Chains of Love

Song 335 GREAT God, Your love has called us here TB 442

Great God, your love has called us here,

as we, by love, for love were made.

Your living likeness still we bear,

though marred, dishonoured, disobeyed.

We come, with all our heart and mind

your call to hear, your love to find.

2 We come with self-inflicted pains

of broken trust and chosen wrong,

half free, half bound by inner chains,

by social forces swept along,

by powers and systems close confined,

yet seeking hope for humankind.

3 Great God, in Christ you call our name

and then receive us as your own,

not through some merit, right, or claim,

but by your gracious love alone.

We strain to glimpse your mercy seat

and find you kneeling at our feet.

4 Then take the towel, and break the bread,

and humble us, and call us friends.

Suffer and serve till all are fed,

and show how grandly love intends

to work till all creation sings,

to fill all worlds, to crown all things.

5 Great God, in Christ you set us free

your life to live, your joy to share.

Give us your Spirit's liberty

to turn from guilt and dull despair,

and offer all that faith can do

while love is making all things new.

Responsive Reading

A: Today we glimpse Christ’s glory! B: Christ’s glory is our hope. A: Christ’s glory has the power to transform our lives. B: We share in Christ’s glory because we share in His suffering. A: The church reveals the glorified Christ to the world. B: Let us exemplify Christ’s mercy and grace. A: The Spirit sets us free to love others unconditionally. B: Let us not lose heart in serving Christ! A: We celebrate Christ’s glory and listen to God’s voice. B: We respond with devotion and thankfulness. All: Let us worship the glorified Christ with our whole hearts!

Song 306 O COME and dwell in me TB 151

O COME and dwell in me, Spirit of power within! And bring the glorious liberty From sorrow, fear and sin.

Hear my pleading, Lord; Make my spirit free; Fill my soul with perfect love; O come and dwell in me!

2 The whole of sin's disease, Spirit of health, remove, Spirit of perfect holiness, Spirit of perfect love.

Hear my pleading, Lord; Make my spirit free; Fill my soul with perfect love; O come and dwell in me!

3 I want the witness, Lord, That all I do is right, According to Thy will and Word, Well pleasing in Thy sight.

Hear my pleading, Lord; Make my spirit free; Fill my soul with perfect love; O come and dwell in me!

4 I ask no higher state, Give me but grace for this; And then at last, dear Lord, translate Me to eternal bliss.

Hear my pleading, Lord; Make my spirit free; Fill my soul with perfect love; O come and dwell in me!

Prayer

Almighty God, through Christ You have demonstrated the wonder of Your goodness, the awesome extent of Your love. You call me to follow in His footsteps – to reflect through my life and witness more of that same gracious love. Forgive me for failing to do that – for failing to show in my life the faith I profess with my lips. Forgive me that all too often the picture I give is a feeble caricature, a pathetic parody of the Lord I so hunger to serve.

Take, then, what I am and, by Your grace, make me what I long to be, so that I may truly bring glory to You. Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2

“Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.” [1]

Song 262 LOVE divine, all loves excelling TB 370

LOVE divine, all loves excelling, Joy of Heaven, to earth come down, Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All Thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art; Visit us with Thy salvation, Enter every longing heart.

2 Come, almighty to deliver, Let us all Thy grace receive; Suddenly return, and never, Never more Thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, Serve Thee as Thy hosts above; Pray and praise Thee without ceasing, Glory in Thy perfect love.

3 Finish then Thy new creation, Pure and spotless let us be; Let us see Thy great salvation, Perfectly restored in Thee. Changed from glory into glory, Till in Heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love and praise.

Chains of Love

In Rome, lovers fasten locked chains around lampposts and throw the key into the river as a sign of their love. However, in 2 Corinthians Paul writes that the real goal of love is freedom!

Last week we considered St. Valentine’s Day, a day full of symbols of love. The usual ones, of course, include hearts and flowers, little cupids, and those chocolate hearts with sayings such as “U R Hot” on them.

But if you were in Rome today, you’d be doing your St. Valentine’s Day shopping at the hardware store, not the Card shop.

In recent years, it’s been fashionable for young lovers in the Eternal City to take a romantic walk on the Ponte Milvio bridge, where they profess their love by wrapping a chain around one of the lampposts, securing it with a lock and then throwing the key into the Tiber River. It symbolises their eternal, undying, locked-together love, perhaps portending the day when both will adorn their lives with a marital “ball and chain,” as the unfortunate expression goes.

Fuelled by the popularity of Federico Moccia’s romantic novel Ho Voglia di Te (I Want You), the practice became so popular that the lampposts were threatening to plunge themselves into the river because of the weight of all that hardware. Unlike the city of Florence, which banned the practice and promised to fine any moon-eyed couples who dared chain up public property, Rome took the more romantic approach and put iron posts linked by chains on the Ponte Milvi. Lovers may attach their bonds of love there as a kind of rattling monument to love itself.

But this year, we might muse as to whether a chain and lock are really the best symbol for a love relationship. Sure, there’s the whole idea of being permanently bonded, which is a good thing when it comes to marriage. But the image of a chain also implies some kind of slavery or prison from which you can’t escape. Pop music, for example, seems to see the chain as being more painful than romantic. In the 1988 hit “Chains of Love,” Erasure sang, in an upbeat, ’80s way, about breaking the chains of love as a good thing. Pat Boone’s 1962 ode to “Chains of Love” begins: “Chains of love have tied my heart to you. Chains of love have made me feel so blue.”

Not exactly what you want on a St. Valentine’s Day card … or chain.

However, the apostle Paul seems to be echoing more Pat Boone than Ponte Milvio. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [2] For Paul, God isn’t about locking us up tight and throwing away the key but about using love as a liberating path to freedom — freedom to be all that we were created to be. And that is the message of our Self Denial appeal, helping others be free to live life to the full.

Song 651 IN Him abiding, my all confiding TB 697

IN Him abiding, my all confiding To the care of love divine; His Word believing, new life receiving As the branches from the vine; His glory showing, I'm daily growing, While the rays of Heaven shine, And I am singing, for joy is springing From this happy heart of mine.

In Other Words, it is Not Chains We are Looking For — it is Christ

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul goes about the challenging task of reinterpreting symbols from Israel’s past, namely the stone-inscribed law of Moses, as a kind of chain of love that could hold the covenant between God and Israel together only up to a point. Although the law of Moses provided the boundaries for the covenant community, it had become a ministry of condemnation and, ultimately, the ministry of death. The bond of the old covenant had become rusty and broken through Israel’s disobedience, having lost the glory that had once shone brightly on the face of Moses. A new love letter from God was needed: Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. [3]

This new covenant came in the person of Christ, who taught that the kingdom of God was a revolution of love that would ultimately free the whole creation from slavery to sin and death. Jesus’ death and resurrection would usher in the new creation, the permanent glory that has come and is coming in Christ. It is this hope that enables those who are in Christ to act with great boldness.

In the Old Testament, Moses was transformed as he came down the mountain with the law, his face reflecting God’s glory. Jesus’ glorious transfiguration on the mountain left the disciples stammering at the connection between Jesus and the towering figures of Moses and Elijah — a connection between the old covenant and the new. Coming down the mountain, Jesus would begin His journey towards the cross as the continuation of God’s great mission embodied by those two great Old Testament figures. No hearts, no chains, no silly little chocolate sentiments can compare to the symbol of the cross as the ultimate icon of love.

What Paul is expressing here is nothing less than God’s mission in the world — a mission that’s embodied by and finds its climax in Jesus. Thus, the ministry of justification isn’t simply a kind of theological valentine to a few individuals who have discovered the way to a distant heaven. Rather, it’s a proclamation of God’s plan of liberation for all of creation. In his book Justification, N.T. Wright says that “God had a single plan all along through which he intended to rescue the world and the human race, and this single plan was centred upon the call of Israel, a call which Paul saw coming to fruition in Israel’s representative, the Messiah.” The old covenant was necessary so the new covenant would build upon it as part of a missional plan of redemption.

Song 651 IN Him abiding, my all confiding TB 697

IN Him abiding, my all confiding To the care of love divine; His Word believing, new life receiving As the branches from the vine; His glory showing, I'm daily growing, While the rays of Heaven shine, And I am singing, for joy is springing From this happy heart of mine.

But What Kind of Freedom?

Paul makes the point that God’s Spirit brings freedom, but what kind of freedom is it? We do not have freedom to do whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want to do it. We are called to live life with moral, ethical and missional elements that require our assent and our obedience as a response to God’s love and work on our behalf. Our freedom should not impede the freedom of others but ensure freedom for all.

E. Stanley Jones, the great missionary to India in the first third of the 20th century, and author of The Christ of the Indian Road, put it this way: “The first thing in life is to obey, to find something, or rather Someone, to whom you can give your final and absolute allegiance. ‘Where do I bend the knee’ is the ultimate question. For everybody obeys — money, sex, society, self. … But [people] do want and do need freedom. How do they get it? The aviator is free to fly, provided he obeys every moment the law of flying. Freedom through obedience. Then total freedom is through total obedience to the total order — the kingdom.”

Put another way, the more we live in the service of God, the more we engage the Spirit and allow Him to work in us and through us, the more we are freed up to realise our true purpose as citizens of the kingdom and people of the new covenant.

God has set us free in Christ, and it’s up to us to use that freedom to participate with God in making the kingdom a reality on earth as it is in heaven.

Love as seen in the world does not bring freedom, the word has been twisted and used to mean many things. As someone once said, “I don’t understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine’s Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon.” [4]

For some, love brings out their feelings of pride. Jim asked his friend Tony whether he had bought his wife anything for Valentine’s Day.

“Yes,” came the answer from Tony, who was a bit of a chauvinist. “I’ve bought her a belt and a bag.”

“That was very kind of you,” Jim noted. “I hope she appreciates the thought.”

“So do I,” Tony replied. “And hopefully the vacuum cleaner will work better now.”

Perhaps one way of looking at the freedom love brings us is to consider the runner, Eric Liddell, the one some called, “The Flying Scotsman.” Prior to becoming a Christian missionary in China, he set an Olympic record. In this film made about him (Chariots of Fire), his character declared, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

Eric may have been gifted as a runner, but training and regular exercise were necessary to help him set his Olympic record. Discipline will be part of our journey to freedom, yet that discipline will bring us freedom to know God’s pleasure.

What are you or I doing that brings pleasure to God? Even though it may mean being disciplined in our daily lives, even if it takes a lifetime to achieve, is our goal to please God?

May we live lives of love, enjoying the freedom to know and serve God, in such a way, others too will know freedom in their own lives.

Song 261 Lord, the light of your love is shining TB 822

Lord, the light of your love is shining, In the midst of the darkness, shining; Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us, Set us free by the truth you now bring us. Shine on me, shine on me

Shine, Jesus, shine, Fill this land with the Father's glory; Blaze, Spirit, blaze, Set our hearts on fire. Flow, river, flow, Flood the nations with grace and mercy; Send forth your Word, Lord, and let there be light.

Lord, I come to your awesome presence, From the shadows into your radiance; By the blood I may enter your brightness; Search me, try me, consume all my darkness. Shine on me, shine on me

As we gaze on your kingly brightness So our faces display your likeness. Ever changing from glory to glory, Mirrored here may our lives tell your story. Shine on me, shine on me.

Benediction

Lord Jesus Christ, may Your grace redeem me, Your power renew me, Your example inspire me, and Your love shine from me. Send me out, renewed in faith, to walk in Your way and make You known, to the glory of Your name. Amen.

📷

[1] 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2, NLT

[2] 2 Corinthians 3:17, NLT

[3] 2 Corinthians 3:3, NLT

[4] Anonymous