(Ex 1:8-2:10; Rom 12:9-13; Mtt 16:13-20) J G White

Seven days ago I gave this sermon a title: The Look of Love. Then I left town for the week. Yesterday, I put the sermon together, with a new title: Love & Good & Evil. Love is action that deals with good and evil. Our reading from Romans 12 today says: 9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; Marva Dawn translated it this way: The love – not hypocritical! Abhorring the wicked thing! Glued to the good thing!

Many a sermon has been preached on love, from many texts in the Bible. Many books written too, such as the C. S. Lewis classic, The Four Loves. The love mentioned here in Romans 12:9 is what gets called ‘brotherly love,’ and is side-by-side with these short commands about good and evil. Sticking to what’s good and getting rid of evil - this is what love is all about.

Let me start this sermon by quoting from the late, great, and very literary preacher and writer, Frederick Buechner. In one book he has a short article about LOVE.

The first stage is to believe that there is only one kind of love. The middle stage is to believe that there are many kinds of love and that the Greeks had a different word for each of them. The last stage is to believe that there is only one kind of love.

Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most powerless. It is the most powerful because it alone can conquer that final and most impregnable stronghold which is the human heart. It is the most powerless because it can do nothing without consent.

To say that love is God is romantic idealism. To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth. (Wishful Thinking: a Theological ABC, Harper San Francisco, 1973, pp. 53-54)

The great love for us, shown in Jesus Christ, is the great, tremendous thing that binds us together. When we connect our experience of Christ with the rest of our lives and the people we meet, we will tackle more problems and rejoice in more beauty.

Allow me to quote Frederick Buechner again: A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, 'I can't prove a thing, but there's something about his eyes and his voice. There's something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross – the way he carries me.' (Ibid, p. )

The phrases of Romans 12 continue on. 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Actually showing affection breaks down walls and barriers. It disperses some evil. A hug, a smile, a look in the eye and clear words can truly bless.

Author Marva Dawn told this story. Once, when I was still single, during an intense time of work and loneliness, I misunderstood a friend's comment. After stewing about it an entire evening, I drove back to his house the next day to clear up the missed communication. His explanation was gift enough, but then he added, “Marva, you are so afraid of rejection. I’m not going to run away or drop your friendship without talking things through. I am committed to our friendship.” That word of commitment made a huge difference in my feelings about myself and about life, and I am… grateful to God… (MD, Truly the Community, 1992, pp. 165-166)

11 Do not lag in zeal; says Romans 12, be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. To be energetic and accomplish things is what love does in this world. We each, in our congregations, can find ourselves to be inspired and equipped and empowered to do the good we want to do.

A church called Grace Memorial Baptist Church did some things last year in April; they called it 30 Days of Grace. “What a generous demonstration of community love” read a caption from Fredericton High School when 900 muffins were donated by the Church for the school food program.

A special outreach during Holy Week was the preparation of Easter boxes. An enthusiastic group of volunteers showed up at the church to assemble boxes of ingredients for Easter dinners. Altogether, the group packed twenty boxes and delivered them to households in need.

And on the last day of April, a crew made up of 13 men and women from Grace gave up half of their Saturday to help a senior, single woman move to a new apartment. All morning they lugged boxes and furniture down a set of stairs and into the back of a truck, then turned around and climbed up the stairs again for another load. It was demanding work but appreciated by the woman who had to move to a more affordable apartment due to a rent hike and did not have the means to hire professional movers (Kate Thompson, Tidings, September 2022, p. 11)

We do similar things here in our own community, don’t we? To be zealous and ardent in serving our God in such ways is rooted in our confidence in Jesus and in the goodness that matters in this life.

We heard that Bible conversation today of Jesus and His closest disciples talking about who people thought Jesus was. Disciple Peter got Him right: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this kind of confidence the Church of Jesus would be built, and the gates of hell can’t stand against it - against us! The illnesses, the poverty, the injustices, the hurts and trauma of life have an answer in Jesus and the people of Jesus. We are deployed by God to do good work. The love of Christ reaches with our serving hands and our listening ears, our voices for justice and our giving wallets.

So we obey these commands of the heart: 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Here are the quiet attitudes behind the actions, and the troubles we see. We find joy and hope. We find patience in problems. We keep having God conversations.

Hope and patience and prayer are fuel for our living, our living in these days of trouble. We look back, way back, for inspiration from the most familiar of faith stories. Moses, a baby born in slavery in Egypt, thousands of years ago, is saved to become the leader of his people out of slavery. Who in this story was brave because of their love? The Jewish midwives who refused to kill the male children who were born. Their love took risks. The parents of Moses took a big risk, to send their son floating down the river, hoping against hope for some miracle. The child’s older sister watched over him as he helplessly found his way to the waters near Pharaoh’s palace. And Pharaoh’s daughter found a love for this mysterious child, and claimed him as her own, protecting him. So much love that was risky. The story of struggle for justice and freedom for thousands of people begins with brave resistance, against the evil forces that threatened.

The final phrases from our Romans 12 reading today said: 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. Here is love for those we love, and for those who don’t even know. The saints - those in the congregation of Jesus, and the stranger in our midst.

Our actions to care for the family of God and our actions towards those we do not know - how different those actions can be. On the surface, at the start, we may treat visitors better than those close to us: we’re more polite, more positive, trying to make a good impression, perhaps. Later, if a stranger stays, they may find it hard to break in, socially, and be treated like they belong. It could be said of Nova Scotians, we are amazingly friendly to tourists, but not so much to those who actually move here ‘from away.’

The gift of hospitality often is a spiritual gift, a gift from God, a miracle! Hospitality includes the love of strangers. Loving strangers is a worthwhile matter of risk, and sacrifice, and justice.

One last time, let me read from Frederick Beuchner.

In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbours, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as well produce a cozy emotional feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze. On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbours in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. (Wishful Thinking: a theological ABC, Harper San Francisco, 1973, p. 54)

Love is for those near and dear to us, and for those who are new to us. We would do well to be inspired and influenced by the many Bible texts about Love, and people today who pursue hospitality. It is a matter of good over evil!

I’ll end now, wondering how many of you know this scripture song:

Beloved, (beloved,) let us love one another: (love one another)

for love is of God; and every one that loveth

is born of God, and knoweth God.

He that loveth not X X X

knoweth not God; for God is love. (God is love)

Beloved, (beloved,) let us love one another:

First John four, seven and eight.