Falling In Love or Loving Like Christ

Most modern people get the idea that the greatest love is "falling in love." It's the love that is celebrated in most pop songs.  Here is a sample: "Baby, Baby, fallin' in love, I'm fallin' in love again. Every day I love you more and more and more. Baby, Baby, fallin' in love, I'm fallin' in love again." (La Bouche).  In actuality, the Bible promises a bigger thrill that is quite different. It is the kind of love that comes from Christ--the kind we are exploring this Sunday in Ephesians 5 when two people are committed to each for the long haul in marriage and find that in Christ there is the ability to love each other well in the good, the bad and the ugly. This quote from C.S. Lewis summarizes all of this very eloquently and so it is worth reading:

People get from books the idea that if you have married the right person you may expect to go on ‘being in love’ for ever. As a result, when they find they are not, they think this proves they have made a mistake and are entitled to a change — not realizing that, when they have changed, the glamour will presently go out of the new love just as it went out of the old one. In this department of life, as in every other, thrills come at the beginning and do not last....It is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are then most likely to meet new thrills in some quite different direction.

Here we meet that fundamental conviction that there is a progression: first thrill, then loss of thrill to be accompanied by hard work, then something really good, true happiness. I would also note—along the lines of experiences that all human beings share—This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go — let it die away — go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow — and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time.... It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy.

This Sunday we explore the thrill that can give way to a deeper thrill when two people love each other the way Christ does His people. You say, "You have no idea what my marriage is like!" Can you imagine what could change if you simply loved another person like Christ loves us?  How might they change in response to the supernatural love you extend? 

Or if you are called to life-long singleness, can you see that the Bible actually lifts up singleness as oftentimes a preferable option. Like Paige Benton said,

"I am single not because I am too spiritually unstable to possible deserve a husband, nor because I am too spiritually mature to possible need one. I am single because God is so abundantly good to me because this is the best for me. It is a cosmic impossibility that anything could be better for me right now than being single."

Christ's love is sufficient for both singles and married people.  Like the little boy in Sunday School who was asked what he was seeing. He said, "Well I think it's a squirrel, but the answer must be Jesus." Yes, married, single, whatever--the answer is always Jesus.

Do Miracles Happen Today?

For several weeks we have been exploring the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. One of the questions that always comes up is, "Do you believe God still does miracles today?" The short is answer is "yes", but it's complex. The reason that it is complex is because the Bible teaches that we actually live between the times--between "kingdom come" and "kingdom coming", between Jesus' resurrection and our resurrection, between "the already" and the "not yet", between "the groan" and "the glory."

So the large question is how do you live in amazement of God's ordinary work in the world through creation (last week's message), providence (God's weaving of ordinary circumstances), regeneration (bringing us to new spiritual live in Christ) and yet be on tiptoe for his extraordinary work (the miraculous)? Some churches lean too far to the left (expecting a miracle all the time). Some churches move too far to the right (not expecting a miracle at all). What we want to do is to find a Biblical balance that leaves us in awe and expectancy and yet always hopeful when we or people we love go through suffering and no miracle or healing comes.

I've been reading David Watson's "Fear No Evil" which is the story of his battle with colon cancer and eventual death. He was one of the most beloved Anglican pastors of the 1960's through 1980's. He was also charismatic and believed in miracles. This is a wonderful testimony of God's presence and grace in the midst of one of the greatest trials a human being could experience. This Sunday as we complete the five messages on the Holy Spirit, we will try to answer some of these questions. Pray that it will be helpful and that I will have wisdom and Biblical balance to both encourage and challenge.

Do You Really Need Church?

I saw the above title for an article in The Huffington Post by Tara Lehman a week or so ago. Since I am a pastor, I was interested in the response. The author was talking with a young man who is part of “the none’s”, i.e. people who describe themselves as being jaded, non-religious. The guy said to the author and I am paraphrasing, “Why would you go to church? After all you can find a lot of things that the church offers in the secular community—service projects, concerts, book clubs, outreach to the poor, support groups, etc.”

The author said that the objector was somewhat correct and that if the church was just a glorified service-provider, why would anyone show up?  Why not just go to the bagel shop, do yoga, listen to U2 for some transcendence and volunteer to feed the homeless? Here are three reasons why you need to go to church and the author provides one of the answers:

I forget!

Lehman says,

“I need to go to church because I have a really bad memory.... especially when it comes to remembering who I am as a child of God. When it comes to remembering what God has done, and continues to do, in and through Jesus Christ, I forget who I am. I forget who God is. I forget God’s Epic Story of Redemption and Liberation and Renewal and Beauty and Hope. I forget...a lot. On top of that, there are a gazillion other demands and voices that are vying for my attention all the freaking time. So I admit it. I get tired. And I get distracted. And more often than not, I forget.  I need church, because Church reminds me of everything that’s important.”

Think about it. Isn’t it fairly shocking that when Jesus speaks of the Lord’s Supper he has to say, “Do this in remembrance of me?”  It it is almost insulting. You want to say like Peter, “Jesus you know I love you.... do you think I would really forget you and your death on the cross?  What do you take me for?”  But Jesus knows us. He knows that we forget...Him...a lot.  Think about it, how much did you forget him this past week? How conscious were you of His presence? How much did you find yourself talking to Him about the big and small things in your life and the lives of others?

I need the good news!

This is a re-statement of what has been said but with a twist. Pastor Jason mentioned it last week in the call to worship, “We need to hear the good news.” Yes we need the epic story of “redemption and liberation and renewal and beauty and hope” to make sense and meaning out of the little stories of our lives. We need to fit them into the grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption and restoration.

I must confess I am a kind of news junkie. I’m a bit addicted and need to know what is happening in the world—CNN, BBC, The Huffington Post, New York Times, etc., etc. But how much of the news is good news? You know the answer. And if you have too much of it, without even realizing it you can find yourself grumpy, maybe cynical because there is so much bad, and you start to lose your grasp on “the epic story.” Sunday morning worship restores my balance and informs my mind of the good news of Jesus.

I need to hear the good news from you!

We might think, “Well I can read my Bible and pray privately, why worship together?” Sunday’s text is from Ephesians 5:18 where Paul says we should “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart.”  It isn't "you" (singular), but "you" plural or as our southern friends say, "ya'll." We need to hear loud singing from lots of our friends to awaken us from our spiritual lethargy. Just before that he says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.” The spiritual deadness and lethargy cannot be overcome alone. We need the weekly experience of hearing others singing with all their heart so we wake up to the beautiful realities of our salvation.

Two weeks ago two good brothers, Christian and Luke, said goodbye. They were heading back to Vermont. We had many good talks along the way and one of the things I kept saying is, “When you get there, find a good church.”

They got the message and their last word was, “First thing that we are going to do is find a good church.” I told them it made my day. I gave them a big hug and inside was singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Why? Because we all have poor memories and we also need to hear the good news from each other. Tara Lehman said, “I still practice yoga and I’m enormously grateful for its presence in my life. But it’s no replacement for hearing God’s Story, read and proclaimed, week after week.”  Me too!