"Love: The Truth That Sets Us Free"
“I’ll miss you, too. And now I’m all teary, as well! Life is beautiful, and it’s also short….” Those are the words I texted in a chat with two friends who had just expressed their sadness that I wasn’t able to join a larger gathering of about a dozen friends this past Friday…. One of my two friends in the chat, Reb, is currently going through treatment for a rare form of breast cancer; it’s her second round of breast cancer, and this type of cancer is much more aggressive than the first. My other friend, Charlotte, has been having some unsettling episodes with A-fib in recent months. And these two friends are part of the same group that helped care for our Methodist pastor friend, Golden, for two months before he died of pancreatic cancer on June 14th.
“Life is beautiful, and it’s also short.” Many of you know that we have several Zoar members who are facing chronic health issues at the moment, including one person on hospice. I think you’re also aware that we’ve held two memorial services here at Zoar recently: a service for Dan Pottratz on the 17th, and a service for Joyce Laitinen just yesterday. As I spent some time with each of these families in the wake of their dear one’s passing, I heard stories of hardship and heartbreak, but what I mostly heard were stories of resilient faith and unquenchable love. I’d like to share something I said about Joyce in yesterday’s sermon because I think the same thing could also be said about many of you: “Although she was well acquainted with heartbreak, it didn’t break her. Instead, it broke her heart open, causing her to pour out her love for others….”
Friends, as I’ve reflected on this, it occurs to me: That’s the way of our compassionate God! It’s the way we see revealed in Isaiah’s suffering servant – “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief”[1] – and it’s the way of self-giving love we see revealed through Jesus, who willingly lays down his life so that others may know the abundant life that comes from God alone.
“Life is beautiful, and it’s also short.” I’m not entirely sure where the last two years have gone, but six of our youth have completed Zoar’s confirmation program, and they’ll be affirming their baptism in just a few minutes. To all the adults in the congregation I want to say: They’re growing up fast, so don’t blink!... To their parents, grandparents, and youth leaders, I want to say, “Thank you for nurturing the faith of these amazing humans! Thank you for bringing them to worship and confirmation class and youth activities and Camp Lutherwood…. To Intern Pastor Katie Insalaco I want to say, “Thank you for all the creativity, energy, laughter, and love you lavished on our youth and on all of us…To our confirmands, I want to say “thank you”: Thank you for your willingness to engage with the ancient stories of Scripture and with the difficult questions of twenty-first-century faith; thank you for your curiosity, your humor, your kindness, and for sharing your gifts by serving others. I can’t wait to see the labyrinth you and your adult helpers are going to create in the parking lot for all of us to enjoy!... As I said during Children’s Time, a labyrinth is an artistic reflection of human beings’ spiritual journey in relationship with God, and walking the labyrinth is a spiritual practice that many people find meaningful. Like our journey of faith, the labyrinth’s path isn’t linear; it’s long and winding, and there are unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes things happen that cause us to step off the path for a while. Some of us may even find a new path, for there are many paths to God…. No matter which path we choose, the journey takes time, and it demands patience. Yet if we persevere, our reward will be great because the path always leads us to the heart of the labyrinth – that is, to the center – which symbolizes the presence of God. Like our church sanctuary, the center of the labyrinth is a place where you and I can rest and pray and draw strength in God’s loving presence before we go back out into the world to join God’s mission of loving and blessing others.
So, I know it sounds cliché, but it’s the truth: Growing in faith is a lifelong journey, and it’s definitely not a linear one! As you and I strive to live out our faith, there will be times of struggle. (But the good news is: There’s grace for that!)…. There will also be times when we get things wrong. (There’s grace for that!) And there will be times when we grow weary and are tempted to give up and go hide under the covers. (There’s grace for that, too!) For some of us, there will even be times when we wander far away from the Way of Jesus. (But guess what: There’s also – say it with me! – “grace for that!”).... You see, friends, when you and I have a change of heart and turn back, we discover an astonishing thing: Like the waiting Father in Jesus’s parable, our God will always be waiting with open arms to welcome us prodigals home. And that kind of extravagant grace IS the truth Jesus is talking about in the passage we just heard from John 8….
Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on in our gospel story. In John 8, when we meet up with Jesus, he’s teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, where he meets with resistance from many of the religious leaders. However, In John 8:30, we learn that some listeners find his teaching convincing and come to believe in him. Jesus immediately senses their newly kindled faith, and he wants them to know right up front that coming to faith isn’t a “one and done” thing; on the contrary, it’s a lifelong journey of highs and lows, ins and out, twists and turns, wandering away and being welcomed home. So, Jesus says to them, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free….” In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a lot in that sentence, so let’s take a moment to unpack the gift of Jesus’s teaching. In essence, he’s telling the new believers, “Only if you abide with me, the Living Word of God, will you come to know the truth that will set you free….” But instead of being curious about the gift that will set them free, the religious leaders take offense at the notion that there might be anything wrong with them. (It seems rage culture was “a thing” back then, too!) They protest defiantly, “What do you mean by saying we need to be set free? We’re descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone!...” Hmm… it seems they’ve forgotten the whole Exodus story of their people spending 400 years as slaves in Egypt! Oh, and then there was the Assyrian Exile and the Babylonian Exile, too…. How quickly we humans tend to forget or even try to rewrite the uncomfortable truth of our history!... You know, I kind of like that phrase “uncomfortable truth.” I like it because I think many people today could benefit from a bit of uncomfortable truth. You see, friends, not only does the gospel comfort the afflicted, it also afflicts the comfortable. In other words, by sending Jesus, the incarnate Word, into the world, God gives each of us exactly we need. And God does this, so that you and I and all God’s children may be set free from whatever is weighing us down and holding us back from receiving the abundant life that is God’s desire for us.
Like those religious leaders in our gospel reading, you and I have come to believe in Jesus. And just as Jesus called those leaders, so he invites us to abide with him, the Living Word of God, in an intimate relationship that will reveal the truth that sets us free. And this is the truth God speaks to you and me and to all God’s children: “You are my beloved, and nothing can ever separate you from my love….” Friends, THAT is the truth I will stake my life on! Again, grace is the truth that sets us free to receive the gift of abundant life that is God’s desire for us…. Right about now, some of you are probably wondering, “But Pastor, what does this abundant life look like?” I’m glad you asked!... From where I sit, the gift of abundant life looks a lot like a never-ending love story – the story of God’s undying love revealed through Jesus. This is the extraordinary love that sets us free, and it lives on in us and through ordinary disciples like you and me, as we participate in God’s ongoing work of loving and blessing the world.
“Life is beautiful, and it’s also short,” friends. So, I’d like to close with part of a prayer I came across on Friday. It’s from John Philip Newell’s book Sound of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter, and it concludes with these words of blessing for all of us who seek to abide in the way of Jesus:
“Bless us with the […] silent messages of eternity,
that we may be set free by love.
Bless us […], O God,
that we may be set free to love. [2]
Amen.
[1] Isaiah 53:3
[2] John Philip Newell, Sound of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter (2012), p. 71.
Love: The Truth That Sets Us Free
