A Time for Love

A TIME TO LOVE: A Sermon in Commemoration of the Passion and Love of Christ

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 building on verse 8, …

A Time for Love…

The following scenario is from my (Holy) Imagination but adheres to the Holy Relationship in the Godhead and is meant only to create a visual experience for this sermon.

ONCE UPON AN ETERNITY – ONE DAY IN HEAVEN, THE GODHEAD, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT SAT DOWN AT THE DINNER TABLE AND HAD A TALK. AS THEY PASSED AROUND THE HEAVENLY MANNA AND SIPPED SWEET, COOL DEW FROM GOLD GOBLETS, THEY TALKED.  THE CONVERSATION THAT EVENING WAS ALL ABOUT THE DAY THAT JESUS WAS TO DIE ON THE CROSS FOR HUMANKIND.

“YOU KNOW, SON, THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE OF THE MOST DRAMATIC MOMENTS OF TIME AND ETERNITY, AND I REALLY WANT MY CHILDREN TO KNOW THAT THIS SACRIFICE OF YOUR LIFE…’” AT THAT THE FATHER’S EYES GREW SAD AND HIS VOICE TREMBLED AS HE REACHED AND TENDERLY TOUCHED HIS SON’S FACE. JESUS RECIPROCATED WITH A SLIGHT TOUCH TO HIS FATHER’S HAND AND A KNOWING NOD.

AT THAT MOMENT, LOVE TOOK A GIANT STEP UP TO THE PLATE OF HUMANITY. LOVE MADE A COMMITMENT THAT WOULD LAST FOR ALL TIME, ALL ETERNITY. LOVE MADE A DECISION TO SAVE ALL HUMANKIND. LOVE MOVED THROUGH THE HEAVENS AND WRAPPED ITSELF IN HUMAN FLESH, AND TRAVELED FROM THE RHEALMS OF ETERNITY TO THE FRAGILE WALLS OF TIME. THIS IS A PICTURE OF LOVE

LET US SWITCH FROM ETERNITY TO TIME.  LET US REJOIN THE 21^ST CENTURY.

PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE.  People kill people.  People gossip about people.  People deny people what they could and should give to them. People cold-heartedly break promises to people. People turn their backs on people when they need them the most. People just outright lie to people.  People watch other people hurt and do nothing about it. People slander people’s good names.  People add slander to people’s bad names. People conspire to cause other people to fall.   People take what belongs to other people. People take other people’s money, their jobs, their spouses, their homes, their friends, their reputation.  People’s hearts have grown cold, and hatred seems to be the order of the day. THIS IS A PICTURE OF THE ABSENCE OF LOVE.

QUESTION: Is there a God to be found around here, anywhere today

QUESTION: Is there a Christ to be found around here, anywhere today?

QUESTION: Is there a person who knows Christ to be found around here, anywhere today?

ONE MORE QUESTION: Christian woman or man, are you here today?

And to answer my own questions:

YES, there is a God around here EVERYWHERE! YES, there is a Christ around here EVERYWHERE! And YES, there are some people who know this Christ, and they are all around here today!  Yes, there are people who know and love Christ, and they are here in this church today. THERE YOU ARE, MY FRIEND!  I found you, and I am calling you out.  I am calling out!

My Dear Sisters and Brothers, I stand today to remind us- God’s people who know love and who are loved-   I stand to remind us of why we are really in this Christian walk. We know well that we are here, first, to love God and, secondly, to love one another. We carry this understanding deep in our hearts, minds, and spirits, but from time to time, we just need a little reminder. This is for us all.

Today’s Scripture makes it plain and simple and brings it up close and personal for God’s people–Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Four words from this group of verses say it all for us today: A TIME TO LOVE. These verses tell us that there is a time for everything, but I have chosen to use these words in verse 8 as my title. For such a time as this, for such a time that we find ourselves living right now, we need these words: A TIME FOR LOVE. What better time than during the season of church life in which we commemorate the ultimate act of love, that of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross – what better time to speak of love?

We live in a tough, catastrophic, apathetic, frightening world. Epic song artist Barbara Streisand and several others sang years ago; what the world needs now is love, sweet love…

Today, that need has grown exponentially. What the world desperately needs now is love. What the world needs now is people who can love as Jesus loves: RADICALLY, SELFLESSLY, COMMITTED, ENDURING, HARDY, AND REAL. Not a whimsical, on-today-and-off-tomorrow kind of love. Not a what-am-I-going-to-get-out-of-it kind of love. Not an If-I-feel-like-it kind of love.

Let’s think about Jesus here for a moment with this If-I-fee-like-it kind of love. Do you think that Jesus felt like getting whipped mercilessly that night after he was arrested? Do you think Jesus felt like carrying that heavy cross beam of wood up a hill that day to be nailed to? Do you think that He felt like dying? Remember what he cried out to His Father that night, the Same Father of our imagined scenario, the Father who looked sadly on Him as He prepared to come to earth to die for us.  Remember what he cried in the Garden of Gethsemane while His dear, well-intended friends slept the night away. FATHER TAKE THIS CUP AWAY FROM ME. No. Jesus did not feel like dying.

But Jesus pulled Himself together and told His Father, NOT AS I WILL, BUT YOUR WILL BE DONE. And He went on and died.  THIS IS RADICAL LOVE!

Today, Christian man and woman, Jesus is calling you out! Jesus is putting you on blast.  Come out and dare to show them how bold your love is. The world is hurting too badly for us to offer God’s people a wimpy, whiny, weak, wallowing love.  Hard times call for a hardy love. This is why Jesus left the comfort of His Daddy’s home in heaven. When Jesus left His Father’s side to become flesh, He was committing the most radical act of love ever, and today, Jesus calls for you and me to commit to a radical love.

We got wars. We got hatred crimes.  We got crooked, ungodly, hateful politicians and leaders in high places. We got hungry.  We got the broken and the broken-hearted. IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE, Dear saints of the Most High God. IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE like we have never loved before.  Jesus is calling us out. People are scared.  People are nervous.  People are worried. People grieve. People are on edge. People are ready to give up. IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE!

MY MOST SINCERE WORD TODAY, MY Friends – my challenge, and my encouragement is: Don’t give UP- give IN. Go INside someone’s bad situation, INside someone’s pain, INside someone’s needs, and offer some help. GIVE, and GIVE IN. Families need to get close and be generous with love and acts of kindness.  Churches need to be more constant in reaching out.  The people in the pews need to be more genuine. THIS IS A TIME FOR LOVE

This is a call for a LOVE that doesn’t mind losing some sleep now and then to help get someone else through a hard and scary night.   This is a call for a LOVE that takes feet and walks hospital floors.  This kind of LOVE takes hands and soothes a brow wrinkled from grief fear, and rejection- even though those hands are dead tired themselves. RADICAL! This kind of LOVE has eyes that are not afraid to see the wounded and the lonely, the dying, the doubtful, and the desperate. This selfless, people-serving love gives up its comfort zone to help bring someone else comfort.

This is a Jesus kind of Love, this I-won’t-stop-until-I-get-you-there kind of love; as Jesus did not stop until He finished His work on the cross, until He got us there.  Our love must have ears that don’t mind hearing the cries and screams of those who just lost everything in a flood or a tornado.  Our love must be able to listen and embrace the cries and get up and do something about the screams of others. This sacrificial, radical kind of love goes to the bank and empties an account on account of someone else’s need. This LAY- DOWN-YOUR-LIFE- kind of love makes you forget that pain in your leg and notice that someone else does not even have a leg to feel pain.

IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE, Saints IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE!  Here’s proof, straight from God’s Word:

And Jesus says: Feed my lambs -feed my sheep (John 21:15,16) LOVE!

And Jesus says: And the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk 19:10)  LOVE!

And Jesus says:  In as much as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me (Mt 25:40) LOVE!

And Jesus says. That you love one another as I have love you… (John 15:12) UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

Do not just look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others, Says God’s Word (Phil2:4) RADICAL LOVE!

Be devoted to one another in brotherly(sisterly) love; give preference to one another in honor, says God’s Word (Romans 12:10) LOVE!

 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the house of faith, says God’s Word (Gal 6:10) LOVE!

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God, in Christ, has also forgiven you, says God’s Word (Eph 4:32) HARDY LOVE!

But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother(sister) in need, and closes his heart against him(her), how does the love of God Abide in him(her)? Says God’s Word (1 John 3:17,18) LOVE!

> IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE, DEAR PEOPLE! IT IS A TIME FOR LOVE!

Funny thing about love, though:

You do not always get to choose whom you love, or to love those you love to love.  The Word says, AND THUS FULFILL THE LAW OF GOD. It is not optional, Dear People. When it comes right down to it, it is not optional- IT IS GOD’S LAW TO LOVE.… (GAL 6:2)

You do not always know around which corner there is someone whom God wants to love through you. We are sometimes taken by surprise. Back to our imagined heavenly scenario. There was Jesus.  There, he sat at dinner with His Daddy and Counselor, and the call came.  We needed to be saved. Jesus put down His chilled gold goblet of heavenly dew.  He had to go.  It was His will to go. He had to take on flesh.  He had to love.

There you were, servant of God.  There you were, sitting in the comfort of your own home with your family, pulling up a chair to a plate of hot fried chicken, greens, and some piping hot cornbread dripping with butter – minding your own business.  Somebody hit you up on your cell phone.  Somebody needed your help right away. You put down your tall glass of iced tea, with the ice still clinking against the chilled glass.  You had to go.  You had to love.

It all depends on whether you are willing to make the sacrifice, whether you can get up from the table, or whether you can crawl from under that Christian comforter you have settled under and make your way out to comfort someone else.  It all depends on your love. Do I need to say more?

The bottom line, Dear People, is that we should just become more available to God, and then we will automatically become more available to God’s people. Let us all step outside our comfort zones. WHAT YOU DO FOR OTHERS, YOU DO FOR HIM. True, the picture of our world is far too often ugly, but as for us and our God, our Jesus, and God’s dear people—IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE. Can we say it together—IT’S A TIME FOR LOVE!

Amen!