January 7, 1018 The Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Poor In Spirit

Today we begin a new series of messages, based on the Beatitudes.  The Beautitudes are a section of Scripture that I was surprised to realize I have not used as a series of messages.  Outside of a couple of sermons with the context of the Sermon On the Mount, I have not preached on the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes serve as the introduction to the Sermon On the Mount, and as the Sermon On the Mount is one of the most important parts of all the Scriptures, the Beatitudes – as the beginning of that passage – are of great importance, as they set the tone for all that follows.

The Sermon On the Mount – and all that it contains – also happens to contain some of the most radical, most challenging words ever spoken.  They are the epitome of going from preachin’ to meddlin’.  Consider, for example, the words of Jesus in verses 10 – 12:

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  I’ll be honest, when I read those words I want to ask are you kidding me?  Don’t you find those words to be incredibly challenging?  Do you want to be persecuted, and then rejoice about it?  Do you want to be insulted and have people say things about you that aren’t true? 

The Beatitudes are beautiful words, but they are very challenging words as well, and let’s hear them now.

Matthew 5:1-12 –

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,

2 and he began to teach them.  He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Before speaking about the poor in spirit, I want to speak about one matter related to the Beatitudes in general, and it is this –

The Beatitudes challenge us to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to true life.

I have often commented on the fact that Jesus sometimes spoke in what we would call opposites, meaning that Jesus would make a declaration that stated the opposite of what was a generally accepted view about life.  He said, for instance, that the last will be first, and the first will be last (Matthew 20:16) and you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25-28).

The reason he did this, I believe, was to make plain the reality that the world in which we live can condition us to accept a view of life that is not only misleading, but an outright lie.  To seek power, to seek to be exalted above others, and to want to get ahead of everyone else, Jesus plainly said, is a false presentation of what life should be.  So the Beatitudes are Jesus’ way of revealing that the expectations and aspirations of the world are, in many cases, wrong.

And this really gets to the heart of the Christian faith, I believe.  Faith is sometimes portrayed as being primarily about either how good a person is or about what they believe.  Don’t misunderstand me; I am not diminishing in any way the importance of living a life that is ethical and moral, and I also affirm that what we believe is important.  It is important to remember, however, that here is an element of faith that goes much deeper, and it is this – faith, as presented by Jesus, is the ability to live in a way that sees through the falsehoods and illusions that are presented to us and to embrace the reality of the life that he presents to us.

Allow me to give an example or two of what I mean.  Some years ago I visited an historical community in another part of our state (www.washingtonky.com).  It was a very interesting visit, particularly the church in that community that dated back many years, well into the 1800s.  There was a balcony in the church but the only way to get into the balcony was through two doors on the front of the building.  But there were no steps to the doors.  There were no steps because the balcony was for slaves, and the slaves would get into the balcony by climbing ladders, and then the ladders were taken down so that they could not escape during the service.  Here’s one of the things we can learn from that – when you live in the middle of an historical moment, you might not be able to recognize that what you are doing is completely and absolutely against the will of God.  It is hard for us to imagine that it was once perfectly acceptable in our country – and other countries – to own another human being as though they were property.  It was perfectly acceptable to buy and sell those human beings as though they were simply another commodity being taken to market.  It was so acceptable, in fact, that people could sit in a church, in a worship service, testifying of their belief in the God of this universe who created all people, and yet sit there while their slaves were placed in the balcony essentially as prisoners, and they would listen to sermons that upheld that way of living as not only right, but as the will of God.  When the minister spoke of that being the will of God they would nod their heads in agreement that it was what God wanted.  Hard to believe, isn’t it? 

There was a time when African-Americans could not vote, and that was, for many years, widely accepted.  There was a time when women were not only forbidden from voting, they were forbidden from from running for office and from engaging in many types of work.  Just last year our society awakened to the harsh reality of sexual harrassment that has been suffered by women for ages.  It was acceptable, in the minds of some men for many years, that it was their right to treat women in such a horrible manner.  Once those stories began coming to light, our society had a moment of reckoning and questioned how such actions were ever allowed to take place, with the full knowledge of many.  There are many other historical examples I could offer this morning but I hope you see my point – as we live in a particular historical context there are always things that we cannot see as wrong because our context tells us they are right and we are conditioned to think they are right.  What might we be missing now?  In fifty years, what might people look back to and say, how did they ever understand that to be acceptable?  How could they sit in church and believe that to be God’s will?

What Jesus seeks to do in the Beatitudes is to remove the blinders from our eyes so that we can see what it is that God wants us to understand about life and how we ought to live.

So what does it mean, then, when Jesus says Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?  What does it mean to be poor in spirit and why is the kingdom of heaven theirs?  It’s hard to understand what it means to be poor in spirit, I think.  For one thing, we don’t like that word poor.  Nobody wants to be poor, do they, even if it is poor in spirit.  I have been amused in the past week or so with the lottery fever that is sweeping the nation.  I will admit that it is a lot of money that is sitting there, waiting for that one in about a twenty trillion chance of being claimed.  I stood in line at a store the other day while someone bought a big stack of tickets.  I just wanted to pay for my candy bar and be on my way, but this person was purchasing a serious stack of lottery tickets.  I was tempted to say, you know, as much as you’re spending there, you would be a lot better off to keep that money in your pocket.  But I didn’t.  Who bought a ticket?  You don’t have to raise your hand and I’m not judging you if you did, because who doesn’t want to be wealthy, but I have to say, I find it amusing when people run out and buy a lottery ticket only when the jackpot gets to around half a billion dollars.  It’s as though they think $100 million?  Nah, that’s not really worth bothering about, because if you’re going to be wealthy, why not be really wealthy, right?   

In the time of Jesus, to be blessed meant to be wealthy.  Everyone knew that.  Everyone knew that connection.  There was no doubt that when you referred to someone as blessed you meant they were wealthy.  So when Jesus says that it is the poor in spirit who are blessed it would have shocked his audience into attention.  It was a moment that left the assembled crowd saying wait, what?  Did I hear that right?

That means that Jesus was telling people to rethink not only what it meant to be blessed, but to rethink who was blessed.  If you were poor, and most people in that day were relatively poor, it was an accepted view that it was because that is what God wanted.  God blessed those he loved and God chose to bless them and if you weren’t one of them it was for a very simple reason – God chose not to bless you.  Think about that for a moment – the far, far majority of people in the day of Jesus would think it impossible for them to be blessed.  They couldn’t be, because they were not wealthy.  And to make matters worse, because they believed that blessing came from God – especially financial blessing – it was God who had condemned them to their poverty and it was God who was withholding any sense of blessing from them.  There is still an element around today, and it’s called the prosperity gospel.  The proponents of the prosperity gospel don’t say it that plainly, and I don’t believe they understand themselves to be saying that God is condemning anyone to poverty, but the implication is still the same, and that implication is that God chooses to bless some and if you are not blessed, especially financially, well, you can make the connection yourself.

In saying blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus was presenting a way of looking at life that was very different from the accepted view of the time.  Jesus was saying, guess what?  The accepted widsom of the day is wrong.  You aren’t poor because that’s what God chose for you and wanted for you.  You aren’t unloved by God because you are poor.  On the contrary, you are blessed regardless of your financial or social station in life.  In fact, you might be blessed because of your lowly station in life.

Jesus was saying you could be blessed even if you were not wealthy.  Even if you had very little, God blessed you.  Even if you were poor, you were blessed by God.  But not just poor, but poor in spirit as well, which meant all the associated ills and struggles that came with poverty, which were many.  Even if you were ground down by the struggle of life, even if you were incredibly discouraged by how difficult life could be, even if you felt as though you were living a marginal existence of which no one cared, you could still be blessed.

That was a radical truth for people to hear in that day, but it was the truth.  The people who were teaching otherwise were wrong and they were teaching a lie and the people who are still teaching or implying the same today are wrong and are teaching a lie.

I think it would be to our benefit to ask the question, then, have we too narrowly defined who it is that God chooses to bless and who God chooses to love?  I have heard ministers confidently proclaim that God does not love certain groups of people, just as I’m sure the religious leaders in the day of Jesus did.  And I’m confident that the ministers today who confidently proclaim that God does not love certain groups of people are just as wrong as those in the day of Jesus who confidently proclaimed they also knew who God loved and who God blessed.  We are not the ones who get to decide who God will bless or not bless.  I have heard too many people over the years say something along the way of I don’t think God cares much about me.  And the primary reason why they would make such a comment, I believe, is because they have been told that God doesn’t care about them.  The truth is, however, that God does care very much about them.

When our kids were younger our family took a trip to Mammoth Cave.  It is a fasincating place to visit, particularly at one point in the tour.  If you have been to Mammoth Cave, you will remember the experience I’m about to relate.  There is a point, deep in the cave, when you enter a large room, about the size of this sanctuary  While in that part of the cave, the lights are turned out.  Most of the time, when we are in the dark, it’s not always that dark. Generally speaking, even in the dark, there is a bit of light coming from somewhere.  But deep in Mammoth Cave, when the lights go out, it is absolute darkness.  At that point, you literally cannot see your hand in front of you face.  Even when you move your hand just inches in front of your face it is impossible to sense any movement at all.  It only takes a few moments to feel a sense of panic, especially as it becomes very quiet and you wonder if everyone else has somehow slipped away and left you there!  At the moment when you feel the panic rising within, the guide strikes a match, and it is absolutely amazing how that little bit of light brings so much illumination to that room.  A little bit of light, in such darkness, truly brings a lot of illumination. 

As we have just come through the season of Christmas, where we speak often of Jesus as the Light of the World, let us remember that his light brings illumination to us in the form of having our eyes opened to the illusions and the lies of our world.  In the Beatitudes, Jesus seeks to open our eyes to the truth of life, and helps us to see beyond the illusions and the lies that our particular moment in time teaches to us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Indeed.  And the good news is, you are blessed!

December 31, 2017 Living Between the Mountaintop and the Valley

I attended college in northeast Tennessee, at Milligan College, near Johnson City. Growing up in northern West Virginia, in the foothills of the Alleghany Mountains, I felt as though those hills were very confining.  The valleys in my home area were very narrow, but in Tennessee, the mountains were further apart, with wide valleys and a much more open feel.  I very much enjoyed many outdoor activities available, such as rappelling, hiking, and mountain climbing.  Near the campus was Buffalo Mountain, shown in the picture below.

Buffalo Mountain was a fairly easy afternoon climb and my friends and I often enjoyed climbing to the top of the mountain. There was one particular spot at the top of the mountain that has an absolutely breathtaking view, especially when you walk out onto an overlook of rock that stuck out rather precariously.  The rocky overlook was a fairly good-sized space and it is possible to walk right out to the edge and peer over and see the very long drop back down the mountain, although I tended to crawl out on my hands and knees, as I was a bit uneasy standing on the edge of that precipice.

There’s something euphoric, I think, about being on a literal mountaintop and surveying all the valleys that stretch out before you.  Although it’s a lot of work to get to the mountaintop, there is a sense of peace as you gaze into the valley and know you are far removed from all the problems and stresses of life in the communities that fill the valley far below

This morning we are talking about Living Between the Mountaintop and the Valley.  It seemed to be a good place to conclude one year and begin another.  Let’s read the story of the Transfiguration, where Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain and there is transfigured before them.

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them.

3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Allow me to share a few lessons from this passage –

We need our mountaintop experiences.

For me, church camp was always a mountaintop experience.  I spent a good deal of my summers, beginning in elementary school through my early college years, going to church camp, and my experiences there were some of the most profound in my life.  A week of church camp in the summer provided me with the strength to get through a year of school.  Many times, in the middle of the school year, I would look back upon the time I spent at camp and find great encouragement from that time.  Last summer, while working at camp, I was touched as I listened to some of the students talking with the camp caretaker.  They were so impressed with the idea of living at the camp year round.  You mean you live here?  All the time? they asked.  You are so lucky, getting to live here.  We wish we could be here all the time!  I can remember feeling the same way when I was a student, wishing I could stay at camp.  At the time, I understood those experiences to be a source of strength and encouragement for me between summers, helping me to get through each school year, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to understand how they continue to be life-changing and life-shaping experiences for me.

For some people, their mountaintop experiences came in other ways.  The context of the experience doesn’t matter as much as having the experience.  I hope that worship can be a mountaintop experience for you.  I understand that our experience of worship can vary quite a bit from week to week, and there are times when you might come for any number of weeks – or longer – and not get that sense of a mountaintop experience, but I hope it does come at some point.

We need those special encounters with God.  We need those moments that lift us above the daily grind of life.  We need those moments where heaven meets earth and the divine comes right into our lives.  Those moments don’t come every day in my life.  Sometimes, those really moving encounters are few and far between. Sometimes those encounters come totally out of the blue and other times they come because we place ourselves in a position where they can happen.  But one of those encounters is enough to provide spiritual fuel for a long time.

Peter, James, and John would certainly have their share of powerful and profound experiences with Jesus, but this one was special, and as difficult as it was for them to understand the experience, it was one that touched them in a very deep and profound way. 

We need people to share our journey.

I don’t know why Jesus seemed to favor Peter, James, and John, but he seemed to be closer to those three than the other disciples.  The gospels mention other times when Jesus favored Peter, James, and John, such as in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he took those three further into the garden with him than the others.  If we attempted to list the names of the other disciples from memory we might have a difficult time of it as, outside of the list of their names, some of them are barely mentioned in the New Testament.

But Jesus was, I’m certain, very close to all twelve of the disciples, and his relationship with the twelve reminds us of the powerful need we have in life of being in relationship with other people. We are social creatures; we are not meant to live in solitude.  And when we look around at the prevalence of social media and the powerful force it has become in the lives of so many it is but one more reminder of that need God places within us for relationships with other people.

Aren’t you grateful we do not walk through this life alone?  Aren’t you grateful for the people that God has brought into your life?  Can you imagine life without those people who celebrate with us in the difficult times but also walk with us through the valley, the people who will sit and weep with us, mourn with us, and love us when we feel as though we cannot continue?

Jesus surrounded himself with close friends because that is what we need in life.  We need, in particular, people who will be encouragers for us.  Think of Barnabas, in the book of Acts, whose name meant encourager.  You might be surprised to learn that Barnabas was not his given name.  His name, actually was Joseph (Acts 4:36) but he was known as Barnabas because that name meant Son of Encouragement.  Imagine being known for all of history as an encourager – now there is a legacy!  I could give you so many examples of people who have served as encouragers to me, but I’ll share just one this morning.  In a previous congregation where I served, at the conclusion of one service, one of the members shook my hand and said, Dave, that was a really good message today.  I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.  Thank you for sharing it today.  My first impression, honestly, was to be disappointed, because we had a music program that day and I didn’t preach.  I thought she must have slept through the service and didn’t notice there was no sermon that day!  Upon reflection, however, I realized it was because her habit was to say something encouraging to me every week after worship.  It was that she didn’t notice I hadn’t preached; she just did what she always did, which was to offer an encouraging word to me.

We leave the mountaintop and enter the valley because that is where so much of life is lived and that is where so many people live.

We all have that one place where we could just camp out forever.  I’m going to assume that for many of us that place is the beach.  Am I right?  I have to admit that I have a bit of a difficult time with those who go to the beach in the midst of winter.  Here we are, suffering in the frigid temperatures of this week, and what do those people at the beach do – they post pictures of themselves soaking up the sun on the beach!  And what do I do?  I delete them from my list of Facebook friends so I don’t have to see those pictures!

My mother-in-law lived on the beach at Tybee Island, Georgia for 18 years, and we loved to visit there.  The beach is one of the few places in the world where I can be content just sitting.  I look out at the water and think, I could sit here forever.  Now she lives on a lake in northeast Georgia, and though I really miss the beach I love the lake as well.  The lake has over 900 miles of shoreline winding through the hills of northeast Georgia and islands dot the lake.  Some of them are smaller than this room but others can cover a couple of acres.  I love to go out on the lake and pull up to one of the islands and sit on the little beaches that surround them.  It’s incredibly peaceful.  It’s quiet, there are no phones ringing and no to-do lists.  There is only peace and quiet.  There was one particular island that I loved to visit.  I would pull the jet ski up to the little, rocky beach at the small island and sit quietly, waiting for the eagle who nested in a tree on that island.  On the occasions when I was privileged to watch that majestic creature swoop into its nest I was very much moved by the beauty of God’s creation, and of the peace and solitude of that place.  There were many times when I sat there and thought I could stay here forever. 

But, sadly, the mountaintop is not where most people live.  Most people live much of their lives in the harshness of the valley, where dysfunction and disease and conflict and loss and fear and violence and so many other problems overwhelm life. As wonderful as it would be to stay on the mountaintop, we must enter the valleys because that is where people live.  On a fortunate few occasions we get to visit the mountaintop and have that beautiful mountaintop experience, but that is not where we get to stay long.  Some people never make it to the mountaintop.  Some people spend all of their lives struggling to be free from the valley of poverty, of disease, of violence, of loneliness, of depression and despair, of fear and so many other struggles that fill that valley.

Peter, bless him, has an interesting reaction to being on the mountaintop.  He turns to Jesus and says Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.  Peter’s words were accurate but the sentiment behind them was a bit off.  It was indeed good for them to be there and to experience such a momentous occasion.  What a wonderful experience they shared; who wouldn’t want to stay there? 

But Peter’s desire to build some shelters and stay on the mountaintop was the wrong sentiment.  It was the wrong sentiment for this reason – after the transfiguration Jesus leads Peter, James, and John back down the mountain, back to reality, where there is chaos, confusion, and frustration.  Basically, back to every day life.  When you read ahead to the next story, you find the other disciples surrounded by a crowd and a man whose son who needed to be healed.  It was a chaotic situation and a reminder of why we prefer to be on the mountaintop and out of the valley.  I’m sure Peter, James, and John were thinking at that moment, can we go back up to the mountaintop and get away from all of this?  Isn’t that a reaction we often have to the chaos and suffering and struggles of the world?  Lord, excuse me, but I think I’ll go to my safe place, to my favorite place, that will insulate me from all this craziness in the world.  But here is an important truth for us to remember – any encounter with God that does not lead us down from our mountains, that does not lead us out of our buildings, and does not lead us out into the needs of the world around us is probably not a real encounter with God. 

A mountaintop experience – a true mountaintop experience – is one that compels us down from the mountaintop and into the valley, because that is where God can always be found – in the valley.  Isn’t that what the psalmist tells us in the 23^rd psalm?  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  There is no valley too deep for God.  There is no valley out of God’s reach.  There is no valley where God is not present.

Kayla Mueller is a name with which you might not be familiar.  She had been a captive of ISIS and was killed in 2014 as a result of a raid on the compound where she was held captive.  At the time of her death very few people knew she was a captive, as her kidnapping had not been made public.  Not long before here death she wrote a letter to her family, which the family made public after her loss.  Here is some of what she had to say –

I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c literally there was no else ... + by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall. I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it. I pray each day that if nothing else, you have felt a certain closeness + surrender to God as well + have formed a bond of love + support amongst one another.

Isn’t that an amazing testimony of courage and faith?  Her words, in a very powerful way, echo those of Paul, who also wrote of his faith while in prison, and who also wrote of being able to see the good in each situation.  I hope that if I were ever in a situation that challenged my faith that I could hold to it as strongly as Kayla.  For Kayla, the mountaintop came to the valley.  Even though she found herself, literally, in the valley of the shadow of death she shows no fear, as she knew God was with her.  Down from the mountaintop he came, and entered into the valley with her.

Some of you may be blessed to be on the mountaintop at this point in your life.  Some of you may be in the valley, where life is difficult.  Know that God is not far away on the mountaintop, but is in the valley with you.

December 24, 2017 What the World Needs Now Is...Love

A couple of weeks ago I walked onto an elevator at a hospital in Louisville.  This hospital has about the slowest elevators in the entire city and I was on the 9^th floor.  The elevator filled quickly with people going down to the first floor, a trip that would not be quick.  Two of the riders on the elevator were a man and woman, who were together; she a patient at the hospital, wearing her gown and attached to an IV tree, and he was holding on to her, helping to support her.  When the door closed he started talking to the rest of us, saying, I hope you all are having a very blessed day.  We all muttered a muted response.  You know how it is on elevators.  It’s as though there is an unwritten rule that everyone either is to look straight at the door or at the floor and not say anything, so there was a feeling of awkwardness as the man continued talking to us.  I don’t have any idea what her condition was, at least not in terms of the seriousness, but she did not look as though she felt well at all.  And perhaps that’s why the man was saying the things that he said.  He continued to speak, and as he spoke he got a little more emotional and direct.  He said I want you to know that I love each and every one of you.  To be honest, when a stranger in a hospital looks at me and says I love you, I get a little bit uncomfortable, but maybe it’s just me.

Now, let me ask you a question – how many of you have had a complete stranger in an elevator tell you they loved you?  In all my years of interesting experiences, that was a first for me.  And I’m fairly certain it was for everyone else on that elevator as well, because it was as though no one knew what to say in response.  I had a lot of questions running through my mind, such as can you love a complete stranger?  What motivated him to say those words to an elevator full of strangers?  And, most puzzling to me, why was it so hard for me to respond?

It is probably obvious to anyone who knows me very much at all that I am someone who holds their emotions close to my chest.  I am a person who is not demonstrative of my feelings, and many of you joke with me about my aversion to hugs.  I stand up here week after week, month after month, and year after year speaking about the need to love one another, so why was it, when someone told a group of people that he loved us, that none of us – including me – seemed to know what to do?

This morning we conclude our Advent series of messages titled What the World Needs Now, with a message on Love.  Of all the needs in our world, is there any that is as great as love?  If there is, it’s hard for me to imagine what it would be.

I am combining several passages for this morning’s Scripture texts.  The first two are not Christmas passages, per se, and the third one is a generally overlooked Christmas passage.  Each passage is about love, and technically speaking, any passage about love is a Christmas passage, because love is the heart of Christmas.  These passages are some of the most recognized and beautiful words ever penned about love.  They are also, we should admit, some of the most difficult.  I have not included the entirely of I Corinthians 13, but am using the heart of the passage, where Paul very powerfully writes of the definition of love.

I Corinthians 13:4-8 –

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.

John 3:16-17

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 1:1-5; 14 –

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is difficult to express how much those words have sustained me over the years, as I know they have sustained you, and millions of others as well.

1.  I Corinthians 13:4-8.

I have read I Corinthians 13 at a lot of weddings over the course of my ministry.  It is a beautiful passage, isn’t it?  They are some of the most beautiful, poetic words imaginable.  But they also scare the daylights out of me.  Sometimes, at weddings, I half-expect at least one of the couple to stop me when I’m reading the passage to say, wait a minute – come again?  Are you kidding me?  I’m not sure this is what I was signing up for!

I know that my feeble efforts at love fall so very short of what Paul writes, but I try as much as my sometimes faint heart will allow me to live up to that challenge.  But still, I’ve not always lived up to love.  Sometimes, to be honest, I’ve not even tried very hard.  But I’m probably not the only one. Sometimes it’s hard to love people.  Sometimes it’s hard to love me.  Sometimes it’s hard to love a stranger on an elevator, but love is what the world so needs, and so does each of us.

Paul says that love never fails.  I believe that.  I have witnessed a lot of heartbreak because of people failing love.  I don’t think there is a person here who hasn’t felt the heartbreak of someone failing love.  And one of the great tragedies that occurs when people fail love is the scars that are created – scars that cause people to pull back from one another and create a failure to trust and create an atmosphere of hurt and bitterness.

We may fail love, but love itself never fails.  Love calls us ever higher.  Love calls us to live with grace rather than judgment, love calls us to forgiveness rather than bitterness, it calls us to move beyond hatred, it calls us to go places we would not ordinarily go, it calls us to people we would normally shun, and it asks of us what we sometimes feel we cannot do; but love will still ask of us all those things and more.

2.  John 3:16-17.

     

Who hasn’t been moved innumerable times at the words of John 3:16-17?  Those verses are probably the first words of Scripture most of us learned.  I don’t know when I first memorized them; perhaps long ago in Vacation Bible School or Sunday School, but I can scarcely remember a time when I didn’t have them committed to memory.  If only they could be as committed to our hearts as well!

We don’t always quote verse 17, but they should always be tied together, because Jesus rejects judgment in favor of love. There are a couple of reasons why I am not interested in judging people or preaching condemning sermons.  One is because I used to be much more condemning of people.  Under pressure of the crowd mentality I sometimes joined in the chorus of condemnation or ridicule of individuals or groups.  I wish I had stood up for people instead of joining in with the crowd, but there were times when I gave into the mentality of the crowd.

Another reason why I am not interested in condemning people is because I do not want to lend my voice to the creation of an atmosphere that leads to the oppression, ridicule, or rejection of other people.  I don’t want to add my voice to the harsh chorus of condemnation that is far too prevalent in many corners of the religious community.  Too many people want to judge and condemn others while ignoring the parts of their own lives that would be worthy of condemnation by their own standard.

And third, it communicates the idea that we must somehow earn or deserve God’s love, which is not at all true.  We do not have to do anything to earn God’s love or to deserve God’s love.  The very fact that we exist is all the reason God needs to love us, and anyone who communicates, in any way, that we must earn or deserve God’s love is teaching a falsehood!

3.  John 1:1-5; 14.

     

The words of John’s gospel, in what might be the most overlooked of Christmas passages, where he tells us that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  I am always hesitant to say anything about Greek in a message because it sounds pretentious.  Every seminarian, after only one Greek class, suddenly fancies himself an expert in Greek, and I am very far from an expert.  What I did learn in Greek class many years ago, however, is that verse 14 could be translated the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.  I love that way of translating the verse!  Imagine, the God and creator of this vast, unending universe became one of us, lived among us, walked the dusty roads, drank water to quench his thirst, ate the fruits of his own earth to still his hunger, and, in the greatest act of mercy and grace, gave his life for us!

At this time of year I enjoy the beauty of the church, with all the lights and decorations.  Sometimes, at the conclusion of a service, when everyone is gone, I like to sit for a few quiet moments here in the sanctuary, with the lights setting a mood for reflection and meditation.  Tonight, after the Christmas Eve service, I will take a few minutes and sit and enjoy the peace and quiet of the moment before going home.  It is a wonderful moment, after the beauty of that service, to enjoy those moments, soaking up the surroundings and thinking of the love of God.

It is the love of God that is the foundation of Christmas, and the foundation of all things.  The lights that illuminate the trees and decorations in our church bear testimony to Jesus as the Light of the World, the Light that, according to John, came into this world and pitched his tent among us, to live with us, and to redeem us.

On this Christmas Eve, allow Jesus, the Light of the world, to keep you now and forever in his love!