1 John 3.14
An elderly woman walked into the local country church. The friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of steps.
"Where would you like to sit?" he asked politely.
"The front row, please," she answered.
"You really don't want to do that," the usher said. "The pastor is really boring."
"Do you happen to know who I am?" the woman inquired.
"No," he said.
"I'm the pastor's mother," she replied indignantly.
"Do you know who I am?" the usher asked.
"No," she said.
"Good," he answered.
Oh well … so it goes …
Faith, hope and love abide … these are things that last … yet Paul dares to say, the greatest of these is love.
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.
Love is big …
Simple because love is love …
Love can’t be small-minded …
There are no boundaries to love … because God is love … and God is the biggest of all realities … God is reality … God is the universe … God is light and God is love.
Are there boundaries for God?
Are there places where God won’t go?
Places where God can’t go?
God even goes to hell … as the creed says, He descended into hell … into a place of darkness and sorrow … into the realm of death … God even goes there … to work the glories of grace … to set the prisoner free … to bring good news to the lost … all the lost … everyone last human being … to harrow hell, as it’s sometimes said … to invade it, conquer it, and when all the prisoners of hell have seen set free, to seal shut those terrible gates of despair and hatred … and open wide the gates of heaven, so that all may enter in …
Such is the work of God.
Are there boundaries for God?
Of course not.
No boundaries at all …
No boundaries of race or religion or nation … for God so loved the world …
But we’re creatures of boundaries … humankind loves to draw boundaries … between families and clans and tribes, we draw boundaries …
Between religions, we draw boundaries … my god is bigger and better than your god … I know the truth, and you don’t … I’m going to heaven, and you’re going to hell … and we kill one another, too … all in the name of our gods and religions.
Just a few days ago, a touching picture of the exception … when religions rise above their own worst instincts … in Egypt … a large group of Christians stand, hand-in-hand, offering protection around Muslims kneeling for prayer … and another picture, of Muslims, hand-in-hand, surround a Christian Church to give it protection …
Love abides … but it isn’t always easy …
We love our boundaries ...
Between nations, we draw boundaries … we send soldiers to defend them, we build fences and walls to protect them, and we launch wars to enlarge our boundaries …
Between races, we draw boundaries … some thought it was perfectly fine to enslave some to harvest sugar cane and cotton … and who cares if they die a mean and miserable death, there’s more where they come from.
All around the world, the pain of racism persists … and still in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, freedom is still the goal for which we strive … and brave people still stand tall for human dignity and civil rights.
This week, August 28, 1963 …
A momentous event in our American story …
Anyone recall?
That’s right … the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” … if you haven’t read it lately, please do so this week …
A remarkable speech … it tells of the great work achieved by the sweat, blood and tears of so many … and sets before America what remains to be done …
Like any good dream, work remains …
Freedom still to be won … and human rights still to be protected …
Because there are factions in this nation who would strip away the rights of women, and the rights of children and the right to vote … there are folks who would gladly return this nation to the days of Jim Crow …
There are in this great land of ours economic interests that bow before the Wall Street gods and worship material success … economic forces without restraint, without a soul, without a shred of love …
Corporations enslaved by shareholders, and shareholders enslaved by profits …
Much has been done …
More remains …
A little Black Girl surrounded by Federal Troops, but she went to school that day … and white folks spat upon her, and called her terrible names and carried Christian placards talking about Jesus and turning to this little girl and hating her with everything they had. Jesus in one hand, and hatred in the other.
This kind of hatred still lives in our land … a horrible shadow on America’s soul …
There are some who say, “There is no racism any longer in this land” … I wish it were true … just a last month, in North Charleston, South Caroline, 25 family members and friends - African-Americans - gathered to say farewell to a family-member moving away … they waited two hours for a table, and when finally entering the Wild Wing Cafe, were told to leave, because a white patron felt threatened by their presence.
Racism remains in this land … we fought a Civil War because of it, and the war still rages on in the hearts and souls of Americans … and in pulpits across the lands and in newspaper editorials … in our colleges and universities …
As long as there are human beings on the face of God’s good earth, there will be racism of various sorts …
If left unchecked, racism grows all the more …
Only moral reflection and moral honesty can confront the demons that hurt us … the roar of hell that frightens us … the madness of hatred that raises a fist rather then offers a hand …
And sadly, I’m not always sure about the role of the Christian Faith in this task …
Across parts of this country, where churches are a dime-a-dozen, tall steeples and country chapels, we find the worst cases of racism and bigotry, women abused and denied their rights, children mistreated, while pious preachers talk about love, and turn a blind eye to the hatred surging through the pews of their churches …
Those who do not know the name of Jesus will have an easier time of it when they stand before the LORD of heaven and earth [Matthew 10.15].
Easier than those who claim the name of Jesus and do nothing to change the world … who sing hymns on Sunday and allow hatred to flourish on Monday … who bow their heads and fervently pray to Jesus, and still live in ignorance and fear.
Not everyone who says, ‘LORD, LORD,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven … Jesus will say to them, I never knew you [Matthew 5.21-23].
It will be far better on the day of judgment to stand before the LORD without a shred of faith, then to stand before the LORD with the pretense of faith … the trappings of religion without the heart of religion …
On the day of judgment, only one thing will stand in the judgment hall of God, and that’ll be love …
So love for all you’re worth … be of good cheer … be kind and generous … work for justice, wherever you can … because justice is love at work.
Love is the heart and soul of a living faith …
Love is the heart and soul of a living hope …
Love is the heart and soul of everything God is … and everything we hope to be.
Faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love …
Amen and Amen!
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