Sermon On Star-Crossed Lovers

Ryan Bingham, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist once remarked: “Make no mistake, your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other. To live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.” Ephesians 6:12 reminds us: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Star-crossed lovers are defined as two people who are in love but unable to be together, often as a result of fate. The phrase originated from the astrological belief that the position of the stars control people's destinies, and is best known from William Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet.” In his play he wrote: “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” An Ill-fated love relationship suggests that it is deemed to end badly or in disaster. However, if the stars are said to control love, where does God’s voice have its say? Galatians 5:22 reminds us: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” The hypothesis of stars and romance may be entwined, but lack accuracy. It is true that God made the solar system. However, the concept of stars controlling anything other than God’s intended function is probably myth or delusion. God is not evil in nature and it is most unlikely that the stars have any power over God, since He made them. Isaiah 40:26 confirms: “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

Stars are, of course, important in their own right and function. The sun is regarded as a star in the center of our solar system and is essential for providing warmth and light. Although it is possible for the sun to cause harm, that is not its prime purpose. Harm is more likely to be subjected to the foolishness of mankind. Genesis 1:14-19 confirms: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

Destiny has been said by the prudent to be the result of man’s own choices. Some believe that God oversees fortune and is wrongly blamed for all adversity in life, but it is life itself that provides adversity or harm. God gives us free choice, and does not guarantee that life will be trouble-free. Others might say that when difficulties occur, it is the punishment of God for man’s wrongdoings or sin. But is it punishment, or merely a test? For some, material possessions are more important than life itself.

In the dramatic book of Job in the Bible, it narrates a story of a good and faithful man named Job who is uniquely allowed by God to be tested by the devil to establish if his loyalty and faith to God are linked to materialism. Job is a wealthy God-fearing man of good fortune who is suddenly deprived of many things in life to test his strength. However, this imposed deprivation is not from God, it is evoked by the evilness of the devil. In prudence, evil cosmic forces, or mankind themselves are more likely than not to be responsible for the trials and tribulations in life concerning love, life and relationships. 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

In Job’s distress, he seeks consolation and advice from friendships. To blame something else, or another is often the easy way out, or perhaps the judgmental egress for the misfortunes or barriers in life, but it is not the true answer to the cause. We need to dig deeper to establish the truth or reason. Job 4 explains: “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.