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Everlasting Love
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 14th December 2008
Revd. Matthew Vernon
This morning I'm going to talk about love.
I've been "feeling the love" recently with your many kind words and fond thank yous.
The Ceilidh last night was a wonderful, wonderful party and will live long in the memory.
This sermon then will be a rather personal one.
Perhaps the closest I will come to giving a "testimony"!
[Editor's note: you may want to re-read Inviting people to church - Sunday 3 Oct 2004]
In Advent, as I've said before, we think about the last things: the return of Christ and the end of the world; heaven and hell; judgement…
Preparing to move during Advent brings a new perspective to these last things.
I've being doing things for the last time for several weeks now.
Preparing to leave you beloved friends and precious people, I'm conscious of what is at the heart of my faith.
For me, the ultimate last thing is love.
It is love that lasts.
My faith is based on love being the foundation of the world, love being the force that binds all things.
"God who laid the earth's foundation,
God who spread the heav'ns above,
God who breathes through all creation,
God is love, eternal love."
There are many arguments against this,
• there is much evidence that suggests otherwise,
• but even if we're wrong we should love as if that is the meaning of everything.
If those who proclaim a God of vengeance and justice,
• a God who is less than love,
• turn out to be right,
• then let us shame that God with the depth and the radical nature of our love.
Of course I believe that I am right and that God is love!
Though I hesitate to be too certain,
• for love is not "boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way."
I've also been feeling the love this week for a very personal reason.
Wednesday was the ninth anniversary of my mother's death.
As the years pass, feelings change.
I no longer think about Mum every day.
The pain of the early years continues but is now mixed with joy and gratitude.
Barack Obama has captured my feelings in writing about his mother
• "I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her."
For me, it is true that Mum (and Dad) taught me the most important lesson of all:
• how to love.
They showed that love involves deep joy and peace,
• but also giving and sacrifice, vulnerability and pain.
That whilst love is often thought to protect us from suffering:
• in fact it increases your vulnerability to it.
They showed that love transforms lives.
There was once a story in a the newspaper about a little girl in Brasilia who was brutally beaten by her parents.
As a result, she lost all physical movement, as well as the ability to speak.
In hospital she was cared for by a nurse who said to her every day, "I love you".
The doctors assured the nurse that the child could not hear and that her effort was wasted, the nurse continued to say, "Don't forget, I love you."
Three weeks late, the child recovered the power of movement.
Four week slate, she could talk again and smile.
The loving nurse never gave any interviews and the newspaper didn't publish her name, but her love healed that little girl.
I conducted a funeral three weeks ago for a grandfather called Peter.
During the service I said:
Love is eternal.
Love lasts for ever.
Our bodies fail and our earthly lives end, but love goes on.
We know that because we continue to love people who have died.
The Christian faith says that love is stronger than death –
• Easter shows us that God's love is stronger than death.
When we love we are close to God.
So we know that Pete is with God now.
The love Pete knew and showed in his life will live for ever.
And we know that God is close to us today in our love for Pete and for each other.
There is no proof of these things – no proof in the scientific sense, at least.
Love is a mystery of life that eludes science.
Of course we can see the physical affects of love if we monitor our bodies.
When we scan our brains certain parts light up when we feel love.
But that doesn't reduce love to a merely physical phenomenon,
• any more than the magic of candles can be reduced to light falling on the retina and neurons firing in the brain.
Love is shown through actions, of course, but love is about being, not just doing.
No, there is no proof of these things, accept for what we know intuitively;
• that hunch we can't deny.
And I remember now that it was Mum who used to say that the love we know in our lives must surely go on when this life ends.
She also used to say that it won't be heaven if the people she loves are not there.
Love is why I'm a Christian –
• because, for me, love is the heart of Christianity.
"God is love" as the Bible tells us and when we love we are close to God.
I know I am selective in reading the Bible,
• that the Bible is full of vengeance and justice and appalling imagery.
But crucially love is there,
• amidst the muddle of other perceptions God's people have had about God.
Paul famously says in 1 Corinthians 13 "Love never ends". Prophecies will come to an end, tongues will cease, knowledge will come to an end. But "faith, hope and love abide … and the greatest of these is love."
And love infuses our Christian tradition, even though at times we Christians have lost sight of it or completely forgotten it and fallen prey to our dark side.
Jack was in love with a very tall woman.
Each night he would walk her home from work
• and each night he longed to kiss her but was too shy to ask.
One night he summoned up the courage. "Will you let me kiss you?"
She said yes.
But Jack was very short, so they looked around for something he could stand on.
They found a great wooden block which gave Jack just the height he needed.
After they had walked for another half a mile, Jack said, "Could I have just one more kiss, darling?"
"No," said the woman, "I've given you one. That's enough for tonight."
Jack said, "Then why didn't you stop me carrying this damned block of wood."
It's true that our love has mixed motives,
• and that often we are less loving than we could be.
But the bigger picture is God's love for us and God's acceptance of us.
An old woman in the village was said to be receiving divine visions.
The local priest demanded proof of their authenticity.
"When God next appears to you," he said, "ask Him to tell you my sins, which are known to Him alone."
The woman returned a month later and the priest asked if God had appeared to her again.
She said He had.
"What did God say?" asked the priest.
"He said, 'Tell you priest I have forgotten his sins.'"
We become more loving not by chastising ourselves for our inadequate love,
• but by absorbing into the depths of our being that we are loved.
Mum had cancer for 18 months before she died.
The day before she died, Dad called and we all rushed to Mum's side.
We each took turns to see her.
She was sitting upright in the bed.
Later, my brother and I said she was like a Buddha:
• sitting, with very short hair and exuding compassion.
As each of us went into the bedroom, Mum had her arms out ready to embrace us and said "Here's another precious person".
I'm aware this is a very personal image which you may not connect with,
• but for me it has become an image for God's love and acceptance of us.
To broaden the image, it's like the embrace the father gives when the prodigal son returns home.
Remember how the father sees the son far off and runs to embrace him,
• to welcome him home unconditionally.
Our Midweek Group has been reflecting on this through Henri Nouwen's book.
Nouwen writes:
"This is the great mystery of faith. We do not choose God, God chooses us. From all eternity we are hidden "in the shadow of God's hand" and "engraved on his palm." Before any human being touches us, God "form us in secret" and "textures us" in the depth of the earth, and before any human being decides about us, God "knits us together in our mother's womb." God loves us before any human person can show love to us. He loves us with a "first" love,, an unlimited, unconditional love, wants us to be his beloved children, and tells us to become as loving as himself.
It might sound strange, but God wants to find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God. Yes, God needs me as much as I need God. God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn't move, and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behaviour, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running towards them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and brings them to the table richly prepared for them".
The Return of the Prodigal Son, p105-106
God loves you more than you can possibly imagine.
In eleven days we will celebrate Jesus' birth.
We will remember the song the angels sang at the birth of God's beloved Son.
The heart of the Christmas story is that you too are God's beloved child.
That the angels sang when you were born and that there is rejoicing in heaven when you feel God's immeasurable love for you and you reflect that love in your life.
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