1 SERMON: Unconditional love really? Ideas change things. Truth rocks boats. It changed my life when I first encountered it. And, way back in 1516 the church was shaken to the core When this particular ancient truth was rediscovered Europe itself was never quite the same again once this theological cat was out of the bag and running off down the street! I m profoundly grateful for the early religious influences That played across my life Some might see my spiritual journey as a slide from certainty, clarity and rigour To wishy washy do-goodery and bland liberalism But there you go. I certainly value the passion I learned early on The Bible knowledge I gained in my formative years The realisation that was passed on to me That faith is the most important issue Any of us will deal with I thank God that love for him And the commitment to following Christ Was introduced into my story at the beginning of my pilgrim journey. Significant influences Brethren Sunday School Baptist youth fellowship A decision to train for the Baptist ministry And that training begun. But it was when I started my theological studies At New College, Edinburgh University s Faculty of Divinity that I heard it for the first time The crucial distinction the profound shift of emphasis - and it changed my life. Almost without noticing, I had grown up with and adopted a brand of Christianity that was, well Flawed Less on message than it might have been. ++ The way I had always understood it was that
2 God came part of the way - and I came part of the way And we met somewhere in the middle Without my move, my decision, my correct response God s work was pretty much rendered null and void. It was as if God s salvation was partial and conditional God would love me and save me if If I did this, this and this Once I had ticked all the relevant belief boxes, Then God s salvation would kick in would count If I didn t do these things then I was the architect of my own doom and disaster - And the cross of Jesus was in vain his sacrifice- for nothing achieved nothing, for me. The marriage season is getting underway And couples are coming for their premarriage chat When we talk about what being married is all about! What s in the service - and why And it s at this time that we explore the crucial idea of covenant that s used in the service I promise, and covenant, to be a loving, faithful and dutiful wife/ husband to you as long as we both shall live. It s a wonderful and humbling promise given Unconditional in its sweep. Come what may better, worse, sickness, health good times or bad I promise I covenant that even if you grow old, or get sick or lose your job or discover you can t have children or if a lovely blonde moves in next door come what may I will love you. I will always love you. Care for you. Be there for you. Wow! No small print. No check the appendices See paragraph 4 sub section three no conditions may apply. A promise. Given. This is why A Christian marriage service is a million light years away from a pre-nuptial agreement this is why it s not a contract - or a deal if you then I
3 Love is committed to the unknown and the whatever Without boundaries. A covenant of love. Of course, being loved like that by someone, clearly puts us under obligation to nurture, respect, and build that relationship especially since we, in our turn, have made a similar promise no strings and no depending upons to the person we love with the same unconditional love. You can do it differently build in the safeguards and the conditions the qualifications, the reservations, the get out clauses.. and you might have something but you won t have a marriage covenant. And where marriages have come through all the trials and pressures and challenges and difficulties the adjustments and the growing the healing and the helping then we see the meaning of the promises we understand the nature of unconditional love that here is someone who will never stop loving us never renege on their commitment to us even though we need to be pushed around in a wheelchair or we don t hear too well or we never quite made it up the greasy pole of promotion And this was the faith breakthrough for me God says: I will always love you. I will be your God. I will love you with a Father s love And a mother s too. And I am bound to you, irrevocably, By my promise. no strings, no ifs and buts, no conditions. Wow! ++ Of course, that commitment to us, from God, brings obligations on us. Loved with such love, we are summoned to live lives worthy of such commitment to us But in answer to the question: Does God still love us, if we ignore him, distance ourselves from him run from him? The answer is an unequivocal Yes!!
4 There is nothing that can separate us from his love That is his promise Eternal as his own character. ++ It was this gem that Luther rediscovered, Back in the 16ht century When he set the Reformation in motion The medieval church was getting in a terrible fankle. Increasingly, it presented a God who needed to be placated appeased, won over and the way you did that was You made donations You built a monastery You paid for some special certificates that meant the church forgave your sins You sponsored special masses for your dead relatives The church of Jesus the Saviour of the world became a market place - selling forgiveness and hope And twisting the understanding of God in a most misleading way. It equated things we did with the love God had for us And represented a kind of return to the bad old days of the Pharisees the people shaping the religion of Israel at the time of Christ urging people to try harder, do better, make more effort. Keep more rules, jump through more hoops in order to win the favour of God men and women on an exhausting moral treadmill trying till their back breaks, to be good enough to be loved by God the God who loved them anyway, if only they knew it! Christ, on the other hand, told stories of loving fathers who welcome back their lost sons with a kiss and a party not a censorious set of conditions to be fulfilled before love could be found and enjoyed. Love that was there for you. Somehow, over the centuries, the church had lost touch with the very grace (undeserved and merciful, sure but real and present, nonetheless) that was the underpinning power of the gospel. Luther had to restore that perspective And remind us that we are saved by grace
5 the freely offered love of God to us, for us. not by works, efforts, achievement not by purity of liturgy generosity to the church funds not by correct theology nor even by good living we find hope on an entirely different basis resting on the promises of God his utter and enduring commitment to us not the grubby rags of our own feeble attempts at righteousness. It all about emphasis. And that different emphasis was a revelation to me It changed my whole way of looking at things (That change in thinking was a slow process and I argued for the old familiar ways for a long time until I came to realise that by shifting the responsibility for my salvation as I had been from God s initiative, on to myself and my response. I had been making for myself a burden and a prison ) I always hesitate to talk theology in a sermon because inevitably in the short hand, subtleties get lost and misunderstandings can arise but the truth is this new way of understanding the gospel was immensely liberating. I was not engaged in a deal with God, whereby the outcomes depended on me the quality of my faith, the depth of my grasp of truth. It all depends on him and on his promise freely given the covenant promise he had made the pledge he has given. The death his son had died for me. It was literally, a given!! Before I knew, understood, wanted it saw it, believed it, chose it It s as if the money was placed in my account and was there on my behalf. A gift given that I did not merit, and never could earn but gifted to me out of the amazing grace of God. Now I should use it. Delight in it.
6 Celebrate it Tell others that they too were loved with this everlasting love And bought at this immeasurable price Through the free grace of God I can and should honour the love and the sacrifice By my obedience and faithfulness that is surely the least I could do But, even if I don t this is still how it is what he has promised. When he said It is finished. He meant the work was done. The promise kept. We are his. Now we are called to live accordingly As our response to all that he has done for us. When the slaves in America were emancipated set free by statute Some of them found it hard to be free. They liked the securities of the old ways; the comfort zone of their familiar lifestyle. In the old order they knew who was boss and where they stood And it was rather unsettling to be free men and women! But they were freemen and women. That was how it was. It was written. This was the new reality for them. And, Now they had to dare to live as free men and women. Part of the process of re-thinking things was that my understanding of the meaning of baptism was radically changed I had grown up thinking that being baptised was about my witness To the faith I had chosen for myself I would stand to be baptised to declare my conversion my commitment my decision to follow Christ for all to see. I came to understand that actually, baptism was about God and what he had done Baptism was about demonstrating the reality that helpless, ignorant and dependent as I was God loved me. God came to my rescue. Long before I had heard his name, or wanted to know him Christ died for me I was his he has done the work, paid the price fixed the future righted the wrongs. The miracle of grace was mine to know and enjoy
7 and in baptism we demonstrate and declare that redeeming love of God who first loved us who took the initiative the divine initiative. The baptism of a helpless baby perfectly illustrates that it s not about us, and the pedigree of our faith but about God and his covenant promise his unshakeable and eternal love love that will not let us go. It s not about how much I understand, agree, display devotion But about the costly love of God poured out towards me The gracious initiative taking God Who loved me from the first of time And loves me to the last It s not a question of me looking over my shoulder wondering if I love God enough, know enough, read my Bible enough, pray enough, do enough good deeds But about standing on the promises of God Our trust is in him in his love, his mercy and his amazing grace. And we are confident and complete in him. LET US PRAY