Title: Something God Doesn’t Do and Neither Should We
Text: Acts 10:34-44
Thesis: When we love with the love God our love is absolutely free of partiality.
Introduction
“Is there anything God cannot do?” is an age-old question. When I was a boy the biggie was, “Can God make a rock so large that he cannot lift it?”
If you were check out the beliefnet web site you would see that beliefnet lists 19 or 20 “Things God Cannot Do.” Among them lie, leave you or forsake you or forget you, sleep, sin, change and break a promise.
Another site says “God cannot learn; God cannot lie; and God cannot make you love him.” (Not so sure about the “cannot make you love him” but prefer to think God will not make you love him.)
I think our Acts 10 reading reveals another thing God either cannot or will not do. The context is that of God having, through a vision, convinced Peter that the grace of God was for everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. I have cherry picked, so to speak, Peter’s understanding and interpretation of that vision: “God does not show favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.”
When God loves, God loves in a big and all inclusive way. No one is excluded or left out. And Peter, despite all of his previous biases, opened his heart to love even the Gentiles.
Let’s face it, that’s a tall order. Some people are easy to love and some people are not easy to love.
I. Some people are easy to love, some are not
“How can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?” James 2:1
If you can start the day without caffeine; if you can get going without pep pills; if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains; if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles; if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it; if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time; if you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when through no fault of yours something goes wrong; if you can take criticism and blame without resentment; if you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him; if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend; if you can face the world without lies and deceit; if you can conquer tension without medical help; if you can relax without liquor; if you can sleep without the aid of drugs; if you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, or politics; then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog. (Reprinted from "Mikey's Funnies," a daily e-mail humor list (6-26-02); submitted by Mike Herman, Glen Ellyn, Illinois)
A. The Text: “A Warning Against Prejudice.”
• A question: “How can you claim to have faith if you favor some people over others?” 2:1
• An example: A rich man attends church and gets special attention while a poor man attends and gets pushed into the margins. 12:2-3 (“Go stand over there or sit on the floor.”)
• An assessment: Discrimination reveals evil intent. 12:4 (“Doesn’t this show your judgments are guided by evil motives?”)
• And violates the law of love… prejudice violates the law of love and is a sin. 12:8-9
B. The Tension: The way we demonstrate prejudice or bias in our relationships.
1. Being Biased – Bias is a tendency to believe some people, ideas, etc., are better than others which
usually results in treating some people unfairly.
2. Being Unbiased – Being unbiased is showing no prejudice for or against someone or something, i.e., to
be impartial.
God does not demonstrate any bias or favoritism toward people. In our Acts text this morning we read of how God does not show favoritism. The point that God has and shows no favoritism is repeated in passages like Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9 and Colossians 3:25. Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 speak to the total impartiality and lack of favoritism in the heart and mind of God: God does not act with deference with regard to race and ethnicity in people. God does not see people as social class in people. God does not see gender. God does not see socio-economic status in people.
However God does apparently notice when people are treated partially and/or impartially. God does see prejudice and discrimination.
The tension then becomes not only how we think or feel but how we act or treat people. Are our attitudes and is our behavior consistent with seeing and treating everyone impartially? (Keep in mind we may be biased toward the poor as well as toward the rich, etc.)
C. The Transferable Concept: Are we sure we want to open that can of worms… are we sure we want to welcome into our midst everyone without thought to prejudicial and biased judgments?
Wouldn’t it be nice of everyone house was a nice house? Wouldn’t it be nice if a nice little traditional family lived in every house? Wouldn’t it be nice is every family in every house had a solid marriage? Wouldn’t it be nice if every family living in every house was affluent and loved Jesus? (You’ve likely seen those 1950’s family photos of “Father Knows Best” families on their way to church… the father is wearing a suit and a nice hat and the other is wearing a pretty dress, gloves and a nice little pill-box hat and the kids are dressed just like Mommy and Daddy and all four are carrying nice KJV bibles.)
The Church is to be a place where all distinctions are wiped out however uncomfortable it may be. William Barclay points out in his commentary on James that there must have been a certain awkwardness for a master to be seated in the same pew with his slave. It must have been awkward for a a person of importance to be served communion by a commoner.
I am something of an anglophile and am happy to see “Downton Abbey” return on Masterpiece Theater. Set in England around the period of the First World War we witness how the wealthy landed families lived in their big manors and were served by English common people or ”the Irish.”
In a recent episode Lady Mary is understandably terribly despondent over the death of her husband and the need to care for her infant son. Mr. Carson, who is the Butler and to whom Lady Mary often turned for guidance wants to reach out to her and encourage her. He loves her as a surrogate daughter and with a heart filled with good intentions he approached Lady Mary who promptly reminded him of “his place” and of the need for him to be mindful of the “boundaries” between family and staff.
In the Church family there is no hierarchy. There are no boundaries. There are no “places” of which to be reminded. All are welcomed and all are embraced… there are no lovely or unlovely.
As we continue to explore what the wide-open, all encompassing love of God feels like when we put it into practice we discover…
II. Some people love us back, some people do not
“If you love only those who love you and if you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:46-48 (43-48)
Ideally, love should be reciprocal. If we love then people should love us back. But that is not always the case. Some people will not love you back. In fact the context of our text is about loving our enemies.
Years ago I learned “The Arnie Plan for Love” from Arnie himself. Arnie’s plan was to manipulate every situation so that whomever he was dealing with would feel compelled to be nice to him. If he was in the hospital he was the nicest man on the planet. He was so grateful and appreciative of every act. He was profuse in his gratitude and his praise because he figured that if he was a really great patient the medical staff would treat him better… and they did. The medical staff loved to take care of Archie. His philosophy was, “I’ll be nice to you so you will be nice to me.” Arnie, like most people believe in and practice reciprocal love.
A. The Text: “Jesus’ Teaching about Love for Enemies”
Matthew 5:43-48 is the sixth of a series of antitheses. An antithesis is a contrast of ideas by means of a parallel arrangement of words. In Matthew 5 Jesus, in introducing a series of six separate teachings said, “You have heard and it’s been said… but I say to you.” (See 5:21-22; 5:27-28; 5:31-32; 5:33-34; 5:38-39; and 5:43-44)
The antithesis in 5:43-48 is, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!” This teaching bites! We can no longer just be nice loving people to nice loving people who appreciate our love and love us back. This teaching is in total contrast to the human experience. So we experience a spiritual tension in every relationship. The challenge is to love both the people we like and the people we do not like.
I once heard it said that the thing that makes it so hard to love others is others! In one of those Candid Camera sets the interviewer asked the children sitting around their little table, “What does love mean?” One little boy’s response was, “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with someone you hate.” Sometimes it is a particular other that requires the most love. So we live with tension.
B. The Tension: To love or not to love?
1. Reciprocal Love – It is no great spiritual achievement to love only those who can love you back. Jesus said reciprocal love is no big deal, even corrupt tax-collectors and pagans do that.
2. Non-reciprocal Love – It is in loving those who cannot or will not love you back that we act like true children of God.
In relationships love is more effective at bringing people together than it is in keeping people together. If you want to fall in love quick find a great dating serve like eHarmony or Match.com, or eLove or Christian Mingle or FarmersOnly (because city folks just don’t get it) or DogSociety (for dog lovers… not those who wish to date a dog) or AARP’s online Dating Service for Seniors. Love may be easy but relationships are hard and once you get over the illusions and become disillusioned you realized how fragile love can be. So in most relationship we are faced with the dilemma of either deciding to love or to not love…
C. The Transferable Concept: What was true in Jesus’ time is true in ours!
The world is a messy place and the challenge to choose love is as great as ever.
As you know, Claire Davis, a 17-year-old senior, was the only victim in the December shooting at Arapahoe High School. At a recent Memorial Service for Claire her parents forgave their daughter’s murder.
Michael and Desiree Davis said that Karl Pierson, “was so blinded by his emotions he didn’t know what he was doing” when he killed their daughter. Claire’s father went on to say, “My wife and I forgive Karl Pierson for what he did… We would ask all of you here and all of you watching to forgive Karl Pierson. He didn’t know what he was doing.” (Sasha Goldstein, “Parents of Arapahoe High School shooting victim 'forgive' daughter's killer,” Daily News, January 1, 2014)
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It is reminiscent of the words of Jesus Christ spoke after be nailed to the cross for the sins of mankind. For his crucifiers he prayed, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
This is the love of God who “sent his only Son into the world that those who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This is the love of God who “demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were still sinner, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
The Transferable Concept is simply this: Nothing has changed. It doesn’t matter if people love us back or not. As followers of Christ and children of God we are compelled by the love of God, poured into our lives, to love others including those who do not love us back.
Love is not only a matter loving everyone, including those who do not love us back. It is about understanding the practicality of love. Love is not a feeling… love is a deliberate action.
III. Some people practice love, some people do not
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” I Corinthians 13:4-7
God-like love is relational. It is a complete and unconditional. It is acted upon and expressed.
Once a teenage girl asked her teenage boyfriend if he loved her and he replied, “Of course I love you.” She then asked, “Would you die for me?” And he replied, “No, mine is an undying love.”
God-like, biblical love is complete and unflinching. It just does it.
Perhaps you have read the book, “The Help” or seen the film. It is the story of “The Help” who served affluent families in the south during the 1960’s. The “Help” were black women who went to work every day as maids, housekeepers and nannies for southern white families. They cooked, cleaned, washed ironed and were loving nannies to the children entrusted to their care
.
Pastor Bob Searl tells of an incident during that era when his family visited his grandmother in Mississippi. During their time there he became very attached to Catherine, his grandmother’s “Help.” At week’s end as they were saying their goodbyes in the kitchen he said he wanted to kiss Catherine goodbye. There was a long, awkward silence. His parents exchanged nervous glances and finally his grandmother said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You should just tell Catherine goodbye. That would be fine, don’t you think?” (Rev. Bob Searl, North Stuart Baptist Church, Stuart, FL, From Homiletics, Volume 26, Number 1)
The love Bob Searl experienced as a little boy was a conditional love. It was a retrained love. It was a love of that did not love in practice.
A. The Text: “Love is the Greatest… love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and
endures through every circumstance.”
In his commentary on I Corinthians William Barclay says of this text, “No passage demands self-examination as does I Corinthians 13.”
A simple outline of the I Corinthians 13:
1. The Pre-eminence of Love, 13:1-3 – Love trumps any and all spiritual gifts.
Tongues, Prophecy, Faith, Giving, and Martyrdom without love are zip.
2. The Practice of Love, 13:4-7 – Love is active. Love is and does.
3. The Permanence of Love, 13:8-13 – In the mind of God, the greatest and most enduring attribute is
love.
B. The Tension: To act in love or to not act in love? Love is about doing it!
The striking thing about verses 4-7 is the clarity of each characteristic. There are few if any nuances. Each succinctly captures what love is and what love is not. We can readily see and feel the tensions between what love is and what love is not. Some suggest that we might easily substitute “Jesus” for the word “love” in our text. When we do that we readily see who and what Jesus is and is not.
Love is patient vs. Impatient. Love is kind vs. Unkind. Love is happy for others vs. Jealous. Love is humble vs. Boastful and proud. Love is polite vs. Rude. Love is selfless vs. Self-serving and demanding. Love is pleasant vs. Cranky and irritable. Love is forgiving vs. Remembers every offense. Love is happy when justice is served vs. Injustice. Love is determined vs. Apathetic. Love is always hopeful vs. always Doubtful. Love is persistent in every circumstance vs. Gives up. Love always thinks and hopes the best… rather than thinks and hopes the worst.
This week I read a jaw-dropping news report that Minnesota Congresswoman, Michelle Bachmann was arrested in Ft. Collins for DUI after smoking pot. She allegedly ran a red light and failed numerous sobriety tests. She was reportedly visiting relatives here in Colorado over the holidays and decided to try a little cannabis. It turns out it was not true but a story published by a satire news site called Newslo. (Deb Stanley, “Marijuana Hoax”, abc7, January 8, 2014)
When I first read the story I had one of those “you’ve got to be kidding me” moments. I confess I initially felt a bit of glee… hardly the “believing the best and hoping for the best” response which would have been the loving thing to think and feel. Instead of catching Michelle Bachmann in an act of hypocrisy… I exposed my own.
The NIV Application Commentary on I Corinthians points out how verses 4-7 “clearly portray love as selfless, seeking the good of other people first and foremost.” Romans 15:1-7 speaks of how Jesus did not live to please himself” and encourages us to “live in complete harmony with one another.”
C. The Transferable Concept:
The need for genuine, Christ-like love is as great today as ever…
The practice of living into love is not rocket science. Almost every morning I spend time sitting at the eternal light on the intersection of Sheridan and 68th. If it is dark enough I can see the signal lights for the cross-traffic. I can see when they have a definite green light. I can see the yellow caution light and I know it won’t be long before the red light flashes on and in a couple of seconds II will get the green light to go. It is an exercise in both patience and anticipation.
The yellow caution light is a great light. It is the light that ought to serve as the buffer between our green lights and our red lights. In those few moments we can easily discern if we have a GO or a STOP. Is what I am about to do or say an expression of God-like love? If it is an expression of patience – GO. If it is an expression of rudeness – STOP. Am I irritable – STOP. Is forgiving and encouraging – GO.
The caution light pause is the difference between impulsive reacting and thoughtful responding. The caution light pause gives you a moment to allow for the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit rather than the impulsive urges of our human nature.
Conclusion:
We live in a world that discerns and discriminates and favors some over others. We are groupie people. We have secret societies. We have clubs, frats and sororities. We have gated communities Even a very prominent Christian organization is known to discriminate in determining who may be one of them.
John Ortberg wrote, “Our fallenness makes us want to be a part of not just any group, but an exclusive group. By definition, every society includes people who connect, who belong to one another. Yet every society includes people who feel left out, who don't get chosen at recess, whose invitations to dance get turned down, who get blackballed and cold-shouldered and voted off the island. We exclude others because of pride or fear or ignorance or the desire to feel superior.” (John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them, Zondervan, 2003)
It seems to me, if a church has a desire to be exclusive in any way… if a does not welcome and embrace anyone and everyone, that church, either intentionally or unintentionally, is guided by evil motives in demonstrating favoritism.
So all of that was said in order to simply say: When we love with the love God our love is absolutely free of partiality. God does not show favoritism and neither should we!
