Sermons in
Glass: 6. Love
Church of the Wayfarer
Dr. Norm Mowery, Pastor
October 13, 2013
Mark 8:22-26 and I Corinthians 13 (Reaffirmation of
Marriage Sunday)
Jesus used several methods of healing, one of
which is depicted in the Sixth Lancet of our windows. The top picture in this
lancet shows Jesus touching the eyes of a blind man.
This is the sixth message based on the
stories in our stained glass windows. The top pictures in each lancet tell
about the life of Jesus. Over the past weeks we have relived —
The manger scene
Jesus in the temple
Jesus being baptized
Jesus tempted in the
wilderness
Jesus teaching the Sermon on
the Mount
Today we see Jesus offering the
healing touch to a blind man.
I believe that Jesus still offers the
healing touch.
Some
of us need physical healing.
Some of us need healing of
memories.
Some of us need healing in
our relationships.
The story depicted here is fascinating.
I find it interesting that they
brought the man to Jesus not for Jesus to heal him…… but for Jesus to touch him.
They begged Jesus to touch him.
Here we see the touch of Jesus.
Jesus took the man by the hand. Can
you picture it?
Can you visualize Jesus walking hand
in hand out of the village with a blind man?
I’ll bet that everyone in the village was staring?
When Jesus touched the man the one who
was blind started to see but it was as though he had cataracts.
So, Jesus touched him again.
This time he saw everything clearly.
Three times Jesus touched him!
If healing is to happen in our lives,
in our marriages, in our relationships, in our families…. we must reach out and
touch.
Saint
Paul, the greatest apostle, whose writings forever shaped Christianity and
whose missionary journeys spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire is
pictured in the large center window. Here he is caught in a storm.
Four orange sea anchors trail behind
the ship. In the corner sits a Roman centurion.
Paul is a prisoner on the ship headed
for Rome to face the Emperor.
A storm comes up.
It is because of Paul’s vision and
leadership that the sailors, soldiers and prisoners are all saved on the island
of Malta. The Bible goes into great detail—276 men are on board.
I find it interesting that the
committee chose this rather unfamiliar story to be in our windows. I don’t
think that I have ever preached a sermon about this event.
The significance of this story is that
it was important in God’s plan that Paul, a prisoner, meets the emperor. It is
because of that appearance that the Gospel was taken to the Roman world.
St. Paul certainly shaped the early
Christian Church. Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have been
attributed to Paul.
When you think of the Apostle Paul you
probably think of either the love chapter of the Bible, First Corinthians 13,
or the fact that Paul told women to be quiet in worship.
If it is okay with all of you I will
focus on the Love Chapter rather than women being quiet. I believe that this passage sums up why Paul’s
message was important to spread to the whole world.
I Corinthians 13 is the heart of
Paul’s message.
It is the heart of the Gospel message.
It is the heart of the Bible.
Here he declares that a person may
have outstanding spiritual gifts but if
they are unaccompanied by love they are useless.
Here we have good practical advice for
all of us who live our lives in relationship with others. Notice how down to
earth these words are:
Love is patient
Love is kind
Love is not jealous or
conceited or proud
Love is not ill-mannered or
selfish or irritable (ouch that hits me!)
Love does not keep a record
of wrongs
Love is not happy with evil
but is happy with the truth
Love never gives up
Loves faith, hope and
patience never fail
Love is eternal
This is the message I need this
morning.
This is the message our leaders in
Washington need.
This is the message that our world
needs.
This is the eternal message of the
Gospel.
I am glad for this picture in our
windows because it reminds us that God was with the Apostle Paul as he was a prisoner
on his way to be tried in Rome.
Paul lived the message of love as he
traveled.
He saved the lives of 276 people when
he could have fled to freedom.
He faithfully traveled to Rome so that
the message of love could be taken to the whole world.
Paul’s message is “U before I.”
The Greek word Paul used for love in this passage is agape, which was not the common Greek word for love. The reason that Paul used agape for love is to point out that it refers more to an act of the will than a feeling of the heart.
The Greek word Paul used for love in this passage is agape, which was not the common Greek word for love. The reason that Paul used agape for love is to point out that it refers more to an act of the will than a feeling of the heart.
That means that even if our inward
response is “What’s in it for me?” our outward response needs to be “What’s
best for you?”
There is an old Quaker saying,
There is an old Quaker saying,
“I expect to pass through this world but once.
Therefore any good work, kindness or service
I can render to any person or animal,
let me do it
now.
Let me not neglect or delay to do it,
for I will not
pass this way again.
The place that love experiences the
greatest test, for me, is in my family life—in marriage. You never take a
marriage for granted.
Before there was such a thing as
marriage licenses, there were marriage banns. "B-a-n-n" is a Middle
English word for "proclamation."
Before the invention of marriage
licenses, the minister or priest would make an announcement in the parish
church, noting the names of the two parties to an upcoming marriage.
The priest would continue with the
following question: "If any of you know cause or just impediment why these
two persons should not be joined together in Holy Matrimony, ye are to declare
it."
That presents a nearly irresistible
dramatic opportunity to throw a wedding ceremony off the rails.
In the years before government-issued marriage licenses, when the only marriage records were parish registers, marriage banns were the best defense against bigamy. We no longer ask that question!
The institution of marriage is changing in dramatic ways in today’s world.
Anyone can perform a wedding
today.
The wedding business is
changing and churches are being sidelined.
More and more couples come to
interview me to see if they want me to
perform their wedding.
This morning I know that—
There are persons here that are glad they
are not married.
There are loving, committed couples who
live by Paul’s words here this morning that have chosen not to get married.
There are persons here this morning
that would like to be married but are not and other loving couples that cannot
legally get married even though they want to.
There are persons here this morning
that no longer have the spouse that they were with for many years.
My message is….
I do not judge loving
relationships.
I try my best to love people
and I let God do the judging.
I believe that those who
enter into marriage have a sacred trust.
I tell couples that I marry that I
don’t care what they promise each other. There is nothing sacred about the marriage
vows. But, I do care that they keep
the vows that they take!
In just a moment I will give the
opportunity for couples who would like to reaffirm their marriage vows to come
forward as we sing a stanza of a hymn written by Charles Wesley who is in our
third picture.
Charles
Wesley
(1707 – 1788) was the hymn writer of Methodism, producing about 6500 lyrics.
Charles, brother of John, is considered by many to be the greatest hymn writer
of all ages. Seventy-seven of his hymns are in our hymnal.
Charles Wesley was the son of Susanna Wesley and Samuel
Wesley.
He was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire,
England, where his father was rector. He was educated at Westminster
School
and Christ
Church, Oxford.
In 1735, Charles and his brother John
sailed for Savannah, Georgia, at the
request of the governor, James Oglethorpe. However,
matters did not turn out well, and he was largely rejected by the settlers.
Charles Wesley experienced a
"conversion" in 1738 – John Wesley had a similar experience in a
Moravian Church on Aldersgate
Street
just three days later.
Wesley felt renewed strength to spread
the Gospel to ordinary people and it was at that time he began to write the
poetic hymns for which he would become known.
Charles communicates several doctrines
through his hymns;
we have the personal
indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
the sanctifying work of the
Holy Spirit,
the depravity of mankind,
and our personal
accountability to God.
In the course of his career, Charles
Wesley published the words of over six thousand hymns, many of which
are still popular. These include:
Even as Jesus touched the blind man,
the Apostle Paul and Charles Wesley have touched us with the message of love.
The love we proclaim and live is the
love of Jesus Christ which Charles Wesley describes on page 384 or our Hymnals:
Love Divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven, to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus thou art all compassion,
Pure, unbounded love thou art;
Visit us with thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.
The reaffirmation of marriage can be a
way of reaching out to a person we love with a healing, forgiving, renewing
touch. Let’s sing ‘Love Divine’ as those would like to reaffirm their marriage
vows come forward.
Will you continue to live as husband
and wife in holy marriage?
Will you love each other, comfort each
other, honor each other and keep each other in sickness and in health and
forsaking all others, be faithful to each other as long as you both shall life?
I do.
I would like for you to repeat after
me….You will have to fill in the blanks!
In the name of God,
I_____, take you _____, to be my husband/wife,
To have and to hold, from this day forward
For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish, for now and forever.
This is my solemn vow.
Prayer
We gather in the midst of a broken
world, O God, and we strive to build ways of love.
Open our eyes sharpen our hearing and
quicken our hearts to respond to the cry of your children.
Help us to be the light in someone
else's dark world.
Help us to provide hope for those who
feel hopeless.
Help us to be a friend to the lonely.
And help us to avoid making excuses...
Like someone else can do it
better ...
I am just too busy...
I'll do it tomorrow...
What difference does it make?
Let us not rely on excuses but do our
best to present ourselves to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no
need to be ashamed.
Instill in us a sense of urgency in
our task
so that at day's end
we can offer thanks for the
opportunity to serve another
rather than ask forgiveness
for failing to faithfully follow
in the footsteps of the
greatest servant the world has ever known, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to
say when we pray ....
