November 11, 2018 I Corinthians 13, A Guide for Life: The Final Words - Faith, Hope, and Love

This morning we conclude our series of messages from I Corinthians 13, and I will read the text from the King James Version. At the beginning of this series I said that at some point I would use the KJV, so I do want to turn to that translation this week. After several weeks of using modern translations, the King James Version will most likely sound very different to your ears.

I don’t know if you have noticed, but for a number of weeks there has been a collection of balloons at the roof in the back corner of the sanctuary. They got loose during a birthday party a while back and there were a bunch of them floating at the ceiling, and then for most of this series there were just three, so I have been thinking of them in relation to the last verse in this passage – these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. I find it very interesting that now there is just one, so there floats our love balloon I guess we could say.

Follow along with me as I read, for the final time in this series, I Corinthians 13:1-13, this time from the King James Version –

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I hope you will take the time to reread this passage in several different translations. Doing so, I find, is very helpful in gaining a greater understanding of and insight into what Paul has to say.

I will focus on the final verse of the passage, where Paul concludes with a nice three-point outline – faith, hope, and love, as he writes and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. What I really find interesting is that after twelve verses of expounding upon love, Paul suddenly reminds us of faith and hope as well. For twelve verses he doesn’t mention faith and hope at all, at least not specifically (although I think we can say they are always implied), and then suddenly puts them into the mix with love. He does so, I believe, because all three words – faith, hope, and love – are inextricably bound together. It is as though he is reminding us that the three exist together and cannot be separated. Where you have any one of the three, you find them all. Where you find faith, you also find hope and love. Where you find hope, you also find faith and love. Where you find love, you also find faith and hope.

So let’s take a look at each of these three, beginning with faith.

Faith.

I think it is important to distinguish between faith and belief. That might sound like a strange statement, because too many people put faith and belief together, as though they are the same, as though they are synonyms or two sides of the same coin, but I do not see them as the same. (I want to add, at this point, that after both services I was offered very good explanations for the difference between faith and belief. After the first service someone told me that belief is believing in what God has done in the past, while faith is believing he will do the same in the future. After the second service someone told me that belief was believing a chair would hold me, while faith was sitting in it. I like both of those definitions very much). Belief, for many, is defined as the acceptance of, and adherence to, a list of statements, such as doctrines. I will say that I believe in certain things, but to me, faith is separate from any list of beliefs I might have. Belief is what I think and the doctrines to which I hold, but faith has to do with the more practical ways in which we live. I have, for instance, a particular belief about what the book of Revelation means and how it should be interpreted, and I think that it is helpful and good to have those particular beliefs, but it is my faith to which I hold in times of loss and to which I turn to be sustained in times of difficulty. When I have experienced times of great difficulty and trials, for instance, I never said, I am so grateful for my belief about the differences between pre-millennialism and post-millennialism. I never said, I am so grateful for my belief about how I interpret the passage about the seven churches mentioned by John in the book of Revelation. I never said, I am so grateful for my belief about how to interpret the number of the beast, because that is what is getting me through this time of difficulty. No, what I held to was my faith that God was with me no matter what I was experiencing, and knowing that whether or not I came through the difficulty unscathed or if I came through it with many scars I knew and trusted that God was with me and would never leave me. I can believe certain things, and I think it is important to believe them, but faith is when my beliefs are put to work in the real world of everyday life.

What sometimes happens with beliefs, unfortunately, is this – people are told they must adhere to a list of beliefs and their personal theology must line up with an official theology and they are told that is what matters most and they must accept those in order to be considered a Christian or to be considered acceptable as a person. When I was in college I visited a church that had two identical banners, one hanging on the right side of the stage and one on the left. The banners contained a list of ten precepts, or beliefs, and stated that one must adhere to those ten precepts in order to be a Christian. I read down the list and started checking them off in my mind. Number one? Check. Number two? Check. Number three? Check. On down the line I went, and I was doing really well, checking off every one of them, until I came to number ten, and I simply could not agree with number ten. I guess I could have looked at in this way – nine out of ten is pretty good. Nine out of ten would be a 90% score on a test and in my mind a 90% would be a good grade. But here is the problem with that list – it presented those ten beliefs as requirements, meaning you could not get nine out of ten and be okay; you had to line up perfectly with all ten, and number ten, to me, was a deal breaker because it was a very peripheral belief and to make it absolutely essential was wrong and a violation of the personal integrity of each individual to make their own decisions about what they will believe. To say that all ten of those doctrines were essential was to impose a system of belief upon people that was not at all representative of the true nature of faith, and it was something that I simply could not accept.

To draw people into a relationship with God we do it by the presentation of faith, not by requiring them to sign on to a list of beliefs or doctrines that we decide are the ones most necessary. I understand that in these uncertain times some people want theology presented to them in very stark, black and white, specific ways, but I do not believe that leads to a healthy personal faith and I believe that each person must struggle and contend with faith in a personal way and come to their own conclusions about what beliefs they will accept and what beliefs will be important to them. At some point, we do indeed need to disciple people in their faith and help them with their questions and we need to give them a Biblical and theological foundation, but what people most need to hear is that when life is tough, as it so often is, is that God will be there for them. You can put that in the form of a doctrinal belief, I guess, but it is an expression of faith to actually live that truth when difficulty comes. People need to hear that when they feel they have nowhere else to turn there is a place to turn, and that is God. People need to hear that when they feel rejected by others they are accepted by God. People need to hear that when they feel no one loves them or cares for them that God loves them and cares for them. That is faith, and faith isn’t something that is simply an agreement with a theological statement someone presents to you. Faith is rather, a way of life. Faith is a way of living out the truths we have accepted about God.

And, as it is my faith, no one can ever take it from me; it is God’s gift to me and mine to accept or reject. When I was in seminary my classes sometimes had visitors who was there to record the words of the professors in the hope of finding evidence that they should be removed from the classroom and fired from their positions because they were not “properly” presenting faith. It was a time when some wanted to impose a particular system of beliefs upon others. One day, one of those visitors asked me if the professor had ever said anything that was a threat to my faith or if he had sought to take away my faith. I thought then, as I do now, that the question was absurdly silly. No one can take my faith away from me. My faith can either be embraced or rejected, but only by me. It can never be taken, as though it were a simple object that could be stolen away by a thief.

Hope.

Is it possible to be hopeful today? Is it just me, or does it seem that there is a conspiracy against hope pretty much every day? It’s just that there is so much wrong in our world that it would be understandable to say I’ve given up on hope. But here’s what I think about hope in today’s difficult, contentious world – hope is a shaking of the fist in the face of all that which says it is foolish to have hope. Hope is actually an act of rebellion in our world, it is an act of defiance against all the pessimism and doubt that surrounds us. Hope is an act of rebellion and an act of defiance against all of the troubles and all of the difficulties and all of the cynicism of this world. Hope is a refusal to be worn down and defeated by all those challenges that seem to make hope impossible. Hope says I’m not giving into cynicism. I’m not going to be pulled down by the contentious spirit that has overtaken our world. I’m not going to stop believing not only that things can be better, but I will believe that things will be better. I will believe that when the Lord’s Prayer asks us to pray for God’s kingdom to come that it will indeed come, and when it comes it will wash away the hatred and the hopelessness and the violence and all the things that run counter to God’s kingdom. When God’s kingdom comes, we will see violence and hatred and hunger and all those things which weigh us down pass away.

Some might say that hope is wishful thinking, simply holding to some kind of unrealistic desire of what might be. No, hope is attached to something very real. Wishful thinking would be similar to what I said yesterday to Tanya. We both walk early each morning, but on weekdays we do not walk together because of our different schedules (she is out earlier than I am). On Saturdays we walk together and before we went out to walk yesterday, I said maybe if I go outside in shorts and a T-Shirt and believe it will be warm, it will be warm, instead of 24 degrees. I could hope and believe all I wanted but it was still going to be cold, because my hope was not tied to anything real that could make it possible, therefore it was nothing more than wishful thinking. When Jesus told the synagogue official that his daughter was not dead but simply asleep, and those who were gathered laughed at him, they did so because they could not dare to hope that something so amazing could be true (Mark 5:21-43), but it was true because it was tied to the reality of Jesus. When Jesus walked to the tomb of Lazarus and commanded that the stone would be rolled away, Lazarus’ sister Martha could not begin to hope that her brother was moments from resurrection (John 11:38-44), but it was true because it was tied to the reality of Jesus. When Jesus looked upon the crowds with compassion as they followed him and commanded his disciples to give them something to eat, neither the crowd nor the disciples could begin to hope that so many people would be provided food in such a miraculous manner (Matthew 14:13-21), but it was true because it was tied to the reality of Jesus, and on and on we could go about the examples of hope that we find in Scripture.

Love.

After all I’ve said about love over the past weeks, what is left to say? How about this – we need a lot more love in our world!

As I said last week, the love of God has always been my theme, and always will be. I have encountered plenty of people over the years who have told me that if you talk too much about love and grace, as I have done, you are condoning anything and everything. I don’t believe that to be true. There are many things about our society that concern me greatly and of which I do not approve. But I must proclaim my belief that the gospel is above all a gift of grace, something totally and completely undeserved, but given to us anyway. By emphasizing the gift of grace, I don’t believe I am at all condoning or sanctioning sin and rebellion against God; I am simply agreeing with Jesus when he said God did not send the son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him (John 3:17). There is a great danger in wanting to play the card of judgment, rather than that of love, as judgment is a two-edged sword. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:1-2 not to judge because when we do, we bring judgment upon ourselves as well. We may want to call down fire from heaven at times upon this world, but that fire may fall upon us as well.

Luke’s gospel tells us the story of the woman who approached Jesus in the crowd, seeking to be healed (Luke 8:43-48). She had suffered for twelve years with a hemorrhage, and she believed that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ cloak she would be healed. Now there’s hope! There are many fascinating elements in that passage, one of which is that Jesus was not at all judgmental toward this woman. Do you ever wonder why people who are suffering are often judged for their circumstances? There is a reason, I believe. It is a way of excusing one’s self from an obligation to help those who are suffering and in need. If one can find a way to blame people for their circumstances, then it is possible to excuse one’s self from helping them. After natural disasters I am always waiting and ready to cringe, because so often there is someone from the religious community who will step forward and blame the victims, saying it is God’s judgment upon them. Saying such a thing, judging people in such a way, becomes, then, a very convenient way to be removed from the calling to help people. Notice also that when the woman came before Jesus she was trembling with fear, Mark says in verse 33. Perhaps she was trembling because she thought he’s a religious person, and those religious people can be tough. But Jesus isn’t tough with her, he isn’t judgmental, and he isn’t critical; he gives her hope and healing. Jesus didn’t scold here, and he didn’t say, why didn’t you come to me sooner? Why did you wait until you ran through all your money and tried every other solution first? Why am I always the last resort for people? Why can’t I be the first resort for a change? Jesus said none of those things, because he loved the woman.

And so, in closing this series of messages I will say that love is the foundation of everything about our faith. It is the foundation of everything we do as a church. It is the foundation of the entirety of Scripture. It is the foundation of God’s work in this world. It is love that makes faith and hope possible. So let us go forth in faith, hope, and, above all, love! 

November 4, 2018 I Corinthians 13, A Guide for Life: When It All Passes Away

Though I don’t remember who it was, or the circumstances in which it was said, someone once told me, you know Dave, you have basically one sermon.  Every sermon you preach follows the same theme.  I don’t know if they meant that as a criticism or as a compliment, but either way I would say it’s basically true.  All of what I have attempted to say over the years, at times in very muddled and stumbling ways, has been about the love of God.  That’s pretty much my one theme.  I decided long ago if I was going to have one basic theme in my sermons that ought to be it –the love of God.  That doesn’t mean I consciously ignore other themes, but everything comes back to the love of God as primary because that is the great theme of Scripture and of our faith.  And I know it sounds overly simplistic to say that everything ought to come back to the love of God, but the truth is, it is easy to get sidetracked into other matters, and that often happens in churches.  So if I have one theme in my messages, if we have one approach in all of our ministries, and if we have one theme in our worship services, let’s have it be the theme of the love of God, because that’s what it ought to be, and everything else we do and say should be a way to help us to better understand and to live that one basic truth.

Continuing with our series of messages from I Corinthians 13, that is the theme – the love of God.  Paul has a lot of underlying themes in this passage, but love and the love of God is the overriding theme.  This morning I am going to read from a rather new translation that you probably have never heard of, and it is called The Passion Translation.  Like The Message, it translates the words of this passage into language that sounds very different from what we are accustomed to hearing, but it is a very good translation, I believe.

I Corinthians 13:1-13 (The Passion Translation)

1 If I were to speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, yet I didn’t express myself with love, my words would be reduced to the hollow sound of nothing more than a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing.

3 And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.

4 Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance.

5 Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense.

6 Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong.

7 Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.

8 Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten.

9 Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, 

10 but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.

12 For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood.

13 Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.

I like that version, and I hope that you do too.

This morning, I want to use verse 10 as a touchstone for what I will say.  Verse ten says that when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away.  I like that verse – when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away.  What that means, I believe, is that we are living with a lot of the partial in this life.  We are living in a kind of shadow world, a shadow world that is a very, very dim version of the reality that God intended for creation.  This world is not yet where God wants or intends for it to be.  What we see is just a little bit, just a portion, of what God desires.  When we experience the greatest joys and beauties in life, we are experiencing moments that give us an inkling, a glimpse, into what will one day be.  You know what kind of experiences I mean.  I’m speaking of those transcendent moments in life, when we feel lifted above and beyond the cares and the struggles in life, the moments when we feel the fullness of love and blessing in our lives, and the moment when the powerful movement of God washes over us.  Those moments can be few and far between, and too fleeting when they come, but they are powerful moments, and they are moments that put us in touch with a greater experience of God and the presence and the love of God.

I also like the final sentence in this passage, and I want to read it again and offer a few thoughts about that verse before moving on.  The last sentence of that passage says, so above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.  That’s an interesting way to portray love, isn’t it, as though it is somewhat elusive, something that must be pursued and in some ways, certainly, it is.  Love does not always come naturally to us, because at times, self-interest takes over, so pursuing love has to be a very conscious effort, and a conscious effort that is ever on our mind. In my younger years I used to run a lot.  Now I walk mostly, with just a bit of running, because running for so many years did a bit of damage to my joints.  My joints ache, I have a torn meniscus in my right knee, my other knee often hurts, my feet hurt, but the good news is that it’s not from age; it’s just the wear and tear of all those years of running (at least that’s what I tell myself).  One of the things I did to keep me motivated to run each day was to run in races – 5K and 10K races.  Those races were great motivation to run every day because I didn’t want to be unprepared for a race.  And what I liked about running in those races, aside from keeping in shape, was that they had a very simple goal – get to the finish line as quickly as possible.  I do so much better when I have a very clearly stated goal, such as getting across the finish line as quickly as possible.

To expand on the analogy of running, here are a couple of things to remember.  The first is a question – what is the prize for which you are running in life?  Running can mean you are running from something as well as to something, but there is a difference in those two perspectives.  Running from something, it seems to me, is more fear based, but running to something is the pursuing of something good, and hopeful, and this passage is very much one of hope.  We can run from our problems and worries or we can run to the goal of a life that is rooted in love and not fear.  The prize to which we are running, then, ought to be that of love.  Second, running reminds me of the importance and the need for being with others.  I often ran with a friend, and it was very helpful for me to do so.  When I did not feel very motivated, my friend helped to motivate me.  My friend pushed me and challenged me when I needed to be pushed and challenged, so I don’t know how well I would have done if I had been entirely on my own.  We do better when we are with others, don’t we?  That’s why I believe attending worship is so helpful and so important, because when we gather here together we find strength, comfort, and encouragement as one body.

This passage is also, I would say, a passage of prophecy, specifically, a prophecy of hope.  I don’t imagine many people think of this passage as a prophecy, but it is.  It is a prophecy because it gives us that glimpse into what life will be like when the will of God comes completely into being.  We’re certainly not there yet, are we?  It is easy to be impatient waiting for that to come, and odds are we will not see it come in its completion, but one day it will come to pass.  Paul is writing about the reality that all the things that are antithetical to love will one day pass away, and while we are living in times of difficulty and times of challenge, these words are a promise – they are a promise that things will one day be different. 

So now I want to turn our attention to what fades away, or passes away.  What fades away, what passes away, are the things that keep us from experiencing love in its fullest capacity.  So let’s think for the rest of our time this morning about what will pass away.  Some things need to pass away.  Some things are way overdue in their need to pass away.  The good new is – the days are numbered for those things that must pass away!  Here are some of the things that need to pass away, and one day will pass away.

Fear, worry, and anxiety will pass away. 

The call to worship for this morning (Matthew 6:25-34, from The Message – If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.  Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.  If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.  Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes) is about worry and anxiety, but in a different translation than we are used to hearing, and it’s a passage from which I have preached on more than one occasion.  I understand that fear, worry, and anxiety will never completely fade from our lives, but they do not have to hold us captive.  It’s amazing how some things, at the time, can seem so huge and so ominous.  Years ago, when I was an associate minister, I was asked to lead a youth church softball league.  I was the new guy in town so I imagine I was an easy mark to draft for such a task.  A group of about a half dozen people came to see me one day and asked if I would take on the task and I agreed, even though I knew nothing about organizing or running a softball league.  The final words of the group, as they left my office, were, if you need any help, any help at all, don’t hesitate to let us know.  That was the last I ever saw any of those people.  I never saw them or heard from them again.  I’m certain they changed their phone numbers and their addresses.  In fact, I think they all went into the witness protection plan!  I was in the church office the evening before the first game, trying to complete the schedule and other matters, and I was so stressed out that I thought my head was going to explode.  The next day, at the first game, everything was a mess.  The schedule had conflicts, there were many matters I did not have covered, people were upset, and I was ready to leave town.  In retrospect, what is interesting is that I had forgotten all about the stress and anxiety of that moment until a few days ago, as I was working on this message.  What seemed like such a huge deal at the time, it turns out, really did not matter, certainly not in the grand scheme of things.  Why did I worry so much about something so inconsequential in life?  I like to turn things around, from bad to good, so I believe we can learn from such moments, so here is what I believe we can learn from those moments of stress and anxiety.  Those moments can help to prepare us for the much greater difficulties of life, those things that really do matter and that inevitably come our way.  Those moments helped me when I was faced with much great difficulties, especially early in ministry, when I needed to learn how to deal with crisis situations, such as the time I was called to the scene of an accident where a young boy had been hit by a car.  I arrived at the scene to find a very difficult situation.  His injuries were very serious, his grandfather was on the ground crying and begging God to save him, and I was asked to go and tell his mother what had happened, and then to take her to the hospital.  Thankfully, he recovered and did very well, but I don’t know how I would have handled that situation if not for what I had learned from other moments of stress and anxiety.  Such moments also prepared me for the times sitting at the bedsides of people as they departed from this world, to hold their hand and think about how much we would miss them, but to hold to the hope that we would once again be together, as Paul says in verse 12, one day we will see face to face.

Hatred will pass away.  

Hatred is all around us and has been with us from the beginning.  It’s relatively easy for humanity to make progress scientifically and technologically.  We are constantly making better cell phones, faster and faster computers, and making advancements in so many other ways, but when it comes to learning how to love and rejecting hate, we have as far to go as ever.  The knowledge of humanity grows but the nature of humanity continues to struggle with the scourge of hatred.

When I was young, our family farm had a large field that stretched from the front of our house to the road.  In the spring it was a carpet of dandelions.  I don’t know how many seeds there are in a single dandelion, but I know that one dandelion will produce scores of dandelions.  In fact, one dandelion can produce enough dandelions to cover a field of several acres because those seeds produce many more dandelions that in turn produce many more.  That is a good example of how hatred – or love – can grow.  One action, one word, however small they may seem to be, is a seed that is planted in the soil of the human heart.  That action, that word, will in turn, plant other seeds of either love or hatred.  Verse 8 says love never stops loving.  No matter what. Love never stops loving when harsh and ugly and dehumanizing words are hurled at others simply because they are different in some way from the one with hatred in their heart.  Love never stops loving, even when hatred bursts into a grocery store or a school or a place of worship and takes lives. Love never stops loving even when the bomb of a terrorist takes lives.  In verse 7 Paul writes that love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.  We all need a safe shelter from the hatred in this world, and what a beautiful hope that one day we will indeed find it.  We used to think of churches as safe places.  We worship in sanctuaries, a word that means a safe place and a place of shelter, but that is no longer true, sadly.  Schools used to be places of safety but no longer are.  In spite of this tragic reality we must continue to believe and to proclaim and to work for the truth that love will win over hatred and that hatred will one day pass away.

Disease, suffering, and even death will one day pass away.

I am now early in my 10^th year here at First Christian, and I don’t believe I have ever seen a time when as many people from our congregation have struggled with health challenges and with difficult medical diagnoses.  Not a week that goes by that I don’t get at least one phone call from someone with a really big challenge.  Increasingly, it seems to be every day that I receive a phone call about those challenges, and sometimes several calls in a single day.  They are calls in which people share the challenges they face and ask for prayers.  It seems that for every two or three steps of forward progress made by medical science, disease takes four or five steps forward.  But we must remember that the promise of God is that disease will one day pass away and we will be free of the suffering that has so long plagued us.

And we look around the world and there is so much suffering.  So much.  Even in our own small community.  We serve lunch at God’s Kitchen, for those who need a daily meal.  Next week we will travel to the Diersen Center, to lead worship and to visit with the residents there.  When we visit with the women there we listen to them talk about their children from whom they are separated, and it is so heartbreaking.  Every week we have volunteers at the Serenity Center helping to pass out food to literally hundreds of people.  And beyond all this there is so much suffering that we don’t see, but the promise of Scripture is that one day all of this will be overcome, and all of this will pass away. 

And there is that great challenge, finally, that life is so temporary and will one day end.  On Friday evening I attended a gathering with Tanya and her coworkers.  Every fall they have a bonfire and time of fellowship and I go with her and I enjoy getting to know her coworkers.  In past years, when the company was smaller, I knew all of her coworkers but this year there were a lot of new people there and most of them I didn’t know.  About halfway through the evening, a disturbing realization hit me.  It was mind blowing to me and it was this – I was the oldest person there.  Tanya likes to hire young people and her office is populated mostly with people in their 20s and 30s, but it was still a jolt to be in the unfamiliar position of being the oldest person in attendance at a gathering.  I was tempted to ask the few people there who looked to be similar in age to me how old are you?  Please tell me you are older than me!  I couldn’t help but wonder, how did I so suddenly and so swiftly arrive at this point in life?  Where did the time go?  It seemed such a short time ago that I was one of those young people and most everyone was older than me, and now there I was, the oldest person present.  Life is so brief.  Life passes by so quickly.  Our sojourn in this life is but a moment. 

Early in my previous ministry one of the members of the church told me, you know Dave, if you stay here very long you are going to have a lot of difficult funerals to do.  And he was right.  It was a small congregation and a small community, and I got to know those people like family and they became an important part of my life and I did indeed, over the course of my more than eighteen years of ministry there, have many, many difficult funerals, including the person who said those words to me.  I’ve spent a lot of time with people as they take their last breath, and it becomes overwhelming.  I’ve officiated at hundreds of funerals, and I have many more to go, and that is overwhelming when I think about it.  Please understand that I don’t mean to be morbid, because that is not my intent.  It’s hard for me to imagine, though, if this were all there is.  I would be so discouraged and so in despair if I thought that life was passing by so quickly and that at the end of life there was nothing else.  Can you imagine, if we had nothing but several decades and then nothingness?  But I know there is more, and you do too.  The great, prophetic words of Scripture promise us that there is more.  While anxiety, worry, fear, hatred, disease, and struggle will all pass away, so will death.  As Christ was triumphant over death some day we will be as well.  In the passing away comes something new.  As the book or Revelation promises us God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).  While so much passes away, the great gift of life continues.  The gift of life, created in love and empowered in love, continues because of love, the great love of God!

October 28, 2018 I Corinthians 13, A Guide for Life: Always

This morning we continue our series of messages from I Corinthians 13, with today’s message, titled Always. 

Always is an interesting word.  As I spend a lot of time in my car, I listen to the radio quite a bit.  There are some songs that I will always listen to, even though I have heard them many, many times.  I will always listen to Let It Be, by the Beatles, My Sweet Lord, by George Harrison, and Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac.  Those songs always move me and I never tire of listening to them.  Others, however, will always cause me to change the channel.  Freebird, by Lynyrd Skynyrd or Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin will always prompt a change of channel.  It’s not that they aren’t great songs – they are – but, for some reason, I don’t need to hear them any more.

I Corinthians 13 is a passage of Scripture that always moves me.  No matter how many times I hear it, no matter how many times I read it, it is always a welcomed experience.  I have returned to the New International Version this week, even though I said I would use a different version each week.  The NIV uses the word from which I take my title this morning – always.  I read through a lot of other versions this week and love them, but they have different ways of expressing verse 7, which says that love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  I appreciate that Paul provides a 4-point outline for my message this morning, and I appreciate that he binds those points together with the word always.  Always.  That’s a powerful word, isn’t it?  It is a reminder that love is always true and always the standard by which we are to live.  Admittedly, we don’t always follow love, however.  I know I don’t, and I’m fairly certain you don’t either.  That’s not to critique myself or anyone else; it is simply an acknowledgement of our humanity, and part of the reality of our humanity is that we do not always demonstrate love.   At times, yes, but not always.  Sometimes we are overcome by pettiness, small-mindedness, vindictiveness, and all sorts of other behaviors and attitudes that fall far short of the ideal of love.  And I sometimes wonder, in this very transient day and age in which we live, can the word always apply to much of anything?  I certainly hope so, but I fear that it is less and less true that it does.

Follow along as I read I Corinthians 13 – (New International Version).

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love Always Protects

In this dangerous, violent world, protection is something that is often on our minds, especially self-protection.  A great deal of money is spent these days on equipment we hope will provide us with a greater degree of protection.  Here at the church we have been taking steps to provide a greater protection, including a soon-to-be installed system of security cameras.  I’ll be honest with you and say this – you can’t imagine how much I would rather not install that system.  I would so much rather see that money used for ministry purposes but there are some realities that we now have to consider, and providing security for everyone who comes into our facility is one of those realities. 

Increasingly, people are taking steps to secure their safety, including carrying weapons.  My father, who was a steelworker for many years, was also a gunsmith, so I grew up with a lot of guns around our family, and when I was young I used guns for sporting purposes, such as skeet shooting and target shooting, and I own guns that were built by my father so can say that I understand the attraction of weapons as a means of protection.  My thought about any steps of protection is this, however – mostly what those steps do is give us a sense of protection, even though there is no guarantee of protecting ourselves against the dangers and violence in this world.  What the past few decades have proven, I believe, is that we live more under the illusion of protection than the guarantee of protection, and this has been reinforced by the tragedy at the synagogue in Pittsburgh yesterday and two episodes in our own area – the tragedy of two people killed at a Kroger store in Louisville and the threats of violence made against schools here in Shelby County and Anderson County.  The reality is, no security system will guarantee our protection.  No weapon will guarantee our protection.  I don’t say any of this to cause unnecessary worry and anxiety about potentialities or to play upon our fears, but to speak what I believe to be a truth with which we must grapple, and it is the truth that protection is very difficult, but we must not allow what is happening in our world to paralyze us with fear.

But there is another element to protection as well, a very important element and it is this – we are called to offer protection to those who are vulnerable and those who populate the category that Jesus describes in Matthew 25:31-46 as the least of these.  Take some time to read that passage this week, and note that Jesus reminds us – commands us, in fact – to protect those who are vulnerable and those who struggle.  (31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.)  That passage is why we feed the hungry, why we visit the sick, why we visit those in prison, why we provide clothing and do other acts of ministry. Jesus calls us to offer that protection to the many who need it because love – real love – is not one that focuses only on self.  The love of God – the agape love of which the Scriptures speak – is a love that thinks beyond self, it is not concerned only with self; it is, rather, self-sacrificing.  As Paul says of love in Philippians 2:4, love leads us to the point that we are not looking after your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.

Love Always Trusts

My phone rings off the hook many days with scam calls (well, it doesn’t actually have a hook, as it is a cell phone).  I received a call on Friday that I was going to be arrested if I didn’t pay the IRS a certain amount of money.  I transcribed the message and honestly, it’s a bit hard to trust a message like this – It’s matter is very serious emergency and time sensitive we are calling you from investigation team of IRS.  We have just received notification regarding your tax filings from the headquarters and she will get expired in the next 24 working the cars and want to get expired after that custody by the local cops at her or serious allegations pressed on your name at the moment.  We can.  Read.  You know 5.  I.  Should 6 not.  Thank you.  Well, at least they were polite enough to thank me.  Here’s a general rule for me – I don’t trust any threatening message that does not contain at least two coherent sentences.  If you are going to scam me, at least put together a minimum of two coherent sentences!

It’s hard to trust, because experience sometimes teaches us to not to be trusting.  Some years ago, in a community where I was serving, I was asked to be the judge at a baby contest at a community event.  Even in my youthful inexperience I knew that was a bad idea.  I had heard enough people complain about the judging in baby contests to know that I should absolutely not accept such an assignment.  The person in charge, however, promised me that I would remain anonymous, and against my better judgment, I accepted.  I walked carefully around the babies, trying my best to not look like a judge, and wrote down my selections for first, second, and third place.  I turned in my results and stood off to the side, feeling safe in my anonymity.  Just before the winners were announced, the MC turned, pointed to me, and said to the crowd gathered, before we announce our winners I want to thank our judge for the baby contest – Dave Charlton!  Thank you Dave!  I’m not sure of the response of the crowd, as I was running for the hills at that point.  Suffice it to say, I would never again trust anyone who promised me anonymity in exchange for judging a baby context!

Here at church we receive a lot of requests for assistance, and we are very careful to do our due diligence, because there are people who try and scam churches and we want to be as careful as possible with the resources you entrust to us.  You work hard for your money, and we do not want it to be lost to one of the scams that come our way.  It bothers me to have to have a level of suspicion about requests for assistance, but if we do not, we will sometimes get scammed.

Some things are obviously scams, but others aren’t, and the difficulty is that we become less trusting and more suspicious about everything in general.  It used to be that we lived by the maxim that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Now it seems we live by a new maxim – don’t believe anything to be true.  To be honest, I think the suspicious natures we have developed are partly necessary to help us navigate a world where there are many who seek to take advantage of us.  Jesus does say, don’t forget, that we should shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).  At the same time, however, those suspicions and that mistrust tears at our social fabric as we become less willing to trust almost everything and everyone.

Is there any trust left these days?  Is there any trust left in our institutions?  How much trust is left in government?  How much trust is left in churches?  The financial scandals, the leadership scandals, and the abuse scandals in churches have destroyed so much of the trust that once was a given.  It is a sacred trust to receive people into our care.  It is a sacred trust to deal with children and young people.  It is a sacred trust to be given money for ministry.  What can be done to win back trust?  Well, love has a very large element of trust, and that is why that leap into love can be very difficult, because trust can be very difficult, but love cannot truly exist without trust.

Love Always Hopes

What gives you hope?  Do you ever feel hopeless about the state of the world?  What about young people today?  I think many of them feel rather hopeless about their future.  My generation and those that came before were, for the most part, very optimistic about the future.  We believed we were going to change the world!  We believed anything was possible!  The generations behind us, however, are far less hopeful.  If you have millennials in your family, you will find that they believe we have left them a world with an environment that is collapsing.  They believe they have fewer economic opportunities.  They believe their future is not as bright.  It is hard to see their sense of hopelessness, but it is a powerful force among that generation.

Things did not seem very hopeful in Paul’s day.  This is, let us not forget, someone who was martyred for his faith.  Yes, it is difficult today, but I think Paul might remind us that it was no cakewalk in his day either.  Paul writes a good deal about hope.  In Romans 8:28 he reminds us of this – we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Even though he does not use the word hope, those words exude a sense of it.  In the beautiful letter to the Philippians he writes in 3:13-14, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called my heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Once again, Paul does not use the word hope, but it takes hope to keep pressing on.  It takes hope to continue reaching for the prize.  It is hope that fuels us, it is hope that empowers us, it is hope that allows us to put one foot in front of the other on our most difficult of days, it is hope that reminds us that when we our overwhelmed with grief that there will one day be resurrection and reunion, it is hope that provides us with a reason to awake each day, to rise up and to have faith that we can overcome whatever comes our way.  Isaiah 40:31 is one of my absolute favorite verses, and it says those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isn’t that a great promise, that we will have a renewal of strength?  Who doesn’t need more strength?  Who doesn’t feel tired and weary, worn down by life’s challenges?  Who doesn’t want to soar above all of the difficulties of life, and who doesn’t want to rise above all of the challenges and difficulties that come our way?  Wouldn’t it be great to soar above all of life’s challenges?

Henri Nouwen said that hope is to keep living amid desperation.  Hope is knowing that there is love; it is trusting in tomorrow.

Loves Always Perseveres

One of the things that makes church unique among all organizations is that we are 99% volunteer driven.  That’s amazing!  After hours of work and days of work, volunteers offer even more hours in the ministry of our church.  After hours and days of meeting deadlines and demands at work, volunteers offer more time to our church.  I know that is tiring.  I know that brings weariness.  I know that makes you sometimes feel like quitting.  How often do you feel like quitting?  How often do you feel like giving up? Over my years of ministry, on a number of Sunday evenings, evenings when I was feeling very discouraged about things, I would write letters of resignation and then file them away.  Over the years I had amassed a lot of those letters.  I never showed them to anyone, and I never intended to turn them in, but it helped me to write them.  I no longer write those letters but there are occasions when I compose one in my mind.  It is in those moments that I turn to Paul for encouragement.  Paul knew a lot about perseverance.  Paul spent a lot of his time encouraging others to continue, to not give up.  In II Corinthians 4:17-18 he writes that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Peter knew quite a bit about perseverance as well.  In his first letter, 1:6-7 he writes in all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I want to close by sharing an illustration I heard recently, one that ties things together very well (thanks to Leigh Bond, of Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville, from whom I adapted this illustration).  I never took chemistry class.  After passing biology by a single point it didn’t seem like a good idea for me to try my hand at chemistry.  But I did receive a good chemistry/theology lesson recently, and it is about two elements, the first of which is sodium.  Sodium, by itself, is an unstable element, so when it is found naturally it is always in a combined form, bound to another element.  The second element is chloride, which is poisonous, so you do not want to ingest chloride in any form.  Most, if you not all of you, however, will do so in just a little while.  When you go to lunch, you will ingest chloride, although it will be combined with sodium, forming sodium chloride.  Do you know what sodium chloride is?  It’s salt.  It’s fascinating that two elements, when they are by themselves, are very different than when they are combined.  One, by itself, is unstable and the other, by itself, is poisonous.  Together, however, they become life-sustaining.  In a similar way, God links us together, as we are much more stable when linked to others.  This is actually the meaning of the word religion.  Religion means to bind together.  You see, when we are bound together with others, our lives are much richer.  When we are bound together with others, we are less likely to fall victim to the poisonous actions of hatred and vitriol.  I can’t tell you the chemical term for the linking of two elements I can tell you the theological term – love.  When the love of God bonds with us what does it do?  It helps us to persevere.  It gives us hope.  It helps us trust.  And it gives us protection and calls us to the protection of others.  And not just sometimes, but always.  Always!