"Love As You Are Loved" No Strings Attached

                                 Easier said than done!!!

June 12 2016 Readings: Psalm 5, Galatians 2: 15-21   Luke 7:36 - 8:3

Two thoughts for today - both related to the nature of grace and to the nature of God's love and what it demands of us.  I would like illustrate that with two stories this morning.  The first story is an old one and some of you may have heard it or you may have heard a version of it before.   

Two well dressed Jewish fathers came to their rabbi.  "Rabbi, I do not understand my son," said the first father.  "I spent $25,000 on his bar mitzvah. I sent him to the finest of Hebrew schools.  Just last week he tells me he converted, he’s Christian."  "Funny you should ask," said the second father.  "I’m here for the same reason.  Rabbi what can you tell us?"   "Funny you should ask!!!," said the Rabbi.  "My own son came to me to me last week only to tell me the same story, he became a Christian."  "What did you do?" asked the two men.  "I talked to God," said the Rabbi.  "And, what did God say?" they asked?   He said  "Funny you should ask!"  it was My Son who started the whole movement. 

Now If you think that’s funny when Paul wrote to the Galatians he wrote to a Christian community who was facing the reverse problem of this old joke.   He wrote to a community where people who had discovered Jesus and converted to Christianity but were being taught by their new religion that in order to be a true follower of Christ they had to become Jewish first, that meant circumcision, initiation at the synagogue and then they must begin to observe the religious Law of the Old Testament which pertained to Feast Days and Diet and Ritual Cleanliness. 

In short they were being taught, as are still many today in the church, that to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, there are conditions that needed to be met.  That God’s grace and love was then and still is today, to some small degree conditional.  One of the biggest deceptions both inside and outside the church today still is:  you have to say, do or perform something special in order to earn God’s grace and love.  Many Christians in Paul’s time were being instructed to become Jew’s first, follow the laws, the rules and regulations or the Jewish religion to prove themselves worthy of God.  The hard question for us today is this:  Folks, Can’t you see the similarities in the church today?   Now I know we might not say it out loud but what do we demand of others, in the silence of our own heats, in order to be an acceptable Christian today.   What conditions do you put upon others when they want to come and be a part of your assembly?   Folks:  This teaching, no matter where it came from, is not true according to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a gospel that says, that a person is not justified by observing the law, a certain religious order, a denomination of Christianity or their rituals, it says we are justified by our faith.  Faith in the unconditional love and grace of God found in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.  NOW I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO COME AS SHOCK TO MANY WITHIN RELIGION TODAY BUT, there is no rule of law, ritual, doctrine or dogma and no good deed that can make you acceptable, and there is no bad deed that excludes you.   If that were the case none of us here today would be acceptable and we would all be excluded.   If it is the desire of your heart to follow the Master, your life will change and you will produce good fruit for others to see.   As you allow his love and grace to infiltrate your being it will change you.   Listen to the words in this wonderful old hymn:     

The lyric in this song bring to mind this question:  Do you know the difference between surrender and submit?  If you don't, you probably did not take in the songs message.  To submit is to give in to it and when you do, it produces fruit, feelings of reluctance, being loss, bitterness and obligation.  On the other hand to surrender is to give it over and when you do, it to produces fruit, feelings of relief, being found, joy and freedom.  

       

Here is another story to consider.    A woman, a mother, tells the story, about her 10 year old son and herself.  She says:  My young son came into the kitchen one evening while I was fixing supper and he handed me a piece of paper he'd been writing on.  After wiping my hands on my apron, I read it, and this is what it said:

For mowing the grass, $5.00.  For making my own bed this week, $1.00   For going to the store $1.00.  For playing with baby brother while you went shopping $1.00   For taking out the trash $1.00  For getting a good report card $5.00   For raking the yard, $1.00 That will be $15.00 please. Have any of you ever been there with your kids?   

The mother picked up the paper he had given her, turned it over began to write:

For the nine months I carried you, while you grew inside me.  No Charge

For the nights I sat up with you,  and prayed for you.          No Charge.

For the time and the tears, and the cost through the years. No Charge

For the nights filled with dread, and the worries ahead.       No Charge.

For advice, knowledge, and the cost of your education.       No Charge.

For the toys, food and clothes, and for wiping your nose.     No Charge.

When you add it all up, the full cost of my love is, there is     No Charge.

You see that is what God’s love is all about.  There is no charge.  Just a lot of hope - God hoping for us - God praying for us - God feeding us, God watching over us.

The young boy looks up at his mother and he said, "Mama, I sure do love you."  Then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote on his bill:   PAID IN FULL.

My friends, God owes us nothing for what we do for him, nor do we owe him - for he has written NO CHARGE upon our bill, He authorized his Son to make us a convenient, a convenient of Unconditional love and forgiveness, now and forever more, no payment necessary.   Our Challenge then becomes:  To never demand of others, that they earn your love, and never let yourself believe that you have to earn theirs either.  Rather - love as you are loved by God, unconditionally - as a gift - without ties or conditions, with only the hope that those whom you love might in turn love others in the same way.   Let go of conditions and let God’s love shine in and from you - day by day.   Again, Surrender rather than Submit, be a servant not a slave.