FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

Easter Day

April 12, 2009

THE GIFTS OF GOD FOR THE FAMILY OF FAITH:

THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

Scripture: Matthew 28:1-15; I Corinthians 13:4-13

INTRODUCTION

According to the ancient Latin ritual called “risus pascalis” (Easter smile), during the Dark and Middle Ages in Europe it was customary for the clergy to tell a story which lifted the congregation’s spirits following the long, arduous winter weeks of Lent.

So in keeping with that tradition, here is the risus pascalis for today:

A man appeared before St. Peter at the pearly gates in heaven.

“Have you ever done anything of particular merit?” St. Peter asked.

“Well, I can think of one thing,” the man offered. “I was on a trip to the Black Hills out in South Dakota and I came upon a gang of rough and ready motorcyclists who were being rude to a young woman.

I told them to leave her alone, but they wouldn’t listen. So, I approached the largest and most heavily-tattooed biker and pushed him around, kicked his bike over, and then I took the bandana off of his head and threw it to the ground.

I yelled, ‘Now, back off biker boy or you’ll answer to me!’”

St. Peter was impressed. “You’re a courageous person. When did this happen?”

“Just a couple of minutes ago” the man answered.

And just one more that I’ve been saving for today:

“On an Easter Sunday morning, the preacher was standing at the door greeting people as they went out. He noticed an old friend named Jack whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, so he shook his hand, pulled him aside and said ‘Jack, you need to join the army of the Lord.’

Without hesitation, Jack replied ‘Pastor, I’m already in the army of the Lord.’ The preacher asked ‘Then how come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?’

Jack smiled and whispered back ‘Because I’m in the Secret Service.’”

Well, I am very grateful that all of you have come to this service today. And there is no secret about why we have gathered in this sacred place, for we are here to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, lifting up the glad and glorious affirmation which echoes down through the generations of the church: “The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Throughout the Lenten Season, our sermons have focused on the theme “The Gifts of God for the Family of Faith,” which are found in I Corinthians 13 – the gifts of patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, joy endurance, faith, hope and this morning, all wrapped up for Easter, The Gift of Love.

Please listen again to the words written by the Apostle Paul long ago, words which are true and still speak to us today:

“Now, faith, hope and love abide – these three. And the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13)

I

So let’s begin with the first thing that is true – “Love is a gift which we treasure.” As Christians we believe “God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And we know, because the Bible tells us so, that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God “has poured His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

This kind of love, “agape” in the Greek New Testament, is sacrificial and unconditional, and keeps on giving as we go on living according to God’s will and God’s way.

What’s more, the Lord doesn’t want us to keep the greatest gift of all to ourselves. Jesus said “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you: (John 15:12), which means that love is not only something we feel – love is also something we do.

But sometimes, especially in our American culture today, we just don’t get it. A young man walked into a photography studio with a framed picture of his girlfriend, asking to have it duplicated. As the technician worked on the project, she noticed an inscription on the other side of the photo which read:

“My dearest Tom,

I love you with all of my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you for the rest of my life. I am yours for all of eternity.

Dianne

P.S. If we ever break up, I want this picture back.”

Sometimes, we just don’t get it. And sad to say, there are also times when we go so far in the opposite direction, that relationships become strained and can even be broken.

William Manchester, in his brilliant biography “The Last Lion” about Winston Churchill, describes a scene which some of you may remember. Lady Astor and Sir Winston did not like each other, and one evening during a dinner party at Blenheim Palace, Lady Astor looked across the table and said “Winston, if I were your wife, I would poison your soup.” He replied, “Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.” (From “The Last Lion” by William Manchester, Little, Brown and Company, 1983, page 34).

Sometimes that kind of conflict happens between family members or friends, and that is when we need to remember that “Love is a gift which we treasure.”

As some of you may have noticed, I wear two bracelets on my wrists. When I came here in the spring of 1990, I wore another one, given to me by a young friend named Scott who is gay and belonged to the church I served in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. As he tied the gift onto my wrist during our farewell reception, he said “I am going to miss you. Please remember me in your prayers.” And I have prayed for him, every day since then, although that bracelet came unraveled some years ago.

For a while, I wore several more, given to me by a lovely young girl in our congregation. And now, I wear this one on my right wrist, a gift which I treasure, made by a member of the Kikuyu Tribe in Kenya…and this one on my left wrist, a lanyard given to me by our daughter Aly this past Christmas. It took her hours to make, a labor of love, and reminded me of a poem by Billy Collins, dedicated to his mother when he gave her a lanyard made at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, which ends this way:

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard

or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,

but that did not keep me from crossing

strand over strand again and again

until I had made a boxy

red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,

and I gave her a lanyard.

She nursed me in many a sickroom,

lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,

set cold face-cloths on my forehead,

and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,

and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.

Here are thousands of meals, she said,

and here is clothing and a good education.

And here is your lanyard, I replied

which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,

strong legs, bones and teeth.

and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,

and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.

And here, I wish to say to her now,

is a smaller gift – not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,

but the rueful admission that when she took

the two-tone lanyard from my hands,

I was as sure as a boy could be

that this…gift I wove (for her)…

would be enough to make us even.”

(Taken from a poem “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins, “The Trouble With Poetry,” Random House Paperbacks, 2007, pages 45-46)

Do you see? Love is a gift which we treasure, and whatever signs and symbols we have been given as Christians to remember that is true – the most important of all are the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. So “faith, hope and love abide,” said Paul, “but the greatest of all is love.”

II

And that takes us to another level of the truth of the gospel. Not only do we believe that “love is a gift which we treasure” in our families and within our friendships. We can also go on to affirm in the church that “love is the glue which holds us together.”

The members of that congregation in Corinth were fighting and fussing with each other over theology and sexuality, leadership and loyalty, and even their table manners at the Lord’s Supper.

So Paul wrote this letter, encouraging them to remember in I Corinthians 13, that “Love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude…Love does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful and does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth” (I Cor. 13:4-7).

Speaking the truth to them in love, the apostle was reminding those first century Christians that “Love is the glue that holds us together.”

So why is it, and how does it happen, that we sometimes, oftentimes, get crosswise with one another?

Fred Craddock tells the story about visiting a church cemetery where he found something that was most unusual. In his own words, he said:

“There was one grave where the slab was crosswise, like we used to say ‘catty-wampus’, slanted. I thought, ‘What a careless thing to do.’ And then a man walking through the cemetery said to me ‘You’re wondering about that grave, aren’t you?’

I said ‘yes.’ And he said ‘Well, we were in the same church. I knew him all of my life.’

Craddock said ‘Well, why this burial at an angle?’

The man answered ‘That’s what the family wanted, and the church agreed.’

‘But why?’

‘Cause that’s the kind of guy he was.’

I said ‘What do you mean?’

He said ‘The man was cross with everything. He was never pleased with anything, at home or in the church. He would say ‘Well, he’s the wrong one to be doing that. Why are they doing things that way? I wonder who decided on that course of action?’ All the time, all the time he was contrary minded.

And the family decided that they wouldn’t try to change him just because he was dead, so they buried him crosswise.

I said ‘Well, that’s an awful thing to do.’

He answered ‘They wanted it to be a witness. They said ‘If God wants to straighten him out, then God can straighten him out. But he left here and was buried just like he lived.’”

Sometimes, we get crosswise with one another, and it’s because some member of the congregation is an unhappy camper and dumps all of their anger and frustration into the congregation. Sometimes it’s the pastor or another staff member, and people wind up in contention with one another.

At other times, conflict in the church arises out of a sense of competition – the “win-lose mentality.” In the Catholic tradition, a Carthusian Monk was comparing the various Monastic Orders and described their distinguishing features: “The Dominicans are famous for their learning, the Franciscans are well known for their piety, but when it comes to humility, we Carthusians are tops.”

Whatever it is that stirs up trouble in any congregation or Christian denomination, the bottom line is this: if we are willing to open our hearts to the forgiveness and reconciliation that Jesus has already given to us, and when we decide to invite Him into the center of our lives, then His love will become the glue that holds us together.

Hannah Whitall Smith, a Quaker woman who wrote this book more than one hundred years ago, “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life,” put it this way in a chapter entitled “Divine Union”:

“All the dealings of God with the souls of believers are in order to bring us into oneness with Himself (and with each other), that the prayer of our Lord Jesus may be fulfilled: ‘That all may be one, so that the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’” (John 17:23)

III

That is what we believe in this church, one with another – love is the glue that holds us together. Which leads us to this final truth and affirmation on Easter Day: “The gift of God’s love goes on forever.”

That is exactly what the Apostle Paul proclaimed to the Corinthians: “Love never ends.”

Back in 1981, I was invited as a trustee and graduate of The Stony Brook School, to introduce the recipient of our annual alumni award. His name was Heagin Bayless, class of 1928, and he was one of the most successful advertisers in New York City.

During the dinner, I told him that I was from Pittsburgh, and he said to me “You know, God needs a good agency in that city.” He also said with tears in his eyes that his wife had recently died.

Then he gave an inspiring speech, making a powerful witness to his Christian faith. And not long after, he sent a note to me which I have saved and treasured all these years. It says:

“Dear George,

Thank you for your introduction at the dinner. It made me feel that we had known each other for a long time. With Stony Brook and the Lord at the center, our paths are bound to cross again…I was tempted to open or close my talk with the lines on this card, but decided that it might be better later on. Young people don’t always take to wisdom, especially in these times. However, the pendulum will always swing, as it always does.

Faithfully,

Heagan, Class of 28”

And the lines written at the top of his note, with a lighthouse embedded on it, which was where he actually lived in Sands Point, Long Island, have been a guiding light to me since then:

“Time is…

Too slow for those who wait,

Too swift for those who fear,

Too long for those who grieve,

Too short for those who rejoice;

But for those who love,

Time is eternal.”

So said the Apostle Paul: Love never ends. And that is the greatest promise of all. Therefore, let the lilies bloom and lift up your hearts my friends as we stand to say The Apostles Creed and then listen to the choir sing The Hallelujah Chorus.

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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