An Uncommon Love

Hello! Merry Christmas! Here is this week’s Living Water! It’s a remix of Sunday’s message. Please remember to listen to Walk With Me, Wednesday night, 8 pm on yfnradio.com. And if you’re in the North Jersey area, please join us on Christmas Eve, 5:30 pm at First Reformed Church of Saddle Brook. Blessings, Christopher

An Uncommon Love

So I typed “the need to be loved” into Google and it registered 362 million results. Not surprising right? 

Just a quick survey of conversations with family and friends as well as today’s popular songs, television shows, movies and books reveals that many of them revolve around this quest to love and be loved. 

This is not necessarily a bad thing. To love and be loved, well, those are good things. It’s the kind of loving though that is presented through these media and more importantly, the loving that many of us experience in life that is concerning. Because with reality and in media, we don’t often see loving that is healthy, life-giving and whole. And yet it is driving a significant amount of behavior and decision-making – ranging from well-intentioned to foolish to destructive to even worse. 

Unfortunately, much of the love we experience and witness is based on appearances and surface, self-serving, often manipulative, convenient, and safe; in other words not really love at all. In addition, what adds to fuel to the fire with all of this is the strong connection between self-worth and loving. 

And yet, at the heart of all the sentimentality of Christmas is a great, wonderful, powerful, transforming truth: God’s uncommon love is made visible in the birth of Christ. Let me show you…

This uncommon love has four characteristics. First, it’s a faithful and promised love. It’s hard to find good examples of faithfulness and kept promises today. When Jesus was born, it was the fulfillment of a promise God had made to His people, that their redemption, the whole world’s redemption would come through David’s lineage. “I will maintain my love to him (the promised descendant of David – Christ) forever, and my covenant with him will never fail (Psalm 89:28).” When Jesus was born that never failing love was nearer than ever before and remains as close and promised today for us through the new covenant in His blood and through the Holy Spirit.

The second characteristic of God’s uncommon love is that it is unconditional – meaning there it is a free gift – we don’t earn it, keep it or remove it. Why? Because God loves us uncommonly because it is about Him; it’s His character. Much of the love we experience is based on our behavior, expectations, agendas and more. That’s not God’s love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).” God’s love as made visible in the birth of Christ was about Him and was His initiative. In our lives today, He loves us…just because. Unconditional love is so liberating – it frees us from who were were, from the past, it upholds us in the present and allows us to step confidently into the future. 

The third characteristic of this uncommon love is that it is sacrificial. Loving sacrificially is not too popular today. We want to love and be loved…conveniently, safely and without any pain. That usually doesn’t work out anyway. But God’s love in Christ is very different. “Who, being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…(Philippians 2:6-7).” He was and is the Son of God and He completely condescends to us – Creator taking the form of one of His creations – to live, suffer, die and be raised for us – out of love. It wasn’t a mistake or random event that He came here. There is truly nothing like this. 

Finally, the fourth characteristic of God’s uncommon love is that it is daring. Jesus coming into this world as a human, as a child – think of the vulnerability, the risk. This is what moves us we about romantic love – a hero or heroine risks and dares to love when it doesn’t make sense, in ways that do not make sense or are unconventional. As well, Jesus enters this world not just as a vulnerable child – God dwelling in the flesh, so close, but then He dares to and actually does reach and transform human hearts, while at the same time challenging the religious establishment and turning social conventions upside down. He loved and still does love the unlovable among us and sheds His grace upon our unlovable characteristics – this is a daring, risky, nonsensical love – but it’s true and it’s ours. 

You’ve heard Garth Brooks, Adele and others sing this song. I ask you to listen to it as if it were coming from Jesus, “When the evening shadows and the stars appear and there is no one there to dry your tears, I could hold you for a million years to make you feel my love…I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue, I’d go crawling down the avenue, know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love…Go to the ends of the earth for you, to make you feel my love.” This song echoes all of these God love characteristics. When you think about all of these together – faithful, unconditional, sacrificial, and daring – this uncommon love of God is, for many of us, barely believable – too good to be true. It’s inspiring and breathtaking and adds such meaning to what Christmas is really about: the revelation of God’s love in Christ – powerful, transforming, healing and ultimately saving…in other words, a miracle, a visible demonstration of God’s love and power. 

It’s the love you’ve been searching for, the love of which you’ve dreamed, the love you’ve been thirsting for…and it’s the love that doesn’t have to be sought after or found; it finds us…it has found us – that’s the baby in the manger! Please hear me today. Loving and being loved never should have been and no longer has to be a distorted, fearful, manipulated, or pretentious experience. Oh, when we awaken to find and behold the gift of God’s uncommon love for us in our hearts and lives – it’s better than even the best Christmas morning gift opening! Then all the fear and self-serving and confusion can disappear as fast as the wrapping gets torn off presents. And then when you and I, depending on God, start to try to love others in these ways – loving spouses, children, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, fellow church members, everyone faithfully, unconditionally, sacrificially and daringly…what’s possible is this amazing, uncommon love of God becoming more and more visible so that while it may not be a baby in a manger or a man on a cross or an empty tomb; but it will still be His body. Christ in and through you and I – loving, reaching, restoring, liberating, lifting up, and embracing right here, right now for all the world to see and know. 

May the gift and miracle of God’s uncommon love truly become yours this Christmas.  

Amen. 

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

 

Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and With You Every Step of the Way (September, 2011); and the host of Walk With Me, Wednesdays 8 pm on WYFN 94.9 FM-NY and on http://www.yfnradio.com.

 

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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The Reach

Mark 5

The Reach

 

 

“Jerry” was desperate.

 

His daughter was deathly ill. He needed help fast. He needed a miracle.

 

Likewise, there was a woman who had suffered for years. But it wouldn’t go away. She had tried everything. She was alone. She was out of money and it wasn’t getting better. The doctors had no answers.

 

She was at the end of her rope.

 

But…

 

Jesus was within reach.

 

As you know, it is not as simple as that. Jesus is always within reach. But, it’s the reach, right?

 

A reach is leaving our comfort zones, it requires a choice, it requires effort, it requires risk, and it requires that something be left behind.

 

For both Jerry and the woman it was a risk to reach Jesus – it could have cost them everything.

 

For Jerry, a religious official, his turning to Jesus for help put his status and reputation at risk.

 

For the woman, she had virtually nothing left, but would be getting Jesus in trouble with the religious officials.

 

Maybe there was just something about Jesus.

 

Jerry, also known as Jairus, put it all on the line and humbly asked Jesus for help – and Jesus said he would come to see his daughter.

 

The woman, literally reached for Jesus, “if I but touch his cloak, I will be healed,” she thought to herself.

 

And…

 

Just as she grabbed his cloak, she knew it was over – she was healed! And then the words, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague (Mark 5:34 The Message).”

 

Speaking of daughters, by the time Jesus got to Jairus’ daughter, she was dead. They had heard the news along the way, but that didn’t stop Jesus. And when He got into her room of mourning, the Son brought the light! With just a “Wake up, little girl” she was alive again!  

 

I guess Jerry and the woman could have played it safe. Jerry’s daughter would have died and stayed dead. We might say that they would have healed over time. The woman would have gone on alone and suffering. Not much of a life though.

 

Not much of a life though.

 

We play it safe, too safe. We are held hostage by our fears and doubts. We make compromises and deals and say, “We can live with it.” But deep down, the ache and the regret and the “what ifs” overflow in our souls.  

 

That is why these two, Jerry and the woman have always meant so much to me – they challenge me and remind me. They remind me to always be thinking about my faith; the times I have reached and been blessed and convicting me for the times I haven’t. And they remind me of some special people I have known who have made that reach. And how they found faith and healing and yes, even miracles.

 

Because when we are reaching and risking for Jesus’ sake, our faith is real and alive. From the inside out, from behind the wall, out of the silence, out from the pew, beyond the doors, beyond our fears – that is where the healing is, that is where the miracles are, it is where we live – blessed – on the other side of the reach – in the handful of His cloak, in the humbled “ask” for help.

 

How much risk is in your faith today? In which parts of your life are you reaching out to Jesus? What needs to be left behind as you reach? In which parts of your life are you risking something, if not everything, in faith? If you belong to a church – where is your church risking and reaching?

 

How is your reach?

 

Amen.

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All Things New

 

“Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5

 

 

If you have ever stood and wondered, in the quiet of a cemetery, at the grave of a loved one – you have thought about it.

 

If you have ever held the shattered pieces of your life in your hands and thought, “How do I put this back together?” – it has crossed your mind.

 

If you have ever had a significant relationship that seemed or was broken beyond repair – you have been there.

 

If you have ever felt like you were beyond redemption or forgiveness, well, then you know the feeling…

 

The desire for all things to be made new – the desire for Easter morning in real time.

 

Maybe you didn’t call it that, maybe you didn’t have words for it; but that’s what it is…

 

It’s the same way the disciples felt after they watched they beloved friend and teacher die horribly on the cross. It is what drove some of them to hide and some of them to run and some of them to return to the tomb.

 

But as you know, to their “terror and amazement” (because new things are always scary), their beloved friend and teacher had come back alive. The stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty.

 

And unfortunately, many of us, too many of us, still live like it is a Good Friday world rather than living in the reality of this Easter Sunday world. We live afraid, we live as if death and disease has the last word, we live as if there is no grace or at least not for us, we live as if we can’t be reconciled with God, we live in hiding and on the run.

 

But as my daughter Madelyn’s Jesus Storybook Bible puts it, “Was God really making everything sad come untrue? Was he making even death come untrue?” Yes, he was and is.

 

This is the God who repeatedly promises in the Bible to make all things new and to wipe away all the tears – and then on that Easter morning delivered the resounding, definitive, decisive down payment and first installment on all those promises.

 

See, of all the miracles in the Bible, this is most important one because it made life come from death and “crushed death to death”; because it had eternal consequences; and because it was incarnate – in other words it could be lived out. Just take some of Jesus’ miracles – blindness turned to sight, feeding thousands, even bringing dead people back to life – all very cool – but the people who were raised would die again, the feeding lasted one meal and the restored sight was specifically for one person. The miracle of the resurrection goes beyond one person or one meal, opened eternal life for all who believe and offers a new way of thinking and living.

 

Easter morning is not just a holy day! It is the day that everything about life on this planet as human beings changed. And each year, it is the day or time or season in which everything can still change – even when it seems impossible.  

 

So, maybe you, or someone you care about, are there today – grieving, everything falling apart, alienated, unforgivable. Maybe you have desired or dreamed of a new start. I can’t tell you how or when because I just don’t know.

 

But I do know this, we just celebrated the day that makes it possible for any or all of those to be reversed by a new start through the risen Jesus. And just the fact that it is possible makes all the difference. That it is possible to enjoy a personal and eternal relationship with God through Jesus; possible to see loved ones again in Heaven; possible to have our tears wiped away; possible to be forgiven and forgive others; possible to reconcile; possible to live – abundantly, without the fear of death.   

 

So much so that it has to change the way we live – because the resurrection shattered all the things that hold us down in this life – that trick us into believing that all is lost.

 

Writer Louis L’Amour captures what happened on Easter and what is possible for our lives because of it, in two sentences, “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That is the beginning.”

 

Are you ready for that new start?

 

Amen.

 

Discussion Questions

1. Is there a part of your life that you are hoping for a new start?
2. What keeps you from believing that a new start is possible?
3. Have you ever thought of Easter like this? Why or why not?
4. How would living a “resurrection life” be different from your life today?

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The Anatomy of a Miracle

2 Kings 4:1-7

The Anatomy of a Miracle (Remix of Sunday’s Message, November 23, From Desperation to Abundance) – audio @ http://www.firstgrandville.org/content.cfm?id=213&category_id=4)

 

I can still remember the disapproving facial expression of the grocery clerk when my Mom pulled the food stamps out to pay for our basics that week and how it felt so embarrassing. And I can remember the times that we had to go to PSEG in Hackensack and ask that the gas and electric not be turned off and sensing the shame of having to stand there and make such a request. I recall getting the mail and seeing the warning notices from the landlord about our late rent and wondering what we would do if we were evicted.

 

But in all those times and others, somehow we made it through. Somehow a check or some other help would arrive. And I remember my parents giving God the credit. “Only God” could have come through like this they explained. It was a real gift despite the circumstances – the gift of believing in the somehow, believing in miracles – wondrous, visible works of God in times of desperation.

 

A solid definition of miracle goes something like this, ““An event that so overrides what observers understand of natural law that it creates wonder and serves as evidence of God’s active intervention in this universe (Revell Bible Dictionary).”

 

This passage is about a widow who is left with debt and is in danger of losing her sons as slaves – as per the rules to settle debts. And she turns to Elisha the prophet – her husband was a faithful helper to Elisha.

 

And this is the first take away from this passage. Miracles rarely happen in isolation. Going from desperation to abundance always requires Help. And this woman in desperation cries out for help. We all have to get better at asking for help from the Lord and from others. Trying to make it or carry it on our own will always block opportunities for God to work.

 

In response to her request for help, Elisha asks her a very interesting question. He asks her “What do you have in your house?” I love this because it illustrates a number of things about miracles. First, God provides. As we will see, what she needed to go from desperation to abundance – she already had. And so could it be that you and I already have what we need, whether material or spiritual, to go from desperation to abundance?

 

Second, Elisha’s ministry to the widow is empowering and incorporates dignity. She will be a part of God’s wondrous work. He doesn’t organize a spaghetti dinner or a collection. Direct help is appropriate when necessary. But by involving her in the miracle, her faith grows as well as the debts being paid. This is a great reminder for loving our neighbors.

 

Finally, Elisha asks the widow to turn to her neighbors to help with the miracle. In other words, she turns to her community, family so to speak, to be a part of this wondrous work of God.

 

The wondrous work of God? She had a container of oil in her house. And it continued to pour until they ran out of containers – enough to sell, pay off the debt and live on the rest. Our human logic would have said, hold on to the oil and save it until the “right” time – preservation. But scholars point out two things about this – one the gift (oil) is multiplied when it is poured out or used; also, the oil would have continued to pour as long as they had containers. Likewise, our gifts, spiritual and material, can be multiplied only when used and we have to learn to expect abundance from God – when God loves, when God gives, it is always abundantly.

 

So here is what we have for the anatomy of a miracle. Honestly identifying the desperate places in our lives; reaching out to God and to others for help; waiting and trusting in the Lord; being aware of the raw miracle material that God has already provided – which will usually include others – family, friends, community; believe that God will act in an abundant way; open our eyes and be ready – a wondrous act of God may not look like what we expect – it may not be a cure or a way out or solution but it will be God acting – we don’t want to miss it in whatever form it arrives.

 

See, I need you to know that miracles aren’t the only times God is seen to be working. Truth is, He is always at work, the somehows and the miracles are often the times we see it clearly – like the definition above says, “serves as evidence…”

 

No doubt, we are living in desperate times. Our world, nation and many people could use a few miracles right now. Yet, we are approaching the season when all things are possible – for it is the season in which the miracle that validates them all occurred – the miracle of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us, Jesus, the ultimate “evidence of God’s active intervention in this universe.”

 

How about you? Maybe it is a diagnosis or condition, a marriage or relationship, a job, a crisis in your home, finances, exams or projects – at some point we all face desperate, impossible times. Maybe you are there right now…

 

My prayer for you today is that sometime soon, you will be saying, “Only God…only God could have done this wonderful thing, somehow.”

 

Amen.

 

Discussion Questions

1. Where in your life do you need a wondrous work of God to happen?
2. Are there some places of desperation? If not now, how about in the past? Did you see God at work? Write back to me and share it.
3. How can you be part of a work of God, an evidence of God’s action in this world, a miracle, right now and during this season?
4. Can you think of some specific people around you for which you can serve as evidence of God’s love, grace or compassion? What are you going to do about it?  

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Possibility

“For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

Possibility

There was this great story in yesterday’s newspaper called “Reunion in aisle 1” about a young man who was adopted and then at 18 he began to search for his birth mother. It turns out that he was working in the same Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse. Can you believe it? Very touching story. Coincidence? No way! This has God’s fingerprints all over it.  

It reminded me of this season – the season of Christ’s birth when things seem more…possible. It’s a season in which we celebrate how God sent His Son to be incarnated and lived among us. A season in which “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” as the old song goes.   

“For nothing is impossible with God” comes from Luke 1:37. It is the last thing the angel Gabriel tells Mary the then soon to be mother of Jesus. It is at the end of a litany of amazing things. A virgin bearing a child? That child being the Son of God? Mary’s elderly and barren (such a terrible word) cousin Elizabeth bearing a child?   

It’s a season in which, thanks to Christ’s birth, it became possible as God’s people to go… 

From empty or barren to fruitful… 

From unknown and mysterious to revealed… 

From despairing to hopeful… 

From darkness to light… 

From sorrow to joyful… 

From distressed to peaceful… 

From alone to comforted… 

From forsaken to loved… 

And ultimately, from condemned and dead to saved and alive!  

This is the season of Christ’s miraculous birth and arrival into this world. This is the season in which everything changed, and still can. This is the season in which even today “nothing is impossible with God.”  Amen!  Discussion Questions

1. What impossibility could God make possible for you if within in His will?
2. What keeps you from believing that “nothing is impossible with God?”
3. Can you remember a time when you had more of a sense of possibility? What changed?
4. What do you think of when you reflect on the miracle of Christ’s birth?
5. Are there coincidences? Why or why not?  

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