Sermon for January 18

Sermon for January 18th

We love to be reminded about how much Jesus loves us. But often, when we hear those words, we conflate love with the warm, fuzzy feelings we get when we hear a song like “Jesus Loves Me”. We like hearing the stories of how Jesus shows compassion and heals the sick and comforts those who suffer. We take great comfort in knowing that Jesus would act in this way. It lends us comfort because if Jesus stoops down to pluck the blind man out of his suffering, then Jesus will do the same for us. When we are in our worst moments, we can take great comfort from the knowledge that we have a God who cares so much for us that God would come into our darkest moments and bring us back to the light.

But that is not the only measure of love. I think it would be safe to assume that all parents here would recognize that for all the care and comfort we want to offer our children, sometimes we also have to be tough and speak a certain measure of truth, even if that truth is hard for our children to hear.

I’m not one to enjoy a lot of negative feedback, but I do value what can come out of that feedback if it is done in a constructive way. But as a child, I hated hearing how I could have done better, or if I needed to work on something with more diligence, even if I already knew where I had fallen short. I think that few of us like hearing where we have missed the mark, and often we have very negative reactions to those comments. We want to believe that we are on the right track or if we are not, then there is a reason for it, a reason that we believe is perfectly justifiable. We don’t react well to criticism. We don’t react well to be challenged and too often, when we are challenged or criticized, we view it as an act of hate. The person criticizing us hates us. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t speak to us this way.

Now, to be fair, there is a lot of criticism in this world that is hate-filled. Ask the poor Edmonton Oilers every time they lose a game. When they do, suddenly the whole team is nothing but a bunch of bums. When players (who are now off the team) are issued death threats due to their perceived poor play, then this is not an act of love, its an act of hate. Just ask all those who have been bullied online, bullied to the point of suicide. Nothing that the bullies ever said was meant in love. They only meant to hurt and to destroy.

But when criticism is spoken in love, it can be life changing. It can allow us to grow and become the people that we were always meant to be.

We need to bear this in mind any time that we hear criticism leveled at someone in Scripture. It can sound ugly and jarring when what we expect is the nice God of cozy love. We want God to be our comforter and nothing else. We want Jesus to be our friend, not someone who holds us to any accountability. So we might cringe a bit when one of the prophets goes off on a tirade about the sinfulness of Israel, but it is not done out of hate, but to save them, to bring them back to being a covenant people. Amos might speak harshly against the empty practices of Israel, but he isn’t doing that to be a jerk. He is doing that as a representative of God, who desires that all people walk the path of life, not the path of death and destruction. Sometimes a jarring word can be more effective, when a gentle rebuke or even a firm reminder are not enough. It is an act of love to tell someone they are about to fall off the side of a cliff. To not say something, for fear that we are being mean or hateful, is truly the act of neglect. God never wanted any of Israel to be lost to the pursuits of the world, such as thirsting after wealth or worshipping other gods. And so, through the prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the others, God is speaking truth, not to hurt, but to save.

And that goes for Jesus as well. In our text from Isaiah, we hear of one who was called out by God for this very purpose.

The Lord called me before I was born;

  while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.

 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

  in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

 he made me a polished arrow;

  in his quiver he hid me away.

Who Isaiah was speaking about is something of a mystery, maybe even to Isaiah himself, but since these words were spoken, we have come to see it as indicating Jesus. And it flies in the face of the gentle Jesus we are all so comfortable with. This is the same Jesus, who says in Matthew

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

Jesus did come to be an agent of love and sometimes that does manifest itself in stories about healing and comfort. But just as often, it comes in words filled with challenge. He will speak truth to the darkest corners of our life. And it is never done to hurt or shame us. It is done to set us free, so the hurt and shame no longer have to weigh us down or bind us. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness could not comprehend or stand against it. It may feel painful, but in Christ, it is done in love.

In the book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by CS Lewis, we are once again introduced to the world of Narnia. In the story, only the younger two of the original quartet can return to Narnia. Along with them comes Eustace, their selfish and demanding cousin. Eustace is difficult to handle for the first part of the story, as Lucy and Edmund sail with their friend, King Caspian, to explore the far reaches of the Narnian world. But part way through their adventure, Eustace is cursed and turned into a dragon. He initially feels sorry for himself but starts to use the curse to benefit his fellow crew mates. He scouts ahead of them and does all he can to make the voyage safer for everyone. He learns what it is to be selfless.

Later in the novel, he encounters Aslan (the Christ Avatar in Lewis’ Narnia series), and Aslan helps him remove the curse. But this was not possible until Eustace learned humility, kindness, and gained a servant’s heart. Even then Aslan literally must peel the dragon skin from Eustace, one layer at a time. It is extremely painful, but it is not meant to harm Eustace. It is meant to finally set him free. The dragon skin had come to symbolize the old, selfish person Eustace once was. Now, he was being reborn. It was a painful, humbling process, but in the end, Eustace was a different person and became Narnia’s champion when Edmund and Lucy could no longer return to the land. He was a completely different person by the end of the novel.

When Christ challenges us, is meant for our own good. It is meant to help us rid ourselves of the same old self that bears us down, just as it did with Eustace. Is it painful, to shed what we once were? Yes. But with God’s help, it is possible, and it starts with hearing the challenging, critical words that Jesus may use with us. He does not mean to hurt us. He means to set us free and regardless of how painful that is, we will arise to new life on the other side of the transformation.

Thanks be to God that our God is not just a soft and gentle God, but also a God who will challenge us, and shape us and help us grow, even if it painful. In many ways, there may be no greater act of love than to never give up on another person, and God never gives up on any of us.

Amen