Good News: We Are Loved!

Psalm 36: 5 – 7

1 John 4: 7 – 12

August 11, 2024

It all started off so wonderfully! On Saturday I had a special time as I met with Mal and Doris Black’s extended family to bury their remains in the family plot in Chatham, New Jersey. Doris’ 99-year-old sister was there – a retired anesthesiologist – who looked and sounded so much like Doris it was almost scary. Their love and care for one another was palpable and moving. It was a blessing to be with them.

Tuesday I was home, and Ben and I were finalizing details for the youth Caravan trip north to the American River above Sacramento and a two-day whitewater rafting trip. I was so looking forward to going. I love rafting. I love our students; and it was going to be the final trip that I led with our youth.

But COVID had other plans, and after a late Tuesday night positive test reading, I knew I couldn’t go. Ben and I talked on the phone, made last minute adjustments, and off our youth went – ably led by Ben Roebuck and supported by our adult advisors Jaime and Lani Colley. They had a blast.

The rest of the week was tough. While I had no fever fortunately, the brain fog, body aches, and congestion were significant. I slept most of that week away.

By Sunday I was hoping to turn the corner. I knew I was still required to be in isolation, but I went to bed Saturday night thinking that maybe I could start testing to see if I could come up negative.

Sunday morning was a panic. I have developed a breathing problem – the doctors currently think it is an asthma related issue. Unannounced, with no advanced warning, my entire breathing passageway shuts down and I have to be simply wait until it resumes allowing any level of oxygen to flow. It is scary. Seconds seem to be minutes. Minutes become hours when you are struggling to breathe. And in the midst of that struggle, my phone begins flashing with an incoming message.

Literally in the midst of struggling to breathe I begin to read that Sara has fallen at home, will not be able to come in, and is at the emergency room waiting for a cat scan and treatment. That is a rough start to the day!

But in the midst of all of that chaos, in the face of that uncertainty – calm, professionalism, and training rose to the surface. The staff rallied – beautifully – without any pastor. The worship service was conducted, as though it had been planned that way all along by Lee Lee, Ben, Annie Boscardin, our video and sound leaders. Each stepped up. Each took on responsibilities that were not normally their own. Each was faithful and committed to being what the church needed in a difficult time. I couldn’t have been prouder! That is what family does. Those are the actions that love compels. Love for God. Love for one another.

We are moving into a season when we as a church family are going to spend a lot of time thinking about the values, the principles, the DNA that makes our church the unique place that it is. This is not an issue of surveying competencies – although this is a church family that is wonderfully competent in a number of different ways. This is not going to be a listing of our success stories in the hopes that favorable church publicity will draw folks who want to be a part of an accomplished church. Neither will it be a parade of the beautiful and successful in the conviction that similar all-stars out in the community will want to be part of such a gathering.

No. Quite honestly, those church growth methodologies have been widely used across hundreds if not thousands of church communities – including ours. They have proven themselves to be abject failures. Even worse, they have created the notion that church is just yet another commodity to be sampled and tried on for size.

No, we will no longer chase the latest fad of the moment. No longer will we trust in marketing campaigns guaranteeing to double your size and triple your income. We will no longer chase after the idol of church “success” as measured by metrics and bank accounts.

No. We will simply, graciously, lovingly be the church, the body of Christ, the family of God.

Instead, we will joyfully proclaim, celebrate, and project into the communities surrounding our church those values, those principles, those ways of being that make LNPC the special place that it is. Our task is to be faithful and leave all the rest to God.

And we start with love. Our second lesson called us to love one another as a reflection of the love that God has for each of us. It is love – love for our youth – that moved Jaimie and Lani Colley to say yes and to help make the youth trip possible. Our youth were wonderfully and ably led by Ben; our youth were supported and empowered by our youth advisors – Jaimie and Lani – as an expression of love for God and our students, as an act of faith.

Love calls a faithful group of volunteers to gather out on a hot parking lot every Thursday to demonstrate that love as they share food with those in need. Love calls staff members to trust in the God who has first loved them – trusting that this same God, through the power of the Holy Spirit – would make faithful worship possible. Love for God, love for this church, led volunteers to step up and lead worship in ways that were new and different for them. Love led this congregation to receive the gift of their service with thanksgiving and without second guessing.

Love leads members to reach out to the sick to see how they could be helpful. I can’t tell you what those cards, emails, and texts mean to those who are in the midst of struggle.

So many good things, right things, faithful things happened because love compelled servants to say, “Yes!” instead of “No”. That’s what love does. That’s when love becomes real – love with a face – your face.

We live in a culture that is split, fractured, and divided. We are in the midst of a political season that generates tremendous heat but very little light. In our moral pride we find ourselves at odds with so many. I think Dan White, in his book “Love Over Fear” describes it well. He writes:

“When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and a people to fear. But….when you live in God’s Kingdom, there’s always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love.”

Love carries the day.

Friends, Jesus didn’t say that people would recognize our faithfulness by our doctrinal correctness, our political clout, our marketing brilliance, or even our programming results. No, Jesus said people would know us by our love.

How will LNPC thrive? We will thrive to the extent that we love him and one another. People are hungry. People are hurting. People are fearful and feel alone. There is an ache in our collective souls that only God’s love can heal. We will be about that love. Amen.