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Weddings
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 25th December 2006
Revd. Matthew Vernon
1 Jn 4; Jn 15.1-11
Weddings are great occasions.
Wonderful celebrations of love.
Not just the happy couple,
• but the love of family and friends.
It's the same in many cultures,
• across different styles of wedding,
• weddings are happy celebrations.
Kate and I went to a wedding (Gavin and Claire) a fortnight ago.
At the reception, they had an MC.
He's been married for a few years and said to the bride and groom,
• "May you be as happy as my wife and I thought we'd be!"
The celebration of love, including God's love, is why this morning's second reading is used at wedding services – 1 John 4.
"Beloved let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."
"God is love and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them."
It's the heart of our faith.
God's love was revealed through Jesus.
"Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another."
What is this love like?
You may know the conversation between a mother and her son which went like this:
"Why does your girlfriend love you?"
"She thinks I'm handsome, talented, clever and a good dancer."
"And why do you love her?"
"She thinks I'm handsome, talented, clever and a good dancer."
Here's a different story.
A surgeon is operating on a patient.
It's a long and complicated, life-threatening operation.
Even after 9 hours of surgery there is still some way to go with the operation.
The surgeon has to continue working otherwise the patient will die.
So the surgeon continues.
Another hour passes.
And another.
Now the surgeon is exhausted.
He would love to sit down and rest, but he knows that if he stops working the patient will die.
So again he continues.
More time passes until at last the operation is complete and the patient is safe.
The surgeon is exhausted.
All his energy is spent and he staggers out of the operating theatre and collapses into the arms of a colleague.
God's love is not the Hollywood, romantic kind.
God's love gives and sacrifices – even to death.
When we do that ourselves;
• when we give, share, sacrifice,
• then we are close to God;
• close to the mystery of God.
"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is perfected in us."
This love is for every part of our lives:
• in our homes and close relationships;
• with friends;
• at work (though not straightforward);
• and here in our church family.
I'll come back to the church family in particular.
I met this love of God in a person recently.
Dada Vaswani is an Indian guru.
I heard him speak an amazing event 2 weeks ago.
At the Holiday Inn in Nathan Road, over 1000 people came together to see him.
Most people there were Hindu, from the Sindhi community.
The warmth of their welcome and hospitality was deeply moving.
Dada Vaswani is their spiritual leader.
He's an amazing man.
He's a small person physically,
• but he's overflowing with kindness and gentleness and love.
I felt honoured to be there,
• in the presence of a holy man,
• yet as soon as we met he asked me to bless him!
He greets you with palms together and holds your gaze for a long time,
• saying how wonderful it is to meet you.
He spoke for a while and then he took questions and answers.
During his talk he said there are 3 things we should try to do.
Firstly, speak sweetly – speak kindly to other people; speak sweetly and lovingly at all times; this honours the Divine image in every heart.
Secondly, walk humbly –
• don't think too highly of yourself, but practice humility.
And thirdly, never tire of giving selflessly –
• giving to the need, to people who can't repay your service.
Remarkably similar to Christian teaching, isn't it?
He said if you do those things God is with you
• and you don't need to go to Temple, to pray, to read Scripture or go on pilgrimage.
Of course as soon as you reflect on those three things you are aware of how difficult they are!
And that we need help and support with them.
The truth is we need to go to Temple, or Church in our case, to help us walk with God.
Dada Vaswani was asked how we can increase our faith.
He said, "Seek the company of believers".
Spend time with other people of faith.
We support each other on journey with God.
The image in today's Gospel reading helps us with this.
Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches."
The image of a vine, a plant, reminds us that we are all connected.
We are connected like the branches of a vine and connected through being part of Christ.
Just as the different parts of a plant need each other to live,
• we support each other, with our different skills, and the different roles we play in church:
• from welcoming people to setting up the altar before the service to making music to leading intercessions.
The vine is a good image because it's organic:
• it's alive; it grows;
• its fruit becomes wine!
We, as a church, are alive.
We develop and grow
• we drink together
• we break bread together – the literal meaning of companions.
And God, the vine grower, calls us to bear fruit.
The fruits of love.
"This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you."
It's the same message as in 1 John, as we saw earlier.
The love that gives and sacrifices.
The love that's shown in practical ways –
• not just spoken about.
Practical ways that encourage other in faith and support each other.
2½ years ago we at Emmanuel spent some time reflecting on what being a church means
• and what kind of church we should be –
• our Midweek Group began as a result of that.
We used the "I am the vine" reading to help our reflections.
We also used the words of a second century character, Tertullian.
He observed Christians in his time and said "See how these Christians love one another."
"See how these Christians love one another."
Its powerful compliment.
We're going to reflect further next Sunday in a discussion sermon.
We'll get into groups and share with each other ideas about being a church.
We'll focus particularly on helping with the different jobs that need doing each week.
And on Bethanie – the chapel we're hoping to move to later in the year.
More of that next week.
Today, I'll end with some words about God's love.
• Words by Julian of Norwich, the 15th Century mystic from England.
"Our Lord showed me spiritually how intimately he loves us.
I saw that he is everything that we know to be good and helpful…
And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball.
I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, 'What is this?'
And the answer came, "It is all that is made."
I marveled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate…
'It exists, both now and for ever, because God loves it.'
In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God…"
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