Sermon for the Feast of St. Valentine
Readings from James 1:2-4, 12; John 15:1-17
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Rev. Randal K. Lubbers
First Presbyterian Church • Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate God’s gift of love.
We love because God first loved us. God so loved that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, who came into the world to rescue sinners. He personally bore our sin in his own body on the cross so that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.
That’s really the whole of the good news, is it not? God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, the one who loves us to the uttermost…
And Jesus loved so much that he humbled himself—yes, even humiliated himself and came and became one of us. Jesus proclaims the height and depth and breadth and intensity of God’s love: in his birth, in his life, in his preaching and his healing, in sharing our laughter and our tears, in sharing our trials and temptations, and in his death; yes, in his every word and deed Jesus proclaims God’s deepest desire for you and for me and for all creation, “Be Mine.”
Jesus proclaims “Be Mine” because you are branches on the Vine to which God—the Vinegrower—has grafted you in order to bear fruit. This is your reason for living. Have you been searching for the illusive “meaning of life”? This is it! To be “in Christ,” to bear fruit by living in oneness with the Vine, in communion with Christ. Not only is this our reason for living; it is life itself.
Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Self-sufficiency, my friends, is overrated. And self-sufficiency, my friends, has been oversold in Christian institutional thought over the last 200 years. Jesus did not come into our world to create self-sufficient, go-it-alone Christians. Jesus comes and heals us of our driving desire to do it ourselves. The power to do all things and to endure all things, the miracle of a transformed life and a transformed church, the courage to be the Light of Christ in the world… this comes from God… NOT in our self-sufficiency… but in our sufficiency in Christ.
Jesus says, “Be Mine because I am the Vine and you are the branches… Be mine because you belong to me.” This is not “belonging” as “ownership” but “belonging” as in an “organic union.” Jesus says “be mine”—but not like the contemporary love songs—Jesus doesn’t sing “can’t live, if living is without you.” But rather, Jesus says “be mine” because “YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT ME!” Remember what I’ve said so often before: In acknowledging and living out our belonging to God, we are more alive, more free, more human than we could ever be apart from being who we are in Christ. And be very sure of this— the branches, outside the Vine, will surely die.
Jesus wants you to be alive and filled with joy. He says “Be mine because I love you. And because I love you, I want the best for you, I want you to be happy…” Quoting John chapter 15, Jesus says, “I want your joy to be complete.”
God’s deepest joy is you fully alive, you truly happy, you filled with joy—yes, overflowing with joy, elation, delight, amazement and wonder and awe.
Many of my friends have been talking about K.D. Lang’s solo at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Maybe you saw her sing, “Hallelujah.” It was beautiful and very moving. The opening ceremonies—the whole event—was very worshipful, don’t you think? The procession of athletes was like a processional into a church; the spectacular celebration of the diversity of Canada was like a worship celebration in the best possible ways: mysterious, awe-inspiring, filled with joy, hospitable, inclusive, a delight to the senses...
It pulled us in… It filled us with wonder and awe and joy…
It was a celebration of beauty and diversity. We glorify God when we live fully in God’s love and when we recognize the beauty of other human beings living in God’s love. The passage from James alludes to this. And it speaks to the reality of difficulties and trials along the way. James says, “Whenever you come face-to-face with a daunting or challenging circumstances, think of it as joy—pure, wonderful joy!”
Does that make sense?
“Well, of course it makes sense,” you may answer, “That’s what the Bible says, so of course, of course—it must—it has to—make sense!”
But does it? Does it really?
You’re going through the worst of times, God says be joyful? Now if that doesn’t seem ridiculous or impossible, then you’ve been anesthetized through years and years of agreeing in your mind to whatever is said in church. Because it doesn’t make sense. It actually sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
And yet.
And yet, James says, “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised….”
Joy regardless of circumstances—
Joy in passing through hardest of times—
It doesn’t make sense, but it’s true.
God says, “Be Mine, because I love you and I want your joy to be complete.”
God says, “Be Mine, because I made you in my image…”
Created in God’s image, you are God’s work of art.
Every work of art has something of its creator in it. This water color painting by my high school art teacher usually hangs in my study. Don Harding is a neat guy and a follower of Christ and an old friend, and there is something of Don Harding in this painting. This goldfinch—the state bird of Iowa—was painted by Miriam Jones and given to me. She didn’t know it was the state bird of Iowa, but now she does. And there’s something of Miriam in this painting. These cross-stitchings of Carolyn—of course I feel something of her in these. The homemade cards given to each of you today and made by the card-making group a few Sundays ago. There is something of each of them in each card.
Abraham Kuyper says, “That you have been created after God’s Image, declares that by virtue of your creation, God feels himself related to you…. Because God has made your soul, there is something in it of God himself, a Divine stamp has been impressed upon you, there is something of God’s power, thought, and creative genius in you, as in no other. You are one of the Lord’s own works of art, precisely like which he created no other….”
God created you and you uniquely in love.
And just like an artist would be devastated if someone should do damage to his painting, God is devastated when his creation is harmed. Just like the mother lion who staunchly guards her cubs, God cares for you; indeed, God is fiercely protective of you.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… the Triune God says, Be Mine.
The Holy Spirit longs for us to be truly alive and truly joyful in Christ. The Spirit whispers every moment, hoping for those times we’re quiet enough to hear.
The Father longs for us to come home. Loving and longing; long-suffering and patient. Welcoming and waiting… and waiting… like the Father waiting for the prodigal son to return home.
The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, longs for fellowship with us. “Be mine,” says Jesus, “because I love you so much that I gave my life for you… No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Be Mine. And whatever you need, I will provide; Be Mine. And whatever you ask, I will give.”
Jesus longs to be in communion with you. He says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter… and eat with him.” Jesus says, “Be Mine.”
And, really now, where else could we go for Real Love than to Christ?
In Christ alone my hope is found;
he is my light, my strength, my song;
this cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
here in the love of Christ I stand.
Where else could we go? And how else can we respond?... than to pray…
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee,
Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Be Mine. This is no mere theological concept. God really, really loves you. This is not love “in theory,” but a passionate, burning, longing, hurting, deep, wondrous, amazing, beyond-the-deepest-heartache you or I have ever experienced, like a knife in the gut, like the spear piercing the side of the Savior. Passion means suffering. Christ is passionately, heart-wrenchingly in love with you.
And he asks just one thing:
“Be Mine.”
