Test of Love (1 John 4:7-12)

The other day I opened the window to the morning sun, fixed a cup of hot jasmine green tea, sat down and read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. 

Some time ago I learned that, for a period of his life, Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount every day; and he wasn’t even a Christian.  A follower of Jesus, maybe, but not, officially, a Christian. 

And I figured that if Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount every day, then it wouldn’t hurt me to reread it every once in awhile.

I read through the Beatitudes, and then came upon Jesus’s sayings about the salt of the earth and the light of the world:  “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?... You are the light of the world…. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” [Matthew 5:13-16].

As I kept reading, I began humming along in the back of my mind that song we all know so well:  “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

I turned the page, and read about turning the other cheek, and walking the extra mile, and loving one’s enemies.  And the song continued:  “Hide it under a bushel? No!  I’m gonna let it shine…”

Some songs, once they get in your head, you just can’t get rid of them!

I kept reading; and I came to this:  “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them…. Whenever you give alms, whenever you pray, do it in secret.  Go into your room and shut the door, and do it in secret” [Matthew 6:1-6, paraphrased].

“Let it shine, let it shine, let it –“ Wait, what was that?

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.  Instead, do it in secret.”

Okay.  Now I’m confused; because, in the very same sermon (as Matthew’s gospel presents it), Jesus says two seemingly contradictory statements.  “Let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works…” and “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.”

If you are a reader of scripture, you may have encountered other instances of scripture contradicting itself.  I know that there are those who say that there are no contradictions in scripture.  They’re wrong.  There are many places where the Bible – as Fred Craddock puts it – argues with itself.

The book of Psalms begins with this statement:  “Those who delight in the law of the LORD … are like trees planted by streams of water.  In all that they do, they prosper” [Psalm 1:2-3].

And a few chapters later, the psalmist declares, “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging for bread.  Never” [37:25].

But then the writer of Ecclesiastes chimes in, and says:  “I have.  I’ve seen the righteous forsaken.  I’ve seen the children of good people begging for bread!  I’ve seen righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and I’ve seen wicked people who prosper in their evil doing” [7:15].

Abraham was righteous, and according to Genesis, he was blessed and made to prosper because of his righteousness.  So:  wealth and prosperity are good.

Then again, back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says:  Blessed are the poor.

And Jesus says, sell all you have.

And he says, the rich and wealthy cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Well, which is it?

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul speaks of women deacons and women apostles in the church.  “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon in the church.  And be sure to greet Junia, who is prominent among the apostles” [16:1,7].

And in 1 Corinthians, Paul gives instructions to both men and women regarding how they are to conduct themselves when speaking and teaching in the church.

But then, in 1 Timothy, Paul says that women are to remain silent in church.  They’re not to speak or teach at all.

Actually, scholars don’t think that 1 Timothy was written by Paul; more likely it was written by someone who admired Paul, yet who felt that Paul’s views on women were too progressive, too radical.

Others, very early in church history, had a problem with Paul’s mention of Junia, the apostle.  They had a problem with women leaders, in general.  Junia is most definitely a girl’s name, but some copiers of scripture changed it to Junias, a boy’s name.  The idea of a female apostle was too radical for them to accept, so they tried to change it when no one was looking.

They almost succeeded.  I have one Bible translation that mentions Junia, correctly using the female name, but then notes that Junia is “a man of note among the apostles.”

Nice try, translators.

Then there is the issue of the foreigners and the eunuchs.  Deuteronomy and Leviticus both say that no eunuch shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD, and no foreigner shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.

 Isaiah, by contrast, says to the foreigners and the eunuchs that there is a place for you.  You are welcome.  God’s house is a house of prayer for all people.

This leads to a certain amount of confusion for a man in Acts 8 who just so happens to be both a foreigner and a eunuch.  He met up with the apostle Philip, and after a conversation of theology and scripture, the man asked Philip, “What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”

Philip could very easily have said: “Well, there’s Leviticus 17 and Deuteronomy 23…” But instead, Philip decided to go with what Isaiah said, and welcome this man into God’s family.

The question I have is:  How did Philip make that decision?  Faced with two different scriptures that say two different things, how did Philip decide?

There are really only two ways people make decisions like the one Philip had to make.  The first way is to base your decision on fear.

If Philip had based his decision on fear, he could have very easily have decided not to baptize this man.  After all, he was a foreigner and a eunuch!  And there are scriptures that say:  no foreigners or eunuchs allowed.

Philip could have easily made this decision, and justified it by quoting scripture.  But the real reason for making that decision is fear.  Fear of foreigners.  Fear of eunuchs.  Fear of those who are different.  Fear of how the church might become different if we let them in among us.

The early church could have very easily decided to not allow women to take on leadership roles.  In fact, in many places that is exactly what the church decided, and some churches still uphold that decision today, despite the evidence in scripture that there were good women leaders in Paul’s time, leaders that Paul approved of.

But others in the church besides Paul were too afraid to go against society on this particular issue; so they made a decision based on fear.

The money issue is a little more complicated.  But not really.  Isn’t the reason we want money so much is that we fear what would happen if we were to lose our money? 

Poverty used to be a virtue; a life of poverty was once something that was honored.  Look at Jesus.  Look at St. Francis.  Look at Gandhi. 

But today, we fear poverty; we fear it more than almost anything else.  We fear poverty more than death!  Every once in awhile you hear of someone committing suicide because the thought of falling into poverty was too frightening…. Every decision we make concerning money, we make out of fear.

The Bible argues with itself concerning money.  Is it a blessing upon those who are righteous?  Or is it a curse upon those who cannot find their way into the kingdom of God?

I think that, for most people, who base their financial decisions on fear… well, I don’t know.

Is it better to let your light shine?  Or should you hide in your room with the door locked?

The answer to that question just might depend on what it is that you base your decisions.

So if you’re not going to base your decisions on fear, what’s the alternative?

Ah, but we’ve already heard the answer.

1^st John, chapter 4, verse 7:  “Beloved… let us love.  Let us love one another, because love is from God…”  In fact, “God is love.” Which means that when you are faced with a decision, and you want to know what decision would God want you to make, you can instead ask what decision would love want you to make.

Because God is love.

So let’s say you consult the scriptures, and you find two verses that contradict.  How do you interpret?  How do you choose?

Jesus, as you know, was trained as a carpenter.  He imagined that all the scriptures – all the teachings, all the words of the prophets – were inscribed upon a great door.

But what if some of those teachings contradict?  How do you interpret them, how do you apply them to your life?  Which words take precedent, and which commandments are the most important?

Jesus said that the two most important commandments are:  Love God, and love your neighbor.  Everything inscribed on that door – all the teachings of the law and all the words of the prophets – hang on those two hinges:  love of God, and love of neighbor.

On the night before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a sermon in Memphis, Tennessee.  In that sermon he talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which a man is travelling down a road, where he is confronted by thieves, beaten, and left for dead.

After a while a holy man – a Levite – came by… but did not stop to help. 

Then a good priest came by… but he also did not stop.

Then came a Samaritan:  a foreigner, an adversary, an enemy.  He stopped.  He administered first aid.  He went out of his way to see the man safely to town, and to ensure that he was cared for.

Martin Luther King, Jr. asked, that night before he died:  Why didn’t the holy man or the good priest stop to help?

King answered his question by saying:

It’s possible that these men were afraid… It’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over at that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around.  Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking.  And he was acting like he had been robbed or hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them for quick and easy seizure.  And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”  But then the Good Samaritan came by.  And he reversed the question:  “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

The first is a question based on fear.  The second is a question based on love.