Love God

I was enjoying the Rocking Chair Reader, a book of nostalgic, but true, stories, when I came across a short story that was told by Mary Helen Straker. It was a story that her father had shared when he was getting along in years. I thought it was a good one to share with all of you this weekend, at a time when so many of our younger families are out at the Family Camp. You see, the story took place in 1804—and if that seems like a long time ago to most of us, we can only imagine how long ago it would seem to a very young person. Here goes… in Mary Helen's own words:

“In the year of 1804, an Irish couple, finding themselves the objects of religious persecution in their homeland, resolved to take themselves and their daughter—a wee, toddling child—to America. Prior to boarding the ship in Dublin, they stayed the night with friends, who gave the little girl a pair of red shoes.

“On board the ship, preparing to set sail, the mother discovered the shoes to be missing, left behind at the house of their friends.

“The child wailed piteously, “My shoes. My shoes,” as if her small heart would break.

“The father, being assured he had time before the ship’s departure, went back for the shoes, returning only to find the ship well on its way down the harbor. He leaped into a rowboat in hot pursuit. Alas, to no avail! Back at the dock he learned he had to wait two weeks for another ship bound for New York. He waited two weeks and boarded the ship, but early in the voyage, it was overtaken by a British man o’war, who seized our hero and a number of his compatriots and pressed them into service aboard the British vessel.

“After weeks and months of forced duty on the high seas, in the winter of 1805, the men were happy to learn that their ship was docking in the port of Halifax, in Nova Scotia. In the night, six of the men contrived to escape, sliding down a rope into the icy water. They separated. Our hero lost his companion and struggled through the night alone, his clothes frozen to his body.

“When, at last, he reached the limit of his endurance, he saw a light, crawled toward it, and collapsed upon the doorstep of a lonely cabin. Its inhabitants nursed Him back to health until spring, when he was able to make his way to the coast and take passage on a ship to New York.

“He combed the streets of the city, searching for his lost loved ones. To subsist, he took work in a tailor shop. Throughout the summer he searched, fruitlessly. One evening, in the late fall of ’06, worn out from work and disheartened, he found his way into a poor common eating house, where he set about to purchase his supper. As he sat at the table, he pulled a bag from his pocket and removed the wee shoes, carried upon his person throughout the hazardous, lengthy journey. He set the shoes on the table and sat pondering them with tears in his eyes.

“So lost in misery was he that he was unaware of someone approaching, until a child’s voice exclaimed “My shoes! My shoes!” His heart lurched in his throat. He looked up to regard the child—and to look into the face of the woman following, the face of his own true wife.”

The man who Mary Helen tells about in this story, is her own father.

So what is the value in sharing a story such as this, true as it is? It’s certainly exciting, but what can we learn from it? Well, it’s pretty obvious it’s a story of that father’s love for his child, isn’t it, for he’s a father that would risk almost everything because of that great love? He’s a father that would persist and endure, with great courage and inner strength, to carry through on his goal to be reunited with his family… He was most certainly a father for whom family was of the utmost importance. And there’s no question of the father’s deep faith, which was no doubt a central part of this amazing survival and reconciliation story. We recall that the family was leaving Ireland because of religious persecution, a decision that had to spring from a deep faith commitment. It’s a miracle story, really, isn’t it, in the fact that they ever were reunited… especially back in those times when we didn’t have all the communication devices we have nowadays.

But wait… would some of us look at this story a little differently? Would we think, how ridiculous that something such as a pair of shoes was allowed caused such commotion? Shoes are simply material items, dispensable, so why would that father take such a risk, possibly exposing his family to danger, as he chose to separate to go back… And wasn’t this child being over-indulged, to the point it might lead to “spoiling” the child? Surely there are so many other ways he could demonstrate love for his child… Was he even thinking of the mother when he did this? Was he thinking of all the possibilities, in his hasty decision, some of which of course, did come true, as he encountered further problems? How could religious persecution be “that bad” in his country, to cause him to uproot his family and make this life changing choice? Couldn’t he just practice his faith in his home, or in his closet even? After all, it’s a religion of the heart—and how bad can things be? Can we understand the depth of his religious convictions?

How quick we are to judge, sometimes, aren’t we? Are we as quick to love? Judgment or love? Judgment or love?

This is the 3rd of a sermon series in which we’ve been reviewing 3 simple rules, “life” rules, I would call them, as outlined by Methodist Bishop Reuben Job in his small book that reveals such an important biblical message: The First Rule, Do No Harm; Secondly, Do All the Good You Can, and today, the 3rd Rule: Stay in Love with God… We’ve talked quite a bit about the first two in previous weeks, but today we focus on the “love rule:” Stay in Love With God.

You received an insert in your bulletin at this service, a card with those 3 simple rules: Do No Harm, Do Good and Love God. You can see it repeated in many different languages... said in many different ways... Read it carefully, reflect on it, pray over it, ponder it in your heart, and decide if you can sign it as a pledge to honor--if not today (right now), at the end of the service--or later on, perhaps, after you've considered it some more... It's your pledge, only between you and God.

It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it, to just talk about love? It’s so easy to know how to love, isn’t it? Or is it? I submit the most challenging part of our lives is to know precisely what love means and how to love. We all know we believe in it, for we generally agree that “God is Love,” and we do believe in God. But to even say just that “we want to love,” is problematic because that appears to make it more of a head-thing than a heart-thing—and that can’t be right, can it?

Friends, we can thank God that we have our whole Bible to guide us in the process of learning what it means to really love. And the reason it is such a challenge for us is because there is so much material in our wonderful Bibles that we can learn from—actually all of it—and because when we talk about love, we are really talking about discovering and growing in understanding of the nature of our God.

God is love—mysterious and wonderful, healing and growing, ever-expanding, all encompassing, guiding and strengthening, omnipotent and omniscient—and more than we can ever imagine. Sacred imagination while practicing our faith leads us to grow in understanding.

Examining closely those scriptures that we have shared today provides insights that can guide us on our path to understanding. It was coincidental that two of the 3 scriptures I chose for today were already the lectionary scriptures for the day. Or was that coincidental? I’m not so sure… Sometimes it’s so easy to say things are coincidences when the probability might be much greater that they’re God-things, around us always, but not always seen. Perhaps it’s our vision that limits them, certainly not God…

Which leads us to the first scriptures we heard, those verses in Romans. On the surface, these verses appear to be confronting people’s eating habits and perhaps dietary laws, but a closer look reveals there are judgment issues in how we look at each other. Are we judged by others because of our habits, because of the issues we believe in and the way that we share those issues with others? These verses seem especially appropriate in a political year, for each of us in this room most likely has strong opinions on what we think should or shouldn’t happen in the political arena, whether it’s regarding candidates or issues.

Knowing the people in this room as I do, I believe each person has sincere convictions of the heart. I believe they have aligned their views with their religious beliefs and are sincere in their faith response—and I know that your views are not all the same. Well, friends, I want you to know that these scriptures in Romans say that’s okay. People of faith will think differently on the issues.

Now, keep in mind, I am not saying everyone’s views are okay, simply that it’s okay to think differently about things. The real point of our scripture is that the judgment on all of this belongs to the Lord—and the Lord looks at the sincere heart. It is much more important for all of us to be together in our faith than to be “right” in our politics.

Incidentally, or coincidentally—there's that word again—a recent but very timely study was done with the results printed in the pastors’ Circuit Rider publication. You would be amazed how evenly United Methodists are divided between our major political parties, more than any other denomination shown. We’d better “agree to disagree,” friends, because it’s our only hope as a church for the future. And isn’t it wonderful? I love it!

If you look at that study, I think it’s something to really get excited about, because it shows we United Methodists must be centered in Christ, we can go beyond all our individual differences and uniqueness, and be sisters and brothers under God, because with such political differences, we would otherwise never make it as a denomination!

Being so very human, we can have such a tendency to set up barriers between ourselves, barriers that hurt instead of heal, barriers that put down, instead of build up. I used the plant analogy with the children, and we don’t want to cause any part of that plant to wither as it grows, by something we say or do, do we? We could have just as easily used a piece of wood and related it to the complete building structure that it would become, and as Christ builds. No part of that must be damaged… What’s our first rule? (Let’s hear it) “First do no harm…” “Do good…” They’re linked together. That’s what’s most important.

When we judge, we must remember that we are also judging ourselves. As we impose limits on others, we are also imposing limits on ourselves and on our God who created us in his image. By doing so, we are limiting our capacity to love. God does not limit us; so we must not do it to ourselves. And we certainly must not construe to limit God!

The issue’s one of judgment of grace versus graceless judgment—and it carries through into every aspect of our life, as individuals, as a church, and as a part of the larger community and world.

It’s one of the most important lessons of love, friends, part of our understanding of God and of how we love through Christ. When we make mistakes through judgment or absence of love, we can call on the forgiveness of which we’re reminded in our scriptures in Matthew. Unlimited forgiveness is the key, as it says in verses 21 and 22: “If another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?” 70 times 7, which tells us there is no limit to the number of times. As God is so ready to forgive each of us when we sin against another or ourselves, we must likewise be every so ready to forgive others who need it.

Responding to and eliminating judgments, and invoking forgiveness are perhaps the most critical elements of love relationships—of people relationships—for both judgment and lack of forgiveness hurt and destroy, come from and cause bitterness and anger, even hatred and rage… We are capable of so much more. John Wesley said “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?”

All we have to do is look at the cross of Christ and see how interrelated all of these are—the cross, that greatest symbol of God’s love that came to us in the form of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior—Jesus, the greatest love gift of all time. Judgment was destroyed and forgiveness raised high at Golgotha, with God’s gift of resurrection left to reveal how that love will stay with us at all times.

Because we have been so loved, we must go out to love. We must stay in love with God and carry that love that we believe in so much to a needy world, destroying judgment and lifting up forgiveness ourselves—and so much more! We can and must continue to learn about God’s love, whether it’s through practicing our spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, Bible study, discussion groups, fellowship events, regular worship, hands-on helping and mission work, or other…. praising God, as an act of love, at all times!

All of this leads us to that first and greatest commandment that is expressed so well in Mark, chapter 12, v. 30: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater.

Jim Wallis, in his book Faith Works, shares the story of a Midwest community gathering in a church hall, to examine the ever-growing concern of youth violence. A remarkable thing happened at the session. Someone asked what they could do. One of the kids responded and said, “I dunno, man, maybe you could figure out what you do best and just use it.” Suddenly everyone started standing up to say what each of them could do—community leaders, college deans, pastors, and business leaders… Then a middle-aged woman stood up and said, “I’m not the dean of any college, the pastor of a church, or the president of a company, but I’ve got something to offer, too. I work at the McDonald’s downtown and get a morning and afternoon break. Lots of you kids said you’ve got nobody to talk to. Well, now you know where to find me, and I’ll even buy you a cup of coffee.”

Friends, it’s staying in love with God when we offer whatever we have and whatever we are—and that is enough—to love God as God first loved us. We’re going to close with singing together “In the Garden,” and I’d like to ask each person here to not only choose to follow Him into the garden—the garden of life—but also to be aware of all the other beautiful blooms and growth in the garden, thinking of all the people God creates and how very much God wants us to love each of them fully. Stay in love with God!

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on September 14, 2008.