North Shore Congregational Church May 11, 2008

The Rev. Karl D. Schimpf Mother’s Day

Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

New Testament Lesson: John 13:31-35

Today, we celebrate Mother’s Day or what the Methodists refer to as the Festival of the Christian Home. Love is a word I associate with mother; it is a word I associate with the home. It is the I.D. of discipleship according to this short text from the Gospel of John. It is the label by which one who is in union with Christ can be known. I don’t usually quote from Paul Tillich, who was probably the most prominent theologian at the time I was in seminary. But, in his 1960 book entitled Love, Power and Justice, a book that it took me forever to read, he made the statement that "In one of the determining documents of Judaism, Christianity, and all western civilization, the word love is combined with the imperative, ‘Thou Shalt.’"

When I read that, I had to admit that I had never thought about that. What kind of love is it that can be commanded? Surely not the sort of love celebrated in romantic songs and novels and movies. That kind of love is commended at best, but not commanded. It’s kind of like the boy who in the midst of his first love experiences confided to his father that he wanted to marry his girl friend. With the skepticism characteristic of fathers, his dad replied, "Are you sure you are in love with her?" "Indeed I am," replied the lad rapturously, to which the father replied, "How do you know?" He said, "When I kissed her last night, her dog bit me on the leg, and I never felt it until I got home!" Needless to say, it’s not that kind of love I am suggesting.

It seems to me that the Scriptures command a tougher, less attractive strain of love, more in the category of compassion and acceptance. It’s the kind of love mothers know something about; it’s the kind of love functional families specialize in. You see, at the heart and center of the scriptural meaning of love is a cross. Our faith teaches that the cross is the ultimate payment for the high cost of loving. And yet, love is the basic requirement of a follower of Jesus Christ; for love is the badge, the proof, the label of a disciple who is bound to Christ in this world.

There is a story about a monk in the middle ages who announced that he was going to preach on the love of God at the evening worship. On that day, the cathedral was filled with eager listeners. He waited to begin his sermon until the evening sun caught the stained glass windows and filled the room with lovely colored light. He continued to wait until the light had faded as he moved toward the candelabra, took a lighted candle and walked to a statue of Christ hanging on the cross. He then held the candle beside the wounded hands, then the wounded feet, then the pierced side, and finally the brow that wore the crown of thorns. He didn’t say a word; but the gathering of his parishioners sat still, deeply moved. They had come to hear a sermon on the love of God. They did not find what they expected, but much more. They saw for themselves the love that bears wrongs and bears it in such a manner as to carry it away. It was one of those sermons they would never forget.

There are many glorious chapters in the history of Christian love. They begin when a young girl named Mary is visited by the Most High as she comes to cherish in her heart a divinely unselfish love for her child named Jesus. This son of hers grows in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man as he goes about his father’s business of scattering love to all whom he meets. This man, Jesus, gathers around him disciples who hear the call of God in their own lives, forsake all to follow him as they begin to learn how to live in this love. Other disciples following Pentecost form a beloved community as those called to share what they have in common, rejoicing as those sent out to witness to God’s love. In the face of persecution, Christians, faithful unto death, became like torches in a dark empire as they bore witness to a new light of love. Convinced believers in this way of love in the Middle Ages laid aside property and position to become little brothers of the poor, going forth to minister to the least and the lost. Reforming spirits, determined to correct what they saw as abuses in their day, set out to create new communities where love and freedom united to worship God following the dictates of their own conscience. Our Pilgrim parents courageously set out for a new land, driven by the faith that God has more light and truth to break forth from his Holy Word. Missionaries, choosing to give up home and security, went out to foreign lands as messengers of the Gospel of love. Churches and schools were established on the frontier, from Harvard to Beloit to Pomona, even as social settlements grew up in the slums of major cities, in efforts to bring life to new birth in spiritual love. Fellowships of suffering and service continue in our time to raise funds to bring food to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, and reconciliation through the forgiveness of love. The writing of new chapters goes on this very day, the actions of the Apostles, that Book of Acts that will never be finished until the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ becomes real among us.

One of my heroes in biblical archaeology is Cyrus, King of Persia. He was the one who defeated the Babylonians and then permitted the Jews to return to their land. The story is told, and it might be a myth, that on the southern border of his empire there lived a great chieftain named Cagular who had torn to shreds and completely defeated various units of the Persian army sent to subdue him. Finally, Cyrus took his entire force, surrounded Cagular and brought him and his family back to Persepolis for trial and execution. On the day of his trial, Cagular and his wife were brought into the judgment chamber. He is described as a magnificent specimen of a man; more than six feet tall with a noble manner about him. Cyrus, impressed with his appearance said to him, "What would do you if I should spare your life?" "Your majesty, if you spared my life I would return home and remain obedient to you as long as I live." "What would you do if I spared the life of your wife?" "Your majesty, if you spared the life of my wife, I would die for you." So moved by this reply, Cyrus freed them both and returned Cagular as governor of a province. When they arrived home, he reminisced with his wife about the journey. "Did you notice the marble at the entrance to the palace? Did you see the tapestry on the wall as we went down the corridor to the throne room? And did you see the chair of the Emperor? It must have been carved from one lump of gold." His wife replied that she had seen none of those things. "Then what did you see," her husband asked? "I did not notice any of that. I beheld only the face of the man who said he would die for me!"

Is this not our motivation as Christians; in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for you and for me? The great commandment demands of everyone the total love of God and love of one’s neighbor. If love is only emotion, how can it be demanded? Emotions cannot be demanded. The type of love inherent in our faith is a love that is the moving power of life. Love is the drive toward the unity of the separated. It is the fulfillment and the triumph of love that is able to reunite the most radically separated beings in the entire world: people like you and me! By this Jesus said, "Shall all men know that you are my disciples, in that you have love for one another."

We, who were created for fellowship with our Creator, are separated from His righteousness by our own unrighteousness. A gulf separates us. But the good news is that that chasm has been bridged by Jesus our Lord in his death upon the Cross. But death could not hold him and his victory is ours through faith. Wholeness is found in him and the power to be all that God wants us to be. Finally, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are given the capability to hear this commandment: "Thou shalt love"…and do it. In such love is our hope, the hope of a mother for a son, the dreams of a father for his daughter, the joy of a family in the possibilities of life, the recognition by each of us of our tremendous worth in the eyes of God who spared not his only Son, but delivered Him up that we might have life and have it abundantly!

So valuable is your soul that God in Christ became the man Jesus of Nazareth that he might save us from sin. God could have destroyed humankind with his mighty power. God could have ignored our need as of no consequence to Him. But instead, God harnessed all of his majesty and power to his love in order to demonstrate amazing grace.

There are, it seems to me, three dimensions to this love: God’s love coming down to us, our love going up to God and as a result of that relationship; our love going out to embrace all humanity in creative, positive, and wonderful ways. It is those three dimensions that results in the sign of the cross and in that, we become who we are meant to be.

Thanks be to God! Amen.