Different Kinds Of Love
Sermon
With most young couples, the first baby to be born produces incredible feelings of love and tenderness, feelings which perhaps they never knew they had. So God's gift to his people of a new baby at Christmas was a master-stroke, for 2,000 years later that baby still invokes feelings of affection and tenderness in many people. In our benefice this last Christmas, over 800 people attended church over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That's 26 percent of our total population, compared with around 5 percent on normal Sundays.
Christmas still holds religious and spiritual meaning for many people, even though they may find difficulty in articulating quite why they feel the need to attend church. And even though others may rather contemptuously dismiss the emotions generated by Christmas as superficial sentimentality which has no depth or meaning.
Today we (can) celebrate the feast of Candlemas, which stands between Christmas and Easter. According to "The Promise of His Glory" (published by Church House Publishing, 1991), Candlemas is "the natural climax of the Christmas season, after forty days of Christmas and Epiphany" (page 259). The book goes on to talk about the "bitter-sweet" nature of Candlemas, with its last look back at Christmas and our last glimpse of the babe in arms, and its looking forward to the grown-up Jesus and the agony of the Cross. So Candlemas is a kind of pivot in the Christian year, and the liturgical colour reflects this in its change from the white of feast days, first to a few weeks of green but quite soon then to the sombre and penitential purple of Lent.
On the whole, the Christian story is a young people's story, for nearly all the characters in it were young. Jesus was only thirty-three years old when he died, and his disciples were all young with him. But at Candlemas the elderly come into their own, for the two main characters in the story of the presentation of the baby Jesus in the temple, were elderly people. Old Anna, the prophetess who'd spent all her time in the temple since being widowed at a very young age, and Simeon, the old priest, who foresaw the shadow hanging over Jesus' life.
So with the baby, the young parents and the two wise, elderly folk, Candlemas is also a joining together across the age range of the Church family. Perhaps in some way it epitomizes that golden thread running all through the Bible and especially obvious in the New Testament, the thread of God's love for his people.
It might seem strange that love can be expressed in such very different ways. Love can be seen very obviously in the Christmas story, which is perhaps part of the reason why people are still able to tune into it. But it's not quite so obvious at Candlemas. Some people might have been very offended by Simeon's words, and might not have wanted to hear such a prophecy of doom for their newborn baby.
Imagine taking your new baby to the christening, only to be told by the priest that when the baby grows up, he'll pierce your heart with a sword! Most young parents would probably much prefer either to be told nothing at all, or to have glory and riches forecast for their offspring.
But truth is part of love. However much feelings may be hurt, and however hard it may be for the speaker, it's actually more loving to be honest than to fudge issues in order to spare other people's feelings. As St. Paul said in today's reading from his great hymn of love in 1 Corinthians 13, love rejoices in the truth.
Love is not superficial sentimentality but is tough and must sometimes be uncompromising. But it isn't so easy to identify love within things that hurt. So by the time we reach the events of Holy Week, it's even more difficult to recognize love in action.
How can surrendering your only son to an unjust and agonizing death be a display of love? How does the crucifixion show God's love for human beings?
Perhaps St Paul had the answer when he said that love doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. He went on to say that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that love never ends.
Jesus showed that sort of love on the cross, and by enduring the worst human beings can endure without resorting to hatred or blame or cheating or lying or compromising the truth, he won through to the resurrection. Throughout his ordeal he continued to be patient, and kind, and was never envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. He didn't insist on his own way, and he was never irritable or resentful. He continued to trust in God even when it looked as though his trust might be misplaced.
In so doing, Jesus showed us how to live even through our bad times, our dark times, when it feels like God has disappeared and everything is tumbling about our ears. If we continue to love through those bad times, and to see it through to the end without compromising love or truth, then we too will experience a new and unexpected beginning, light at the end of the tunnel - resurrection in all its glory.
Love is the golden thread running all through the story of God's dealings with his people. But from the beginning until the end of the story of Jesus, love shines out. We see it in many and varied ways, some of them much less obvious than others. And St Paul spells out some of the characteristics of love which become apparent in the story of Jesus - love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. It's the most important Christian characteristic that can develop within us and is the basis of all God's dealings with us.
As we move from Candlemas towards Lent and Easter, we'll see love in many different forms, most of them much harder to cope with than the form of love shown at Christmas. But God is love, so if we want to meet with God, we need to learn how to handle all kinds of love. And then, eventually, we shall see him face to face.
Christmas still holds religious and spiritual meaning for many people, even though they may find difficulty in articulating quite why they feel the need to attend church. And even though others may rather contemptuously dismiss the emotions generated by Christmas as superficial sentimentality which has no depth or meaning.
Today we (can) celebrate the feast of Candlemas, which stands between Christmas and Easter. According to "The Promise of His Glory" (published by Church House Publishing, 1991), Candlemas is "the natural climax of the Christmas season, after forty days of Christmas and Epiphany" (page 259). The book goes on to talk about the "bitter-sweet" nature of Candlemas, with its last look back at Christmas and our last glimpse of the babe in arms, and its looking forward to the grown-up Jesus and the agony of the Cross. So Candlemas is a kind of pivot in the Christian year, and the liturgical colour reflects this in its change from the white of feast days, first to a few weeks of green but quite soon then to the sombre and penitential purple of Lent.
On the whole, the Christian story is a young people's story, for nearly all the characters in it were young. Jesus was only thirty-three years old when he died, and his disciples were all young with him. But at Candlemas the elderly come into their own, for the two main characters in the story of the presentation of the baby Jesus in the temple, were elderly people. Old Anna, the prophetess who'd spent all her time in the temple since being widowed at a very young age, and Simeon, the old priest, who foresaw the shadow hanging over Jesus' life.
So with the baby, the young parents and the two wise, elderly folk, Candlemas is also a joining together across the age range of the Church family. Perhaps in some way it epitomizes that golden thread running all through the Bible and especially obvious in the New Testament, the thread of God's love for his people.
It might seem strange that love can be expressed in such very different ways. Love can be seen very obviously in the Christmas story, which is perhaps part of the reason why people are still able to tune into it. But it's not quite so obvious at Candlemas. Some people might have been very offended by Simeon's words, and might not have wanted to hear such a prophecy of doom for their newborn baby.
Imagine taking your new baby to the christening, only to be told by the priest that when the baby grows up, he'll pierce your heart with a sword! Most young parents would probably much prefer either to be told nothing at all, or to have glory and riches forecast for their offspring.
But truth is part of love. However much feelings may be hurt, and however hard it may be for the speaker, it's actually more loving to be honest than to fudge issues in order to spare other people's feelings. As St. Paul said in today's reading from his great hymn of love in 1 Corinthians 13, love rejoices in the truth.
Love is not superficial sentimentality but is tough and must sometimes be uncompromising. But it isn't so easy to identify love within things that hurt. So by the time we reach the events of Holy Week, it's even more difficult to recognize love in action.
How can surrendering your only son to an unjust and agonizing death be a display of love? How does the crucifixion show God's love for human beings?
Perhaps St Paul had the answer when he said that love doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. He went on to say that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that love never ends.
Jesus showed that sort of love on the cross, and by enduring the worst human beings can endure without resorting to hatred or blame or cheating or lying or compromising the truth, he won through to the resurrection. Throughout his ordeal he continued to be patient, and kind, and was never envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. He didn't insist on his own way, and he was never irritable or resentful. He continued to trust in God even when it looked as though his trust might be misplaced.
In so doing, Jesus showed us how to live even through our bad times, our dark times, when it feels like God has disappeared and everything is tumbling about our ears. If we continue to love through those bad times, and to see it through to the end without compromising love or truth, then we too will experience a new and unexpected beginning, light at the end of the tunnel - resurrection in all its glory.
Love is the golden thread running all through the story of God's dealings with his people. But from the beginning until the end of the story of Jesus, love shines out. We see it in many and varied ways, some of them much less obvious than others. And St Paul spells out some of the characteristics of love which become apparent in the story of Jesus - love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. It's the most important Christian characteristic that can develop within us and is the basis of all God's dealings with us.
As we move from Candlemas towards Lent and Easter, we'll see love in many different forms, most of them much harder to cope with than the form of love shown at Christmas. But God is love, so if we want to meet with God, we need to learn how to handle all kinds of love. And then, eventually, we shall see him face to face.
