A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

LOVE IS THE FIRST THING

Romans 12:9-10, Preached at the Congregational Church of Boca Raton, January 7, 2007

A farm boy and a farm girl were walking down the road one evening. In one hand the boy carried a cane, in the other a chicken, he had a pail on his back and was leading a goat. Soon they came to a long dark lane. The girl held back and said, "I'm afraid to walk through there with you because you might try to kiss me." The boy looked at her and said, "How in the world could I do that with all the stuff I'm carrying?" "Well,” she answered, “you might stick the cane in the ground, tie the goat to it, and put the chicken under the pail." Ah, innocent love, or perhaps not so innocent love.

As you may know, the Greeks had several different ways of talking about love. Philadelphia, for example means the city of brotherly love because adelphos in Greek means brother and philia means a brotherly type of love, so this English word is almost redundant. Then there is desire type of love or eros love. Eros is the word for love in Greek that refers to the love we talk about when people are physically attracted to each other, like the farm boy and farm girl. Then there is agape love, which the New Testament uses as its principal meaning of what love is. Christian writers have generally described agape, as expounded on by Jesus, as a form of love which is both unconditional and voluntary; that is, it is non-discriminating with no pre-conditions and is something that one decides to do. Saint Paul described love as follows: "Love (agape) is patient, (agape) is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (Agape) does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (Agape) never fails." 1Cor13:4-8a   

What ultimately is love? Love is nothing less than the fulfilling of the law. As Scripture says, “The commandments ‘you shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

What we want to see this morning is that love means to lose oneself because we are nothing without the other, the person or people we love. You may be thinking to yourself, “Whoa, now. That’s not what I believe. It’s dangerous to lose yourself for someone else. The person who does that gets burned or has self-esteem issues.” Right? This is what we now know about the psychology of love. But the problem is that this is not the theology of love, and as Christians, we are not to live a psychologically true life, but a theologically true life. What does this mean? It means that God’s story becomes our story. And God’s story is genuine love, Love that goes all the way. Dr. James Denny, a Scottish theologian/preacher, used to stand before the people and hold up a crucifix and say, "God loves like this." What does this mean? It means that God lost himself in love; or, let me put it this way. Love is the spirit that opens us completely to the life and needs of another, without thinking of our own self-survival. Because God is love, the moment man and woman first sinned, God’s destiny was to be crucified in Christ. Why is this? Because in order for God to reclaim or redeem our lives, which love as forgiveness would desire, God would have to travel all the way to where our sin-oppressed souls languish in desperate need. This is at the nexus of Christ’s cross, where death, punishment, sin, and innocence are joined together and where Love draws out a resurrection to eternal life. Don’t ever underestimate the power God holds. We should never give up on love. Find in Jesus Christ the strength to redeem your life to love fully. Watch Christ and learn: There he is holding a little child in his arms. There he is dining with Zaccheus, bringing love into a despised man's home. His arms are open in forgiveness. His hands are outstretched in healing. His lips speak words of hope to those in despair. Finally, he hangs on a cross, and there “upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Is. 53.5b This is God’s story of love that loses everything in order to gain the one thing, his capacity to love his beloved children, for only love begets love.

The story is told of a traveler in Africa who was watching a nun dressing the wounds of a leper. The sores were revolting, ugly, gruesome, repulsive, and stinking. As the traveler watched her, standing some distance away, he said: "I wouldn’t do that for ten thousand dollars!" Without even bothering to look up the nun replied, "Neither would I!" But what she would not do for money, she did willingly for love, for gratitude to one who had loved her and given himself for her.

So Paul names love as the first thing. “Let love be genuine.” Actually, the Greek is just a nominative sentence: Love is genuine, it says in the Greek, which would mean in today’s language: Love is the real deal. As someone said, “It is a beautiful necessity of our nature to love something.” Douglas Jerrold The first principal by which we must live in order to live successfully is to walk in obedience to this call of nature. You have to love whom you are to love. We are the animal who knows that he knows what love is. We are the creature whose soul is formed in the shape of a heart. Do not trespass against this. There is no greater courage than to stay love’s course. This is what it truly means to hitch your wagon to a star. To each of us, God has spoken a word; it is the word of love for someone, for others, for a cause; it is revealed in a talent and expressed in actions; it is who you are but it more than you. It demands and deserves devotion, attention, and sacrifice. No one thing, nor one person ultimately satisfies this call, because the call comes from God and the heart belongs to the one who names us. All of our little loves ought to lift us to the love of God. So let your love continue outward and upward; in its net draw in others by seeing their goodness, love more persons more; love them more impersonally, more unselfishly, without thought of return. And lift your heart to God, for God has treasure store of happiness ready to bless all those who climb love’s ladder.

In a recent television interview, First Lady Laura Bush reported that early in her marriage her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, cautioned her not to criticize her husband George W.'s speeches. One day, the First Lady found out why. As Laura and George W. returned from a speech he'd given in Lubbock, Texas, George was pulling into the garage. The future President turned to Laura and asked how she thought the speech had gone. She said, "Quite honestly, George, I don't think it was very good." Laura Bush reports that George W. promptly drove into the garage wall.

Like most wives, Laura Bush learned to be careful how she responded when her husband asked her opinion on something he had done. And I suspect that most husbands have learned to tread cautiously when wives ask something like, "Hon, how do I look?" In fact, some thoughtful person has prepared a handy guide for husbands for dealing with issues that can be somewhat explosive. The list is divided into "dangerous" things to say, "safer" things to say, and "safest" things to say. For example, Dangerous: What's for dinner? Safer: Can I help you with dinner? Safest: Where would you like to go for dinner? Or how about this: Danderous: Are you wearing THAT? Safer: Gee, you look good in brown. Safest: Wow! Look at you! Dngerous: What did you DO all day? Safer: I hope you didn't overdo today. Safest: I've always loved you in that robe.

Paul says that we are to hate what is evil. It’s strange that we hear in the first sentence that love holds the pole position, but Paul places hatred right next to it. But look, Paul is absolutely not saying: Hate those who are evil. It says, hate what is evil. I take this to mean hate what evil might do to you, if you let it take over where love, forgiveness, mercy, and unselfishness ought to hold sway in your heart and soul. Don’t look to hate others, because hatred itself is evil. Stand firm against the encroachment of evil by refusing it entrance. Reject its will to dominate by opposing its power with a greater strength: the courage to seek forgiveness, find common ground, do what is right, and if at all possible be reconciled.

In his autobiography, Dr. A. J. Cronin tells about a neighboring family, the Adamses. Mr. Adams was an accountant in New York City, but he loved to spend all the hours he could working in the garden of their Connecticut home, accompanied by his only son, Sammy. When World War II broke out, Mrs. Adams suggested that they take a refugee child into their home. Mr. Adams was not enthusiastic about it at first, but finally agreed. The child who eventually came to live with them was a little orphan boy from Central Europe with the name Paul Piotrostanalsis. Unfortunately, as Paul learned the language of his benefactors, he seemed to find it useful only as a means of manipulating the truth into lies. He found it easy to steal, and he showed no affection to the Adams. He did, however, develop a close friendship with the Adams' little son, Sammy. One day, Paul, in direct violation of instruction, went swimming in a polluted stream near their home and came home with an infection that brought with it a raging fever. Because of the possibility of contagion, Paul was put in a separate room, and Sammy was told not to visit him. Paul eventually came through the crisis, but one morning the family found that Sammy had crawled into bed with Paul and they were breathing into each other's faces. Four days later Sammy died. Dr. Cronin remembers writing to Henry Adams and urging him to get rid of Paul, who had brought them only heartache and trouble. But when Dr. Cronin returned from a trip six months later, and went to visit the Adams', he was surprised to see the familiar sight of a man and boy working side by side in the garden. The boy was Paul. "You still have him?" asked Dr. Cronin with some amazement. "Yes," replied Henry, "and he is doing better now." "All I can say to you, Paul," Cronin muttered, "is that you are a mighty lucky fellow." "And Dr. Cronin," Henry Adams interrupted, "you don't need to bother trying to pronounce his name any more. He is Paul Adams. We have adopted him."

What this could have done to anyone’s heart is what we are supposed to hate and reject. And we face minor league versions of this all the time. We are to hold fast to what is good, even when at first glance that no longer seems legitimate. Take the lead by loving others out of season and for no apparent reason. The Lord does it all the time with each of us. So open to the power of love. Follow its stirring call. Be refreshed by God’s strength, the might which fashioned all things and maintains all things and wills all things and endures all things, to the Glory of his name.   

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