Sermon for
July 24, 2005
10th Sunday after Pentecost
“Give Love a Chance”
Psalm 105; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
What are the chances that a person
would come very close two terrorist attacks in different parts of the
world and survive to tell about it? Perhaps you heard
the story of Trent Mongan, one of the first persons interviewed following
the
London
bombing
July 7. The 31-year old Army paramedic from
Brisbane
,
Australia
, was in
London
for a holiday. He had
just walked out of King’s Cross tube station when he heard the sound and
saw and assisted the people streaming out. The chaotic
scene he described then reminded him, he said, of the aftermath of the
bombing of the Sari Club in
Bali
in October 2002.
Following these two brushes with terrorism he denied that he felt jinxed.
I feel the opposite. I think I am
pretty….lucky. A lot of my
friends and family have said, ‘Tell us where you are going on
holiday because we are not going to go!’..(but) I think the exact
opposite—if you are going to go on holiday, you better come with
me, because you are going to survive.”
www.smh.com.au
The Sidney Morning Herald,
July 8, 2005
What are the chances?
As the Scripture this morning leads us
to reflect on the fortunes and misfortunes of life, we are starkly
reminded of how much life seems to simply be left to chance.
Whether good fortune or bad, its seems that life sometimes is
simply out of control—so often it feels that life becomes just reaction to
the swing and sway of chance. The more we react to
this kind of fortune and misfortune of life the more we wonder whether
life is really held in trust by the power that created it or only held
hostage to the forces of chance.
What are the chances?
Too often the evidence of everyday life seems all too clear:
the chances are not very good at all.
So right in the midst of this deep
awareness aroused in us by the events of recent days the church reads
scripture. On this 10th Sunday after
Pentecost the church gives thanks to God with the confidence of the
Psalmist, affirms God’s faithfulness with the encouragement of the apostle
Paul, and remembers the words of Jesus about the Kingdom of heaven in the
Gospel of Matthew. What does the Word of God say to
you and to me today?
Well, you read it first in the Psalter
this morning, from Psalm 105. As you read, you said,
The Lord is
mindful of his everlasting covenant, of the word commanded for
a thousand generations.
Psalm 105: 8
It was not by chance that God made you. In the
beginning when God made the heavens and the earth God didn’t just roll the
dice and say, “Let’s see what happens.” The world was
not made by chance. Every step of the way in the
process of creation God said very deliberately, “Let there be…,” and there
was. When God spoke and order was made out of sheer
chaos, God had a purpose. No, we are not here by
chance but by the act and will of God. God made life
full and whole and free. God made us for fullness and
wholeness and freedom of life. That’s how we were
made. God has never forgotten that. No matter how much
we have tried to go our own way, make our own life, fill our empty lives
with lots of other things because our lives are no longer full of the life
God made, God never lets us go. No, you were not made
by chance, you were made for something special. God
has a purpose in creation. The Psalmist says God made
you for love. Love is the purpose.
Life is not left to chance, it is held in love. That’s
God’s promise. God has never forgotten that.
But we forget. The
Bible is full of stories of people who forgot. No
matter what came to them—tremendous worldly good fortune or raging storms
of life that shook them to their very foundations, they forgot.
But at every single moment—in the heights of good fortune or the
lowest tragedy, when it appeared that humanity might give up altogether on
God—at every single moment God reached out in love, reminding us of life’s
true purpose and renewing the promise.
Yes, you said first this morning,
The Lord is
mindful of his everlasting covenant, of the word commanded for
a thousand generations.
Psalm 105:8
That’s what the Word of God says to you and to me today.
It is in this faith that the apostle
Paul remembers and reminds the people of the church at
Rome
:
We know that all things work together for good for
those who love God,
we are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Sure there are things that happen in
life, says Paul—very good things and very bad things, make no mistake
about it. Paul names many of the very bad things,
things Paul and these Roman Christians know very well—hardship, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. You know
what he’s talking about, some of these things you may describe with
different words, but you know them very well. We know
all about life, but God does not leave life to chance.
Paul says God has never been far off somewhere just watching.
God is right in the midst of life, very close at hand in the good
times and the bad.
If you have the least doubt about
this, well, that’s why the church reads scripture today.
Listen to it. Paul says,
What are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is
against us? He who would
not withhold his own Son, but gave
himself up for all of us, will he not with him also give us
everything else?
Romans 8:31-32
So, God has never been far off somewhere just watching where the chips may
fall. In Jesus Christ God came down here, became one
of us
He could have had all the worldly good fortune imaginable,
but he turned it down because he knew life is not
found in
good fortune but only in God and
therefore he lived his life,
you remember, for the good fortune
of others, especially
the less fortunate
He could have insulated himself from every bad fortune that
life
could ever hold but he turned that down, too; instead,
on the
cross he took on himself all the bad fortune that ever
brought any and every child of God down low.
He accepted it on himself. He took it and took it and
took it until he died. Is there any greater evidence
that God is not far off just watching than the gift of God’s Son who
suffered and died for you? And there is no greater
power anywhere than life that rises up triumphantly over all bad fortune
through the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.
That’s what the Word of God says to you and to me today.
No, you were not made by chance.
You were made for love. Your life is not left
to chance. God is right here, right now, in all the
power of the resurrection.
Mature Christians know that life doesn’t promise you’ll
always
have good fortune; life promises
something better.
Mature Christians know that life doesn’t promise you’ll
never have
have bad fortune; life promises
something better.
Life doesn’t promise you prosperity; it promises you the
presence
of God.
Life doesn’t promise you’ll never suffer, it promises
you’ll never
be alone.
In every and any circumstance of life, life promises you love.
And won’t you take a chance on love every time?
When Jesus tells the story of the
merchant that finds a pearl of great value
who goes and sells all he has in order to buy it,
or of the one who finds a great treasure
and goes and sells all he has in order to buy the field
where it’s found, he is talking about something much more valuable than
earthly pearl or worldly treasure. What is it that
they find that is so like the kingdom of heaven? Jesus
says they find love. You see, love is the key.
That’s what makes all things work together for good.
If you love God,
good fortune will never distract you from your true
centeredness in life. If you love
God, you are never seduced
by good fortune but will always live your life for the
good
fortune of others, especially the least fortunate,
just as Jesus
did.
If you love God,
bad fortune, no matter how
severe, will never overcome
you. When you love God you are
surrounded by the
embrace of love in the midst of every misfortune.
When
you love God the power of the resurrection is so at
work in
your life that nothing will ever defeat you; when you
love
God even bad fortune results in some good—many of you
know exactly what I am talking about.
Somehow by the
grace of God, when you finally see it through and the
wounds heal, life is somehow a bit deeper, a bit
stronger
than it was before.
So what are the chances?
There is no doubt about it. Sometimes life
seems to simply be left to chance. The more we are
tossed back and forth by good fortune and bad we begin to wonder if life
is really held in trust by the power that created it or only held hostage
to the forces of chance. What at the chances?
Well, right in the midst of this deep awareness aroused in us by
events of recent days the church reads scripture. On
this 10th Sunday after Pentecost the Word of God says….it was
not by chance God made you. At one point in history
God said, “Let there be you…” and here you are. No,
you were not made by chance, God has a purpose. You
were made for love. God has never forgotten that.
So don’t you ever forget.
Whenever you feel so caught up in the happenstance of life that it
really seems to you that life is simply out of control, don’t you forget.
You are not left to chance, you are held in love.
Just give love a chance.
William G. Davidson
South Roanoke United Methodist Church
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