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Sunday, December
19, 2004
Rev.
Dr. Harold E Kidd
John
3:16
LOVE SAYS IT ALL
"For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever
believes in him shall not perish but Have eternal life."
John
3:16 (NIV)
I
want to preach this morning from what has been considered the Golden Text of
the New Testament and of the entire Bible; John 3:16. We've often heard it said
that if one wanted to understand and to see love defined by an example, if we
wanted to see love wearing a face that would help us to understand with a
deeper sensitivity the Love of God, that we need look no further than the love
of a mother for her children.
Yes,
the love of a mother for her children is without a doubt one of the best
examples we have that helps us to interpret what we mean when we speak of the
love of God. What mother does not know about giving of herself sacrificially in
providing for her children, because she loves them. Amen. Some of us may have
memories of a mother whose love for us cost them dearly.
Mother's
who have worked long and hard through the years to provide for their families
and have paid for it with their health. Sacrificed personal dreams and
aspirations, given her last for the good of her family. Mother's who have
depleted hard earned savings in efforts to help a child who was sinking deep in
trouble. Yes, even after many mothers have grown old and some are frail with
the passing of the years their love, nevertheless, continues to shine like the
eternal flame. A beacon of hope to those who have received her love.
Poet
Langston Hughes in his poem Mother to Son captures the essence
of a mother's love as she tries to give encouragement to her child about the
hardships in life,
" Well, son, I tell
you:
life for me ain't been no
crystal stair.
Its had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on
the floor
-
Bare.
-
But all the time
-
I'se
been a-climbin' on,
-
And
reachin' landin's,
-
And
turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the
dark
Where there ain't been no
light.
So, boy don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder
hard.
Don't you fall now.
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been
no crystal stair."
Like
the mother in this poem, there are many today who have remembrances of a
mother's love which caused her to do what seemed to be the impossible in
providing for her children. Many mothers have gone without in order that her
children might have. Her Love Says It All.
In
1 Kings ch. 3 there is the story of two mothers who were brought before King
Solomon because there was a dispute between them. Both mothers had delivered
children, one's died during the night. They came before the King with one woman
(the first mother) accusing the second mother of having switched her dead child
for this first mother's living child while she slept.
The
second mother told the king that it was the other way around. And so Solomon
called for a sword and told the mothers that since he could not tell from their
stories who the real mother was of this living child, that he would sever the
child and give each one of them a half. The mother who had accused the other of
switching the children, said, "Cut him in two." But the second
mother, cried out to the King, "No my Lord, give the baby to the other
mother if it will spare his life." Solomon, then gave his ruling,
"Give this living baby to the mother who would give him up in order to
save him." Solomon recognized that a real mother's will make sacrifices
that might cost her dearly, if it will help her child.
Many
a mother knows what its means to offer herself as a living sacrifice. Maybe not
in the same instance as this mother who appeared before king Solomon, but there
be many a mother who knows about making a sacrifice on the altar of love. Her
Love Says It All.
And
while a mother's love has this quality of being self-sacrificing, a mother's
love also has this God-given quality of being unconditional. Amen.
Mothers
have this God-given gift to love their children unconditionally. They have the
capacity to love their children without placing limitations on the boundaries
of their love.
When
some children go astray, when some children become lost in the wilderness of
this world, a mother's love can love without approving of the lifestyle or
condoning the mistakes. When some children get caught in the storms of life, a
mother's love yet remains as a refuge when the storms of life are raging. All
his trusted friends had deserted him, as he hung there on the Cross, but it was
a mother's love, the love of Mary for her child, that stood by Jesus in his
hour of darkest trial. As she stood at the foot of the Cross, Mary gave a
tangible witness that her love was with him, in his gravest hour, sharing in
his burden of crucifixion. True love is like that, in the words of Paul, (1Cor.
13) "Love bears all things."
Yes
mothers have been given the gift of loving us unconditionally, not condoning
our mistakes; but loving us through them,. Many mothers have helped to carry
the burden of our problems, because their love would not let us go. Many of us
are able to comprehend the true meaning of the word love. Why, because we first
saw its example in a woman whom we've come to call mother. Her Love Says It
All.
I
believe that even when we may not have received this love through our own
biological parents. Mothers if you will, God will send somebody to nourish our
life with this love. Because we cannot go through life without love. Love
causes us to grow, love feeds the human soul with what it needs more than
anything else. Amen. Likewise we cannot go through life and be alive without
giving love as well. People who do not give love, tend to be empty on the
inside, and miserable as well.
And
yet, in having said all this, a mothers love is only a glimpse into the
unlimited love of God. I'd like to think that God's love is similar to the
words in a hymn written by Frederick Faber,
"There's
a wideness in God's mercy, Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a
kindness in God's justice, Which is more than liberty; There is no place where
earth's sorrows are more felt than up in heaven; There is no place where earth's
failings Have such kindly judgment given.
For the love
of God is broader Than the measures of the mind; And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind. If our love we're but more faithful, We would gladly
trust God's Word; And our lives reflect thanksgiving For the goodness of our
Lord."
And
what the lyrics of this hymn are communicating concerning the nature of God, is
that God is Love. Everything that God does is an expression of his love. His
mercy, and his justice are acts of his love. He's merciful because He is Love.
There's a kindness in his justice, because He is love covers a multitude of our
sins.
In
our text, John 3:16; there are two words used by John to give us a deeper
understanding of this verse. "For God so loved the world," In seeking
to help us grasp the dimensions of a love whose nature actually surpasses our
human conceptions of what love is and means. In seeking to help us comprehend a
love that far surpasses even the primacy of a mother's love.
John
uses the Adverb so to describe the
manner in which God has loved us. God so
loved us, meaning God loved us to such an extent, God loved us with such a
depth of not wanting to see us perish, God loved us to the limitless infinity
that he would give up his only begotten Son.
John
wants us to understand with utter wonder, awe and amazement the superhuman
scale by which this love is to be understood. How many parents would willingly
give up their only child if it would save a person whose life was considered
beyond redemption. Yet, that's just what God has done, in that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. His
Love Says It All.
Paul,
says in Romans 5:7-8, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person,
though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die." We've known
of persons on the battlefield of war who have laid down their lives for their
comrades. Some of us have known persons who have given up their organs in death
to give life to someone else, "But God demonstrated His own love for
us", declares Paul, " in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us." His Love Says It All.
Meaning
he didn't wait until we got good to love us, but he loved us, and he
continues
to love us, even when we are at our worst. This also helps us to
appreciate
the birth of the Lord. This child coming into the world on that first Christmas
morning came with a mission to die. He came as a living sacrifice that we might
be saved. When you compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges in John's
description of John 3:16; God's love has no equal.
"If
I were as our Lord cried Martin Luther, the protestant church reformer, I would
knock the world in pieces." But not God. God loves his creation. Amen.
In
Luke Jesus tells the parable of the Prodigal Son, to help us understand how God
loves us. That even when we of our own free will choose to go off on our own
way, when we turn our backs on God's goodness and his love and become
prodigals, God never stops loving us. But he waits like the Father in this
story, until we come to ourselves, he waits until our sins catch up with us, he
waits, until we get tired of living without him, and when we turn to him,
saying Father I stretch my hands to thee, God receives us back, without a
finger of judgment, without so much as an "I told you so". His Love Says It All.
All
this killing and violence in our world, is only evidence that sin has got us.
There are those who do not love themselves; cannot love one another, because
they have never experienced love that redeems the soul. Yet, God refused and
refuses to let us remain on a course of self-destruction. Amen. God said,
"I'm going to save you, even though some of you don't want to be
saved", because if we were left to our own designs, many would not turn
around. The power of sin so overtakes the soul and the mind, that except God
redeem us, we would not be redeemed. But his love will never let us go.
This
love is described by Francis Thompson in a spiritual classic entitled The Hound of Heaven,
"I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled him, down the
arches of the years, I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and
in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed
hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of charmed
fears,"
He was running from God, but
listen to what Thompson goes on to write
"From those strong feet
that followed, Followed after, But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat - and a Voice beat More instant that the feet - a voice, "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
Wouldn't
you know that this voice was the voice of God. And what Thompson is describing
in this spiritual devotional is that God's Love is like the Hound of Heaven,
God pursues us, with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace. His love pursues
us. His love will eventually find us. We can run from God, but we cannot outrun
God. Amen.
Yes,
his love will find us, even when we cannot find ourselves.
"I was
sinking deep in sin, Far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply
stained
within, Sinking to rise no more; But the Master of the sea Heard my despairing
cry, From the waters lifted me-Now safe am I.
Love lifted
me, Love lifted me, When nothing else could help, Love lifted me."