Love is A Verb V

Luke 10:25-28

Sometimes it's good to check back at home base and see where we have been. This passage from Luke is our theme passage of the For the Love of God emphasis. We have studied about loving God emotionally and our need to be freed up to express openly our feelings for God. Last week, we looked at loving God spiritually, opening up to the greatness (transcendance)and the intimacy (immanence)of God through prayer, reflection and quietness with God. This week, we have been looking at behavior in worship, work, family and other arenas of life and how we might love God in those actions. Next week, the emphasis will be on our minds. My hope is that through the study, the worship, and your own times with God, you are beginning to broaden and deepen your walk with God. And need I remind you of the key first ingredient in all of this - allowing God to love you - letting him touch your emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally? Are you learning more of what it means to live responsively to God, loving Him who has loved you first?

Today, I invite you to look a little closer to the context of Luke's version of the great commandments. A lawyer stands to test Jesus in public debate. "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" There was another that asked that same question. The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 asked it and Jesus told him he needed to give away everything he had and give it to the poor and then "come follow me." People were seeking eternal life, both in life beyond death, but also in a higher quality of life in the present. Jesus' ministry offered both. For the lawyer, eternal life was more about having a life that God approved, a life that would be rewarded in paradise. It would not likely have had as much emphasis on heaven as we do in the Christian faith, for the Jewish faith never has had that emphasis. But still Jesus points this astute lawyer to just as much a growing edge (a conversion point) as he did the rich young ruler. It was one thing to know and interpret the law correctly, quite another to do it. The lawyer knew the great commandments, but would he live by them? Eventually, what we feel, spiritually experience, and think must be seen in our behavior.

James 4:1-17

For James, a dynamic faith is one that combined our strong beliefs with holy and transforming action. The letter of James is often called a general epistle, because we find no mention of who it is intended for. But one general problem for all the early church writers (Peter, Paul, John and James) was conflict within the Church. In 36 years of ministry (9 in music and 27 in the pastorate)I have served nine congregations and been a district superintendent with 37 others. I have yet to know a church that has been conflict-free. We do not see things the same way and so differences can be healthy, as long as we don't assume our way of seeing things is the only way. But what often happens is what James describes, Christian people trying to achieve what they want through the normal earthly means of power plays, misinformation, manipulation, and a host of other methods. For James, when we use those techniques, we are guilty of adultery, jilting God's ways for the ways of the world (verses 4 and 5).

As a point of application, I have asked Christian politicians why they are just as prone to negative campaigning as their less overtly religious opponents. They simply say in one way or another, "That's just what you have to do." Are they selling their souls to be elected? Are WE selling our souls to get what we want and then pretending to be truly Christian afterwards? It is natural and human for us to do these things, but it is beneath the standard of what God calls for. It takes work to do what James says to "swallow our pride," to "yield to God" when we would rather have our own way, to "resist the devil". Have you noticed that the world has no trouble seeing when Christians and churches behave badly? They call us on it right away. But we have trouble seeing it in ourselves. James calls for self-examination and repentance, a humbling of ourselves so that God can lift us up. We move from narrow-mindedness and judgmentalism into humble open listening and speaking.

We live in a very polarized time in society, where opposing views dehumanize and demonize each other, resulting in very little positive action. I find the same thing has happened between varying belief perspectives, varying age groups, and varying political orientations within the Church. There is a place for conflict in the Christian community with one goal in mind - faithfully following the mission of Jesus Christ to save people and transform the world. With one goal, we have one guide - speaking the truth in love. With one goal and one guide, we are then free to not only speak and act openly and respectfully to each other, but also to hear the voice of God together. May we the quite diverse people of God at St. Luke's model that kind of positive and productive conflict that leads to world-changing unity.

James finishes the chapter calling for another kind of humility - the kind that acknowledges that we do not have all the answers and have to rely on the wisdom, purposes and timing of God. Rather than egotistically saying, "This is what I am going to do" and "this is what I want," we say, "If it be God's will, we will do this." I have seen this teaching misused, as people have excused their lack of action because they are "waiting on God" for guidance, when scripture and conscience have given us all the guidance we need. Must we wait on God to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, to tell others about Christ, to reconcile with those we have hurt or have hurt us, to respond to the mission that is ours in our community? James teachings here call for both humility and patience, neither of which comes to us easily. James calls our impatience and self-insistence on our way and time table arrogance. He has been tough on his readers in this chapter. I've been tempted to say, "James, now tell us what you really think!" Is he being unnecessarily harsh? Or might he be bluntly trying to get our attention that we might follow Christ more fully?

Have a great fourth of July holiday.