"THE SHAPE OF GOD'S LOVE"

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

When I was in seminary,

we learned about something called "constructionism."

And as much as I would have like for it

to have been about tinker toys or Play-doh,

that wasn't it.

The idea behind constructionism

is that we can only know what we know.

That doesn't sound like rocket science.  

What it means, though,

is that we have a hard time

understanding who God is and what God is up to

because there's nothing else like God

in our human experience.

If we EVER learned how to program a VCR,

then it probably wasn't too hard

for us to program our DVD player,

because we could take our experience from the VCR

and apply the less frustrating part of it

to the DVD.

Those of us who are so inclined

have an easier time learning how to ice skate //

if we have mastered the skill of roller skating.

But there really is nothing

that we have humanly experienced

that can help us to understand God.

So theologians say

that in order to understand God,

we have to come up with constructs,

or comparisons,

or associations from our own experience

to bridge the gap between here and heaven.

We have to come up with ways to understand God

based on earthly things that we already understand.

So let's say that we wanted to understand

something about God's love.

That seems fairly straightforward, doesn't it?

We have lots of experience with love,

so that one is not rocket science. 

We even have this passage from Paul

that spells it out:

love is patient, and kind,

not jealous or boastful,

not irritable or rude.

At face value, then,

if we wanted to understand the shape of God's love,

we would look at the other loving relationships we know -

with our parents,

with our children,

with our spouses or significant others,

with our closest friends.

Right?

Well, if we think about that for forty-five seconds or less,

that comparison fails!

All of us who have EVER loved -

whether it's a child, a parent or a partner -

we know that there are PLENTY of times

when neither we nor they are any of the above!

As good and wonderful and fulfilling as it can be,

we are clear that human love is not perfect.

And sadly, there are times

when domestic violence and child abuse

corrupt what is supposed to be the safety and security

of a loving family.

So that construct fails,

if we say that "God is love"

and we know full well

how our own attempts at love fall short.

We gotta look further.

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What if -

what if God's love for us

looked more like the relationship we see

between God and Jeremiah?

There wasn't a lot on paper

to make us think

that Jeremiah was worthy of God's love.

For one thing,

he was young

and hadn't had much time to prove himself.

He didn't take much to public speaking,

which you would THINK

would be a prerequisite for serving God!

In fact,

he really didn't have ANY obvious gifts.

We know that he was a preacher's kid,

but that comes with its own set of issues!

But when you think about it,

if God's call to Jeremiah

is an example

of what we can expect from God's love,

that's pretty good news.

We don't have to prove ourselves

in order for God to love us.

We don't have to have an extensive resume'.

We don't even have to be public speakers!

And if we do,

God will give us what we need to say.

(I pray for that on a weekly basis!)

In fact,

God had decided what Jeremiah was going to do

before Jeremiah was even a gleam in his parents' eye.

Think about what that means for us!

For you and I who stay awake at night

wondering what it is that we're supposed to do,

it's either kind of scary //

or incredibly liberating //

to know that God's love

means that you and I

are exactly where we are supposed to be.

God not only knows that you and I

have a particular set of gifts and shortcomings,

God made us that way.

And God intends to use us

just the way we are

for God's good purposes,

and to give us the words and strength

to fulfill those purposes.

Isn't that amazing?

God can use even us!

Maybe the shape of God's love

is something like what Desmond Tutu once wrote:

"We were created by love, for love,

and so that we should love?

None of us is a mere divine afterthought.

None of us is an accident.

Before the foundation of the world,

God chose us to be his children in Jesus Christ."

Wow.

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Luke gives us another way to look at it.

We might call Luke's way "tough love."

When you think back

to that idea of having a construct

to help us understand God's love,

the most obvious one that we have is Jesus.

As the confessions of the church teach us,

God sent Jesus "for us and for our salvation."

But Jesus also came

so that you and I

might know what it means to be fully human

and to live

in the ways that God intends for us to live.

Our reading from Luke

picks up where we left off last Sunday.

Last week,

Jesus read a passage from Isaiah to the crowd

and said,

"Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

We left on a high note.

This morning,

we hear the first sermon that Jesus ever preached.

But he doesn't exactly preach a crowd-pleaser.

And Jeremiah thought he didn't know how to speak in public!

Jesus' neighbors were thrilled

to be there and see the hometown boy done good.

But what he preaches to them

is that the home team

will probably be last on God's list.

They go from being his biggest fans

to trying to throw him off a cliff!

This is not exactly the preacher's favorite passage!

But what does it tell us about God's love?

We can assume

from what we know about Jesus,

and from what we've said about Jeremiah,

that God knew what God was doing.

We can assume

that God gave Jesus those exact words

for that exact time.

But that's not exactly the outcome we want, is it?

We want to believe

that if God created us and God chose us,

and if it's true

that we are exactly where God wants us

and that God will give us the words to say,

then we will be universally adored and cherished,

and that all will go well with us.

Right?

If this reading is one of the measures of God's love,

we can no longer expect that.

What we can expect

is that God's kind of love says to us

not what we want to hear,

but what we need to hear.

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So, how do what we know about Jeremiah

and what we know about Jesus

affect what we read about love

in First Corinthians Thirteen?

Does it help you to know

that it was written

not for a couple of lovebirds on their wedding day,

but for a church that was about to split from conflict?

Does it help you to know

that it was not written

to be a sentiment on a Hallmark greeting card,

but marching orders

for how you and I are supposed to live together

as a family of God's children?

If we're going to look at that reading

as something which tells us about the shape of God's love,

we have to look at it //

like Jeremiah looked at public speaking.

You and I are not very good at living this way.

To paraphrase Jeremiah,

"We're just children."

We don't know how to do all that.

God knows that.

We don't need to know how.

It's God that gives us the ability to do so.

God has promised to walk with us.

And so God will give us the words

that will enable us to be patient, and kind,

and not jealous, and not boastful,

and not irritable or rude.

Or to put it another way,

our ability to act with love towards each other

doesn't come from us.

It comes from God.

And if we look at this reading

like Jesus looked at his first sermon,

we'll be able to see

that sometimes saying the hardest thing

is to say the most loving thing possible.

Apparently, God's love is such

that sometimes we will be given words to say

and things to do

that will make people want to throw us over a cliff.

God loves us enough not to coddle us,

not to let us off the hook,

not to expect less of us

than the One who created us knows that we can do.

God loves us enough,

as the old saying goes,

to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

What is our only comfort,

in life and in death?

The Heidelberg Catechism says that our only comfort

is that we do not belong to ourselves,

but to the Son of the One who created us -

who had plans for us

before anyone had ever even thought about us.

Let's live into that comfort

by resting easy in the real love of our creator -

who made you and me for a reason,

who gave us exactly this set of gifts,

who has put us into this time and this place,

who will give us the words we need to say

in whatever situation we may find ourselves,

who will not make it easy for us,

but who will make it perfect. 

Thanks be to God!

Amen.