I Love You, but ...

5 January 2020 – 2^nd Sunday of Christmas

Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 51:10-17; Ephesians 4:17-24; John 1:1-5, 10-18

What is love if there are conditions placed on that love?  Thinking about the first Commandment; “I am The Lord your God.  You will have no other gods before Me” and Moses’ affirmation of that Commandment, “You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” – coupled with Jesus affirming that affirmation with the Greatest of all Commandments (Matthew 22:37), it occurs to me that as much as we casually toss about the “L” word, we don’t seem to know what it really means.

Remember how St. Paul defines unconditional love: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  That is, while humanity was unaware of this unconditional love, before we could even spell “righteousness”, let alone understand it, while we were in open rebellion, The Lord our God reached out in a profound and unmistakable way and did a thing we can hardly comprehend.

Love does not mean things will always work in our favor, however.  In 1 Kings 3:16-28, King Solomon made a decision that would be perplexing to anyone except a parent.  Recall that two women shared a home, and each had given birth.  In the night, one of the children had died.  The woman whose child had died switched the kids before the other woman was aware.  When she awoke, she realized the dead child at her breast was not hers.

They went to the king, each claiming the live child was her own.  When the king offered to cut the live child in half so they could each have a share, the real mother deferred to the other woman for the sake of keeping her child alive.  Though there was the risk she would not be allowed to raise and love her own child, she was willing to take that risk for the sake of her child’s life.  The God-given wisdom of King Solomon could then see only a mother could make such a choice.

Limits placed on expressions of love are sometimes necessary, and those limits can put relationships at risk.  “I love you, but …” we can sometimes see that what others want is not always in their best interests.  It is discerning the difference between genuine need and intense desire.  Love would fulfill a genuine need – regardless of how one may feel about the person with the need.

We often confuse love with infatuation, which is pure emotion, but more than even this is the thin line between love and lust.  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: lust is not always about physical intimacy – though in the biblical context, that seems to be most applicable.  Thinking more broadly, however, what we lust is more about intense desire than it is about genuine need.  Knowing the difference between love and lust means knowing when and where to draw the line for the greater good.

Loving The Lord with all we have and with all we are is even trickier for many, perhaps for most.  A simple thing such as attending worship is an expression of love.  It means we are willing to put self aside for the sake of Another.  Yet there are too many who have given in to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” and have been lulled into a false sense of love as in what one happens to be feeling at any given time rather than what one is willing to do. 

“I love You, Lord, but …” attending worship is not my thing.  I don’t like the music.  I don’t like the preacher.  I don’t like the prayers.  I don’t like the responsorial psalms.  I don’t like … well, you get the idea.  It isn’t hard to nitpick a worship service – especially when the service itself is not consumer-driven.  That is, worship planners are aware – or should be aware – that the only One who is to be pleased in worship is the Object of our worship.

“I love You, Lord, and I want a personal relationship with You, but …” Sunday school and Bible study just don’t do it for me.  Prayer is not really my thing and, besides, I don’t really have time.  I’ll just pray on the fly.

The sad thing is there is not a soul among us who does not throw one or more of these excuses out there.  Given the past few months, I have allowed myself to become so easily distracted to the point that I have been reading and studying in crunch time.  And while you have been very gracious to me, these distractions have not been deliberate choices but incidentals.  Because I have not been primarily focused on The Lord and what He would ask of me – and being a preacher is secondary – I have allowed my spiritual fuel tank to run dangerously low.

Given the world we live in, that is not a good place for any of us to be.  Our children need us to be focused now more than ever, and they need us to be parents, not pals.  “I love You, Lord, but …” becomes too easy, and the thing we need to be focused on – The Lord’s will for us – becomes secondary to our own preferences.

You may be aware the United Methodist Church is back in the secular news.  A group of United Methodists have created a proposal – with the help of an independent mediator (if that tells us anything) to submit to General Conference in May to facilitate an amicable separation.  While we must not become too distracted by this particular thing, it occurs to me that perhaps too many of us have become so accustomed to “I love You, Lord, but …” that we have lost sight of what He would require of us.  Though we are told this proposal has been agreed upon unanimously, it is hard to believe this would be what our Father would ask of us – especially when the separation proposal is so narrowly focused. 

Is our God so narrowly focused?  Not likely, but I think the point where we find ourselves as a Body is the direct result of a lot of dangerously low spiritual fuel tanks.  The proposal splits the United Methodist Church down the middle between this side’s want and that side’s desire – each claiming the Will of God.  No matter how we spin it or how we try to find our own “side” in this never-ending battle, we must awaken to the probability that where we are is the direct result of a complacent Church more focused on human desire than on Divine Will. 

If there is to be a New Year’s resolution to come from the Body of Christ, it must be a resolve to learn to focus first on Him.  “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything you need will be added to you”.  Our Shepherd spoke these words some 2000 years ago.  Perhaps it is time now to take Him at His Word, and “seek first” that which matters to us all – as individuals and as a body - so we can honestly live into what it means to be the genuine Body of Christ.

It won’t be easy, but it is always necessary – perhaps now more than ever.  To the glory of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Let the Body of Christ so pray – Amen!