make our journey through Advent to the celebration of Christmas with Henri Nouwen as our guide, I think we might find his ideas challenging on this day. He described the kind of love Jesus embodied by saying, “Whenever, contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, we love our enemy, we exhibit something of the perfect love of God, whose will is to bring all human beings together as children of one Father. Whenever we forgive instead of getting angry at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold-shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another, praise instead of maligning one another… in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.”

Nouwen gets uncomfortably specific about what it means to follow Jesus by loving our “enemies.” It means forgiving instead of holding onto anger. It means healing wounds instead of rubbing salt into them. It means hugging instead of harassing. These are all incredibly counterintuitive. When someone hurts us, we instinctively want to protect ourselves. We do that with anger. When we rub salt in the wounds of someone who has wounded us, we’re protecting ourselves. When we criticize and turn a cold shoulder and speak of them in hurtful and harmful ways, we’re protecting ourselves. But, following Jesus, Nouwen invites us to take a different path. He invites us to “opt for and not against one another,” to choose to be on the side of those whom we perceive to be against us. It’s an astounding thing. And he says that when we make that choice, we are doing something that’s nothing short of miraculous. We’re making “God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.”

I think we could be forgiven for thinking that this is all far too much to expect from an ordinary human being. But also I think Nouwen is onto something important here. The love that we celebrate at Christmas is a wonderful gift to us, and we enjoy it. But it’s not just about making ourselves feel better. The love we celebrate at Christmas calls us to take the love that we’ve received from God and turn around and put it into practice for all those around us. Both “friends” and so-called “enemies.” That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t do that to prove that he was so much better than us. He did that to leave us “an example, so that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:21). And the way he did that was “When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge” (1 Pet 2:23, CEB).

Perhaps we should all take a moment to let that sink in. When Jesus was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. To borrow Nouwen’s words, when Jesus was met with anger and curses, he did not respond in kind. Instead, he forgave: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing”! And he did that to leave us an example that we should follow in his steps. When Jesus was not only maligned but also falsely accused of the worst they could throw at him, he did not respond with hurtful and harmful accusations in reply. And he did that to leave us an example that we should follow in his steps. When Jesus was subjected to violence, when he was beaten and spat upon and crucified, he did not threaten to get even. He forgave those who were literally stripping his life away. And he did that to leave us an example that we should follow in his steps.

When you think about it that literally, I don’t think we should be surprised if we’re wondering whether Jesus really wanted us to follow his example and practice love like that. It’s understandable. That’s a hard thing to ask, for us to follow that path. But I would say the answer to the question is, “yes.” Yes, indeed. Most definitely. Jesus was “making God’s unconditional love” visible in every way possible, not only by healing the sick and caring for those who were suffering, but also and most particularly by loving his so-called “enemies” enough to forgive them. Enough to give his life for them. That’s a high standard for love. Perhaps the highest the human family has ever seen.

In fact, it’s such a high standard we may want to let ourselves off the hook. After all, can one really expect all this from an ordinary human being? We assume that Jesus loved even his “enemies” because he was much more than an ordinary human being. And we assume that no one would ever expect ordinary human beings like us to live up to such a high standard. But that phrase from Scripture in 1 Peter reminds us that he did all that he did precisely to leave us an example that we should follow in his steps. Yes, I believe Jesus expects us as those who claim to trust in him to literally follow his example and practice love like that toward everyone, even and especially toward those we may consider “enemies.” In fact, I would say that if we truly grasp the extent of God’s unconditional love for us, and the extent to which Jesus calls us to share that same love with everyone, then we really cannot look at anyone as an “enemy.”

When Jesus said, “you shall love your enemies,” he was talking about people who could literally come and take everything away from you by force, including your life. Most of us don’t have to learn to love “enemies” like that. We don’t have to fear that someone will come and invade our home, drag us out, and take our lives away from us. We find it hard enough just to love the people who spread false rumors behind our backs. Or those who rub salt in our wounds or turn a cold shoulder to us instead of standing beside us when we’re struggling. But if that’s where we perceive our “enemies” to be, then that’s where we can begin. We can begin to transform every so-called “enemy” into a friend by extending to them the same unconditional love God has given each one of us in Jesus Christ. When we do that, as Henri Nouwen said, we are not only “making God’s unconditional love visible,” but we’re also “giving birth to a new community.” Think of it: a community where even “enemies” are turned into friends. A community where we don’t even look at anyone as an “enemy,” rather we consider all to be friends. A community where we extend to one another the same unconditional love and acceptance God has given to us. That’s a whole new kind of community. That’s what the love we celebrate at Christmas is about: creating a whole new kind of community where people turn even so-called “enemies” into friends, just like Jesus did.

[1] © Alan Brehm 2025. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, PhD on 12/21/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Henri Nouwen, Letters to Marc About Jesus, 55.

Monday, July 21, 2025

Free Enough to Serve

Galatians 5:1, 13-26[1]

I recently spoke about one of the reasons some people give for not being involved in organized religion. It’s because they see the church as “full of hypocrites.” And I suggested in that sermon that one reason for that criticism is that they hear us saying one thing while they see us doing something very different. I think another reason why people avoid religion is because, truth be told, we can come across like very selfish and self-centered people. Especially when it comes to salvation. When we make salvation all about “me, my, and mine,” what other people may hear is that we really don’t care about anyone else.

I think that’s a sad state of affairs. The Gospel is about Jesus Christ making the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life away selflessly so that we could all live together in the freedom, peace, and joy of God’s love. And somehow, someway, too many of us who profess faith in him do so in a way that strikes the people around us as so utterly selfish and self-centered that it turns them away from the community of those who claim to follow Jesus. To some extent, I can understand that. Too many in the church have focused on their own salvation to such an extent that it can come across as if they have no concern for anyone else’s salvation. Surely those of us who follow Jesus must share his concern for the whole human family!

I think part of the problem is that we can get caught up in our own “stuff” so much that it’s hard for us to look past it and really care about those around us. It’s a natural thing. And it’s true for all of us. It’s part of being human. Our life experiences are what are most real to us. But we can get so bent out of shape about our malfunctioning cell phones (just for example) that we lose all sight of the fact that there are many people in the world who have to walk miles for clean water! Now, I don’t want to suggest that what preoccupies us is always as trivial as a malfunctioning cell phone. We have much bigger concerns that, very naturally, occupy our attention. But the “optics” of that mindset don’t make for a favorable portrait of the church and those of us who are devoted to it.

I think our lesson from the book of Galatians for today addresses this question. Paul emphasizes the freedom we have in Christ. A big part of that freedom is that through his faithful obedience to God even to the point of death on a cross, and by placing our faith in him as our savior and lord, we’re set free from all the guilt and fear and all the other “stuff” that might plague us. For Paul, the cross means that God has “justified” us. That’s the language of the Bible. It’s a theological word for the idea that God accepts us and loves us just as we are. Unconditionally and irrevocably. Paul was insistent that we don’t have to do anything to earn that love and acceptance. In fact, he made it clear that if the believers of his day thought they could do anything to earn it, it would cancel out the message of the gospel!

We can read a passage like this and think that freedom is simple: you don’t “do the works of the flesh” and you “do the works of the Spirit.” But in reality, true freedom is something that’s really quite complicated. For one thing, if you look at the vice lists in the New Testament and think that any one of those behaviors excludes us from God’s love and acceptance, then we’re all in that boat because we’ve all fallen short in some way. And if you look at the “fruit of the Spirit” and ask whether we consistently embody those characteristics in our daily living, the answer is “sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t.” It’s a tough list to live up to. Freedom is something that’s quite complicated.

Many in our society think freedom means “I can do whatever I want, whenever I want to.” But that’s not freedom. It’s just “license.” As in taking liberties that aren’t necessarily thoughtful, kind, or caring to others or to ourselves. License differs from freedom in that in that it means doing whatever we please without thinking about how it may affect anyone.[2] It’s a matter of indulging ourselves however and wherever we want. License means choosing to ignore that there are always consequences to our actions and choices. And such blatant self-indulgence never results in real freedom. We can do whatever we please whenever we want as much as we can get away with, and never feel truly loved, or accepted, or valued as a person. And when we lack that basic foundation in our lives, we are never truly free. Freedom is complicated.

I think that’s one reason why Paul insists that the gospel of salvation through Jesus is a free gift. It makes a difference in how we not only look at ourselves, but also how we treat others. Recognizing that the only “justification” that really means anything comes to us through Jesus and the unconditional acceptance God extends to us through him frees us from all that would bind us in this world. That also frees us from all the ways we might think we have to bolster ourselves by putting down others. Trusting the gift of God’s unconditional acceptance frees us to serve one another, all others, in love![3] The only way to truly find freedom is to give yourself away in love, and the only way to truly give yourself away in love is when you find freedom from all that can bind us in this world.[4]

If we truly find that freedom to love, we’re naturally going to extend that love to everyone. We’re naturally going to be concerned with the salvation of the whole human family, not just ourselves. We will be motivated to serve others in a way that truly brings “liberty and justice” to all, in a way that recognizes the dignity of every person, regardless of race, gender, ability, or class. Serving others in love starts with recognizing the dignity of every person. Now, I will be the first to admit that it’s incredibly difficult to live out this level of love and freedom all the time. We all have a variety of influences within us that get in the way of giving ourselves away to others in love. What St. Paul wanted the people of his day and ours to know is that what God has done for us in Jesus sets us free to explore what it means to share love in a community of people, like this one, who are committed to sharing God’s love with the whole world.

[2] John Paul II, in “The Gospel of Life,” 19.3, said that we have “a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them.” See J. Michael Miller, C. S. B., The Encyclicals of John Paul II, 808.

[3] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 188. He says that the church is the “fellowship of the justified, who no longer have to justify themselves” He goes on to insist that this freedom sets us free to serve others in love. As I have suggested before, I believe this is idea of freedom to love is a central theme in Moltmann’s understanding of the Christian life. It runs throughout his discussion of the church’s identity and calling; he begins the idea that Jesus establishes the freedom of God’s kingdom by sacrificing himself for others (117), by breaking the powers of oppression through the resurrection (98-99), and by assuring us that we are accepted by God, and therefore enabling us to accept others (188-89); therefore Moltmann understands the freedom of God’s kingdom as that which enables us to serve one another in the effort to bring freedom to others (84, 195, 278, 283-84, 292); he construes this life under the concept of “friendship” which Jesus models and we are called to emulate those who are “open for others” and who “love in freedom” (121, 316).

[4] St. Augustine said it this way: “love, and do what you will”; cf. Augustine, Homily 7 on the First Epistle of John; http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/170207.htm.; See John Caputo, On Religion, 3-7, 24-28, 109-116, 134-36, 139; cf. similarly, John Calvin and W. Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, 160 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc): “He who loves will render to every man his right, will do injury or harm to no man, will do good, as far as lies in his power, to all.” See further, Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.2:732-33.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

The Love That Makes Us One

John 17:1-5, 20-26

Perhaps forty years ago I had an experience that, in my mind, demonstrates the bond among those who share faith in Jesus Christ. At least ideally. I was in seminary and living in a suburb of Fort Worth. I had visited the local Baptist church, and the pastor came to pay me a visit one evening when a neighbor was there. As we all chatted, my neighbor remarked that it seemed like the pastor and I were old friends, when in reality we had just met. Of course, we had more in common than our faith in Jesus Christ. He had also attended the seminary in Fort Worth. And we were working in the same denomination. So from the outset we had a lot in common. But my neighbor’s remark that it seemed like we were old friends even though we had just met has always stayed with me. I’d like to think that any time Christians come together, it’s like a reunion of old friends.

Of course, that’s not always the case. There are so many different approaches to living out the Christian faith that we don’t always have that much in common. Some Christians are traditional, some are not. Some are conservative, some are middle of the road, and some are very liberal. And those differences can make it hard for us to feel connected in any meaningful way to people who share our faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, some churches don’t want to be united with those who do things differently, even though they share the same faith in Jesus Christ. And while most of us may not believe that “difference” means “heresy,” practically speaking we know that we simply tend to divide ourselves into groups based on our cultural, political, and social views. Even when it comes to individual congregations, it’s hard to find a church where everyone is on the same page.

This situation is not for lack of trying to promote unity (or even enforce it). Many churches use agreement regarding what they believe to achieve unity. In fact, they can be pretty heavy-handed in the way they impose that “agreement.” Some of you may have had the experience I’ve had going to certain denominations that ask you not to take communion unless you believe just like they do. Other churches seek unity through organizational uniformity, through a ladder of authority that works from the top down. Again, depending on those who are in positions of authority, the situation can be healthy or not. In our context, we seek unity through what is essentially a policy manual, the Book of Order. As much as I love being Presbyterian and believe in our tradition, I would have to say that all these well-intentioned efforts at promoting (or enforcing) unity have in reality been ventures in missing the point. They really haven’t succeeded at producing unity in the church at all.

I think part of the problem is that we’re looking in the wrong direction for unity. We think somehow that we can find it through our own efforts. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus pointed us toward a very different source for our unity with one another. Jesus called his disciples to a unity that’s grounded in the unity of love between the Father and the Son. Jesus prays, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us” (Jn. 17:21). He says it in several different ways, but basically Jesus prayed for the disciples, and all those who would believe in the future, “that they may be one as we are one” (Jn. 17:22-23). Clearly, what creates a real and lasting unity in the church is the love that unites Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know that by experience. Real connection comes from building relationships and developing mutual trust and respect. And for us to have any real unity, we first have to have a relationship in which we feel connected to one another.

I think that all may be fairly straightforward. I guess the question, though, is how we promote the love of God among people like us, who hold very different opinions about what we deem important in life. How do we promote the love that unites Father, Son, and Holy Spirit among people like us who get very attached to our opinions, and who can at times be stubborn about holding onto differing viewpoints? I think what it takes is a unity that’s deeper and stronger than anything we can create ourselves. What really makes the church one is the unity that God creates—the church is the one people of the one God. It’s the unity that Jesus Christ creates—the church is the one people of the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s the unity that the Spirit of God creates—the church is the one people of the one Holy Spirit. That’s the unity that makes the church—all people who put their trust in Jesus Christ—live.

I don’t believe this kind of unity is about the absence of difference. All we have to do to verify that is to look around the room! As I’ve said before, I believe that one of the signs of the health of any human community is the ability to disagree agreeably. The bond created among us by the presence of the love of God in Christ through the Spirit doesn’t eliminate our differences. What it means is that the differences don’t divide us, they make us stronger. And I think the way that happens is when we respond to our differences by practicing acceptance, humility, and patience. These are ties that bind us together and help us to thrive in the love we share with one another, the love that originates in God’s love for us.

A lot of people have been asking for a long while the question of how the church can thrive in these difficult times. I believe that living out the unity we share in God’s love is one of the most important ways we can work to enhance the health, the strength, and the vitality of this or any other church. In our day and time, the church is divided by race, divided by class, divided by politics, divided by beliefs. In a very real sense, we in the church reflect the divisions of our society at large. I don’t think that’s a good thing, but I also don’t think we have any power to change that, because we’re all human beings. But all these divisions contradict what Jesus said should be our defining trait: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). Because we come from different perspectives and backgrounds, because we have differing opinions and viewpoints, the kind of love Jesus commanded us to show one another can be difficult at times, but I think we have to try.

Even in the best of times, loving others in the way that Jesus loves us takes all that we have to give. But in a world that seems increasingly lacking in love, it can be even more of a challenge. I would suggest that demonstrating the love that makes us one may be the most important way we can show the world that the church is a place to find new life. Perhaps the most meaningful way we can work to draw other people into the fellowship of this congregation is by working on the relationships we have with one another. When our relationships demonstrate a genuine concern and respect for one another, a heartfelt care, I think people cannot help but notice, and I think they’ll be drawn to join us. And they’ll be drawn by the love that makes us one.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

The Energy to Serve

1 Corinthians 13:1-13[1]

There are times in our lives when we are full of energy. Our work, our relationships, our hobbies are fulfilling to us, and we feel like nothing can stop us. There are other times in our lives when it seems like everything is against us. No matter how hard we may try, it seems like other people, or God, or perhaps even our own shortcomings conspire against us to make everything seem hard. In those times, it can feel like we’re trying to swim through molasses. Or perhaps quicksand. We just can’t seem to find the will, let alone the strength, to keep moving forward. Those are the times when we may ask ourselves why we’re going to so much trouble. We may do some deep soul searching to figure out whether we really want to keep pushing so hard.

It's those hard times in life that test what we’re made of. When we find ourselves running the gauntlets that life puts in our way, we may wonder what made us choose this path in the first place. We may wonder why we keep going. We may wonder whether we should change direction and just walk away from it all. But if we stay the course, we find that those hard times become the times in our lives when we do some of the most important growing we can ever do. Our ability to endure even the hardest of times may surprise us, as our faith grows strong and resilient. And the test of how strong our faith has become is, as always, how we respond to hard times. We can choose to respond in a wide variety of ways. We can feel hurt and decide to “pout.” We can get angry and perhaps nourish a grudge. But, as the Apostle Paul says it, faith “works” through love (Gal 5:6). When we respond to hard times with faith, it will clarify for us what keeps us going.

In our lesson from 1 Corinthians for today, the Apostle Paul is addressing a church that was badly divided. They were squabbling over just about everything, even who their “real” leader was—Paul, or Peter, or Apollos. While Paul had founded the church at Corinth, both Peter and Apollos had visited them, and had fruitful ministries there. I doubt that any of them could have imagined that the result of their work would have been a congregation fighting one another over which of them were most important. As Paul asks, “Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!” (1 Cor 1:13, NLT). It was ludicrous to think that they had any other “Lord” than Jesus Christ!

One of the issues the believers at Corinth were fighting over was “spiritual gifts.” It was a time when spectacular displays of spiritual power were particularly valued. Perhaps like the “faith healers” of our day, many of the Corinthians believed that if your faith is real, you should be able to demonstrate it through obvious acts of spiritual power. Now Paul didn’t completely shut them down on this thinking. And the analogy of “faith healers” might not be the best one. For Paul, everything every one of us does in the name of Jesus Christ is a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit working though us. That’s one of the main points he wants to get across to them. The Spirit is at work in and through us most powerfully in ways that might not be so obvious.

This brings us to our lesson for today. Paul was trying to help the believers at Corinth find a healthier perspective than trying to prove they were more “spiritual” than each other. And to do that, he called them to follow what he called the “way of life that is best of all” (1 Cor 12:31, NLT). And that way is the way of love. It is the way that Jesus chose for his life. And as Paul says elsewhere, our faith really works only as we put it into action through love (Gal 5:6). Here he puts it more bluntly: he says that even if he had the ability to demonstrate spiritual power in the most obvious ways, if what he did wasn’t motivated by love, he would only be making a lot of noise (1 Cor 13:1, NLT)! He says that even if his faith were such that he could “move mountains,” if it didn’t express itself through loving actions toward others, he would be “nothing” (1 Cor 13:2, NLT). He said that even he sacrificed everything he had, even his own life, if he didn’t do it out of love, it would do no good for anyone (1 Cor 13:3)!

For Paul, the measure of our service is the motivation that energizes it. From his perspective, our service has meaning only when it is motivated by love that actually cares about the well-being of another person, especially those who are different from us, and most especially those whom we may perceive to be “on the other side” from us. Again, as I mentioned before, in the Christian sphere of life, Paul could say that the only thing that matters is “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6, NET). From one perspective, that’s how we demonstrate that our faith is real: by putting it into action out of love for others. Of course, there are other motivations for our service. We may serve out of a sense of leaving a legacy, or because we are grateful for the gifts we have been given. But for Paul, it all comes down to faith put into action through love.

Some of you know that one of my “heroes” of the faith is Henri Nouwen. He was a Roman Catholic Priest who lived with a great deal of personal pain, and he became a pioneer in the field of pastoral care and pastoral theology. Because of that, he became something of a celebrity in American Christianity. He taught at the most prestigious and influential divinity schools in the country. But all of that left him burned out and empty. After spending a year living in France at L’Arche, a community where intellectually challenged people lived with their caregivers, he came back to serve as the chaplain at the Daybreak L’Arche community in Toronto. Many of his friends urged him not to “waste” his talents, reminding him of how much more “good” he could do in the Academic world. But I think Henri had found the joy of serving others out of love for them, and he never looked back.

We’re all facing some of the most challenging days of our lives. The very fabric of society has become frayed and is unraveling before our eyes. Sweeping changes are completely transforming our whole way of life in ways that none of us could have imagined or dreamed, even ten years ago.That has implications for everything from families to work to the ability to even talk to people who have different convictions from us. We’ve become so “tribal” that we can’t even talk to people who have different views from us. What does that have to say about where we are as a people and as a society? It can leave us feeling like all our efforts for good in this world are useless, just making a lot of noise. The difficulties we all face right now can test our motivation. It can leave us asking ourselves why we are doing what we are doing. Especially when it comes to what we are doing in and through the church to serve others. If we take our cue from Paul, we may find that the only way we can continue to have the energy to keep serving in a way that truly helps other people is through love. Whether through “obvious” acts of service, or simple everyday interactions with the people around us. The lesson that Paul wants us to learn is that faith works through love! It always has and always will!

Monday, December 23, 2024

The Promise of Love

Luke 1:39-55[1]

Most of us know the elation we feel over the promise of love. When we meet someone we think might be a good partner for us, the hope and the dream of a loving relationship is one that can make our heart sing. It may even make us sing out loud! But at the same time, many of us know the heartbreak that happens when the promise of love isn’t fulfilled. Not every relationship works out, mainly because we’re all broken in some way. It’s painful when that happens. But more than that, when our hope for love is shattered, it may make it hard for us to trust in the promise of love at all. Whether it’s love from our family and friends, or even love from God, when our hearts are broken, it can leave us wondering if we can trust the promise of love at all.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the main reasons why Jesus came was to demonstrate God’s love for us. His birth, the way he lived his life, and his death on the cross were all a magnificent demonstration of the biblical truth that God has loved us from before the foundation of the world, and that God will continue to love us through all the ages, forever and forever. I think we need to hear that, because many of us struggle with feeling that we are loved. Especially at this time of the year, we may feel unloved and empty. But we celebrate the birth of Jesus at this time of year as the birth of the one who came to fulfill the promise of God’s love, for us and for all people.

In our lesson from Luke’s Gospel for today, we hear the story of Mary and Elizabeth. Both of them were in vulnerable positions. Mary was a peasant girl from a small backwater town in the middle of nowhere. She had no wealth, no position, nothing to count on but God. Mary calls herself God’s “lowly servant girl” (Lk 1:48, NLT). I’m sure she knew what it was to feel “lowly” simply because of her status in life: she was a young woman in a world where women had no rights. She was one of the common people, with no power or position in Jewish society. Even at a young age, I have to think she may have wondered what the meaning of her life might be. She had good reason to be “confused” and even afraid when the angel Gabriel told her about the special task God had chosen her to carry out.

That task was the one of being chosen by God to give birth to the boy who would grow up to be the man who would fulfill God’s promise of love for her people, along with all the peoples of the world! But Mary’s pregnancy put her in a dangerous situation. She could have easily been suspected of doing something that the people of her village would have considered offensive enough to have her stoned to death! She also had to trust in God’s love to protect her as she took on this dangerous task. That’s what makes it so amazing that despite her fear and confusion, she had the faith in response to Gabriel’s assurance that “no word from God will ever fail,” to answer, “I am the Lord’s servant; May your word to me be fulfilled” (Lk 1:37-38, NIV). She trusted God to fulfill his promise of love.

So it is that Elizabeth blessed Mary because of her faith “that the Lord would do what he said” (Lk 1:45, NLT). Elizabeth had a much different position in Jewish society as the wife of the priest Zechariah. But as a woman who had passed the age of childbearing without having any children, she lived with a unique kind of vulnerability herself. Although it was unfair, the “blame” for not bearing children was heaped on the women of that day. More than that, she faced a very uncertain future without children to support her in her old age. And yet, there she was, filled with joy over her own child, and not only recognizing Mary’s great faith, but blessing her for it. I think at that moment Elizabeth’s affirmation was probably just what Mary needed!

Luke tells us that Mary burst into a song of praise to God. She praised God for being merciful “from generation to generation,” in other words, always and forever (Lk 1:50). She praised God for “lifting up the lowly” and “filling the hungry with good things” (Lk 1:52-53). She was not only thinking about the wonderful thing God was doing through her, but also the joy that had surprised Elizabeth. There they were, two women who were by all external measures incredibly vulnerable, celebrating the goodness and mercy that God had shown them both. They were celebrating God’s fulfillment of his promise of love.

But more than that, Mary had the faith and insight to recognize that what was happening through her was meant to benefit her people, and all the peoples of the world. She said that what was happening was a matter of God keeping the promise he made to Abraham. You may recall that promise: God would give to Abraham and Sarah so many descendants that they would become a great nation (Gen 12:2). He made that promise because of his love for Abraham and Sarah. But the purpose of his blessing to Abraham and Sarah was that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3). Just like Mary, God chose Abraham and Sarah to fulfill his promise of love for all people. And Mary’s song celebrated the faith that God was doing just as he promised in and through her.

I think our Gospel lesson is a good reminder that God delights in accomplishing his work even and especially when it seems like it may be impossible. That was Mary’s initial reaction: “how can this be?” And Gabriel’s response was “nothing is impossible for God”! It can be hard for us to wrap our head around the idea that God came into this world as a baby born of Mary. She was someone who had no rights, no power, no position or privilege. And choosing to say yes to God’s purpose for her life put her very life in danger. But God had chosen her to bear a son who would fulfill his promise of love for all people.

I think there’s a lesson in this story for all of us. We all face times in our lives when the task that is set before us may seem impossible. We may struggle to even trust that God loves us enough to see us through. We may feel vulnerable and afraid. But, like Mary, we can remember that through all of what we may experience in this life, both the “good” and the “not so good,” God is always working in and through our lives to fulfill his promise of love. God fulfills his promise through our willingness to say with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant; May your word to me be fulfilled.” Saying that means we’re willing to trust God to do what may seem impossible to us. It means that we’re willing to take the risk of making ourselves vulnerable for God to fulfill his promise of love not only for us, but also for all the people in our lives, and for all the people of this world.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Relationships

Ephesians 4:21-5:2[1]

Last week we saw that we demonstrate the quality of our faith by the quality of our relationships. It doesn’t take a person with greying hair to know that relationships can be complicated. They can be wonderful, and they can be aggravating. They can fill our lives with meaning and purpose, and they can leave us feeling empty and confused. They can be joyful, and they can be painful. And sometimes they can be all of that at the same time. I’m not talking about any specific kind of relationship, but rather all of our relationships. All that makes us human means that we all approach all of our relationships with all of our flaws. I think, given that reality, “complicated” is the right word for relationships.

As we discussed last week, according to St. Paul, we take our faith in Jesus “on the road,” so to speak, in our relationships. That’s where we demonstrate the strength or weakness of our faith. That’s where we discover that we still have much to learn in order to grow more like Christ in our daily living. In our lesson for today, Paul gets specific about what our faith means for our relationships. Perhaps uncomfortably so. He talks about honesty, anger, and stealing! We might find that surprising. After all, these days we tend to idealize the early church. We think that they were perfect “saints.” And here’s Paul telling those first Christians to stop lying to one another, to stop taking their anger out on one another, and to stop stealing from one another. Apparently, the first believers were just as flawed in the way they conducted their relationships as we are.

Paul starts off by telling them to “stop telling lies” (Eph 4:25)! That’s pretty blunt! It presupposes that they were lying to each other! I would imagine that most of us would take offense if someone told us to “stop telling lies.” We all tend to assume that we’re honest people. Or at least that we’re “honest enough.” But we live in a world where the standard operating procedure seems to be “say whatever it takes to get what you want without having to give up anything to anybody.” In that world, we have all kinds of subtle ways of “bending” the truth to suit ourselves.

The problem is that dishonesty in any form erodes the fabric of our relationships. Instead, Paul quotes from the prophet Zechariah: “Let us tell our neighbors the truth.” In a world where “truth” seems to be for sale to the highest bidder, we might ask the question Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus: “What is truth?” I don’t think Paul wants us to be brutally honest to the point that we actually damage our relationships. There’s a time for speaking the truth plainly and openly, and there is a time for not telling everyone everything you know. Instead, Paul gives us direction about how to be truthful when he says, “Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words” (Eph 4:29 GNT). I think that’s the bottom line for Paul: because we’re connected to one another in relationships, we’re to speak to one another in a way that will be helpful, in a way that will “do good.”

Paul’s instructions about our relationships continue in a way that continues to be uncomfortable. He says, “When you are angry, do not sin” (Eph 4:26, NIrV). I would say that for many of us, addressing our anger is just as touchy as questioning our honesty. When it comes to anger, it’s usually someone else who has a “problem” with anger, not us. Our anger is entirely “appropriate” and “justified.” At least in our own minds. But the problem is that anger is not only something we feel deeply, it’s also powerful. The question is how will we use that powerful emotion. We can take anger as a warning signal that we’re off track in some way. Perhaps we’ve misunderstood someone, or we’re holding onto an unrealistic expectation, or we’re trying to control something that we can’t control. Or we can simply take our anger out on the people around us. When we do so, we use the power of our anger to harm others. I would suggest that’s the “sin” Paul wanted us to avoid.

It’s said that it can take years to build up a relationship, but only seconds to destroy it. That’s the power of anger. I’m not talking about the fact that we all lose our temper from time to time. I’m talking about letting anger control us to the extent that we say hurtful, hateful things to others. But we can choose how to respond to our anger. Psychologists tell us that anger is usually a response to either fear or hurt. If we can pause when we’re angry, take a breath, and try to see what is driving our anger, we have a chance to use our anger for good. And that means using our anger to correct our faulty behavior in our relationships. And the key to dealing with our anger in a healthy way is to “be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32, NLT). Perhaps the first step toward doing that is to realize that we can’t simply impose our expectations on others. Rather, the way of forgiveness and kindness is to accept people for who they are.

Finally, Paul addresses the quality of relationships in the body of Christ in a way that might seem shocking. He says literally, “Thieves must no longer steal” (Eph 4:28). It’s uncomfortable to think that there were thieves in the early church. Some Bible translations display this discomfort with Paul’s words when they render this as “those who used to steal.” But that’s not what Paul says! Paul simply says, “Thieves must no longer steal.” It would seem that the early church contained people from all walks of life, including people who made a practice of stealing.

Again, most of us assume that we’re good, upstanding, honest people. We would probably insist that we’ve never stolen anything in our lives. But there are all kinds of ways of stealing. In the Bible, the prophets and apostles called not paying fair wages “stealing.” Of course, some ways of stealing are more subtle than others. We can steal a person’s good name by spreading gossip! We can steal a person’s trust by deceiving them or betraying them. We can steal a person’s innocence by taking advantage of them. The basic premise seems to be “I want what you have, and I’m going to use any means necessary to get it, regardless of how it might hurt you or anyone else.” I think Paul’s words about stealing here are not just about money or possessions. He’s talking about a fundamental way of relating to one another that seeks not to take advantage of anyone, but rather to do good to others.

Relationships are complicated. And it’s uncomfortable for us to talk about dishonesty, anger, and stealing in church. We want to assume that those are faults from which we’re inherently immune. But they’re part of the human condition, and St. Paul rightly saw them as a threat to our relationships. More than that, they undermine our ability to bear witness to the new life God is creating in each of us through the Spirit based on our faith in Jesus Christ. We can reassure ourselves that we would “never” do anything like that. But the uncomfortable truth about all of us is that we are all equally flawed and fallen. We may not all give in to our flaws to the same extent. But we are all susceptible to dishonesty; we’re all susceptible to taking out our anger on others; we’re all susceptible to stealing, particularly in their more subtle forms. Paul’s call to us, however, is to strip off those behaviors like a stained garment. He calls us to clothe ourselves with kindness, forgiveness, and love. He calls us to seek to do good to others, and not to harm. When we live like that, we will try to help others, not hurt them. We will look for ways to give to them, rather than trying to take from them. And as we do so, the quality of our relationships will demonstrate the genuineness of our faith. And the more we demonstrate the genuineness of our faith through the quality of our relationships, the more the quality of our relationships will draw people around us into our community!

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Dancing With God

Dancing with God

Romans 8:9-11[1]

Last week I mentioned that there is a reason for the things I say and do every week in worship. And it’s not just about taking the easy way out. As I mentioned last week, I frame every sermon with a reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I do that because, believe it or not, I think that our faith in the one God who is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is essential to our understanding of God, of salvation, and of our place in God’s work to redeem the whole creation.[2] We understand that God truly entered this world to become “God-who-is-with-us” based on our belief that Jesus God the Son. It is that same belief that enables us to understand, based on Jesus’ life and death, that God is also “God-who-is-for-us.” And God the Spirit makes all the amazing things God has done for us real in our hearts and lives to this day.

So, yes, it is my heartfelt conviction that a Christian view of God is only possible through the lens of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one triune God working together to gather us all into the love that defines God’s very being.[3] Without the creation of all things in love, we would not have the assurance we do that God loves us all. Without the sending of Jesus the Son of God to show us God’s love, we could not be sure that God loves us all. Without the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our faith in God’s love would be based solely on stories of events that happened a very long time ago. It’s only the love of God as revealed in creation, as demonstrated by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to new life, and continually poured into our hearts through the Spirit that gives us confidence to trust that God’s love for us never fails!

This isn’t just some abstract conclusion based on ivory-tower speculations of theologians. It is written into virtually every page of the New Testament. The word “Trinity” may not occur in the Bible, but the idea is written into virtually every page of the New Testament. We see it especially in our lesson from the book of Romans for today. There’s one verse in particular that has always fascinated me. It’s Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” St. Paul is talking about the new life that we all have through our faith in Jesus Christ. But he makes it clear that this new life in us is the result of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

Notice that it starts out with a reference to “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead.” Well, the one who raised Jesus from the dead is always God in the NT. So Paul starts this beautiful declaration by talking about what God does in order for us to experience new life. He’s the one who sent Jesus to demonstrate his love for all people by his life and death. God is also the one who raised Jesus from the dead to make it clear that our new life was not just intended for this world alone. And God brings us to new life by giving us his own Spirit within us. All of this originates in God’s very being, which is defined in the Bible as “love.” God’s love is a love that reaches out to claim us all, and God never stops reaching out to us all to claim us in his love.

St. Paul also refers to the role of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in our experience of new life. Jesus the Son of God is the one who came forth, bearing God’s love into the world in human form. Everything he did and said was to demonstrate God’s love for us all. Particularly the fact that he refused to exclude those whom the religious people of that day would normally exclude from God’s love. Of course, his death was a decisive demonstration of God’s love for us. Indeed, it has been said that in Jesus’ death on the cross God was present, drawing the whole world into his love.[4] And the final demonstration of God’s love reaching out to us to bring us new life took place when Jesus rose from the dead. Every aspect of Jesus’ life happened the way it did to demonstrate God’s love for us all.

St. Paul’s description of the new life we enjoy through our faith would not be complete without the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s because the Holy Spirit “dwells” in us that we have this new life. In the NT, the fact that the Spirit “lives” in us, or “dwells” in us is not a reference to some kind of “come-and-go” presence. Although we don’t always “feel the Spirit moving” in our hearts, make no mistake: the Spirit is always there! That’s one reason why I like Gene Peterson’s translation of this verse in The Message: “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s”!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this is hard to wrap your head around. Some of the most brilliant theologians throughout history have tried. Having read some of them, I’d have to say that I’m not sure their efforts always shed light. Many times they only make it harder to understand! I think what might make the most sense of “trinity” is the idea that the varied ways in which God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit works in our lives are all expressions of God’s love that seeks to draw us to himself. We know God’s love through creation, we know God’s love in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and we know God’s love through the presence of the Spirit within us.

There have been a lot of analogies that have been used to illustrate the idea of “trinity” throughout history. There is one analogy that makes sense to me. It is the analogy of dancing. We sing about it in our hymn “I Danced in the Morning.” The analogy is an ancient one. The idea is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are joined in an eternal dance by the love they share for each other.[5] But love always seeks out others, and so the purpose of this eternal dance of God’s has always been to draw all of us to join that dance. The God who has loved us from all eternity not only became one of us, but also continually takes us by the hand, leading us gently but persistently into this ongoing dance. I’m not much for dancing myself. Unless it’s a wedding for one of my children, my grandchildren are there, and I’m feeling particularly silly, I’m probably not going to join in the dance. Someone would have to take me by the hand and pull me out there. Being that kind person, I’m grateful that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, keeps reaching out to all of us, drawing us into God’s love, continually teaching us all what it means to join in the dance of love.

[2] Cf Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 53: “the church can only understand its own position or abode in participation in the movement of the history of God’s dealings with the world, and therefore as one element in this movement. Its attempts to understand itself are attempts at understanding the movement of the trinitarian history of God’s dealings with the world; and its attempts to understand this movement are attempts at understanding itself.”

[3] Cf. Moltmann, Church in the Power, 56: “A Christian doctrine of the Trinity which is bound to the history of Christ and the history of the Spirit must conceive the Trinity as the Trinity of the sending and seeking love of God which is open from its very origin. The triune God is the God who is open to man [sic], open to the world and open to time.”

[4] cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, 208. He quotes Cyril of Jerusalem as saying “On the cross, God stretched out his hands to embrace the ends of the earth.” In fact, Cyril was speaking of Jesus (“He stretched out His hands on the Cross, that He might embrace the ends of the world”), and it would seem that Moltmann is giving his statement a trinitarian interpretation. Cf. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 13.28 (NPNF 2.7, 89).

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God, 174-75. He quotes John of Damascus, a 7^th century Greek Father, who said that the unity between the Father, Son, and Spirit is the relationship of love that they share with each other. His term for it was perichorēsis, a Greek term that literally means “rotation,” to describe the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Moltmann (ibid.) interprets it this way, “The Father exists in the Son, the Son in the Father, and both of them in the Spirit, just as the Spirit exists in both the Father and the Son. By virtue of their eternal love they live in one another to such an extent, and dwell in one another to such an extent, that they are one.”

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

More Than Words

1 John 3:16-24[1]

We all know that loving God means loving people. And we all know that loving people means more than just loving our family and friends. It means loving even those who are difficult to love, even those who may push our comfort level, even those whom we may think of as “enemies.” And we all know that when the Bible teaches us to love like this, it’s not just talking about how you “feel.” It’s talking about how you live, what you do, and how you treat people. And it’s not just talking about “people” as an “idea,” it’s talking about the real, living and breathing people we come in contact with every day. If there’s one thing that’s true about loving other people, really loving all the people we come in contact with, it’s that it doesn’t come easily—for any of us!

I think part of the reason for this is that love is about giving. When you love another person, you give to them. You give them what they need when they need it. If they’re hungry, you feed them. If they’re lonely, you spend time with them. If they need help, you give it to them. You care for them when they cannot care for themselves. But more than any specific thing you may give to someone you love, you give yourself. That’s where it gets tricky, because the question is how much of yourself you can really give away. We all know that our example for loving others is Jesus, who gave his life for us all. And there have been many throughout the ages who have done just that: give up their lives for the sake of those they loved.

As much as I would agree with the fact that Jesus’ teachings about love were intended to prepare those who followed him for the possibility that they may be called on to give up even their lives for others, I would not say that’s what loving others always means for everyone. Sometimes we may be called to give up a great deal, perhaps even everything, perhaps even life itself for the sake of those we love. Sometimes, though, we’re called to love people over the course of a lifetime. We may give up a lot in order to do that, but the point is that we go on living our lives so that we can go on loving them day by day, year after year. I would say that’s probably the kind of life of love that most of us are called to practice.

The practice of loving other people as something that is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian is also a major theme in 1 John. The Elder John says it plainly earlier in the chapter from which our lesson for today is drawn: “This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (1 Jn 3:11, NLT). And in our lesson, he says, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 Jn 3:16, NLT). Again, we know well that there were many in that day who literally were called to give up their lives, especially to protect their brothers and sisters in the faith. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s in mind here. He goes on: “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 Jn 3:17-18, NLT).”

Here, the kind of love that the Elder John has in mind is about having the means to help someone in need and actually helping them. It’s about sharing what we have with people we know who are in need. For some of us, helping others like this is second nature. For others it may be more difficult. Beyond the basic challenge of whether or not we have a generous nature, the command that we are to love others by giving tangible goods or money to help them is another way in which loving others can be tricky. We have to use our best judgment to discern whether giving someone what they ask for actually helps them or whether it may hurt them. It’s not always easy to know for sure when we’ve crossed that line.

I’ve had some experience with that. Some of you may know that I have a tendency to be generous to a fault. When I was in college, I was the guy who picked up hitchhikers as I was driving the wide-open spaces of Texas. I’ve given more money out of my own pocket than I probably should have to people simply because they asked for it. And I know for sure that some of them were taking advantage of my generosity. I had a man whom I had helped on more than one occasion come back to me and apologize. He had been taking advantage of the fact that I was helping keep him housed to spend what money he had on his drinking habit. Was I helping him? Was I hurting him? That’s where it gets tricky.

I’d like to think that I’ve gotten more discerning about whom I help and how I will help them. I don’t have any problem buying someone a meal or filling their tank with gas. But I prefer to give money to organizations that help those in need rather than handing out cash to someone standing on a street corner. And yet, I must confess it’s hard for me to just “look the other way,” but I simply don’t feel comfortable potentially giving someone the means to continue destroying their own lives. I think the challenge for me is to make sure that I’m actually giving to those organizations and not just using that as an excuse not to share what I have with those who are in need.

The part of this that gets really tricky for all of us is that helping people who are in true need takes us outside our comfort zones. Many of the people who truly have needs we can help are those we ordinarily may not have much to do with, or perhaps they are those whom we intentionally avoid. But we cannot follow the command to love others without recognizing “the intrinsic claim of every person to be considered a person.”[2] That’s not so hard when everyone we meet looks like us, or talks like us. But we live in a great big world with a lot of very different people in it. We cannot simply love those who are like us. We can only truly love our neighbors when we can see “that every human face is the face of a neighbor.”[3] And Jesus calls us to love that neighbor. When we can get past all the superficial differences and see anyone in need as “one of us,” then we can love them in a way that goes beyond words.

[2] Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice, 60.

[3] Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, 41: “For a compassionate [man] nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying. … This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the large world where they can see that every human face is the face of a neighbor.”

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Not Just About Me

1 Corinthans 8:1-13[1]

Most of us have lived our entire lives during great upheaval. That turmoil began with the sweeping social and political changes in the 1960’s and 70’s. In those days people began questioning everything from morality to economics to religion to government. To be sure, there had been those who marched to a different drum beat before that time. But in those days it seemed like everyone was willing to cross all the formerly recognized boundaries in their quest for personal “freedom.” Scandals like the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate burglary only added fuel to the fires that were already burning. To those who were committed to traditional values, it was a time when the accepted standards began to break down. To those who saw the status quo as unjust, hypocritical, and biased to benefit the powerful few, it was a time of righting social wrongs. In a very real sense, our society has been wrestling with this fundamental divide ever since.

One of the questions that is at the heart of this struggle has to do with morality. It’s the question of how you know what’s right from what’s wrong. There have always been those who advocated certain absolute rules that represented lines that were never to be crossed. And I think most people would agree that there are some things that are never right under any circumstances. It’s never right to harm someone who is weaker than yourself simply because you have the power to do so. It’s never right to enrich yourself by taking unfair advantage of others, especially those who are most vulnerable in our society. But, as the scandals of our era have sadly demonstrated, many of those who are the most vocal supporters of traditional values don’t practice what they preach.

Because the voices that supported traditional values so blatantly ignored them in their own lives, many have simply decided that there is no absolute right or wrong. If it seems right to you, then it is, regardless of what anyone else may say. In my day, the way people put it was “if it feels good, do it.” But of course, the real point was “if it feels good to me.” Again, I think it’s clear that we as a people have made progress over the last several decades toward recognizing the rights of those who had long been denied justice. But in the process, morality became personal and private, which didn’t actually make things any more just or fair. It merely opened a pandora’s box of self-indulgence. In the name of “rights” we as a people have claimed that we can do whatever we please. And the result has been lives broken by moral license, selfishness that approaches narcissism, epidemic levels of substance abuse, and greed for ever more power and wealth. And all of this without any concern for how our actions affect anyone else.

Of course, there are many who continue to make a sincere effort to try to do what’s truly right. But it gets complicated. Take, for example, the commandment “You shall not kill.” That seems pretty straightforward. It seems like an absolute boundary that no one should ever cross. I would say we could all agree that it’s absolutely wrong to murder someone in cold blood. But it’s not so clear when a person kills someone in self-defense or in the course of saving the life of another. It’s still a “violation” of the commandment, but as a society, we consider it to be “justified.” I’ve never been there myself, but I would say that anyone who has ever had to take a life in the line of duty, whether soldiers at war or officers keeping the peace, would agree it affected them profoundly, even though it was the right thing to do in that situation.

All of this is a way of getting into the lesson from 1 Corinthians for today. The first Christians lived in a world of competing moral standards, no less that we do. And it wasn’t always clear to them what the right thing to do was in every situation. St. Paul addresses one of those situations. Because the believers in Corinth lived in a world that was dominated by the worship of pagan idols, the question of how to remain true to God and avoid idolatry, which was another of the Ten Commandments, wasn’t always clear in that setting. The Hebrew Bible goes to great lengths to argue that idols are nothing but “smoke and hot air” (Isa 41:29, MSG). As a result, some of the believers at Corinth had decided that there was nothing wrong with taking part in a meal held in honor of a pagan god, where the main course was meat that had been offered as a sacrifice to that god. After all, as Paul himself could say, “we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God” (1 Cor 8:4, NLT). If that’s the case, then it’s just another meal.

But the problem was that those who were confident in this “knowledge” weren’t thinking about other believers who weren’t so confident. Many of the Christians in Corinth had lived their whole lives believing that the pagan gods were indeed real, and that the sacrifices made to them were a way of acknowledging their influence. For them, a meal held in honor of a pagan god was a violation of the commandment to avoid idolatry. But if they saw other believers partaking in those meals, they may have become confused and decided to partake in an idol feast themselves. But because of their upbringing, they would likely feel convicted that they had sinned by breaking the commandment by being unfaithful to God. In St. Paul’s words, by exercising their freedom, those who were confident that idols weren’t real were causing the others to stumble in their faith. So he concludes, “if what I eat causes another believer to sin,” at least in their own minds, “I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble” (1 Cor 8:13, NLT).

In a world with a confusing array of competing moral standards, St. Paul argued that one principle for deciding what was right from what was wrong was the question of how an action would affect others. As he said elsewhere, “live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall” (Rom 14:13, NLT). And the way to do that was to make love the deciding factor. In this situation, Paul himself acknowledged that idols were not real, and that there was nothing wrong with eating meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan god. But he also recognized that there was more at stake in his actions than just his own welfare. He had to consider the welfare of those who would be influenced by his actions. That’s what it means to live in the community of faith with other believers: to live in a way that benefits others, not just yourself.

There was a cost to this course of action, and I think Paul knew it. The worship of pagan gods was such a common part of everyday life that it was hard to avoid these feasts. It would be like avoiding going to a football game in our culture! To avoid those feasts would be to risk more than just a loss of social standing in the community. It would and did mean the loss of livelihood, the loss of community, and even the loss of family. Paul knew the sacrifices following Jesus involved. But despite the sacrifices, I’d say Paul thought it was worth it to safeguard the welfare of fellow believers. For him, living in a community of faith meant sacrificing your “rights” for the sake of the good of the whole community. We used to believe in that. These days, our “rights” are almost our “idols,” and we will do anything to safeguard our “right” to do whatever we please. But Paul advocates a different way. Considering how his actions affected others was a central factor in his decisions when it came to moral questions that were not straightforward or clear-cut.

I’d like to be able to tell you that the principle of considering how your actions will affect others will make your moral choices clear and straightforward. But in the context of social turmoil in which we live, I’m not sure it’s ever possible to be completely certain of our actions. For most of us, whatever we choose to do is going to offend someone somewhere. Whether it’s what we eat or drink or what we watch or read, someone somewhere is going to think it’s wrong. To avoid offending anyone in any way, we would have to withdraw from life altogether! I think what we’re left with is doing the best we can to live our lives in a way that brings honor to Christ, not dishonor. I think what we’re left with is doing the best we can to follow his example in all our actions. I think what we’re left with is recognizing that for all of us, our decisions are “not just about me.” Knowing that, we can do our best, in so far as it’s humanly possible, to act in ways that will help others, and not harm them.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Unfailing Love

Psalm 89; Luke 1:26-38[1]

I think there’s a lot of confusion out there about love these days. We say, “I love you,” but what we really mean is “I’m lonely and I want you to comfort me.” Or “I think you’re incredibly attractive and desirable.” Or “Will you please just do what I want?” Or “I’m really excited to have such a great looking guy/girl with me; my friends are going to think I’m important.” Love is about wanting, desiring, or having. I think part of the reason for this is that we associate “love” so completely with romance. As a result, love has everything to do with feelings of infatuation or attraction or desire. That approach to love has many people spending their lives running around looking for their own personal holy grail of “love.” But when we do that, we tend to lose sight of any aspect of love as a choice, love as a gift you give to another person.

I think part of this confusion comes from the various “myths” about love that are out there. For example, there are many who live their whole lives looking for “the one.” You know, the single solitary individual out of the population of the world, which consists of enough people to fill roughly a thousand cities the size of the Chicago metro area! Another “myth” about love is “happily ever after.” It’s the fairy-tale ideal that when you find “the one” you’ll spend your lifetime in honeymoon bliss. I do think that people can live happily ever after, but it doesn’t look like “honeymoon bliss.” One of the silliest love-related myths I’ve ever heard comes from the tagline to the 1970 film “Love Story”: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” What in the world does that even mean? If you’re human, you’ll always be in a position of needing to say you’re sorry. If anything, love means you continually say you’re sorry, and you keep coming back and saying you’re sorry no matter what!

The Bible teaches us about love in many ways— through its practical teachings, through the stories of God’s love for a wayward people, and most importantly through the life of Jesus, who gave himself completely for the sake of us all. Our lesson from the Psalms for today begins with a celebration of God’s love: “Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens” (Ps 89:2, NLT). As we’ve seen over the past weeks, affirmations like this in the Psalms are often set in the context of the disappointments, the hardships, and the afflictions the people of Israel suffered. Their faith enabled them to confess that God’s unfailing love lasts forever specifically in those times when their circumstances could have led them to conclude that God had “forgotten” them. But the truth of who God is in the story of the people of Israel is that God never forgot them. His love for them never failed, even though their love for God failed time and time again!

The clearest demonstration of God’s love for us all in the Bible is found in Jesus: his birth, his life, and his death for us all. As you may know, there is some serious theology behind this statement. Theology that took centuries to formulate, and to some extent is still being shaped to this day. We call it the incarnation, the belief that in Jesus, God somehow came to share the fullness of our experience with life, including its joys and sorrows. Just the fact of Jesus’ birth as the Son of God demonstrates God’s love for us, because God chose to enter this world as one of us. But there’s more to it than that. Because the idea is that everything Jesus did was a reflection of who God is. And that includes dying on the cross. If the one who died on the cross is God incarnate, then that means God took into himself everything that prevents us from being the people he created us to be. That kind of love as expressed in the fundamental affirmation of our faith that God demonstrates his love for us in the birth of Jesus may be hard for us to grasp.

Our faith in Jesus as God incarnate is an important basis for understanding God’s love for us. But I doubt seriously that most of us come to the place where we truly believe that God accepts as we are through learning about theology. I think most of us learn about God’s love for us because somebody at some point in our lives showed us that kind of love. That’s where the Bible’s practical teachings about love come in. One of the clearest practical statements about love comes from the Apostle Paul: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (1 Cor 13:4-5). I know, we use this Scripture primarily at weddings. But Paul’s not talking about love only in the context of marriage. He’s talking about love as a way of life, love as a basic attitude toward other people, love as a commitment to following Jesus’ example.[2]

That’s easy to say, but as we know, it’s incredibly difficult to practice consistently. How do we follow Jesus’ example by loving each other the way he loved us? How do we give our lives away for the sake of the kingdom of God and for the sake of others without losing ourselves entirely? I think at least part of the answer is that we can only give ourselves away in love when our lives are grounded in God’s unfailing love. We can only practice this kind of love for others when we know that God loves us unconditionally and irrevocably, always has and always will. Even with that foundation for our love, I think we have to admit that loving others in this way doesn’t come easily for us. To be sure, we can love our families this way, but I think we also must admit that we all have to learn to love other people the way Jesus did.

If we pay attention to the way Jesus’ first disciples learned to love, I think we will discover that the way we learn to love like Jesus did is by coming together as a fellowship of people who are trying to learn how to follow Jesus’ example.[3] Whether it’s feeding the hungry, or clothing the poor, or comforting the sick and dying, or just listening to someone enough to really hear him or her, to love as Jesus did means to give of yourself without thinking about “what am I going to get out of this?” 500 years ago, the translators commissioned by King James translated the Greek word for love, agape, with the word “charity.” They were following the lead of ancient scholars who translated the Bible into Latin, and who used the word caritas. While “charity” has implications in our day that may be misleading, the basic idea is one of relating to other people with genuine, heartfelt care and compassion.

As with the other lessons of Advent, we may look at our world today and wonder where that kind of love can be found. It’s there in many ways, but the disturbing truth is that the way we humans treat one another all too often has very little to do with love. The promise of Advent is that God came into this world in the birth of Jesus to show us how much he loves us, and that he always has and always will love us in that way. If it sounds impossible that God could come into the world in the birth of Jesus, I’ll remind you what the angel said to Mary: “nothing will be impossible with God”! The fact that God would go to such lengths to show us that we are all loved, that we always have been and always will be, is the definitive demonstration of God’s unfailing love in the midst of a long and wonderful history of God showing us that God’s love for us never fails. And it’s that love that God shows us, throughout history, in the life of Jesus, and in the lives of our friends and family, that teaches us how to follow Jesus’ example of love. That unconditional and irrevocable love, that assurance that God always has and always will love us in this way sets us free to share love with others.

[2] I like Jürgen Moltmann’s definition of love in The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 255: Love means combining “respect for the other person’s freedom” to be an individual “with deep affection for him or her as a person.”

[3] Cf. Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, 232. He says that the actions that define love “are learned patterns of behavior that must be cultivated over time in the context of a community that models and supports such behavior.”

The Waking Dreamer