[Mcgregorpage] Pentecost 13, Semptember 3, 2006 McGregorPage 519

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Psalm 45:1-2,6-9
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

“When Was Love That Real?”

A black woman in love, a royal wedding, “first fruits” of the human 
race, and an argument about what defiles us, close this summer with a 
homiletic dilemma.  Are we the black woman in love with God?  Is this 
wedding between Christ and the church -- God and Israel?  Are we having 
trouble being a good wife to God, first fruits or not?  Do we try to 
look like a good wife rather than act like one?

First tell me about a love for God that is as sensuous as that in the 
Song.  When was it that you were as smitten with Christ as with that 
someone in ninth-grade geometry?  When was God that real?  That 
beautiful?

Then tell me about the wedding.  Was it a grand affair or did you sneak 
off and get married?  Where was the honeymoon?  Were you scared?  
Looking back on it, do you think you knew what you were doing?  Were 
you really in love?

Dare I ask about your faithfulness?  Have you ever wondered about God’s 
faithfulness?  Have you ever felt as if you married above yourself, as 
if others were speculating how long it would last?  Do you now shrink 
from giving your married name, Christian?  Is your marriage in trouble?

What do you suppose God wants out of this marriage?  Do you diet to 
keep God’s eye? Does it work? Do you take care of the family?  Are you 
there for God?

A friend pointed to the eastern evening sky where a triumphant cumulus 
cloud dominated the horizon, graduating in color and brightness from 
dark pink at the ground to alabaster where it etched itself against the 
blue, a cloud shaped remarkably like the Starship Enterprise.  “Can you 
not believe in God,” he asked.  “Can I not love the creator of such awe 
in me,” I wondered.  It is not the love of youth, but it is the love I 
first knew as a youth.  It is like a kiss remembered, God’s kiss.

Though I don’t remember the honeymoon, I do remember God’s carrying me 
over the threshold.  The wedding wasn’t much.  I was too young.  
“Accountable age” they said in that believers-baptism church, but I was 
worried that my underwear would show through coming up out of the 
baptismal tank in front of everyone in the wet, white gown.  I guess a 
lot of us get married too young.  That’s why we want to be “born 
again.”  Marriage, the birth of our children, ordination, divorce -- I 
remember being carried over the threshold, though.

I remember being faithful, but I remember being unfaithful too.  I 
can’t accept the idea that all my labor for the church is an expression 
of my co-dependency.  No, it is love.  Love is in there somewhere with 
my need for love.  The fruit of God’s grace is even in the reluctant 
hospital visit.  Yes, but the reluctance is a part of the visit too.

It isn’t all for show, making a production of the rites of purification 
the way the Pharisees do, but it is for show too.  How can one stand in 
the center and not become part of the show?  Not to complain about the 
pressure to be a better show than the church down the street or the new 
one in the suburbs -- not to complain about the stress of being a 
pastor today, I say --  Jesus said it isn’t what flows in that defiles 
us, but what flows out.  So, what flows out?

A song of love.  A renewing of vows.  An act of kindness.  This is the 
way a marriage endures over time.

May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/

The MCGREGORPAGE is available free to your email inbox
To subscribe, write the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and send it 
to mcgregorpage-request at intenex.net.

To unsubscribe, write the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and send 
it to mcgregorpage-request at intenex.net.

You may contact the author at RMcGregorAlbq at AOL.COM.


      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
You have permission to share this material with any individual provided 
that you include the source with e-mail address.



________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email 
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.