When you learn to sing, you must learn to sing scales. Scales start with “do” on the low end and you step up until you get to “do” again, where the frequency exactly doubles the one where you started. That’s a scale.
The syllables that you sing come from a medieval Spanish ballad. “Do re mi fa sol la ti do.” Shall we learn to sing scales? Everybody together now, the scale: “Do re mi fa sol la ti do.”
Very good! Give yourselves a hand! There’s only one thing wrong. That is not the scale we sing today. That is not the scale for our time. Here’s what we sing: “Do re mi mi mi mi mi mi”. Come on, sing the scale of our day: “Do re mi mi mi mi mi mi”.
Why is “do re mi mi mi mi” the scale of our time? Because when I get plenty of dough, I shout ‘ray, because it’s coming to me! When I get plenty of dough, I shout ‘ray, because it’s coming to me! We live with the values of the baby boom generation, who said “what comes to me stays with me.” “What’s mine is mine and I’ll keep it.” We live with the values of the post-war, post-welfare, post-limits world. Our scale sings right up to me and stops there. “Do re mi mi mi mi mi.”
We need to sing a new song. That’s what the Bible says, “Sing unto the Lord a new song.” I’m going to ask you to repeat after me several statements. Listen and repeat each one:
“It’s not about me”
“It’s not about dough”
[Looking at someone to the right] “It’s not even about you”
[Looking at someone to the left] “It’s not about you either”
“It’s about Jesus”
“It’s about a broken world”
A new song. A few years back Lionel Richie wrote a song, “Endless Love”. It was interpreted by the incomparable Diana Ross; it became the theme of a movie. A little later Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross redid it. “Endless Love”. As with a lot of songs, when you strip away the vocal styling and you lose the rhythm section, and get down to the words themselves, you find some interesting things. You discover what it really is about. I have to conclude that “Endless Love” is a maudlin song, a maudlin song.
Do you know that word maudlin? It means sentimental. It means gushy-gooey. It means emotional, tear-jerking, sappy. A maudlin song is one that oozes trite and teary talk. Is “Endless Love” a maudlin song, sickly, sugary sweet? Judge for yourselves. The lyrics, but no rhythm section, and certainly neither Diana nor Mariah:
“My love, there’s only you in my life
The only thing that’s right
My first Love
Your every breath that I take
Your every step I take
And I, I want to share all my love with you
No one else will do, you know
And your eyes
They tell me how much you care, oh yes
You will always be
My Endless Love.
Two hearts, two hearts that beat as one
Our lives had just begun
And forever, I’ll hold you close in my arms
I can’t resist your charms.
And I, I’ll be a fool for you
I’m sure, you know I don’t mind
Baby, you mean the world to me
I know, I found in you
My Endless Love.”
I will spare you the yeah, yeah, yeah, doo, doo, wooh part. “Endless Love” is a maudlin song. It’s sentimental, teary, sugary, gushy. And it is the hymn of our time. It sings what we want to hear. “Do re mi mi mi mi mi.”
However, we are here this morning to understand that with God, “Endless Love” is not just a maudlin song; it is a living, vibrant, rich reality. Endless love, from God, is not a maudlin, gushy, sentimental thing. It is tough. It is authentic. It does things. It changes lives.
With the help of the Apostle Paul, as he writes to the Philippian church, let’s take apart the “Endless Love” maudlin song and find out what a living, vibrant, rich, endless love really is.
I
Start with this: “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right.” “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right.” The singer has a problem with self-esteem, doesn’t he? “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right.”
The issue is that we look to others to validate us. We look for other people to tell us we are okay. And it will never work. If there’s only one thing that’s right in your life, and it comes from somebody else, you are building on a very fragile foundation. You cannot derive meaning from what others give you. You cannot be somebody on the basis of others’ opinions.
Now help me identify, “What are some of the things that we do because we want to build our self-esteem from others?” You tell me, right out here, in front of God and everybody, “What kinds of things do we do, to get others to help us feel good about ourselves?”
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Do you need a starter? One of the things that I do is to ask people who give me the answers I want to hear! If I want to know, this afternoon, what did you think of this unconventional sermon, there are some folks I can ask who, even if I bomb, will say, “It was wonderful”. What am I saying? I am depending on somebody liking me in order to be somebody! That’s the spirit of the “Endless Love” maudlin song, isn’t it? “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right.”
Now let Paul tell his story. Let’s find out how Paul gets validated. Is it because there is somebody in his life who praises him at every turn? Is it because “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right”? He says some very telling things about the people around him; he speaks about imprisonment and envy and rivalry. He mentions selfish ambition and false motives. Wow! It doesn’t sound as though Paul has much of a cheering section, does it? Not many folks patting Paul on the back or propping him up! Paul does say that he hopes that he will not be put to shame; but where does that hope come from? That hope is rooted in the Christ being exalted in his life, Christ being proclaimed boldly, Christ. “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
The truth is that we don’t get validation from others. It’s not what other people think of us that makes us okay. It is what Christ thinks of us. It is not whether others like us or applaud us that makes for endless love. That kind of love is not endless and exists only in a maudlin song. But God’s love for us, made real in the cross, is not a maudlin song. God’s love for us, displayed in the cross, is eternal, God’s love is inexhaustible, God’s love is authentic and sacrificial. We don’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we can’t buy it. It just is. It’s just given. With God, “Endless Love” is not just a maudlin song; it is a living, vibrant, rich reality, available to you and to me. Praise God! Praise God!
God’s love is not about “There’s only you in my life, the only thing that’s right.” God’s endless love comes to us while we are sinners, when we are the most unlovely, when we least deserve it, and when we do not expect it. I cannot improve on Paul’s great word, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain’. Real life and deep joy do not come from impressing others. They come from serving Christ. “ … strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
So I think we need to remind ourselves again:
“It’s not about me”
“It’s not about dough”
[Looking at someone to the right] “It’s not even about you”
[Looking at someone to the left] “It’s not about you either”
“It’s about Jesus”
“And it’s about a broken world”
II
Let’s keep going. What else in this maudlin song, this weepy ballad, speaks to our generation? What else tells us where we are? How about this part: “And I, I want to share all my love with you; No one else will do, you know .. you will always be my endless love.” “I want to share all my love with you .. no one else.”
It is not only that we need others to tell us we’re okay. It is also that we narrowcast our love. Not broadcast it, but narrowcast it. We restrict it. We hold it back. We act as though we’ll run out of love if we’re too generous. We focus in on one person, one cause, one thing, and we put all of our affections on that. “I want to share all my love with you, no one else will do.”
I tell you, that is maudlin, gushy, sappy, oozy sentimentality. Restricting our love, as if there were only so much, as if we might run out of it – that is the way of our generation. Over and over again, I hear people say, “I need. I need my own space. I need some time off. I need to take a break. I need to give myself a treat. I need, I need.” And what it comes down to is that we are focusing our lives and our energies on such a narrow scope. We want to do so little for so few, and we shrivel up and die. We have not learned that giving is the source of receiving. Jesus said it best, “For those who want to save their life will lose it.”
But love that says “I want to share all my love with you” – a narrow scope – well, the Bible has a word for that. The Bible calls that idolatry. Idolatry means that we have taken something too small and we have lifted it up to the ultimate place in our lives. Idolatry means that we have taken just a part of what God wants to give us, and we have made that the everything. When you love just one little narrow piece of life, you shrivel up.
It would be like sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, with its spread of turkey and dressing, yams and marshmallows, greens and cornbread, sweet potato pie and pecan – and you say, “All I want is cranberry sauce. Got no room for anything else. Just keep the rest and give me the sauce.”
God has so much more for us than cranberry sauce! God has a whole world of things out there for us to love. But what do we do? We limit our love, we make idols. “I want to share all my love with you, no one else will do.” Everything for me, everything for my family, everything close up tight, no one else.
Well, help me again: What are some of the idols we make? What are some of the things we love that are too small, too narrow, when we could love far more? What are some of our idols?
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Do you want a starter again? All right. Sometimes I think I love this church too much! Huh? Can you love the church too much? Well, yes, that’s possible. If I place the functioning of our church above the needs of broken people, I have loved this church too much. If I place the reputation of our church above the hurts of humanity, I have loved this church too much. If I place what we want, what makes us feel good, above the vision of a missionary church embracing a great big world out there, I have loved this church too much! I’ve made it an idol.
Oh, my. I suspect we need to get Paul’s help again. Because Paul is not focused on something small. Paul is not invested in something narrow and restricted. Paul is invested in something broad and deep and wide. Paul is invested in the spread of the gospel. Paul cares for a world that is a whole lot wider than his little prison cell. He speaks about sharing the good news. He speaks about how others have looked at him and have been empowered to speak boldly. He speaks about being delivered from fear and being filled with eagerness and hope and joy.
Joy! Now that’s what we want! Where does Paul’s joy come from? Because he can do whatever he wants? No, he cannot. Because he can have his own space? He’s in prison! Because he can get his warm fuzzies? Hardly! No, he gets joy because he is doing whatever he can to spread the good news of salvation. Even in his tiny little restricted cell, Paul is able to use every energy, spend every moment, and devote every thought, not to some little personal whine. But to the needs of all humanity. Read on in this letter and you will find him planning missionary trips, instructing fellow-laborers, keeping vibrantly alive the vision of all he’s going to do when he gets out. He’s a prisoner with naught but the clothes on his back, but he has a vision for a whole world of need out there.
Great God! And you and I think that the only way we can make sure our love is endless and doesn’t run out is to spend it sparingly, carefully, cautiously. When will we learn that love isn’t like that! Endless love is not a maudlin song, where the only way you get power is to hold on to it tight as a drum! Authentic, endless love is the love given by God, whose love extends into eternity, whose love reaches the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely. Endless love is the love given by God, who says “give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." With God, “Endless Love” is not a maudlin song; it is a living, vibrant, rich reality. God’s endless love empowers us to love a whole world of need.
And so I think we need to say it all over again, to remind ourselves:
“It’s not about me”
“It’s not about dough”
[Looking at someone to the right] “It’s not even about you”
[Looking at someone to the left] “It’s not about you either”
“It’s about Jesus”
“And it’s about a broken world”
III
All right. So if endless love does not consist in looking for somebody to help us feel good; and if love is not kept endless by our being cautious and careful – if God’s endless love is not a maudlin, weepy, selfish, sugary thing – then what must we do to experience God’s endless love? Where do we turn to know love that is rich and real, vibrant and alive?
Richie got it right this time. Ross sings it well. And Mariah and Luther are on target when they put it out there, “I’ll be a fool for you … you mean the world to me … I know, I found in you my endless love.” “I’ll be a fool for you.”
I am unashamedly calling us to be fools for Christ. I am calling on us to get radical about discipleship, I am calling on us to throw away the world’s standards. By the world’s standards, giving away love and money and time and energy looks foolish. But God gives us a wide-open heart. You may look foolish in the eyes of the world, but in the love of God, we don’t worry about that anymore. We have become children of the living God. We don’t really have to have others’ approval. The things we can buy, the image we project, the status symbols – these things just don’t matter. I’ll be a fool for you, Jesus. I’ll be a fool, as the world sees me, for you.
Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizzas, is a billionaire. But he has recently announced that he intends to die a penniless man, that he wants to give every bit of it away to Christian causes. What a fool, the world says. I say a fool for Christ. Endless love, endless joy.
When God opens us up to His kind of endless love, we don’t calculate how little we can do, because our agenda is as broad as all humanity. Once you become a fool for Christ, everything else falls into place. I hear some talk about how it would be hard to tithe. I am sure that it is for some people. I can only speak for me and my house. My wife and I give beyond the tithe, ten percent, and more, of our income, through this church, not because we have to. We give because redemptive work is being done here. We give not just because we want to keep up a building; the building is an instrument. We give because lives are being changed here. We give not just because we want to pay staff or because we want to have nice programs; staff and programs are instruments. We give, not because we’d feel guilty if we didn’t, and not because it’s expected of us. We give because we see that there is a world out there, a world of the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely. And the love of Christ constrains us.
Endless love is no maudlin song, not God’s endless love. God’s endless love went to a cross. God’s endless love reaches to the highest height and the lowest depth. God’s endless love reaches across ancient barriers and brings into His embrace red and yellow, black and white, all of them precious in His sight. God’s endless love reaches around this city and brings into saving health lonely people, well-connected people, hurting people, healthy people, struggling people, successful people, wealthy people, poor people, who have one thing in common. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” All have sinned, but all are being redeemed by His grace and His love.
Oh, Jesus, “I’ll be a fool for [that] …I’ll be a fool for you .. you mean the world to me. I know, I found in you, my Endless Love.” “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
One more time:
“It’s not about me”
“It’s not about dough”
[Looking at someone to the right] “It’s not even about you”
[Looking at someone to the left] “It’s not about you either”
“It’s about Jesus”
“And it’s about a broken world”
Do re mi mi mi mi. Stop that! Get rid of that! Come be a fool for Christ! Come and give Him all that you are, and He will multiply you a hundred fold in joy. Do re mi fa sol la ti do. “Do reign (in) me, father, so love this day”
