“Get Busy Living”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Text: 1 John 2:7-17; 4:7-21
Pastor Linheart's successful, 25-year-ministry came to an end with his retirement. The Board of Deacons at Emmanuel Baptist searched diligently and hired a new pastor, Pastor Don. In a short time, some found Pastor Don's ministry a little suspect. On his extensive visits to members, he would always ask about “the real scoop” on church life and individuals, and soon he had more dirty little secrets filed away than anyone was comfortable with. But it was when he began to use those little secrets to get his way in board and business meetings that people started to worry. The church divided into two camps. The deacons tried to call a congregational meeting but Pastor Don avoided it by not allowing anyone to make the announcement giving the required two weeks notice. Sunday after Sunday, it was not announced, until finally, during a service, Deacon Frank Fowler strode up to the pulpit. “I hereby announce a congregational …,” he said, but mid-sentence, the pianist began pounding out, “Have Thine Own Way Lord.” She was joined by the organist, Pastor Don began singing loudly into his lapel microphone. Before they could begin the second verse, however, Frank went over and pulled the organ power cord from the wall. Deacon Brian Maguire closed the lid on the piano. There was an awkward pause before Deacon Ray Bryson got up and walked over to the pastor. The veins in his neck were showing. Ray and Pastor Don were seething. Words were exchanged. In a minute, however, Ray appeared satisfied but as he turned to go back to his seat, his feet were tangled in the microphone cord and he fell. There was a gasp from the congregation. Some thought that the pastor had pushed Ray. Ray evidently did too as he bounced to his feet and hit the pastor square on the nose with his fist (an event that forever after gained him the nick-name, Sugar Ray). The pastor's wife screamed. She ran to help her husband. Within an instant, a majority of the congregation converged on the Communion table pushing, shoving, punching, the same communion table that bore the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The melee soon spilled over to an open space beside the organ. Two tenors and a baritone jumped the wooden railing of the choir loft and began exchanging punches with other members of the congregation. Mary Dahl, the director of the Dorcas Society, threw a hymnal at one of the tenors. The missile sailed high and wide and splashed down in the baptistery behind the choir. Sharon Carlson got on the piano and tried to restore order by playing “Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.” When another Ray Bryson right hook finally took the pastor down, someone grabbed the spring-flower arrangement from the altar and threw it high in the air in Ray's direction. Water sprinkled everyone in the area and a visiting Presbyterian, experienced complete immersion when the vase shattered against the wall next to his seat. The fight ended when the police entered the sanctuary.
At the Newton County Courthouse, the court officer, David Goldstein, a member of Beth Shalom's softball team looked at the reports for several minutes. Eventually, he peered over his spectacles and said, “I know some of you from the softball league. What are you doing? I'm not going to press any charges. I urge you to work this out within your own church. Your Jesus Christ may allow this sort of thing in his followers, but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not permit fistfights as a regular order of service.” And with that, the leadership of Emmanuel Baptist filed out quietly. They drove off in their cars, many of which, writes former Nixon presidential aide, Charles Colson, bore the bumper sticker, “God is with us at Emmanuel Baptist Church.”
While Colson's account may be filled with a bit of colour, it does reinforce the reality that over the years the church has at times been the site of disunity, conflict and even hatred. On a broader scale one only has to mention the words, the Irish troubles, the Croats and the Serbs, The Great Schism, and the Reformation to bring awareness of the horrible truth that animosities have arisen in the church, between churches, and between church members. It seems we cannot totally get away from what the NT terms “worldliness.” Yet, we are called, over and over again to be one and to love one another.
As John aged, near the end of the first century, various religious ideas vied for the people's attention. There were those within the church who fused their Christian base with broader Jewish thought and elements from Hellenistic mystery religions. We have to remember that the Bible in current form was not in existence at this point and it was not that difficult for the theology of some to fluctuate and stray from truth. There were those who thought that they had a higher truth, or a better truth, and animosity grew up as leaders, and John in particular, tried to set things right. It seems that some took the “my way or the highway” approach and left. They spoke ill of John, they denigrated him. Words went back and forth and animosity turned into hatred.
In his letter, John laid out his credentials, he had walked and talked with Jesus (1:1-4). He set forth the problem for us, he spoke of the disunity and hatred emanating especially from those who had left the community (2:19), and as he wrote, again and again he came back to one word: love. “True believers,” he says, “true Christians are people who walk in God's light, whoever hates another believer is in darkness and walks in darkness (2:11).” “Beloved,” he says to his flock, “let us love one another (4:7a).”
Love is one of the most important themes in 1John. There are several but if we gather together all the things that John says about it, we find 3 important aspects of this theme. The first is this, that people who abide in God, love, because, he says two times, “God is love” (4:8, 16).
“God is love.” That is a statement that is both abstract and descriptive of a fundamental aspect of God's character. John is reminding us that love is a part of the very “essence” of God. Love exudes from God's being. Just as John says that “God is light (1:5),” and “God is Spirit,” he says, “God is love.” God's activities are marked with love. In love, God created us. In love, God sustains us. In love, God brought redemption and eternal life. God did not need to do these things but he did because his very character is love. “God is love.”
There is a story told about the great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon. One day Spurgeon was out walking in the countryside and he noticed a weather vane on the roof of a farm building. The weather vane bore the words, “God is love.” As he was looking at it, the farmer came by and Spurgeon said to him, “Do you think God's love is as changeable as that weather vane?” The farmer smiled and replied, “You miss the point, sir; those words are on the weather vane because no matter which way the wind is blowing, God is still love.”
As a second aspect of his thoughts about love, John points out that the quintessential example of God's love is to be found in his Son. “In this is love,” he writes, “not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (4:10).”
I have probably said this before, but one of the things that has really moved me in recent years was a screening of The Passion of the Christ. Half a dozen years ago, I went into a packed theatre. I bought popcorn and plonked myself down in one of the few seats I could find. I ate a few bites and then as the film started, I stopped. I could eat no more. I became transfixed. The visual imagery of the Christ story grabbed me, and even if I think that the violence went a bit over-the-top, I was engrossed yet again by the story. The script never had the words in it, but as the film drew to an end, all I could think of were the words of John's Gospel, “Greater love has no man than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn.15:13) What God the Father gave up, what Jesus the Son did on the cross, are astonishing in their sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this,” … love is in God and we see that love in the Son. He died for us.
Because of that, here is the third aspect of John's theme, love is also in the people of God. Love is in God. Love is in the Son of God. Love is in the people of God who walk in the light.
A few weeks ago, I spoke about walking in the light, also a theme from 1John. I spoke of how we as individuals are influenced by things that we come in contact with and asked, how much more will we be influenced, if we come in contact with God. But when it comes to love, John goes much further (4:13-16). He speaks of God abiding in us. He speaks of God's Spirit being in us, and the love of God being perfected in us (4:17). It is not just influence, it is the very presence of God, who is love, taking up residence in us. Noted Christian author, Robert Webber, speaks of an incarnational spirituality when it comes to Christianity. Often we think of spirituality only in terms of an experience of something transcendent and otherworldly. While Webber does not oppose an experience of the transcendent, he puts it to us that Christian spirituality is different. It is not about seeking something out of this world, it is experiencing God in the world. We are embraced by God and the Spirit of God, and when we are open to God, we are transformed, and as we walk in the Spirit, we can be a different people, participating in God's vision for humanity.
When we walk in the light, we are a different people. I read a story the other day about a young man who was taking his final exam at a police training college in north London. One of the questions went like this: You are on patrol in outer London when an explosion occurs in a gas main in a nearby street. Upon investigation you find that a large hole has been blown in the footpath and there is an overturned van lying nearby. Inside the van there is a strong smell of alcohol. Both occupants - a man and a woman - are injured. You recognise the woman as the wife of your Divisional Inspector, who is at present away in the USA. A passing motorist stops to offer you assistance and you realize that he is a man who is wanted for armed robbery. Suddenly another man runs out of a nearby house, shouting that his wife is expecting a baby and that the shock of the explosion has made the birth imminent. Yet another man is crying for help, having been blown into an adjacent canal by the explosion and he cannot swim. A crowd gathers looking to you for leadership. Bearing in mind the provisions of the Mental Health Act, describe in a few words what actions you would take? …The young police recruit thought for a moment, picked up his pen, and wrote: “I would take off my uniform and mingle with the crowd.”
Perhaps we can sympathize with that answer. Sometimes as a Christian it is easier to take off our Christian uniforms and mingle with the crowd. But we are called to be different, to live differently, and in the power of God to show leadership as we show love, compassion, and grace to others and especially those who are brothers and sisters in Christ.
That is not always easy though, when, as John, we have people opposing us and putting us down. It is not always easy when someone hurts you or abuses your or persecutes you. The human side of us wants to get back, seek revenge, John says, “love one another (4:7),” and Jesus even says, “love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you”
I remember back in 1981, I was in Seminary in the United States when I heard on the radio that a friend of the family had been gunned down in Belfast. The Rev. Robert Bradford had gone into politics in the 70s. He was an MP at Westminster; a very gentle, spiritual man, he took seven bullets in the chest. I was livid. I struggled and struggled with it. For a few days, I could have quite easily gone back to the old sod, joined the paramilitaries and exacted revenge. My thoughts surprised to me. A few years earlier, God had really changed my life and I wondered how I, a Christian, studying for the ministry could even think such things or experience such anger. Our human-ness is strong. It took a few days but, little by little, through thought and prayer, I began to see again that violence was not an answer. A horrible thing had happened, but violence would really only beget more violence. Hard as it was, I came to see that I had to leave that with God and the British courts, and maybe something like we have subsequently seen in South Africa, a truth and reconciliation commission. It was very hard to take for after my father died, Robert had been very good to me, but I think it was the God who had already worked in me, the God of love that allowed me to get passed it and not fall into hatred and vengefulness.
Sometimes love is not easy. What about when you encounter a bully; what is the loving thing to do? Walk away? Or, respond strongly? What about the school principal who acts like a tyrant and treats her staff atrociously? What is the loving thing to do? Ignore it? Confront it? Try to have her removed because she is affecting so many other lives? Another John used to sing “All you need is love.” But what is love? Neither Jesus, nor John spelt out their moral ideals in any detail for every situation. The Golden Rule or great commandment, “love thy neighbour as thyself,” are not really rules, they are principles. It's up to us to apply it to the varying situations of life.
I used to like one of my philosophy professor's definitions. Dr. John Thomas said, “To love is to treat other human beings fairly at all times - even when it's hard.” I like also Harry Emerson Fosdick's word when in the midst of the Depression he described love as an adventure in goodwill. “Carry goodwill,” he says, “Carry it out as far as you can make it go; experiment with it every day; believe in it and keep on trying it, even when you have difficulty applying it - keep on - that is being a Christian.” And that, we can say, is walking in the light for love is in God. Love is in his Son. And love is in his people.