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Monthly Message

February 2009

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 

      With February upon us, it means that it’s almost time for one of our most controversial holidays.  No, not Groundhog Day, although I know we’re all rooting for Phil not to see his shadow.  No, of course I’m talking about Valentine’s Day.  There are some people who love it and some who despise it.  At its best it’s an opportunity to show love and affection to those around us.  At its worst it can exclude those who are happily single or worse, already feeling lonely.  I’ve experienced it both ways over the years. 

      I used to be ambivalent to Valentine’s Day.  While falling in love with Lindy and marrying her helped change my mind about it somewhat, there’s something else that ultimately made me see Valentine’s Day in a different light.   It came when I heard a sermon preached at a friend’s wedding that focused on these verses from 1 Corinthians.  The pastor said that, from his experience of being married, you cannot base your relationship on romantic love, because that does not stay constant.  There will certainly be days when you’re head over heels in love with your spouse.  But there will also be some days when you sit at the breakfast table, having endured a long argument the night before, and you will wonder why you ever got married in the first place.  You may even wonder if you still love the person sitting across from you anymore.  That can be a devastating experience if your relationship is built on our romantic notions of love.  But if love is really meant to endure all the hardships of life, then it must be founded on something other than our feelings.  “No,” the pastor went on to say, “it must be rooted in faithfulness and in your promises to one another.  That’s why the vows you say today are so important.”  It is the words in verse 7 that remind us of this: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

      That opened my eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about love.  When we see the root of love, not as romance and passion, but as faithfulness, we begin to see how God truly is love.  God is love for us because God is eternally faithful to us.  The Bible is not simply a collection of stories and writings about people from ancient times; it is always first and foremost the story of God’s faithfulness to humanity over time.  There’s no doubt that the words “commitment” and “faithfulness” are not as popular as “romance” and “true love” in today’s culture, but there is no denying that the basis for God’s love will always be faithfulness.  And thank goodness!  We can rejoice in the fact that God does not treat us according to how God might feel about us from day to day.  God may take delight in us at times, but God might also be disappointed in our choices or angry with our sinfulness at other times.  The good news of God’s love is that no matter what God might feel toward us or our actions, our relationship to God does not rely on those feelings, but on a promise.  Our relationship with God is built squarely on the foundation of God’s faithfulness to us.  Any other ground will eventually fail us. 

      Our human relationships are meant to imitate this divine relationship of love.  As unpopular as faithfulness and commitment may be in our world today, there really is no substitute for them in building lasting relationships.  So whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day this year or not, remember the root and center of all love in this world: God’s promises and love for us, made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ, who loves and cares for us each and every day. 

                                                In Christ’s Love,

                                                Pastor Bryant

January 2009

As another New Year arrives, we typically take time to pause and reflect on the past year and to look to the future. This tradition is nothing new. The ancient Romans named the first month of their calendar January after the god Janus, who had two faces, one looking backward and the other forward. He was believed to be able to see both the past and the future, and so he was the protector of gates and doorways, of beginnings and endings.
When we face uncertain economic times, illness, loneliness, strained relationships, or any of the other challenges that stand before us in 2009, we feel this same ancient need for an all-seeing protector, for someone that we can look to for assurance and guidance. We want to know that everything will be okay and that we’ll make it through to a brighter tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the world is all too eager to provide false assurances and hopes for us. We are told by a host of voices to put our trust in them as they offer promises of wealth, happiness, peace, and prosperity. Again, this is nothing new. In ancient Rome, religion was one of these paths of promised success in life. People strived to make proper sacrifices to the appropriate gods in order to obtain the outcome they desired. As the god of beginnings, Janus was worshipped during times like marriages, births, and of course, the new year in order to secure the future of those endeavors.
It is incredibly tempting for us to turn God into such a deity. We often like to believe that if we just believe or pray fervently enough, that God will grant us what we want. The truth is, however, that this is not how God works in the world. There’s no denying that there is power in prayer, but we must remember that it’s always God’s power to work in the world and not our own piety that makes the difference. Prayer is not a wish-granting mechanism, but a means of relating to God as well as a way for God to share in our burdens and worries.
While it may seem difficult at times to accept that God does not work in a wish-granting way, it really is fantastic news. It means that we are free from worrying about whether we’ve been good enough or faithful enough to deserve God’s favor. It means that God does not sit passively on the sidelines of history, doling out treats to whomever he likes. Instead, we know a God who has come among us and entered our human story in a much more profound way. God does this, not to solve all of our problems or to make prayer and worship another path to prosperity and happiness. Instead, God seeks a closer relationship with each of us by suffering and dying on our behalf. On the cross, God reaches out to embrace all of our existence, both past, present, and future. No matter what hardships come our way, no matter the status of our faith and prayer life, that is the promise that stands before us. It is not a quick-fix solution. It is both a sign of God’s promise to stand with us in the midst of our suffering and a calling to leave behind our own selfish desires and courageously love and care for our neighbors. May this cross and calling be central to us in 2009.
Peace in Christ and Happy New Year,
Pastor Bryant