HOW GOD SHOWS LOVE
A sermon by George R. Pasley
Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-12
Today we read from Psalm 22.
The words we read are words about praise- they are words that imply joy for what God has done, is doing, and will do.
But there’s something you need to know about Psalm 22. Maybe you know it already. Psalm 22 is a lament Psalm- it was song for those who cried out to God in anguish. It was the Psalm that Jesus muttered on the cross- its first verse is a very familiar phrase in the Christian vocabulary: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
If we know that about Psalm 22, the words of praise that we read today catch us off guard- what is a Psalm that starts out in complete anguish doing, ending with words of praise and adoration.
Well, try this explanation: Psalm 22, from beginning to end, is a Psalm about death and resurrection.
Human beings find themselves surrounded by death and abandoned by God- the writer of the Psalm evidently did, and Jesus certainly did. But in the end, we are not forsaken. We are resurrected, we are loved.
We move from death to resurrection.
We move from forsakenness to love.
In a nutshell, that’s the story of every act of repentance. It’s the story of every experience of knowing God.
But one particular phrase caught my ears- “the poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him.”
There was a link there- a link between our knowing the love of God and bursting forth into praise, and feeding the poor.
Now, I KNOW the way Hebrew poetry works. It doesn’t work by rhyme, it works by the parallel use of metaphors. What is said in one line is said in a different way- is paraphrased- in the next line.
So “The poor will eat and be satisfied” is parallel to “They who seek the Lord will praise him.”
Poor is parallel to “seek the Lord” and satisfied is parallel to praise.
It may be that being poor and becoming satisfied by a hearty meal is a metaphor for seeking God and finding satisfaction, a satisfaction that results in praise, but I cannot rest with that explanation.
I can’t, because the bible, over and over and over, stresses the need for acts of justice and generosity, and even emphasizes in some places that the way we live is MORE IMPORTANT than worshipping and praying correctly. In fact, in several very memorable places the bible so much as says that the failure to do justice and practice generosity to the poor negates prayer and worship.
So it has to be more than a metaphor when Psalm 22, a story of moving from death to resurrection, says, “the poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him.”
I think it tells us that the experience of justice, mercy, compassion and love are essential elements of evangelism.
Denise Cerreta was a very successful acupuncturist in
She opened a coffee shop as a sideline business. The coffee shop led her deeper and deeper into debt, so she quit her profitable career in acupuncture and started running the coffee shop as a solo enterprise.
Guess what? She still lost money.
But when she was almost at an economic end, someone gave her a tiny bit of money- $50.
The person who gave her that money was a street person, known only by his nickname, Doggers. It was an act of charity for him, but it was an epiphany for Denise.
She started fixing a dish of good homemade food to serve in the coffee shop every day, using fresh local ingredients. She gave it away to customers- all she asked for was a donation. In fact, she started asking only donations for her coffee.
Guess what? She paid off her bills. She expanded her business. She now manages an 80 seat restaurant that is debt free and which does $370,000 worth of business every year, at a cost of only $288,000.
It operates on donations. The hungry eat free, or trade labor for food. The poor eat, and are satisfied. But politicians, judges, lawyers, tourists and business folk sit and eat right along with single moms and the homeless. It’s buffet, if you’re wondering, and nothing goes to waste. What doesn’t get cleaned off the plates goes into compost. There’s a garden outside the door.
Guess what else? Denise pays herself only $15,000 a year- the rest goes to charity. The restaurant (which is legally considered a community food kitchen) is technically the property of her foundation. Their mission statement begins, “To eliminate world hunger.”
The poor eat and are satisfied, but Denise sought spiritual satisfaction and found it in feeding the poor and I know my share of people who find their own spiritual fulfillment in acts of justice and compassion.
Sociologists of religion have long known that there is a connection between service and spirituality. But let me tell you an example of a connection between service and spirituality that didn’t work.
The book that several of you read this spring- Under the Overpass, by Mike Yankowski- chronicled the experiences of 2 college students who spent 6 months undercover, living as homeless people. One of the first stories told of the author’s experience living in a homeless shelter in
Every resident of that shelter was expected to attend daily chapel, but Mike watched and saw that few were paying much attention to the sermons, which were dire warnings of hell and damnation if they didn’t clean up their acts.
Mike admitted that sin has dire consequences, but he realized that another approach was essential if people were to believe that salvation was possible: an introduction to the love and grace of God. The Bible, in the book of Romans, puts it his way: “It’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.”
The Letter from John that we read today puts it this way: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
In other words- in a name, JESUS, we know love- we know satisfaction and salvation- because God did something gracious. But John goes on, and says something more: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
God‘s love is made complete when we love- when we do acts of justice, and live lives of generosity.
For the last year and a half the church has been asking you to give generously so we could build our accessibility lift- and you have, though our budget is starting to strain.
Our lift is an act of justice and generosity. But as I think about the two passages that we read today, I think we need to put as much energy into doing hands-on acts of justice and compassion outside of our church walls. In fact, I’ve been thinking that for some time.
Yes, we serve the Lord’s Table and yes, we have a fresh food pantry. Those are vital ministries that deserve our commitment, and we thank every person who has been part of those.
But I know that an experience in mission- no matter how close to home it is- can be life changing in a satisfying way, and I yearn for every person who ever comes through the door of this sanctuary to know that experience.
So something caught my eye quite recently. It was a press release from a Presbyterian Church in
It shocked me, then it made me laugh, then it caught my fancy.
The church cancelled worship one Sunday- April 26- and every person in the church participated in some way in some sort of mission that same weekend.
They traded service (as in worship service) for service (as in mission), and called it “Compassion Weekend.”
There was something everyone could do- 25 different projects to choose from. This year's projects included
renovating staff rooms, playgrounds, and science labs for local public schools
hosting a science fair and community festival
building 5000+ AIDS caregiver kits
assembling Orphan/Vulnerable Children backpacks with WorldVision
completing six new homes with Habitat for Humanity
providing job search workshops
holding baby showers for young under-resourced moms
providing medical screenings
visiting injured veterans at the VA hospital
door to door collecting of canned food (10,000 pounds!)
Obviously, they are a very large church!
But that sounds like something for persons of every age, ability, and political persuasion. In fact, the effort reached out and invited non-church goers to participate. Many did just that.
Menlo Park Presbyterian Church has done this for three years. So I’m wondering- can Ketchikan Presbyterian Church do it? Can we use compassion as a persuasive way to move people from death to resurrection?
Can we? Should we? How can we do it in a manner that is distinctive, life giving, effective and inclusive?
So here’s an invitation: Steve Kinney and Robin Edenshaw have volunteered to be on a task force to meet with me over the course of several months, and ask those questions and search for answers. I’d like at least 2 more people to be part of that group, and I don’t care if they’re church members or not. All that matters is knowing the love of God.
Because if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
