"Of Law OR Of Love"

In your opinion, and we all need to have an opinion,  what ingredient makes God’s love different from our human expressions of love?   In the gospel reading this morning you will hear the word persecute, what image comes to mind when you hear that word?

SERMON:  Of Law and Of Love                                                                      

Readings:  Dout 30: 15-20 Psalm 119 Matt 5: 21-30

One day Abraham invited a beggar to his tent for a meal.  When Abraham began giving God thanks for the abundance of food, the man began to curse God, declaring that he could not bear to hear God’s name.  Seized with indignation, Abraham drove the cursing beggar out of his home.  That evening when Abraham was saying his night prayers, God spoke to his heart,” Abraham, the man you sent away from your tent today, this man has cursed and reviled me for fifty years, and yet I have given him food and shelter to eat every day.  And you Abraham!!  Could you not have put up with him for a single meal?"

This story should give us something to think about folks, because Jesus teaches us not to see others as different, as though we have done nothing to offend God in our lives.  Jesus teaches us there is no black or white, nationalist or foreigner, this is double mindedness or dualistic thinking.  In the eyes of God we are all genetically of the same family, Jeremiah 31:  “I’ll be Your God You’ll be My People” children of the light folks!

St. Valentine's Day is this Tuesday and I want to tell this simple but profound message from God  – love each other.  Love each other - not with the love that depends on chemistry, or mood, or feelings -  not with a the love that depends on the behaviour of others or ourselves either,  but love each other with the kind of love that Christ offers to us.  Jesus never taught or thought of people as them and me, He died to make visible God’s unconditional love for all of us.  You know the kind of love I mean -  it is the love that goes beyond our emotions and yes even what sometimes seems to go beyond the human mind that wrote the law because this love is truly unconditional, no strings attached folks.  This love is a love from the heart.  It is a love that contains the Spirit of what God wants for us, it is a love that compels us not to judge each other but to love and accept each other with a oneness that honors the song we often sing: “We are One In The Spirit”  Do you know the lyrics.    This love compels us to feed the hungry, to administer to the sick, to lift up the poor in our midst, to be an example of God’s grace to in the world, offering peace wherever turmoil or kayos exists.  It is a love that values others, regardless of who they are or what they have or have not done no matter what country they have come from, their religion, their color, their race or their gender.    

I recall reading that a colleague once caught WC Fields { a confirmed atheist} reading the Bible. "What are you doing Fields?" asked the person.  "Looking for loopholes", Fields replied.   With God’s unconditional love my friends - there are no loophole, no escape hatch, and no clauses that say that God’s love can be revoked if this or that “condition” is not met.  God’s love is total, it is never incomplete.  But our love often has conditions, you know what I mean, love with the unspoken “IF”.  You see it is the condition that renders love to be mere emotion or infatuation.   Think of the words we heard in the readings this morning.  They were words addressed to a people often looked for loop holes to compromise or to altering love's demands, so it would be easier to fulfil.  The Law of Moses says  “thou shall not murder - but Jesus takes it a step further, telling us that anger is the root cause of killing and so if you are angry with your brother or sister - you will be subject to angers judgement.  The Law of Moses says “thou shall not commit adultery”, but Jesus tells us that everyone who looks with lust is already guilty of the offense.  Lust meaning to desire adore or to crave with passion.  The Law of Moses say ,” thou shall love your neighbor as you love yourself ”, but Jesus’ love goes even deeper as He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us..." Did you know that to persecute someone means to show predigest, or malice, harming someone not with just physical violence but with words as we often see people doing to one another on the internet or Facebook.  Often I have caught myself having predigest thoughts never thinking I was persecuting someone in the process.   There are no loopholes to be found in Jesus' words—here we learn to call a spade a spade folks. – there are no compromises, no deals, no escape hatches. Jesus’ love is totally and completely unconditional, no one is forsaken or abandoned, Isaiah 49 tells us:  “I will Never Forget you My people”

What Jesus does is crystallize the issues involved in loving God and our neighbours so that we can know - without doubt – just where we stand, and exactly what we need to strive for. 

An old pilgrim was making his way to the Himalayan Mountains in the bitter cold of winter when it began to storm.   The inn keeper said to him, "How will you ever get there in this kind of weather my good man?"  The old man answered cheerfully - "My heart has always been there, and so it's makes it easy for the rest of me to follow."   Now here is profound wisdom folks!  

The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that we can meet all the demands of unconditional love, but our hearts must go there first, and to accomplish that we must take upon ourselves the heart of Christ. I urge you - let your heart go first - love God and love each other as deeply as you can. When you do - you will find, no matter how many mistakes you may make on the way, goodness and blessedness will blossom along your path, and all that God has planned for you will come to pass.  As we come to share in the bread of life this morning let us remember his selfless act of unconditional love for all.