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"Is God’s Love An Entitlement?" Meditation Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – March 11, 2012 Centenary United Psalm 19; I
Corinthians 1:18-25
No where in our
Constitution does it say that people are entitled to a job, to have
their bills paid, to have food put on their table or to ensure that they
are put first just because they are a Bermudian.
Some Bermudians have a misguided sense of entitlement that they
are deserving of some particular benefit or privilege just because they
are Bermudian. Could such thinking
also be applied to the way religious people carry themselves in
societies everywhere? It was
certainly true in Jesus’ day when the Pharisees dressed the part,
honored God with their tithes, prayed articulately in the public
marketplace, and let everyone know that they were clearly in God’s
favor. In fact, the Jews
considered themselves “God’s
chosen people.” What appears quite
peculiar throughout Jesus’ ministry is that he had little time for
religious people. In fact,
he preferred to be with people that seldom lived up to the teachings
from their religious heritage.
What do we suppose Jesus would do if he were walking the earth
today? Some time ago I saw
two paintings that contained interesting messages.
One featured a preacher expounding on
God’s Word from his pulpit.
In the front row sat Jesus who had fallen asleep.
A second painting
was not as funny as the first.
It showed a pastor in the pulpit again delivering a magnificent,
well polished sermon in front of a massive congregation.
He had his arms outstretched as he looked to the left.
Between his arms in a cartoon bubble was a large church building,
a multi-leveled educational wing, several church busses, a spacious
parsonage and several cars. On the other side of
the pastor there stood a shadowy figure of a man on the margin of the
painting, a figure that was barely visible.
To perceptive observers, they could see a nail print that was
clearly visible on one of the hands of that figure.
Under the painting
were these words, “But he turned away sorrowful because he was a man of
many possessions.” These
words were used to describe what happened when a rich young man had come
to Jesus for advice and Jesus said, “Sell everything you have, give the
money to the poor and follow him.”
In our lesson today,
the Apostle Paul referenced a passage from the prophet Isaiah. I thought
it would be useful to place Isaiah’s quote in the broader context of
what he wrote:
The Lord said,
“These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and
their hearts are always dwelling somewhere else.
Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which
they have simply memorized.
So I will startle them with one unexpected experience after another.
Those who consider themselves wise in their religious practices
will turn out to look like fools, and all their clever ideas about
My Will for their lives will be useless.”
(Isaiah 29:13-14) If we return to Sir
John Swan’s editorial comments, we learn that being a Bermudian is an
entitlement. It is an
entitlement to all the opportunities that are afforded to everyone who
was fortunate enough to be born on our island.
Everyone, however, needs to develop their own potential.
Life skills, education, personal wealth and friendly
personalities are the fruit
that comes from those that are eager to grab onto life with both hands.
This morning we are
going to consider if God’s love for each of us is an entitlement.
The answer to the question posed in my sermon title is
unequivocally, “Yes!” There
can be no question about God’s unconditional love for each of us.
God’s love is an
entitlement and remains our linkage to the realm of spirit from
whence we came before we incarnated on the earth. After quoting
Isaiah, Paul wrote in our lesson, “For God in his wisdom made it
impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom.”
By writing that, Paul was telling his readers that while God’s
love is an entitlement, there are no guarantees that life will be
smooth sailing while we are here.
In spite of how biblically based
our beliefs are and how much spiritual wisdom we have discovered, no
religion can lay claim to a formula or a belief system that can describe
with any accuracy how God’s love is disbursed among the human family.
The entitlement of
God’s love and believing that we have been saved gives us nothing more
than an opportunity to walk through life loving others as God loves us.
The cross teaches us that Jesus was able to do this with nails in
his hands and feet.
Throughout his ministry he said, “Follow me.”
This means – “Love as I have loved.” The late Ruth Graham
wrote a book entitled, Legacy of a
Pack Rat. Ruth was the wife
of the well-known Evangelist, Billy Graham.
In her book she tells the story
of what happened when a young Bedouin struck and killed his best friend
during a heated argument.
Knowing the rigid laws of his people, the young man fled and sought
sanctuary in the chief’s tent.
After hearing what the young man had done, the chief assured him
that he would be safe until the matter could be settled legally. Word spread not only
of the killing but also where the boy was hiding.
A large crowd gathered outside of the chief’s tent demanding that
justice be done according to the traditions of their people, traditions
that prescribed death by stoning.
The chief would not surrender the boy and ordered everyone to
return to their tents. A spokesperson for
the group yelled, “You don’t understand!
You do not know who it was that he killed.
The chief repeated himself, “I would like all of you to remain
calm and return to your tents.
I have given my word to him that the boy will remain safe.”
In frustrated anger, the same man
blurted out, “Chief, it was your son that he killed!” A deep silence fell
over the crowd, so much so that nothing could be heard but the sound of
the wind as it swept over the dunes.
Visibly shaken, the chief bowed his head and remained speechless.
Everyone remained very pensive as each waited for the response of the
chief in light of this news.
Knowing the relationship the young man had with his son and how rage had
blinded him in a moment of
passion, the chief finally raised his head and spoke, “Then the young
man I have in my tent will become my son and one day everything that I
have will be his.” Ruth went on to
write that God’s love for each of us is greater than that of the chief.
She wrote that love comes when we are unworthy.
Love comes when we are
blind and cannot see anything else but our hurt. Love comes when
human justice demands judgment, punishment and banishment.
She wrote that God’s love continues to surround us for all
eternity. Herein is the difference between
God’s love and our desire to
love, the difference between God’s wisdom and our own wisdom.
If God’s will is that one day all
of us will embody love’s creative energy patterns, certainly God could
not radiate anything less. Clearly,
for God, love is a one way street.
When we learn that our spirits have the same opportunity to love without
counting the cost to us, our spirits soar to greater heights of
awareness. Many years ago, a
newborn named Aaron stopped gaining weight. A few months later
what hair the child had began to fall out. At first, the boy's
pediatrician said that he would probably be a dwarf, but all his vital
signs and physical indicators appeared normal. The child's health
did not improve. After getting a second opinion, Aaron's parents
received news that was beyond their comprehension. Aaron was born with
a condition called Progeria. This is a rare genetic
disorder that causes the body to accelerate the aging process.
Aaron never grew taller than three feet. Hair did not form on any
part of his body. The boy died in his early teens of symptoms
associated with old age. He looked like a little old man. Aaron's father is a
Rabbi who found himself doubting God's presence. He could not
comprehend the unfairness and the lack of justice of a disease that
would rob an innocent child of the rest of his life. He stood torn between the world
his senses understood and the world he knew was governed by a loving
God. He struggled with himself for a year and a half. Then he
realized that his preoccupation with his son's death had taken up
residence in his mind. The Rabbi began to
realize that God never promised anyone a life free from pain and
disappointment. He reasoned that God would never cause anything
that is debilitating, devastating or incomprehensible. As his
thinking about the nature of God slowly changed, he began to notice the
community of supporters that had been surrounding him. He had not noticed
the loving presence of so many in his congregation during his period of
near total self-absorption.
He learned that when he carried his loss peacefully, allowing his faith
to show, he enabled others to shoulder their struggles with equal grace.
This is the gift Jesus gave to
humanity from the cross. Inspired by his
transformation, the Rabbi wrote a book that produced healing thoughts
for millions of people when their circumstances took them into the realm
of the shadows. Perhaps
many of you have heard of his book and have read it.
It is a book worth studying.
It is called, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Of his experience,
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote;
When I
think of Aaron and all that his life has taught me, I realize how much I
have gained. By reframing my experience, I am now at peace with
God and with myself. Yesterday's experience of Aaron's loss seems less
painful. Today, I am not afraid of tomorrow. When we believe that we live on the sunny side of the street because we are
followers of Jesus Christ and that we will always be loved by God, we
are correct in our beliefs.
Life, however, demands that we energize those beliefs every day
during each painful moment, each personal crisis, and each time we feel
unloved or neglected, and each time we must endure betrayal by loved
ones and each time someone judges our character because of something
they believe about us.
We need to remember that Jesus
had every one of these experiences in his last full week on earth.
None of them prevented him from loving others as God loves.
This is why Paul
wrote, “The message of Christ being hung on a cross demonstrates both
the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For what seems to be foolish nonsense is wiser than human wisdom
and what seems to be a weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
Jesus showed us that nothing in
the external world has the power to defeat us until we decide
that it can.
Recently, there was a commercial on television that featured a toddler and her adventures with a large cardboard box. She is seen having a wonderful time crawling in and out of that box. The last scene has her walking down the hallway with the box over her head, completely blind to where she was going. That is a near
perfect metaphor for what many of us experience.
The treasure in the field and the pearl of great price were
examples Jesus used to describe what it is like to live in the |
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