Sermon for Sunday, Mother's Day,  May 8, 2005  

LOVE ALWAYS SHOWS ITSELF IN ACTION

By

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture:          I Corinthians 13:1-7

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  ⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Those incredibly moving words we just heard from Paul the apostle were written to a group of quarreling, cranky, argumentative church members in the community of Corinth in Greece almost 2000 years ago and it is just amazing how much power they have still for us. When 35 of us were in Greece a year ago we stood there in the excavated ruins of Corinth and read those words about the kind of love that God has for us, the kind of love we can have for each other, the kind of love that when our families are working well, we experience that love, that patience, that kindness in our own families.

Perhaps we experienced that unconditional love from parents as we grew up. I was lucky enough to experience that most of the time in my family of origin. The Methodist lay woman who started the concept of Mother’s Day and lobbied congress and the president to set apart a day to honor mothers experienced that kind of love in her own family.

Agape love—the active, patient concern for the well being of another person, is life changing. We can know that in our families, in our friendship circles, and in our church. Let me tell you some stories about the life changing power of love.

In a Sunday School class the nine-year olds were to write a couple of sentences about what God’s love and the love of their family means to them. One little girl wrote these words. “I am glad I am who I am. I like being me. Even when I do the wrong thing I am still the right person.”

That is the most profound statement of grace and healthy self-love I have ever heard in my life. Even when I do the wrong thing I am still the right person. Can you say that about yourself? It is true. It is God’s truth about your life. It may be the way you learned to think about yourself from your family or, perhaps from your church.

Let me tell you the second story about the transforming power of unconditional love. A forty- three-year-old woman was reflecting about how she came to love herself and have a healthy picture of herself and the importance of her relationship with her mother in establishing that self-image.

She vividly remembered a time in her childhood when she was five. She was playing with her toys in the living room of her home, a place she had been cautioned about because her mother had placed there a large and beautiful vase, which had been in their family for three generations and was a family heirloom. It was a beautiful piece of art and was very important to her mother because of its family connections. As she was playing she happened to bump the stand the vase sat on. It shook and the vase slowly tumbled to the wooden floor with a very loud crash and broke into many pieces.

The child was very frightened by the accident and cried out—not only out of her fear but because she knew how important that piece of art and history was to her mother. When she screamed her mother ran into the room, saw what had happened and immediately hugged the child to her chest. The girl was crying out of surprise and fear. Her mom soothed her and the first words her mom said were these: “I am so glad you are all right. When you screamed I was afraid you were hurt. I am so glad you are all right.”

Now at the age of 43, looking back on that story from her childhood, the woman who is now herself a mother says this:  “I learned that day that I was the family treasure.”

Some of us grew up with siblings but in families where parents showed each of us that we individually were treasured beyond words, that each of us is a family treasure. Others of us learned and heard about that unconditional, seeking, accepting, grace-filled love from people outside our family—perhaps even in the church. And that is the way it should be. That is part of our role as Christ’s community—to show that agape love for each person.

Fred Craddock is retired now as professor of preaching at one of our United Methodist seminaries. When he taught at Phillips Seminary in Oklahoma he tells about a time he was on a short vacation in Tennessee and he saw the life-changing power of the God’s unconditional love.

Sometimes it’s in our families where we learn these truths. “You are loved. You are cherished. You are a treasure. You are meant for great things. You are a child of God. I see a striking resemblance. As a child of God, you have an incredible inheritance. God wants to give you that inheritance. God has great hopes and dreams in store for you.”

Sometimes it’s in the church where we hear those life-changing words. That is what we are doing at St Andrew Church—spreading that transformational message. That is why we are asking each other to invest in the expansion of what this church is doing over the next three years in our Follow the Vision emphasis. The three million dollar goal that we have is not really about bricks and mortar. It is a way to let us tell and show more and more people, more and more youth and children, that they are a treasure, that even when they do the wrong things they are still the right person, that they are children of God and there is a striking resemblance, that they are loved unconditionally and when they know that in their bones they will never be able to be the same again.

What is it worth to us to invest our money and our time in sharing that Great News of Christ? Judy and I will be bringing our card to the altar table next Sunday, as you will. When we fill in that card it means that when we add our giving to the operating ministries of this church as well as our capital pledge, we will be giving over $15,000 a year to support what this church is doing for persons. That is more than a tithe for us. It is some of the happiest money that we spend because it is an investment in people and it supports the sharing of the message that each person is a beloved child of God, God’s family treasure.

If you have not seen the detailed brochure telling about our plans and our needs, I commend it to you and I invite you to pray this week the prayer that is under girding all of our efforts: LORD, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO THROUGH ME? What do you want to do, Gracious God, so that each person may know that they are your family treasure, your precious child, and go on to claim the inheritance that you have created each of us for?

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