December 23, 2012 The Advent Conspiracy: Love All

****The following is a draft of the message notes for Sunrise UMC on December 23, 2012****

 

Good morning saints of Sunrise! It is so good to be here on this 23rd day of December 2012! 

You know, if we had listened to all the hype and hysteria that has been floating around for the last several years, we shouldn't be here after all. I have seen a lot of Facebook posts about the end of the Mayan calendar, but I think my favorite was this one.  

 

Well, today is the last Sunday of Advent and coincidently the last day of our Advent Conspiracy campaign. This endeavor has truly been heart-warming and soul-enriching as we looked to reclaim the real spirit of Advent and Christmas. First off, we redefined the word "conspire" to be something other than despicable as we used in our context this definition:

to work or act together towards the same result or goal.

  

This is what we have done over this season of Advent. We conspired or worked together towards the same goal; that being to make this Christmas even more special as it changes the world.

The way that we are making this happen is by conspiring to:

- Worship fully

- Spend Less

- Give More

- Love All

What does it mean to love all? Why should we?

[Allow response]

Simply put, we love all because that's what the world needs.

Last week, as we talked about how we conspire to give more, I recognized that there are some people that are just hard to shop for because they seem to have everything and don't need anything. But, as I said last week and say again, everybody needs something. If nothing else, everybody needs to be loved. That assertion is one of the great fundamental truths for humanity. God knows this.

I was starkly reminded of this truth Wednesday evening as I received word that one of my former captains in The Charlotte Fire Department, Roy Bradey, passed away. As we normally do when we get this kind of notification, I started reminiscing about my time with Roy, or Babe, as we affectionately called him.

As a young recruit when I got assigned to Roy's engine company, I didn't know much; actually, I knew much less than I thought I did. Babe saw beyond my need for more experience with skill and departmental procedure though. One day, Capt. Bradey called me into the office to chat with me. Naturally, having been called into the captain's office, I thought I was in trouble. Babe started talking with me and assured me that I was not in trouble, but said that I looked troubled. That's when he reached in his drawer and pulled out a book; this book [hold it up] and asked if I had ever read it. Being the son of a preacher and having grown up in church, I quickly recognized it as a Bible. I said, "The Bible, yeah. Why?" Bradey looked deep in my eyes and asked in a different way, "I know you have read parts of it, but have you ever read the whole thing?" I shifted in my seat a bit and replied laughingly, "Well, I have skipped all those 'begats'!" That's when he reached across his desk and said, "Tim, take this and read it. It's The Living Bible and it's easy to read. You need to read it because it is a love story; a story of God's love for you." That night, as I lied in bed, I began reading this book, for the first time as something more than a book of good sayings.

The other day, I picked this Bible up again and began thumbing through it as I thought about my friend. I paused as I read several of his notes and highlighted verses. Then I came across this particular text from the third chapter of John, which reads:

John 3.16-17

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

I could have stopped there, because that pretty much summed up Bradey's confession of the Bible being a love story. But, I noticed that his highlighting didn't stop with that one verse that so many people memorize - verse sixteen. His highlighting went on to include the next verse too, which reads,

17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

Somehow, it seems that too many people forget this verse. We have seen many examples of that unfortunate reality lately. One being those members from the church that is fervent in their belief of God's vengeful hate for people and who protest at highly noted funerals, even those of the victims of the school shooting in Connecticut.

Yet, before my angst against this misguided group turns to anger, I am reminded to look back at Capt. Bradey's bible again. Look at it with me. Do you see the heading?

God loves all people

Isn't that the crux of this passage? Isn't that what Babe told me some twenty years ago? Isn't that the whole purpose of Christmas? God loves all people. And we must also. Even with those we vehemently disagree.

So, how do we do it? How do we love all? For some, it will require us to look beyond their faults and see them for who they really are, unique and wonderfully made children of God, who have fallen short of God's glory because of sin, just like you and me. They, just like us, are in need grace, that undeserved love of a saviour. We love all, because they are us.

Others though, will be more lovable, but to love them will require more than just our acceptance. They will need our direct involvement just to go about their day-to-day living. They are our responsibility. We know this to be true as we find in John's first letter to a group of other followers of Jesus says:

1 John 3.17-18

17 But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help -- how can God's love be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.

So, once again, how do we do it? How do we put this love into action? We could find a child to sponsor, which is a great thing to do! We could also mentor kids in school or become a Big Brother or Big Sister; another great things to do! We can adopt an elderly person in a nursing home as a grandparent. Once again, a great thing to do! All of these, plus so many other avenues are great ways to touch and change the world, one life at a time.

But I wonder, as a community of faith, as followers of Jesus, are we called to look at how to love all in a bigger spectrum? Well, I know of one case where Jesus called his followers to do just that.

In Mark's gospel, we find the story of when Jesus had a huge crowd following him. It became late in the day and his disciples came up to Jesus and said, "Jesus, it's getting late and the people are starting to get hungry. Tell them to leave so they can find something to eat in some of the towns around us." Jesus looked at his friends and said something they weren't expecting, "You feed them." They were flabbergasted and replied, "Are you kidding us? With what?!" Jesus asked, "What food do you have?" They scrounged around and found they had five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus then took those five loaves and two fish, blessed them and had his disciples to pass out the food to over five thousand people. Friends, here's the kicker, everybody ate until they were full! Five loaves of bread and two fish filled up over five thousand hungry people! (Mark 6:35-44)

Okay, how can this be?! How can basically a meal for two, maybe three people, if you really stretch it, feed five thousand till they are full? The answer is it can't! It can't happen without faith. Now the disciples didn't have the faith; they questioned Jesus about his rationale. So, if it was about faith and the disciples didn't have it, then who did? Jesus did...Jesus saw the need of all the people and loved all the people...and that's all it took. From that faith, the disciples witnessed the miracle of how to love all with just what you have.

Today and tomorrow night, we are receiving a special offering that springs up from just a portion of what we have saved by conspiring to make Christmas even more special. From this offering, the world will be forever changed because Jesus has faith in what God can do with just what we have. The offering today will go to help dig wells and provide fresh, clean water for villages in Zambia. Lives will be saved and people will be healthier because we listen to Jesus as he says, "Love all."