Diamonds Aren't Forever, But Baptism Is.

2-3-19 Sermon, Trust

Grace and peace to you from God our father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

“Love is a patient…. driver. Love merges kindly in traffic. Love does not envy the best parking spots… or boast on getting them. Love does not drive arrogantly or rudely. It does not insist on its right of way all the time; it is not easily irritated or resentful while stuck behind a slow driver; it does not rejoice when it sees other rude drivers getting pulled over. Love bears all traffic conditions, even snow and ice, believes in the best intentions of other drivers, hopes to get to its destination safely no matter how long it takes, and endures all things, even while riding shotgun.”

found at a store

Now, I would bet that you have never heard the “love poem” from First Corinthians in quite that way before. But, I believe, if Paul had a car, he might have chosen to write it like this.

The last time you heard the ORIGINAL passage from 1 Corinthians 13, it was probably in A church SOMEWHERE, (but not this one)… because the last time you heard this was likely at a wedding. … read way too fast or too quietly by a nervous relative of the bride or groom. In fact, there is sort of a joke among pastors that this reading has been so overused in weddings that it has become a cliché. 

But at this time of year, you might also see quotes from this passage in first Corinthians in cards, stores, and in posts on social media, pretty much from the moment that Christmas a New Year’s were over. Red hearts as far as the eye can see, ushering in the “season of love,” so to speak. Here, in the church, though, we’re still in the season of Epiphany, and doing our series on baptism

Today, we have gotten to the letter T in BAPTISM… So far, we have talk about how we are Born from Above, we are Affirmed and emPOWERED, and today, we’re talking about TRUST. Which is of course, very closely related to love… which is present and active in… guess what… our baptisms.

Parents of young children about to be baptized are called to both trust in the grace and love of God, and also are ENTRUSTED with responsibilities to raise their children learn to trust God. That’s all in the first page of our baptism liturgy.

Because we have been chosen by God, claimed as beloved, we can TRUST in God’s promises to forgive our sins, give us new life, and to be with us always. We can rely on God’s guidance and presence forever. In other words, we can trust God, because God loves us.

Our baptism DO NOT guarantee us and easy life as we seek to follow Jesus … We, as children of God, have been called to love other people… and loving people is HARD! I struggle to love people I don’t know, and especially when they do something that I get annoyed with, like not using their turn signal or parallel parking poorly.

I am not a patient driver, and I have a feeling that others might have this struggle too. Had Paul been writing now, he probably should include “If I have the best driving skills in the world, and can parallel park on a dime, but have not love, I am just a honking car horn.”

And that’s just driving. Think about all the other interactions with have with people throughout our day – with our parents, siblings, and spouses. With our children. With our coworkers. With the people in the grocery store and at the bank and at church. How can we show love to all these different kinds of people, especially when they irritate me in all kinds of different ways?

In the words of a slightly different translation of 1 Corinthians 13, “Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always ‘me first,’ doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others… Jesus reveals that God’s love puts up with us, always looks for the best, never looks back, and keeps going to the end.” (The Message Translation)

The bottom line is, God IS love, and God loves you. That love never gets tired of going in search of you, and then grabbing hold of you in the most stubborn grip.  And God loves us so much that God revealed that love to us as love with a body. A person that shows love in all that he says and does.

Just over a month ago at Christmas – wow time flies – we celebrated the coming of this love revealed as helpless infant born in a manger – meaning Jesus. But, of course, Jesus didn’t stay a cute baby. He grew up, and he began to preach, and continued to reveal that God is Love, that God Loves Everyone, and God’s Love is on the MOVE.

Last week, we heard Jesus say that Love releases the captives and preached good news to the people who are forgotten and left behind. That day, the people in Jesus’s hometown wanted to hear that they are God’s beloved favorites. But instead, in his very first sermon, Jesus had the audacity to remind them that God has the annoying habit of showing love to people who are on the outside.  Like helping the widow of the “wrong” nationality and a general from a rival army, when there were plenty of people in need who were more “deserving” of God’s love.

And this is only Luke chapter 4, so Jesus is just getting started. Jesus heals, hangs out with, feeds, and blesses all those people who were considered to be disqualified from God’s love. For those on the outside, this is very good news indeed! But for those on the inside, this was a dangerous message, and must be hushed up.

Little, it seems, has changed since Jesus time. In our human selfish brokenness, we live in a world where some of us are given preferential treatment because of gender, skin color, orientation, education, or economic standing. The people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t want to hear that THEY were not the ONLY people that God loves…  and we don’t want to hear this message either. We would rather go on believe that we, by our own goodness and merit, have earned God’s love. But this is just another sneaky way that we trust in ourselves and not in God.

Martin Luther talked a lot about how we do not have to earn our salvation, and so we are freed to use that energy to help our neighbors. He also once reputedly said that said that our spouses were our closest neighbor. …. So maybe using 1 Corinthians as a text for weddings is not actually that weird.

Love is the basis of trust. And we can trust in our God, who loved us so much that his son Jesus came down to understand how complicated it is to be human. Which sounds like a pretty irrational thing to do. And frankly, so is marriage.  What is more ridiculous that spending thousands of dollars on invitations and  flowers and cake and a dress you’ll only wear once… to stand up in front of your family and friends and say “till death do us part”? Love makes us do some pretty funny things, doesn’t it?

Love is about sacrifice, but nobody wants to hear THAT on their wedding day. This is what I WISH I could say in each and every wedding homily I give from here on out:

Me doing my brother's wedding, which was
really fun!

The feeling that we interpret as being “in love” will fade… so don’t trust it. Trust God instead. Trust that God has chosen you. Trust that God always acts patiently and kindly, God is never rude or arrogant or jealous or resentful. Trust that God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things… including the limitations of OUR capacity to love.

People will fail us, but God never will. Relationships break, our dearest loved ones will reject us or hurt us, but God will always be faithful.

Love and trust hold hands, and form an unbreakable bond, more certain and more permanent than the promise of any wedding ring. Diamonds aren’t forever, but the promises of baptism are. And this is something we can hold on to, as long as we all shall live. Thanks be to God. Amen.