Rev. Henley preached this sermon July 6, 2008.
The title of the sermon Love God, Love Each Other, implies that if we love God, we will love each other. It does not imply, if we love God, we might love each other a little, or we might love some and not others. Loving God leads us to love for everyone, all our sisters and brothers who share this fragile globe orbiting our Sun.
Do we love God? And, does God love us? Love implies relationship.
How do we know God loves us? Do we know because the Bible tells us so? 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, the Bible tells me so.
Our reading from Zechariah is from the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is written for a time when the tribes of the hills of Palestine were creating their identity as a “people of Yahweh.” They were developing a relationship with their monotheistic God who was helping them, they believe, not only to carve out a territory in the “promised land,” but who was also willing to be in a covenantal relationship with them.
And, our opening words from Matthew 11 when Jesus said, “Come to me, those who are…” are weary and burdened and “… I will give you rest…” implies relationship.
How do we know God loves us when we are out of work, have no place to live, and are hungry?
How do we know God loves us when we are betrayed by our spouse? How do we know God loves us when we have to struggle every day just to live? How do we know God loves us when we have no one turn to, no one to ask for help, no one who understands us?
How do we know God loves us when we are diagnosed with cancer and it is a long, uphill battle, and we have no one to drive us to the hospital for our radiation or chemo-therapy?
Do we know God loves because poets and preachers have been telling us for centuries that God loves us?
Jesus’ ministry was to his own people and in Matthew 5:17 he said, he came not to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, he said, I came to accomplish their purpose. And what he taught is this and it is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
I stop here to allow each one of us some time to ponder these two questions, how do I know God loves me, how do I know I love God.
[Musical meditation for one minute.]
I often wonder how I came to be here, here with you, in THE capital city of these United States, a capital city that stands tall in the world. What I am doing here? My life chances of being here, are very slim. I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, or even a prestigious university—I went to Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas – a good school, but nonetheless, not very well known. I am the first generation on either side of my family, that I know of, who has an undergraduate degree. To have a professional degree like a Master of Divinity, well, the life chances of that happening are almost non-existent. I didn’t even know how to get into graduate school when I applied at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
In all my dreams of making a difference, following God’s call, it never occurred to me that some day, I’d be here, in the place, as your minister. I say all this to make the point that somehow, someway, Some Thing brought me here. And when I begin to doubt myself, feel inadequate, out-of-my-depths, I tell myself that I am here because of God, and when I question my presence, I am questioning God’s will for me.
A few months ago, I was with someone from the church, and we were visiting his dying father in a nursing home. I brought my New Testament with Psalms, because as a chaplain I learned that people in the hospital like for me to read from Psalms. Well this parishioner said, read to him about Universalism. Read something from Jesus.
My favorite universalist story is the parable of the lost sheep. For me, more than any other story, it tells the story of God’s complete, never-give-up-on-anyone, all-inclusive love.
Now, I read the Bible and study it, but it is mostly in conjunction with preaching sermons, so I study it in those big, ol’ books like The New Interpreters Bible and the Anchor Bible Dictionary, and The Synopsis of the Four Gospels[hold up the Synopsis]. When I read and study during my prayer and contemplation, it is generally books on spirituality, spiritual direction, prayer, and meditation [hold up the book Cosmic Prayers].
When I tried to find the story of the lost sheep, I couldn’t find it. Right there, in the hospital, in front of someone who is very smart, knowledgeable about the Bible, theology, someone I admire a lot, I felt inadequate. Why, the man in the bed next to us, found something, and we read that, but I never found the lost sheep. And so, I began to question my presence in this congregation, and asked God, for the thousandth time, why? Knowing in that “why” was the implicit questioning of God’s wisdom and call from you.
On my time off in June, I was determined to buy a study Bible and begin to read it along with my other books of personal study. I went to the Life Way Christian store in Oklahoma City, and went straight to the Bible section. First, I had to buy one that was aesthetically and kinetically pleasing. I finally found one in the hundreds and hundreds of Bibles they had there. This one, soft, leather, nice colors for a Bible, don't you agree? [Hold it up]
Then I took it out of the box and opened it up. There at the top left corner, the very first thing my eyes saw was the parable of the lost sheep.
Serendipity. Coincidence. The mysterious working of God? I don’t know. What I do know is that the meaning of the moment always lies within. So, for me it was God working in my life—and yours—it affirmed my ministry here with you.
For so many years I didn’t know God was working in my life, I never thought about God loving me, and me loving God, and the responsibilities of that relationship. I took it for granted, and that is not a good thing.
Do we make a commitment to a life-partner and believe that is all there is to it? Relationships take work. To have a good one, takes time, takes attention, takes fidelity, takes integrity. Relationships take work.
To love God, IS to love God, and to love God IS to know God’s love. To love God is to live out that love and to do that we must love each other.
We see the homeless person, we don’t judge them, we just love them and say no to any negative thoughts how or why that person is homeless. When we see a homeless person, we open ourselves up to the reality, but for the Grace of God.
We see the suicide bombers, the starving in Palestine, the women of Afghanistan, the family in trauma next door, and we open ourselves up to the reality, but for the Grace of God.
In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus says,
23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
What these verses say to me, that to love God, to be in relationship with God, we need to recognize our accountability to each other as part of our relationship with God.
I don’t know what that will look like for you. I barely know what it looks like for me.
I do know this, we are all in this together—together with God—and it is a joyful thing, loving God, loving each other. What kind of God and what kind of relationship do we have? We are accountable you and I for all our relationships. We have to figure it out for ourselves.
Listen to Kabir again:
And what kind of God would we have
if a leaf’s prayer was not as precious to creation
as the prayer that God’s own son sang
from the glorious depth
of his soul—
for us.
And what kind of God would we have
if the vote of millions in this world could sway God
to change the divine
law of
love
that speaks so clearly with compassion’s elegant tongue,
saying, eternally saying:
all are forgiven—moreover, dear ones,
no one has ever been
guilty.
Blessed be, Amen, May it be so.
Reading I
Zechariah 9:9-12 NIV
Reading II
“What Kind of God?” by the Indian mystic Kabir (c. 1440–1518), translated by Daniel Ladinsky in Love Poems from God.
What kind of God would we have
if God did not hear the
bangles ring on
an ant’s
wrist
as they move the earth
in their sweet
dance?
And what kind of God would we have
if a leaf’s prayer was not as precious to creation
as the prayer that God’s own son sang
from the glorious depth
of his soul—
for us.
And what kind of God would we have
if the vote of millions in this world could sway God
to change the divine
law of
love
that speaks so clearly with compassion’s elegant tongue,
saying, eternally saying:
all are forgiven—moreover, dear ones,
no one has ever been
guilty.
What
kind of God would we have
if God did not count the blinks
of your
eyes
and rest in absolute awe of their movements?
What a God—what a God we
Have.