VOL. 6, NO. 51
THE HOPE OF ADVENT, PART 3
THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
“I don’t remember
the words exactly,
but I do remember the way that I felt when we were
together.”
FAITH, HOPE AND
LOVE ABIDE, … BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE
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Scripture: 1 Corinthians
13
1. If
I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing.
3. If
I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not
love, I gain nothing.
4. Love
is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5. it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own
way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6. it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7. Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
8. Love
never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will
cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is
imperfect;
10. but when the perfect comes, the
imperfect will pass away.
11. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I
know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood.
13. So
faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
W
Two weeks ago we lit a candle
to begin the season, and we remembered that Advent begins with hope.
Last week, Charlie Brown
reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas, just as he has done for the last
forty-one years. “Peace on earth” is the message. That is peace that begins
within ourselves, extends to our intimate friends, our distant friends, the
animals, earth, and ideas we embrace. Hope leads to peace.
Next year, wouldn’t it be fun
to invite Charlie Brown back and invite Jean Schulz to join us, and we will
thank her for the many years that Charlie Brown reminded our children that the
message of Christmas can still be found if we look in the right places.
Today, part
3. “Love is the practice of
peace.” Some people are easy to love. Others are more difficult. However, the
very heart of our faith is found in a scripture many of us memorized long ago
that says God sent us a Savior, not a judge, when
Christ was born.
Say it with me. For
God so loved the world that God gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son
into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.
There is no verse in the
Bible more powerful than these forty-six words. Think about them:
God – the
greatest name we can give to the unnamed creator of life and energy and love
and the world in which we live.
So loved – the greatest expression of care.
The world – the greatest number. Today we might even say the cosmos.
That God gave – giving is the greatest measure of human generosity.
His only begotten Son – his greatest treasure.
That whosoever – the greatest inclusiveness. Not just one group, but every group.
Believeth in him – belief is the basic act of affirmation that proceeds any action we might take based upon belief.
Should not perish – the greatest loss we can imagine.
But have abundant life – loss is replaced by the greatest human hope
that love will never die.
The Savior came not to condemn the world –
oh no.
But
that the world might be saved through him – the greatest imaginable reward.
God has given us a savior, not a judge.
WHY IS A SAVIOR SO HARD
FOR US TO ACCEPT?
·
Why do we turn the gift of the savior into the
human boundaries that separate people?
·
How do we move from the unconditional love of
the savior to some list of afflictions that separate us from each other?
·
Why do we believe that the savior forgives our
sins while condemning the sins that we observe in others?
He doesn’t. Those are not the words of Jesus. They are not the
teachings of Advent.
Thursday, I spent the morning
at the Catholic Charities’ Family Support
Center. It’s over by the Santa Rosa
Mall, and our church has supported their work for many years.
The Family
Support Center
is the place where the inclusive power of love is practiced. No one asks
whether or not you are worthy to be there. It is just assumed that there must
be some reason and a need. There is no test of piety, no list of unforgivable
sins, which is required to receive the services of the Family
Support Center.
So the Center provides for
basic human needs. You can wash your clothing and wash your body; you can get
mail and telephone messages; you can get the support you need to find a job,
and then, if you are lucky, a place of your own to live.
The Family
Support Center
practices what the church of the first century preached. You are welcome here,
because God has sent us a savior, not a judge.
I’d like to be a church like that. Would you?
I toured rooms that contained two sets of bunk beds and yet are
smaller than the cry room at the back of the sanctuary. Nothing fancy, but it
is warm and dry. I saw what used to be the preschool, but is
no more. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to say that we have a Pastor’s
Scholarship Fund for your kids, and to be able to bring a child or two over to
our own preschool? (Please form a line after worship and tell me you are ready
to make that happen.)
RECOGNIZED
I want to tell you about
something that made me uncomfortable. When we were leaving the used clothing room,
I got recognized.
“Hey, I know you,” someone
said to me. “You are from Church of the Roses, aren’t you?”
I had to confess.
Maybe it wasn’t me that got
recognized, it was our church. Church of the Roses has a reputation in the
community.
People know that we give
mission money to Catholic Charities. They know we provide space for Alcoholics
Anonymous, and the word is out that we raise money and labor for Habitat for
Humanity.
That’s the
church I want to be part of. Everyone has a reputation. How about if our
reputation was that we believe that God sent us a savior not a judge? And the
peace of the savior lifts our thinking to acts of love and inclusiveness – like
the Family Support
Center.
Then I went to the Senior
Center and had senior lunch. And a
man who had been a minister spoke to me. He seemed to know me, too. He told me
that he had been forced to leave the ministry, and it broke his heart. His
marriage ended with a divorce. His church had said there was no place for him
with them anymore because he was divorced. I asked him if that could really
happen, or was it really something else. He said it could really happen, and it
did.
The Senior Center
is another of those places where they will accept you for what you are and help
you, and don’t ask questions. I want to
encourage places like that. Do you think we would dare be a church like that,
where we were truly multicultural? I don’t want to add to the level of
prejudice in the community. I believe that God sent us a savior, not a judge.
And I think that is one of the lessons that Advent teaches us.
Jesus didn’t visit the
theologians first, I was reminded during choir
rehearsal yesterday.
He didn’t visit the
affluent first.
The first people at the manger
were the shepherds.
If anyone
should understand the way in which a good shepherd loves every sheep in the
flock, it is the good shepherd. And that is who Jesus said he was.
I want to tell you about one
more person I met on Thursday. It was a man who said he hadn’t been to church
in a long time because he got into an argument with God. He said his life had
been surrounded by people who don’t believe in God, but he was ready to give
God a second chance.
He said he had prayed to God
during a difficult time in his life and felt that God had not answered his
prayers to his satisfaction, and so he spent most of his life denying that a God who would send a savior, not a judge, could even exist.
I just listened. And then he
said, “Tell me about the people in your church.”
I said, “I think we have
people at Church of the Roses who feel just like you do. We have people in our church who have been
wrestling with God for years. But they understand that wrestling with God is
better than withdrawing from life and never caring about spiritual things.
Spiritual things are worth wrestling for.”
“Do you think a person with
doubts, like me, would be welcome at your church?” he asked. I told him I would be willing to ask.
So I’m asking today.
A man, who had been in an
argument with God for most of his life, had experienced something that he could
not handle alone. I don’t really know what it was. But he said he might be
willing to give God a second chance, and he prayed that God would not judge him
too harshly for the things he had done in his life.
Would he be welcome here? Is
your answer yes or no?
We got along pretty well, and he ended up by saying he might
drop by some day. So if you see that man, will you let me know? Wouldn’t it be
great to have the reputation as the church people go to when they were ready to
give God a second chance?
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I want to be that kind of church.
MATTHEW - Chapter 9
9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man
called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow
me." And he rose and followed him.
10. And as he sat at table in the house, behold,
many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his
disciples.
11. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
12. But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13. Go and learn
what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
I want to be that kind of
church
MATTHEW - Chapter 25
34. Then
the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35. for I was hungry and you gave me food, I
was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me.'
37. Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee
hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
38. And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked
and clothe thee?
39. And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'
40. And the King will answer them, (You know.) 'Truly, I say to you,
as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'
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I want to be that kind of church.
It is easy to love when you
are beautiful, when life is beautiful and you are full of health and full of
money and the sun is shining.
And if that is the world you
live in, I say enjoy it. And be grateful.
But that is not the life that
I have known.
I remember lying in the
hospital twelve years ago with tubes sticking out of everywhere. I was
frightened that I might not be able to walk again, and I was cranky and I
needed a bath.
And someone loved me even
when I was ugly and angry, and when I wasn’t in a mood to give much love back
in return...
I want to be that kind of church.
God wants to get your
attention. God wants enough of you so that you have to make some kind of
sacrifice in your life because of your faith. God wants a little more than is
comfortable, more than is easy, more than what you can spare without noticing
it.
God sent us a savior, not a judge
in hopes that:
We would listen more than we
speak;
That we would diagnose before we
prescribe;
That we interpret before we
expound;
That we would seek to understand
before we demanded to be understood;
So that we
would be a savior and not a judge.
I want to be that kind of church.
"A person who has never made a
mistake has never tried anything new." – Albert Einstein
I want to be that kind of
church where we try to do new things.
"When
one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the
closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." –
Helen Keller
I want to be that kind of
church where we open doors, rather than staring at closed ones.
Peace leads to love.
And the greatest statement
of love is our scripture today, about the nature of God’s own love: Say it with me. For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. For God sent the
Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.
I want to be that kind of church.
Dr. John H. Cushman
Presbyterian Church of the Roses
2500 Patio Court
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
December 17,
2006
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