“Can Love Ever Be Disappointed?”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – December 8, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

    Psalm 72:1-7; Isaiah 11:1-10

 

    The title of my message this morning asks an intriguing question.  Because of our numerous experiences, the answer appears abundantly clear.  Of course, love can be disappointed.  However, often our response depends on the circumstances and how we are feeling during the episodes that test our ability to remain forgiving and tolerant of what life brings to us. There are some moments in life that have the potential to shake our emotional stability to the core.  Does our self-awareness and our identity stand up to such tests?

    When we extend our love, we often do so with strings attached.  We have grown accustomed to love being a two-way street.  We have expectations.  When we give money to someone in need, we expect that the money will be used to purchase a necessity. As we rear our children, we trust that our values and temperament will help them reach the potential we see in them.  However, we know that our two-way street does not always work to produce the results for which we had hoped. Even when we have to settle for our love remaining a one-way street, we do not need to bring disappointment into our circumstances.

    In one of my churches, a woman came to see me.  She told me of the day that she returned home from work to discover that her home had been emptied of many of its furnishings by her husband who was abruptly ending their three-year marriage. There was a note on the floor from her husband filled with fault-finding issues. Next, she discovered that he had emptied their mutually held bank account and had liquidated their investments.  Fortunately, there were no children involved in this intense drama.

    Life had presented her with a series of adjustments that she had to make. She immediately was able to connect the dots of what had just happened.  Fortunately, Mary had a secure job, a remarkable accepting spirit, and had a good number of very supportive friends.  Her spirit helped her to navigate around self-defeating emotions that would have prolonged her adjustment period.   Mary remained focused and centered on who she wanted to be in this circumstance.  Her husband had taken many of their possessions, but her spirit remained unavailable for him to destroy.

    Jesus described such emotional stability when he told his listeners the response of a father whose youngest son had made an unexpected request:

Dad, I would like to have my share of whatever inheritance I will be getting in the future. I don't see myself as a farmer. I want a different life.  I want to date lots of women.  I want to see what life is like in the city.  I want to grow up by having a lot of different experiences.  I want to have enough money now so that I will not have to work right away.

    When he counted the number of times that his son started his requests with "I want," it did not take long for his dad to know where his son's life was headed.  His dad sensed that his son had not matured enough while living in their family.  The son had to sow his wild oats in order to grow up and discover what values worked and which values would never serve his best interests. 

    We know the story of the Prodigal Son well. (Luke 15:11f) This story has been duplicated in many families for thousands of years.  The word prodigal is a word that is applied to people who spend their financial resources with reckless extravagance.  What makes this story different is the response of the father. 

    He gave his son the inheritance that he wanted and became patient with the young man's immaturity. The father continued to love his son allowing the door to the family's home to remain open.  There was always the possibility that the young man could return once the realities of living came on to the stage where his life-experiences were unfolding. 

    In our Isaiah passage this morning, we find a remarkable prediction of what will be the end-result of humanity.  Isaiah's words project human emotions on to the nature of God's spirit.  God is seen as a Being who patiently allows our species free will to perform in whatever manner people choose.  Isaiah believed that God knows that living The Golden Rule is the only way life works.  God is content to wait until people individually arrive at that conclusion. Isaiah predicted that love, joy, and peace will happen for everyone.

    Through the years, I have heard several pastors during their televised worship services talking about the sins of people grieving God.  Such pastors explain how God has given great potential to people.  With their self-inflated importance, people have squandered it by using their potential in activities that take them into the darkness of misusing God's gift.

    A good number of God's children hurt each other, learn to hate, lie, cheat, manipulate, steal, and extort financial assets from vulnerable, trusting people. They are using God's gifts to become ruthless in their treatment of others.  Such people, we are told, will spend their eternity in Hell.

    Other pastors have taught that God is forgiving, kind, and generous.  Such pastors teach that God does not judge but dispenses unconditional love to everyone. How could God possibly love Adolf Hitler and Jesus equally?

    There is an answer to this question that is seldom discussed by pastors who may find it easier to use fear in their sermons.  Many Christians want evil people to pay for the heartache and pain that they have caused others. They want people to experience Divine Justice in human terms!  Some followers of Jesus have always had trouble with the notion that God does not need to punish anyone.  Where is the justice for such people if the prospect of going to Hell is removed?

    Such believers do not understand the idea that Divine Justice only dispenses loving energy. Such followers of Jesus do not understand how God sends the sun and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. (Matthew 5:45) How can this be? 

    People forget that forgiving others, reflects only the spirit of the one doing the forgiving.  God's likeness was revealed on the cross by what Jesus said just before he died:

Father, forgive the immaturity of those who are doing this to me.  They have no understanding that killing my body does nothing to destroy the spirit by which I have lived. They actually believe that killing me will silence the truth that I have brought into the world.  Forgive them because they do not know, they cannot feel, and they have no vision or understanding of the gift that their lives are. 

    This, of course, is an expanded version of the actual scripture passage, but the words describe the spirit within Jesus. (Luke 23:34) Why is it that God does not need to judge?  What insight did Jesus have about God's nature that people in recent times have missed understanding?

    Nothing in this world will exist for us when we graduate from life and return with total recall of everything that we had left behind when we were born. We will also return with an awareness of how we performed during the moments when we honestly believed that we possessed actual power that really mattered.  The truth is that nothing in this life really matters beyond our ability to use our life-experiences for our spiritual growth.   

    Were we kind, gentle, and compassionate with our attitudes toward others?  Were we patient with people who never understood how to manage creatively their urges, drives, and neediness?  Were we able to serve others by gently pointing to their need to take greater responsibility for the results they are generating with their lives?

    How did maintaining her loving-energy work out for Mary?  Her spirit allowed her to realize that her husband possessed qualities that had gone unrecognized when she said "yes" to his marriage proposal.  She still loved him in spite of everything that he did.  She readily recognized that the way he chose to communicate to her was the act of an immature child within him that refused to grow up.

      Do we understand the gift that Mary was giving to herself by her understanding of what was going on within her husband?  He did not know how to communicate to her as a mature adult, thus she refused to personalize his immature behavior. She authentically wanted him to find happiness in whatever greener pasture he was seeking.  By responding this way, she had turned a lump of coal into a diamond.  Unconditional love gives us that opportunity.

    She refurnished her home.  She later met a man whose wife had died several years before.  He became a perfect fit for her.  He confessed that he became immediately attracted to her by the magnetic, contagious spirit that made her compassionate sensitivities visible through her words and attitudes.

    In the story of the farmer, the son came home with a lot of discoveries about himself.  He realized that sometimes people, like birds, have to fall before they learn that they can fly.  Unconditional love caused his father to run out to his son with outstretched arms to welcome him home again so that he could rejoin the family.  The occasion gave their family a reason to celebrate.

    Most people enter this life totally equipped with everything they need to see how they do with the choices that they make.  The only thing that hinders us from allowing our authentic identity from bleeding through our physical vehicle is our desire to enhance our temporary, constantly changing illusions of beauty, fame, and wealth.

    All of these illusions we leave behind when we lay aside the simulator that gave our physical experiences a temporary playground in which to express our desires.  That simulator has given everyone a world filled with attractive temptations that are always changing as we age.  Many people feel that they have the answers to succeeding in life when very few have that understanding.  (Matthew 11:11)

    If Jesus returned as many Christians hope, what more could Jesus possibly teach that would be more influential and more informative than the message of his unconditional love that he demonstrated to humanity during his crucifixion? 

    Today, we celebrate the coming of an infant that grew up to demonstrate loving energy with all its potential to transform life.  The Love that created the universe remains unconditional.  (1st Corinthians 13:13) This understanding is the crown jewel that has the power to inspire us to follow Jesus' example in whatever form we choose.

     

     CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

     Thank you, God, for these moments of reflection. Amidst all the rich pageantry of our traditions, gatherings, and remembrances of a stable in Bethlehem, we realize that the gift of your Son is above all others.  Yet, how isolated he becomes among all our expectations. For centuries humankind hungered for your presence and guidance.  They looked for you to send another King David.  When our Savior came, he was humble, he carried no sword, and he invited people to seek, knock, and the door to his Kingdom would be opened. Thank you for your faithfulness and your all-encompassing love.  Amen.

                                           

    PASTORAL PRAYER

    Loving God, our lives are always full of activities to do and places to go. In our haste, we do not always remember all the moods, urges, and feelings along the way that would help to guide us every day.  Inspire us to remain kind to others in spite of how they respond to us.  Sometimes we fail to remember that we may be the only Body of Christ that other people will ever see.    

    During these Advent days, help us to surround others with a reflection of your spirit.  Enable our smiles to speak volumes about our peace in spite of the burdens that we carry.  Enable our words to be those that encourage and support.  Inspire gratitude and gracious acceptance of life as we make Jesus' spirit visible during our living.  Help us to become a channel for others to learn how to find a more wholesome way to embrace their experiences of living.

    Let us pause to remember that not everyone understands life and why painful changes occur as they do.  They may be hospitalized while others are shopping.  They may be suffering losses while others are singing joyous carols about the birth of Jesus.  They may be overcome with feelings of abandonment, believing that no one understands their loneliness of being without a family. Help us always to be sensitive to those around us whose experience of Christmas is painful because of wonderful memories that will no longer happen again. Help us always to give the gift of friendship to such people, helping them to realize that new and joyous memories are in the future when they remain open to love's amazing grace. We pray these thoughts through the loving spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .