Won Over By a Greater Love
Sermon for June 26, 2005
1. Good Morning. Let’s Pray – O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: The Summer is with us and with it those Summer “lazy hazy days” of promised restfulness. Some of us have thoughts of soon to be experienced Summer vacations. Our children are “out of school” and the promise of Summer adventures is exciting their imaginations. And so as I reflected upon all of this I sensed our Lord saying to me, “Rest. Let me recreate you.”
As I then turned to the Scriptures for today the following verses literally jumped out at me. Listen to them now and let God speak into your hearts.
In our first reading, we see Elisha the Prophet being blessed by the influential and presumably wealthy Shunemite woman. Elisha used to stop at her home to dine and one day she said to her husband,
“I know that Elisha is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often, let’s arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair,(just like the Abbey) and lamp, so that when he comes to us he can stay there.” And so some time later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight. Later Elisha asked, “Can something be done for her?” His servant Gehazi answered, “Yes! She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years.” – think about that . . . Gehazi went right for the “big one” didn’t he? So let’s see how Elisha responded:
Elisha said, “Call her.” When the woman had been called and stood at the door, Elisha promised, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” (2Kings 4:9-16) This woman didn’t even ask for this but this is what the heart of our God is like – He reaches out and wants to bless us. But remember He blessed this woman through one of His prophets AFTER she had blessed him. This is a wonderful story highlighting the dance of love. Elisha was God’s gift to this couple – they responded with love and God responded with more love – the fruit of their love and His love combined!
As I read these verses a wonderful sense of God’s “loving provision” flowed over me.
I left this first reading with that wonderful sense of God’s beneficence. I’m convinced that He wants us to bless each and every one of us with an experience of His BENEFICENCE TODAY! The question is this – are we going to respond to His beneficence when it comes? And so the dance will go on. God won’t stop with one blessing but as we respond His blessings will flow. It’s the dance of love!
And now as I turned to our second reading for today I had the scent of what God wanted to reveal to me.
In our second reading the following words jumped out at me - remember that in this passage Paul is reflecting upon our being buried with Christ in our Baptism:
“We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in NEWNESS OF LIFE.” (Rom 6:4)
Those words “so that . . . we too might live in NEWNESS OF LIFE” just simply jumped out at me!
Jesus came so that you and I might live here and now and forever in that wonderful sense of “newness of life.”
What does that mean – “newness of life?”
God wants to give us this sense of “Newness of life!”
Are you feeling any “oldness” in you right now? Are you feeling tired and a little worn down? Are you losing or have you lost a sense of “freshness or newness” in your life? Let this promise be yours today! God wants to bless you as He did the Schunamite woman! He wants to bless you with “NEWNESS OF LIFE” right now.
Let me tell you that this promise is massive! What Paul’s getting at here is that state of newness that’s eternal. It’s an agelessness – a sense of sublime carefreeness that’s not weighed down by the cares of time and carefulness!
In truth, this word is an eschatological term which points us to that experience which we can yet but get the scent of in this world but which awaits us fully in eternity – just the other side of this world.
So here in our second reading is another scent, if you will, of what God yearns, like the Shunamite woman, to give us. He wants to “REFRESH” us – to bless us with a touch of that reality now but which lies in its fullness waiting for us.
By the way, this is a reality that the young in our midst may not be able to grasp but as the years begin to wear on our minds and our bodies the thought of “newness of life” becomes a most tantalizing promise. I am, personally, looking for the day when I won’t feel that ever present low level lower back pain that is my constant companion these days. Most of us over 50 can perhaps relate to what I’m saying here. But God has something most wonderful awaiting us – it’s renewal! It’s eternal refreshment! It’s living in Paradise forever. He gives us hints of it in this world and He draws us onwards to that goal of eternal renewal – eternal life!
“Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. The promises of the LORD I will sing forever.”
Ah! This is a picture of me in eternity! Forever singing about the gooooooodnesssss of my Lord!
As I read this opening verse it was in fact the song of MY own heart right now as I reveled in God’s desire for me to be blessed, even now, with a touch of that bliss which awaits all who are His in eternity!
Gospel: And finally, let’s turn to our Gospel reading – Matthew 10:37-42.
It’s the opening verse of this pericopy that jumped out at me again. Let me read it to you again:
“Jesus said to his apostles: and whoever loves father of mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”
Now at first blush this passage seems a bit harsh – a bit demanding, but I had been “set up” by our previous readings and what I heard in these verses - perhaps for the first time - is the thought that the Lord wants our first love to be for Him! He wants us to love Him with an unmitigated heart. He doesn’t want half of us but all of us!
Do you and I love Him this way or have a whole lot of other things crept in between us? Is Jesus still your first love? Really . . . your FIRST love?
3. Ah! Can you see it now? Jesus wants to remind us that all of His plans for us which will end in that sublime bliss of eternal “newness of life” is ours as He becomes our one and only and truly abiding love.
HE AND HE ALONE MUST BE THE FIRST AND DOMINANT LOVE OF OUR HEART for all of His blessings to be able to flow into our lives!
Can you see it now – “Jesus is calling us back to our first love for HIM! . . . so that all of His promises for us can and will ultimately be fulfilled!”
It really comes back to His Summary of all of God’s law! Do you remember it? I recite it to you each and every Sunday,
“Here O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength and the second is this – you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these!”
One commandment summarizes all others – love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength!
4. Contemplating our present condition. Now with all of this as our backdrop let’s reflect together upon the present condition of our lives.
Is the Lord God your first love or have you, like me, allowed all sorts of other minor gods into your heart and so your heart has become a crowded bizarre with Jesus perhaps front and center but still only one of the many competing voices seeking the attention of our love!
Lets explore this a little further shall we?
What’s at the center of all of this is our understanding and even more compelling - our “experience” of Him and His love.
To love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength is God’s challenge to us – who are the pinnacle of His creation.
What is this thing called love then?
What exactly is God calling upon us to do?
Now here’s the key – are you ready?
1John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
And a few verses later on: 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
Now this is a great mystery!
God is love – whoever doesn’t love doesn’t know God. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him!
God’s love comes first TO US and “our” love is a response to His love.
If you know God you know what love is – you know love and are thereby able to respond to Him and others WITH real love. But if you really don’t KNOW God then you can’t possibly respond WITH this love!
The word used here is “agape.” I want to read you a short passage from Peter Kreeft’s book entitled “The God Who Loves You.”
“Agape is self-forgetful. Its right hand doesn’t know what its left hand does (Mt 6:3). It gives, yes. But it emancipates rather than enslaving its recipient, and it forgets rather than displaying its giver. Charity is self-conscious thing-giving; agape is unself-conscious self-giving.”
Truly it has been said, “We love because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19)
5. Remembering: Do you remember your first few months after becoming a Christian?
Do you remember how you felt about Jesus?
Some of us – perhaps many of us – will remember those early months with a sense of longing for these blessed days when we reveled in His Presence – when we rollicked in His love. We were overwhelmed by His reality and His love – it was like a liquid that we could almost roll around in but then the competing gods of pride and fear and greed and love of pleasure all came crowding into our lives and became intermingled with the ONE TRUE God and so our hearts became lukewarm, as it were, towards our Lord – and life went on. But many of us have retained a memory of those early heady days of our first encounter with our Lord.
Now listen very carefully – Our Lord is calling us not backwards to those good old days but into this Present Moment where He is to be found in His fullness!
You see, each and every moment in our lives is a Sacrament of His Presence! He, our Lord, is in each and every moment of our lives and He wants to be discovered!
In each and every moment of our lives He’s palpable and touchable! In each and every moment of our lives He comes to us as a gift if we will only look for Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength!
As we reach out for Him with all of ourselves He gives all of Himself to be discovered and experienced!
Now how can you and I get a hold of this reality? How can we come to the point of responding to His beneficent Presence moment by moment?
It’s a heart thing my dear friends! It’s a heart thing! When our hearts are in unmitigated love with Him – we find Him everywhere and in everyone!
It’s a heart thing!
He wants our hearts – He wants our love so that His love can enfold us and refresh us!
Are you up to the test?
Just suppose God chose to test to see what your first love really is today – would you pass the test?
Here’s a short story that will illustrate what I’m talking about:
An official of a Mission Board, who knew that it takes more than desire to make a missionary, was appointed to examine a candidate. He told the young man to come to his house at 6 in the morning. The young man went at 6 in the morning to be examined, and the examiner kept him sitting in the room until ten. Then he went down to him and said abruptly, “Can you spell? Can you spell God?” “Yes, sir,” came the answer calmly. “Can you write your name? Do you know what your name is?” “Yes, sir,” again he replied. He put him through a series of questions of that kind, and then went to the Missionary Board and said, “He will do. I tried his patience for four hours, and he did not break down: I then insulted him, and he did not lose his temper. He will do.” That is the way to prove Christianity. If a man answers all abuses with patience, a fortitude, a gentleness that cannot be violated, depend upon it, Christ’s love has conquered his heart, and the Christianity that has made him what he is vindicated by the very quality of his character. Such a Christian causes men to say, “Well, after all, you’ve got to say something for a religion that produces a man like that.”...
Would you and I have passed that test today?
The next time you feel peeved and put out and just down right mean spirited – REMEMBER who you are and whose you are. Remember Him who loves you and REMEMBER how far He went to love you and then respond in His love to the petty pricks that come to us in this life. Amen and Amen!
Let’s Pray!