What Kind of Love?

Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

Today we're going to sing a hymn we have never used before.

You might want to find it now and keep it handy as we listen for Jesus in the next few minutes. It is Hymn # 859.

It poses an important question to us:

What kind of love is this?

And the direction in which we should find the answer:

You showed your love, Jesus,

there to me on Calvary.

Neither the question nor the answer are easy for us to hear.

We are hampered by our use of a single word "love" to cover a variety of ideas.

Often we mix up the meanings and confuse our hearers and ourselves.

There is erotic love, and brotherly love, and self-giving love, the love of God, the love of neighbor, the love of enemies, pardoning love, narcissistic and self-serving love, regenerating love, ...and perhaps we could come up with other nuances as well.

Some of these variaties are deep and thoughtful, others are not.

All too often we get caught in a very shallow love that says "I love you for what you can do for me."

So what does it mean in our gospel today when Mark says that ...Jesus,looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have , and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come; follow me." [Mark 10:21]

Since they are interested in other aspects of the story, when Matthew and Luke tell it, they omit the enigmatic phrase ...looking at him, loved him and said...

What does Mark have in mind when he writes this?

Let's take two of the meanings off the table right away; this is not erotic love that Jesus is expressing.

Neither is it merely brotherly love, spoken as a good buddy.

This is the love of God,

--the self giving love of God for his people,

--the love that gives what truly is needed, not necessarily what is wanted,

--a serious love that is willing to give whatever it has, all of whatever it has, to his beloved.

--You showed your love, Jesus,

there to me on Calvary, our hymn sings.

It is an offer extended, a gift, truly Good News.

But how is Jesus' word Good News to the rich man?

How is it love at work in this situation?

The man certainly cannot comprehend it as good news at this point.

For him it sounds like an impossible demand, a burden which he is not willing to bear.

He cannot really hear Jesus because of the the clanking and banging of all of the things that make up his baggage.

Jesus asks him to divest himself of all of the things that are weighing him down, the things that are obscuring the message of salvation.

Exactly which posessions are causing the problem are not specified, but the man recognized them.

...And so can we.

What object, or activity, posession or relationship is getting in the way of our hearing what Jesus says as good news?

I was carrying the laundry basket in front of me the other day, with laundry stacked high.

For awhile I didn't realize the trouble for which I was headed, but I soon did when I could not see the dog and nearly fell over him with the load.

It rattled me, and scared the dog also.

My burden was in the way of my sight.

And I could not receive anything more anyway, since my hands were already full.

There are lots of things in our way.

That is clearly the case with the 2/3 of our congrgation who are not here in worship today.

Something else is more important than listening to Jesus and holding out our hands for Jesus.

It is easy for us to sniff in annoyance that they are not here with the rest of us.

But the problem exists within us who are gathered here as well.

What is getting in your way and mine?

We are quick to trot out all of the excuses when Jesus calls through the church:

--it's too expensive.

--I don't have time.

-- I don't have training or experience for that.

It seems that we want to make things easier for one another, cover up the problem areas, and pretend that everything is OK.

We would like to have the preacher confirm that what we are and what we have done is OK, that we are doing the best that we can,

...at least we are better than those who are not here today, and certainly better than those who were never here.

And we are shocked and are ready to turn away sorrowful if the preacher doesn't pat us all on the back and say "There, there, everything is OK," and instead calls for behavior that goes against the popular culture of the day.

In the debate over whether or not a growing successful church ought to relax its moral demands and become more "realistic," St Maximus the Confessor in the 7^th century said this:

"No one must distort the Word of God to indulge his moral negligence; it is better to confess one's weakness, not concealing God's truth, lest, together with transgressing his commandments, we become guilty of intentionally misinterpreting the word of God."

Saying it another way: if we can't follow Jesus on his terms, at least we should care enough to confess our weakness. Rather than change the Gospel to fit our inadequacies, we ought to change ourselves to fit the Gospel.

Oh my! We are so easily become like the rich man, ready to turn away sorrowfully, clinging instead to objects, attitudes, posessions and behaviors that are easier than what Jesus asks.

I should tell you what happened to St. Maximus the Confessor.

For speaking the truth, he was driven from his positions, exiled, starved, beaten, pilloried, his tongue cut out, and one hand cut off by those in charge. He died after 20 years of this kind of suffering.

We're not quite to that point in the US yet, but I am beginning to hear of certain of our bishops who have been telling faithful pastors "There is no room for you in this Synod."

I have been hearing of certain seminarians being told to either toe the party-line or leave.

Over in the Episcopal church, Katherine Jefferts-Schori, over whom our local newspaper gushed effusively in a full-page color spread last month, has been spending $2 million PER YEAR suing congregations and dioceses that disagree with her.

That's not an opinion, but a fact.

Oh yes, there is lots of the attitude of the rich man in and around us all.

"Go along and get along" is the siren call that beguiles us.

"Lay down the easy, comfortable things," Jesus says, "and come, follow me."

How can we do this?

How can we dare to do this?

Because Jesus has already shown us the way.

What kind of love is this?

You showed your love, Jesus,

there to me on Calvary.

Give up the kinds of love that are narcissistic and self-serving;

the kinds of love that keep asking What do I get out of it? What's in it for me?

Instead, let the focus be on what we have to share.

For Jesus, it was words in actions, giving himself all the way to the cross.

For those of us who are married, it will be the words and actions of sharing oneself fully with one's spouse, on the model of Christ's full sharing of himself with and for the church.

For those who are single, the new life will be steadfastness and faithfulness, on the model of Jesus' relationship with the Father.

"This is difficult," we exclaim!

"As hard as getting a camel through the eye of a needle," Jesus replies.

"Look, we're trying," the disciples whimper.

"It isn't the trying that I'm counting," Jesus reminds us, "although I do want you to be working at it."

Rather, the Father is making such an offer of life to you, to which I am leading you to recognize, so that you can live out a Thank you to the Father and a sharing with your brothers and sisters."

What kind of love is this?

You showed your love, Jesus,

there to me on Calvary.

The hymn that we sing today comes from Ethiopia.

The Makene Jesus Lutheran Church there has been growing and has over 5 million members now, larger than the ELCA.

They live under harsh conditions;

...they have few material things,

...they have had fierce persecution from a Marxist regeime,

...they are in conflict with Islam for the hearts and minds of people.

But this hymn shows that they can point to the center of things,

and know that whatever the cost, it is worth it.

Our secretary Susan's mother was a wise woman.

She observed that when the rich man turned away, he was saying in effect to Jesus: "your grace is not sufficient for me; I want something more than what you give."

Jesus turns and looks at us, and loves us.

In return, will we be ruled by self-love, or love of the Father and our neighbor?

What kind of love is this?

You showed your love, Jesus,

there to me on Calvary. AMEN.

What Kind of Love?

St. Mark's Lutheran Church