Channels Of God's Love
Sermon
About A Loving God
People who attend funerals in situations such as this often have a lot of unasked questions. We all know * openly acknowledged he was suffering from AIDS, and, as I see it, we should do the same.
But where do we go from there? 'How will the preacher deal with *'s illness?' you may have been asking as you came here today.
I hope to deal with it much as I think Jesus would.
Jesus had this wonderful ability to love, to understand that illness is illness, no matter what its cause, and that people are so much more than just their illnesses.
If you listened to the Scripture for today, you heard the story of how Jesus healed a leper without any questions asked.
'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,' the leper said. 'And [Jesus] stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' '
Jesus knew how his society had dealt with lepers, and, in fact, he instructed the man to go to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing, as the Scripture said to do.
And Jesus knew the passage from Leviticus 13: 'The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp (45-46).'
Jesus knew all that, but he refused to respond in the way most people would. For him, illness was illness, something to be set right by the love of the one true living God.
I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of *'s illness and his death. I just mean to say God grieves for * just as God grieves for all of us.
And with that said, I can preach for *, just as I would preach for all of us.
So now, what should I say?
First, I should say, 'Thanks.' Thanks to all those who hung in there with *, to all those who were, in this case, Jesus to him.
Isn't it interesting the way illness and sin become intertwined in our finite human minds? When Jesus told the paralyzed man, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you,' the scribes and Pharisees accused him of blasphemy.
Only when he healed the man were they filled with awe and with the knowledge of the living God.
All those who bring God's health ---- physical, emotional or spiritual -- are channels of God's love. They stand in Jesus' place.
That's the first thing I should say, but there are other things as well. We are all more than our illnesses. Today we've shared our love for *, the memories we have of him, the way he was a channel of God's love to each of us. We shouldn't let his illness or anything else get in the way of all that.
All those who choose to be are channels of God's love, the Scripture tells us.
Channels of God's love, what an awesome role to play! 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' the psalmist asks. 'The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?'
God is in charge of all things, the Scripture tells us. Others may think, say, or do all kinds of things, 'yet I will be confident,' the psalmist says.
'For [the Lord] will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will set me high upon a rock.'
The promise of the Scripture is the same for all. Whether we smoke and overeat and so die of heart disease, or whether we die of some humanly much-less-acceptable disease, the promise of the Scripture is the same.
'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,' the psalmist says; 'he makes me to lie down in green pastures.
'He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
'He leads me in paths of righteousness ...,' the Scripture says, and that means God creates in us a right relationship with him.
We can't make that 'right relationship,' the Scripture tells us, only God can. And God sent Jesus to heal, to help restore our right relationship with God.
Paul says it in another way. 'What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?'
Because Paul suffered in his service to the Savior, because he was rejected by some of the people whom he loved, Paul understood how it is possible to be close to God in situations such as this.
'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' he asked. 'Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?'
And then just one verse later, he replies, 'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What greater healing could there ever be for * or all of us?
Let Us Pray
Almighty God, we thank you that you and you alone are God and you see things with greater than human eyes. In the ways we've failed ourselves or *, forgive us, and help us live in you.
Now as we go to say good-bye to this good friend, cradle us in your loving arms as you did him, and fill us with your hope and blessing always.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
*Person's first name
**Person's full name
But where do we go from there? 'How will the preacher deal with *'s illness?' you may have been asking as you came here today.
I hope to deal with it much as I think Jesus would.
Jesus had this wonderful ability to love, to understand that illness is illness, no matter what its cause, and that people are so much more than just their illnesses.
If you listened to the Scripture for today, you heard the story of how Jesus healed a leper without any questions asked.
'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,' the leper said. 'And [Jesus] stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' '
Jesus knew how his society had dealt with lepers, and, in fact, he instructed the man to go to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing, as the Scripture said to do.
And Jesus knew the passage from Leviticus 13: 'The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp (45-46).'
Jesus knew all that, but he refused to respond in the way most people would. For him, illness was illness, something to be set right by the love of the one true living God.
I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of *'s illness and his death. I just mean to say God grieves for * just as God grieves for all of us.
And with that said, I can preach for *, just as I would preach for all of us.
So now, what should I say?
First, I should say, 'Thanks.' Thanks to all those who hung in there with *, to all those who were, in this case, Jesus to him.
Isn't it interesting the way illness and sin become intertwined in our finite human minds? When Jesus told the paralyzed man, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you,' the scribes and Pharisees accused him of blasphemy.
Only when he healed the man were they filled with awe and with the knowledge of the living God.
All those who bring God's health ---- physical, emotional or spiritual -- are channels of God's love. They stand in Jesus' place.
That's the first thing I should say, but there are other things as well. We are all more than our illnesses. Today we've shared our love for *, the memories we have of him, the way he was a channel of God's love to each of us. We shouldn't let his illness or anything else get in the way of all that.
All those who choose to be are channels of God's love, the Scripture tells us.
Channels of God's love, what an awesome role to play! 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' the psalmist asks. 'The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?'
God is in charge of all things, the Scripture tells us. Others may think, say, or do all kinds of things, 'yet I will be confident,' the psalmist says.
'For [the Lord] will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will set me high upon a rock.'
The promise of the Scripture is the same for all. Whether we smoke and overeat and so die of heart disease, or whether we die of some humanly much-less-acceptable disease, the promise of the Scripture is the same.
'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,' the psalmist says; 'he makes me to lie down in green pastures.
'He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
'He leads me in paths of righteousness ...,' the Scripture says, and that means God creates in us a right relationship with him.
We can't make that 'right relationship,' the Scripture tells us, only God can. And God sent Jesus to heal, to help restore our right relationship with God.
Paul says it in another way. 'What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?'
Because Paul suffered in his service to the Savior, because he was rejected by some of the people whom he loved, Paul understood how it is possible to be close to God in situations such as this.
'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' he asked. 'Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?'
And then just one verse later, he replies, 'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What greater healing could there ever be for * or all of us?
Let Us Pray
Almighty God, we thank you that you and you alone are God and you see things with greater than human eyes. In the ways we've failed ourselves or *, forgive us, and help us live in you.
Now as we go to say good-bye to this good friend, cradle us in your loving arms as you did him, and fill us with your hope and blessing always.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
*Person's first name
**Person's full name
