Love in our Differences

There were once two old farmers. They’re neighbors, but they have a feud that’s been running for a few years. They haven’t even spoken to each other in that time.

The whole thing got started over a cat. The cat was a stray, but both of these farmers began feeding the cat and claimed it as their own. From there, everything went downhill. The neighbors quit talking, and the grudge escalated to the point that one of them dug a ditch to reroute a spring and make sure it divided their properties.

One day, a carpenter came through the area looking for work. He knocked on the door of one of the farms, and the farmer said, “Well, if he’s going to try to divide us up with that ditch, then I might as well finish the job. I don’t even want to have to look at him!” So he asked the carpenter to build a fence all the way across the property, a nice, big, tall fence.

The carpenter said, “OK, I could do that, but it will take a lot more wood.” So the farmer went into town to buy more wood, and the carpenter started working with the wood in the shed.

That farmer came driving back down the dirt road to his home, but when he looked across the field, he didn’t see any fence going up. Instead of the barrier he’d wanted, he saw that the carpenter had built a bridge across the creek. And there across the bridge, his neighbor came walking toward him with his hand outstretched, a big sheepish grin on his face. “You’re a brave man,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d want to hear the sound of my voice again. Can you forgive me?” The first farmer was surprised, and as he reached out to shake his neighbor’s hand, he found himself saying, “Aww, I knew it was your cat.”

Finding love in our differences, perhaps no other theme from this sermon series is as useful as this one in our current situation. It seems that everywhere we turn people are attempting to divide people and turn us against one another. But today we read about the visit of the Magi to meet the King Jesus, and we consider what that shows us about the love of God, and the love we should show.

In oder to fully understand the message here, we need to understand some things about these Magi. We must understand who they, and who they were not.

Who were these wise men? Well, they were not Kings or Princes as some traditions hold. The term wise men points to something a little different. While we are not given a direct answer to this question, we are given some hints from history. The historian Herodotus mentioned “magi” as “a priestly caste of Media or Persia.” As the religion in Persia at the time was Zoroastrinism, these magi were probably Zoroastrian priests (1). This is a bridging of the gap, isn’t it? The lowly shepherds on one side, and the majestic wise men on the other. This picture of the Kingdom of God where people of all walks of life are invited to worship and fellowship through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Just as important, if not more important, is who they WERE NOT. Coming from the East it is obvious that these men were not Jews. This wasn’t their savior. This was the savior of the Jews; what are Persian or Mede astrologers doing there? These guys are Gentiles, not of the right decent to worship this Savior! Furthermore, if they are practicing Zoroastrinism; they are practicing a false religion! What are they doing in OUR nativity scene????

What an amazing picture of our the radical love of our Savior. The foreshadowing that this Savior would not just be the Savior of the Jews, but the Savior of all mankind. After all, we must remember that if there is no room for the wisemen at the manger, there is no room for us either.

This scene shows us that the Love of Jesus is a boundary crossing love. Many people live their lives with boundaries. Things like racism, fascism, bigotry, and other malicious behaviors are grown from these boundaries. We have a greater affection or love for people that fit inside of our boundaries. For people that sit on the outside of those boundaries we show less love, mercy, grace, or understanding. We place people on the outside of this boundary because of ethnicity, gender, social status, or because the person has harmed us, hurt us, or broken trust with us. Our reaction becomes to keep those people at arms length.

Some 250 times in the OT we the Hebrew word hesed is used to describe God. Most of the time we see it translated as lovingkindness or steadfast love. But there is a particular understanding o hessed that is extremely important. God’s hesed is a love that is pursuing- or as I like to think of it- boundary breaking. The idea of hesed is more than just a reactionary love- it is a love that chases us down. Many of us are familiar with the song Reckless Love by Cory Ashbury. The chorus of the song goes:

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Cory is really tapping into the idea of God’s hesed. This boundary breaking love is the foundation for Jesus’ sacrifice- as we read in Romans 5:8 “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus made the first move of love, friends, and we should be willing to do the same. We should not wait for the other to be more like us, we should pursue them in their state, because that is what Jesus did for us.

So many times we wait for the other person to be more loving, more kind, more Christlike before we offer our love and grace to them, forgetting that Jesus died for you long before you were those things. WHILE YOU WERE A SINNER!

If God is a boundary breaking God, we should be a boundary breaking people.

This is the image of the 2 farmers that we started with, right? There came a point when the first farmer could no longer stand the brokenness between him and his neighbor was unacceptable, but rather than sitting back and thinking about all of the things the other person could do to fix it, he took matters into his own hands. When you think about it, this is the story of Christmas. God, the supreme ruler of the universe decided that the tension that existed between him and mankind was no longer tolerable, so he sent his son to die for us! God’s response to the brokenness in our relationship with him was to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

But, there is something else to remember in this- hesed love is not the same as unconditional affirmation.

We can love someone and not affirm all of their behaviors or sins. Just because the wisemen showed up that night does not necessarily link them to salvation, it gives them the opportunity to approach the throne of Jesus, but ultimately we do not know if these men became followers of Christ. The point is that there was room for them to come and meet with Jesus. All too often people have been excluded from church because of their sin, their lifestyle, or their ignorance of Jesus.

As Christians, we need to make room for all people to come and discover Jesus. Regardless of their life, their circumstances, their sin, or their brokenness- we need to be a place where all can come and find a savior.

Now, here me, there is a difference in being a place where people can come and DISCOVER Jesus, and disregarding sin as we FOLLOW JESUS.

Friends, hear me, God loves all people- every. single. one. of. us. The sin in our lives does not discount, discourage, or derail the love of our God. So, the idea that we need to rid of ourselves our sin so that God will love us is a false Gospel. The idea of grace is that there is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do that will make God love you less than God loves you every single moment of your life.

But there is also a false Gospel when we ignore sin because of the love of God. When we use God’s love as an excuse to continuing in sin; to not address the evil in our own lives, we are playing a dangerous game, friends.

What is the truth in this, then? The truth of the Gospel is this- we should address our sin and our unfaithfulness as a RESPONSE to God’s love not, not as a qualification for it. I want to address the sin in my life BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME not SO THAT GOD WILL LOVE ME!

So, when we have differences with one another- JESUS LIKE LOVE AND GRACE SHOULD ALWAYS BE OUR BASELINE OF OPERATION.

Throughout the Gospels we can read of Jesus interacting with those in sin, and he never let their sin disrupt his love and care for them.

I like the way one pastor put it years ago (1986) when he became overwhelmed with all the "ideals" he was collecting from church growth seminars and books. He said, "Quite frankly, I'm sick to death of ideals. I have so many ideals and I've been so frustrated by them, I really don't care for any more. What I'm looking for is a savior -- not someone who will just tell me what I ought to be, but someone who will forgive me for what I am, and then with his very love will enable me to be more than I ever believed I could be." (2)

There is a tension in this kind of way of living, though, and I would be lying if I told you that this tension is easy to live in, because it is not. On one hand, we should call ourselves and the Christians around us to holiness- in all things! This is part of the reason our baptismal vows and affirmations of faith contain a covenant to “resist sin and embrace the teachings of Jesus.” We are to be a people that strive for holiness- God commands that to us in his Word. 1 Peter 1:16 puts it plainly “Be Holy as I am Holy”

However, we cannot allow our striving for this holiness in ourselves and others to rid us of compassion, grace, and mercy- because those are the foundations of the Christmas story we all just celebrated 2 days ago. When we build our relationships with God and others on these cornerstones we empower ourselves to find love in our differences.

(1)Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 419.

(Source: Bruce Thielemann, "Telltale Tears," Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 115, www.PreachingToday.com)