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| Photo taken by D - Northern CA |
Last week, at the end of our service
Our choir sang, Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
For some reason, and who knows why
It struck me … what does the Bible tell us?
Certainly it tells us many things.
Or, at least offers many things:
For example,
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death ~ Deuteronomy 21.18-21.
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion, their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death ~ Leviticus 20.10-14.
In the New Testament:
women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. 35If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church ~ 1 Corinthians 14.34-35.
Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. 12I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor ~ 1 Timothy 2.11 - 13.
silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires ~2 Timothy 3.6,
These passages have been used to deny women a place in church and society … passages that seem to imply the inferiority of women, the weakness of women, the unreliability of women, that women should keep silent in the church, and so on and so forth.
In the United States, when women were seeking the right to vote, Scripture was cited to prove that women just weren’t capable of making sound decisions, women couldn’t be trusted with such weighty matters.
Women couldn’t be pastors, nor could they be elders or deacons … women weren’t fit for such things.
Behind some of the rhetoric these days about abortion and equal pay for women at work, we hear some of the same language - women cannot fully make their own decisions, but need a man to oversee them, subjugate them, keep them in line, behaving themselves.
The Bible offers many things ...
But the choir sang, Jesus loves me,
This I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong.
They are weak.
But he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
For the Bible tells me so.
Does the Bible have a central message?
A great theme?
An overarching idea?
One thought, one message, one image greater than all the rest?
That takes precedence over everything else?
In the light of which, everything else is read?
Interpreted?
Understood?
Preached and taught?
Some have said that everything in the Bible has equal weight …
Everything? like stoning a rebellious son.
Or burning to death an adulterer.
Or keeping women out of the pulpit.
I think we have to be very careful!
Now I don’t know about you.
But for me, there is a central message in the Bible.
A theme that stands out above all other ideas.
An image that transcends all other stories.
The life and love of Jesus the Christ.
Jesus the anointed one.
The holy one of God.
The Word of God Incarnate.
The Son of God.
The Lamb of God.
Who takes away the sins of the world.
Call it mercy.
Call it love.
Call it the final reality.
The ultimate purpose.
The overarching theme that calls all other themes to itself … the criteria by which we read the rest of the Bible.
Paul writes to the Corinthians: Let all that you do be done in love.
And what is love?
Paul says it best of all:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Without love, it’s not real.
Without love, it can only hurt.
Without love, it has no value.
No endurance.
No lasting place in the kingdom of God.
Paul says it so well:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Paul writes at the end of his letter:
Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
Good words, for sure.
But Paul adds, just to be sure: Whatever you do, do it with love.
Be alert, but do with it love.
Stand firm in your faith, but do it with love.
Be courageous, but do it with love.
Be strong, but do it with love.
Alertness, without love, will only tire us out.
Standing firm in our faith, without love, will only make us stubborn and hard-headed.
Courage, without love, quickly becomes thoughtless grandstanding and showing off.
Strength, without love, quickly turns into domination and bullying.
Love is the preeminent idea that runs throughout all the Bible.
Love builds up.
Love makes all things new.
Love tends to forgive a lot.
Love seeks new beginnings.
So we no longer stone unruly sons.
We no longer burn to death adulterers.
Doors have been opened to women … though we still have a way to go … women in the workplace need to be free of sexual harassment … women deserve equal pay for equal work … and equal opportunity for advancement.
Love is all about open doors.
Opportunity.
Advancement.
Invitation and welcome.
Love is real …
Love meets the challenges of life.
On Thursday, I took the bus downtown to visit Nick at the Detention Center - he’s doing well, and gives his greetings and love to everyone here … and he asks for our prayers.
While on the bus, I saw some rowdy people … walking a few blocks through downtown LA, I heard three arguments … two in English, and one in a language I didn’t understand … but I didn’t need to understand it … raised voices, intonation, inflection, demeanor, cast of the body, fingers pointing …
Human beings all argue in the same way …
Human beings are a tough bunch … a strange bunch of critters we are … we argue, because we misunderstand … we fight, because we’re afraid … we go to war to protect ourselves … we hate with ease, and we hurt someone without blinking an eye … our mouths speak trash … our hearts conceive of terrible things … and sometimes we commit terrible deeds … human beings are a tough bunch.
And that’s why love is essential.
Love is the only thing that can conquer the dark spirits of the human soul … love and love alone can shine a bright light of hope on the human predicament … love reminds all of us that we can do better, and we must.
Do we realize the fullness of love?
Sometimes we do.
Do we live every day in love.
Sometimes we do.
Do we turn to love when we’re tempted to go the other way?
Sometimes we do.
And that’s the point of the gospel … keep on trying … and sometimes we succeed, sometimes we really do it, and do it right …
So, never give up, dear friends.
Stay with it.
For the Spirit of God assists us.
And, yes, we can love.
Sometimes.
And that’s enough to get the job done.
For God loves all the time.
And God joins God’s love to our love.
Our love …
With God’s love, becomes love, all the time.
Amen and Amen!
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