To sing the forever song

When Deb and I sat down to talk about the details of this service, she pulled out a bulletin from her memorabilia, the wedding bulletin from Jim and Deb's special day.

We looked at it and its lessons, and concluded that several of the lessons would be a difficult match for this occasion, but that one of them would indeed be appropriate.

And thus we have heard the passage from 1 Corinthians a few moments ago, one of the lessons from that wedding day.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

That is how Paul ends the passage and the chapter.

At a wedding, folks are generally thinking that they are just nice, mushy sounding words that are talking about the bride and groom.

That of course is not the context of the passage at all.

The love of which it speaks is first of all the love of Christ Jesus for us.

So, as Paul describes it, what has happened to faith?

It has turned into sight, when we get to the company of heaven.

And what has happened to hope?

In heaven it has become the experience of the fullness of God's presence.

Thus faith and hope have completed their work and are laid aside; but love, the love of God for us in Christ Jesus, that continues unabated, forever.

That is the Good News in this passage; that is the promise onto which we need to hold on a wedding day, and also on a day when we are dealing with so great a sorrow as is the death of a beloved like Jim.

Our love for each other will have its better days and its difficult days, and will be broken up by the condition of death, but the love of God for us is steady and strong and enduring.

The covenant which Jesus made with Jim at Holy Baptism is true, and firm.

The love which Jesus extended to the thief on the cross –Today you will be with me in paradise. – is extended to Jim and to us as well.

The promise of the completion of God's kingdom is the framework for our life in the meantime.

Our reaction to all of this Good News is thanksgiving, and our giving of thanks regularly spills over into music.

In 1530, Martin Luther wrote that “next to theology there is no art which is the equal of music, for she alone, after theology, can do what otherwise only theology can accomplish, namely, quiet and cheer up the soul of man, which is clear evidence that the devil, the originator of depressing worries and troubling thoughts, flees from the voice of music just as he flees from the words of theology.”

And in 1541, he summarized his thought: “After theology I accord to music the highest place and the greatest honor.”

Several weeks ago in a Bible study we were looking at Luther's first hymn, Dear Christians One and All Rejoice, (# 299 in the hymnal.)

The later stanzas are a full telling of the Good News, what God has done in Christ Jesus for us.

Upon close reading, we realized that the early stanzas of this hymn are autobiographical.

They tell of the darkness, the sorrow, the fears that Luther felt, and from which he could not escape or work his own way out.

He realized that he was dependent on the loving action of God to rescue him from his distress, and his reaction was to expound it all in vigorous and joyous song, both the sorrow and especially the promised victory.

What a positive thing to do!

What an example for us!

In this, Luther is reflecting the confidence and spirit of the lesson we heard from Revelation.

There was a great multitude that no one could count, ... standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, ...They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

And the angels lead the hymn: Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

They have a full-time job of pointing to the glory of God in joy-filled song.

Jim and his family have been involved with music in school, stage, and church all through the years.

They know its power to express important things, entertaining things, and serious things.

But the past year has been so difficult for Jim, being in and out of the hospital so often, being dragged down by that awful infection, and distressed by the inability of the medical staff to conquer the problems.

Sometimes it is just hard to sing.

Among the Psalms are many which are laments, songs of sorrow and distress, pain and anguish.

But they never give in to utter despair.

The Lord will yet do something with us, the people of Israel are reminded.

The Lord was the one who offered that covenant with Abraham; who had done nothing to deserve God's approval.

And we, too, have this promise from Jesus of life in his name, and we are bid to hang onto that promise.

We have the testimony of the host of heaven, which we can hear with confidence.

We have the song of the angels which we are invited to imitate with joy that it is true, that it will be true, that it is becoming true....for Jim, for us, and for all God's people.

In anticipation of the time when faith becomes sight, and hope becomes experience, and God's love continues on for us,now we too join the song: Alleluia, Lord, Most High! Amen

Please note: The preceding 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.