Romans 12. 1-8
Only god-loving creates us-loving!
It was the mid-Sixties. I was ten-years-old, at the time. Ten? Eleven? Twelve? I don’t remember much of the specifics. But what I do remember is that it wasn’t all that different from how it is, right now. The world was on fire, then. It felt like everything would turn to ashes. Demonstrations. Riots. About race. And war. We were afraid. Like the song said, “Paranoia struck deep.” Life was stretched and strained to the breaking point. And it was all there. Right before our eyes. On television. In the newspapers, magazines. It was all us or them! And there was no one, no thing, in-between. Radical. Extreme. And it was all home-grown. We did it to ourselves. The story was told with bullets and bombs, with fire hoses and teargas. That’s how we’re telling it, still.
And in the midst of it all, was a song. Wishful thinking. Pie in the sky. From the middle of the conflict, from the midst of the controversy, came the lyrics. Out of the changes and chances, rose the melody. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love/ It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of … /Not just for some but for everyone.” That song was accompanied by the shouts. It harmonized with the insults. “Lord, we don’t need another mountain,/ There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb/ There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,/ Enough to last till the end of time.” It was a real Kumbayah moment. We sang the words, swaying back and forth, forth and back, in time with the music. Lord, we don’t need another meadow/ There are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow/ There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine Oh listen, lord, if you want to know …” What the world needs – what we need, now – is love! Love to quench the thirst! Love to extinguish the flames! Love to bring us together! To bring us together and to keep us together, forever and ever!
Of course, in the end, it wasn’t so much our love that changed the world. It wasn’t the music that made a difference. It’s that we just wore out. We wore out and we gave up. We got tired of all the squabbling. Of all the bickering. And the Sixties faded away into the Seventies. And the Seventies drifted into the Eighties. Life went on. And on. And on. And we thought it was all behind us. And then, here we are, again. Second verse, same as the first. Only this time, we have Facebook … and Twitter … and the internet … It’s the Sixties, all over again. On steroids. But of course, there’s still the song … The words may be different. The melody may not be the same. But the heart, the soul, is the same. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love/ It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of … /Not just for some but for everyone.” Only thing … it’s not going to work any better, this time around, than it did the first. We should have learned by now … we the church … we the gospel people … should know better. Love isn’t a slogan. And love isn’t a sentiment. And love isn’t a song. Love isn’t, even, a decision or a choice. We don’t go to bed, one night, thinking that tomorrow, we’ll wake up and love! We don’t go to bed thinking that, tomorrow morning, we’ll be patient and d kind. That we won’t be arrogant or rude. That we’ll wake up and, magically, miraculously, be tolerant and accepting of every dumb thing we read on the internet. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works!
Loving isn’t an action; it’s a reaction! Love isn’t a stimulus; it’s a response! Put simply, we love because someone else first loved us! We keep on loving, because they never stopped loving us! It’s one of those laws-of-motion things. And object at rest stays at rest unless and until that object is acted on by something else. And when it is, it reacts, it responds, in the same way it was acted on! That’s how love works. Love’s not a thought or an idea. Love’s not a philosophy or a principle. A moral or an ethic. Love is what happens when two lives meet. When two lives touch. When two lives collide. And when one of those lives loves the other. It’s a chain reaction. It’s the domino effect. The only thing that creates love is love! Love is the cause! And at the same time, love is the effect! We can’t will it to happen! We can’t wish it to happen! All we can do is wait for it!
That’s why there’s Jesus! That’s why there’s the church! God intervenes! God intercedes! God loves! And love is the outcome! Love is the result! God so loves that he gives Jesus! Jesus so loves that he gives us! He gives the church! It’s like that row of ball bearings that sit on many desks. God pulls one ball bearing out from the others. Let’s go. And it hits the next ball bearing in line. And the energy goes from one to the next! To the next! To the next! That’s the way love works! That’s the law of motion and the law of love! Nothing happens no matter how badly we want it! Nothing happens no matter how hard we try! Not until god steps in and starts it all off!
That’s what it means to be captive, in bondage, to sin! We don’t. We can’t. But god can and god does! Comes to us in a manger! Comes to us on a cross! Comes to us in a grave! Comes to us each and every time sin is forgiven! Each and every time the gospel’s proclaimed! Each and every drop of water! Each and every pinch of bread! Each and every sip of wine! Comes to us in every handshake and hug – metaphorically speaking! Comes to us in every greeting! Comes to us in every blessing! Until that happens we’re helpless, we’re powerless, to lift a finger! Until that happens – unless that happens – all our thoughts and words and deeds are nothing more than wishful thinking. Love doesn’t come from Sinai. And it isn’t written on stone. It comes from Calvary, from Golgotha. And it’s recorded in flesh and blood.
Sure, like Paul reminds us, the world thinks about these things differently. The world thinks is all about us. Our wants. Our wishes. The world thinks is about our commitment and our devotion. But it’s not. We’re not that strong. Not that powerful. “Don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought,” Paul writes. You’re not all that! Love’s not a reward for something you’ve done! Love’s not a payment for anything you’ve done! It’s not something you invent … or manufacture … or produce … Love is a gift! A gift from god! Free! Unearned! And certainly, undeserved! That’s what makes it love! We can’t receive it! We don’t accept it! All we can do is love! Just like god! Just like Jesus! It’s a reflex! A reaction! It’s just something that happens when god loves! Like the line of dominos! Like the row of bearings!
My friends, this day, do the only thing you can do! Look at the cross! Look at Jesus! See the love! Look at the cross and at Jesus! See the love! And become who you already are! Become the love with which god has loved you! Become the love with which god is loving you still!