When I was beginning to enter the "church world," which I hardly knew, it became clear that the authority I had enjoyed as an executive would be useless. It was obvious that, if I wanted to have any success at all, it would have to be done in community. Being a pastor to, let's say, 300 people (many of whom would see themselves as my boss) seemed to be a daunting thing. "How can I possibly succeed?"I asked one of my mentors, "sooner or later, I will say something that someone doesn't agree with, or not say something that someone wanted to hear. It's just a matter of time." How can I make a difference without line authority- that was my question- and my mentor relied, "Ken, love the people. Love the people. Just love the people. If you love the people, they will cut you all sorts of slack; they will overlook your foibles, and help you become your best self. If the people know you care, they will care about what you know. Just love the people!"
These words have stuck with me throughout the years and I've come to believe that anything we get done as a community will get done with the power of love. Indeed, I've come to believe that anything we get done for God will get done with the power of love. We all know that we are commanded to love God with all of our hearts and minds... but the power to do that comes from accepting His love for us! If we accept the fact that we're accepted, we will accept ourselves and others. If we receive the sacrificial love that he suffered and died to give us, we will give our lives for him. If we can bring ourselves to let go and trust in his love we will be bold and tireless disciples. We honor God by loving him entirely ... and by embracing the Amazing Grace that he offers us. In short, our power to be faithful Christian is energized by love. Our Christian journey is powered by love, and a big part of that is believing that God loves us with every fiber of his being,
It's all about love and perhaps that's why all three of the Lenten Bible passages before us have to do with love. Each passage tells us about God's amazing love and each passage invites us to accept his love for ourselves. Deuteronomy 21:4-9 invites us to join the Hebrews in their wilderness as their hope gives way to fear. You know the story- God's people became impatient, they sinned, their sins had consequences; they cried out to God; and God saved them! It's a great story, but it's far more than a historical story. It speaks to us. If you've ever been in the wilderness, then you know how easy it is to feel sorry for yourself and how tempting it is to doubt. I've been there. I know that's easy to feel that nobody cares when you're in the wilderness but our Old Testament passage reminds us that the God who sees, El Roi, sees us too and that he will answer our heartfelt cries.. not because we're good but because He is good. Our New Testament passage, from the book of Ephesians, depicts life before and after Christ, and as a man who didn't take faith seriously until he was 30, I know something about that as well. For many years, even though I had some success in the business world, my life was driven by self-will. I was without a foundation, purpose, or direction, but God reached out to me... when I wasn't even trying to be good...because He is good! God saved me because it is his nature to save and I can say that the worst day I've had after Christ has been far better that my best day before Christ.
We can't earn God's love; we can't explain God's love; we don't deserve it; and we can't lose it... BUT we can embrace it! We can trust in it. We can stake our life on it... and if we do, we will experience the fullness of life- here and forever with our Lord. This is the truth of it. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son what whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Wow. This verse, which Luther called the Gospel in Miniature, is so powerful and mind-boggling. But I fear that it's wonder is lost in all of those signs that we see in the end zones- when the cameras pan the crowds filling our stadiums- and that it's message is under-valued because it seems so simple. Indeed, it is too simple for many of us because we tend to complicate simple things. Then, too, there are those who won't accept to because they can't explain it. They've grown up in a world where there is no free lunch and where everyone keeps score. So it doesn't make sense to them that God would love those who haven't earned or even wanted his love... but that what grace is all about. God loves us in a deep and unconditional way and there's no stopping it. We can't earn it, understand it, or ever repay it... but we can embrace it!
Lent is a time to embrace the great truth that God so loved me that he sent his only son to an awful cross so that I might live. We have but one word for love in the English language... so I express my love for...Sherry, soft-serve ice cream, the Cubs, and Willie Nelson with the same word. Love. And whether I'm involved in a puppy love, a "deal-making" love (where I love you as long as you love me), a manipulative love (if you really loved me you would do this or that for me), or a tested and longstanding love, I use the same word- love! Our single word "love" covers a range of things, and that can make it hard to grasp what the Bible means when it says that "God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son... so that all of those who believe in him might have eternal life." The Greeks, as some of you know, had several words for love, including "philia," as in Philadelphia, the love of friend for friend (which can be a powerful thing) and "storge," which is based on familiarity. There is also "eros love," which is a passionate love that every lover would know... and "pragma," which is the mature and steadfast love that has seen the better and lived through the worse...and persevered. Other than a mother's love, at its best, pragma love is about as good as it gets for us. We hope that the person we love will at least stick with us to the end! Pragma love is a good thing, and so is philia, storge, and eros, for that matter. BUT God's love is captured with the Greek word "agape," which is the word used in John 3:16. Agape is a love that never keeps score and cannot quit. Agape love has no sense of whether it's deserved or not. Agape is always other-directed and all-consuming. Agape doesn't flinch in the face of resistance, rejection, denial, or even crucifixion. It just is.
God so loved the world that he gave his son on Cavalry's cross, SO THAT all of us-each of us- male and female, rich and poor, young and old, gay and straight, black and white- who believe in him will not perish, but inherit eternal life. We will die, but we will not perish! This is the promise and all we have to do is EMBRACE IT! Believe it. Experience the freedom that comes from believing that God is not against you... and that His love is not conditional. Do business with the fact that God loves you in depth... and you will be free to love others in the same way. Take in the fact that you are forgiven... and you will forgive others. It's not much more complicated than that!
Karl Barth is a well-known theologian within our own faith tradition. He spent his life studying God's word, and as the story goes, a reporter asked Barth to tell him what the greatest thing he had ever learned was. And Barth said that the greatest thing he had ever learned was this: Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so. Believe this simple truth. Don't dismiss it or spend a lifetime trying to understand it. Embrace it. Dance with it. Share it...and you will be saved. Amen.
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