Easter 21 Living in the Promises

[HKHaugan]

"Promise dictates how we pray, how we think, how we feel and what we do." The Great Promise is loaded with implications. If Jesus has promised He will live in us always (Jn.14:20), that means the whole Jesus; mind, heart and Spirit, can be defined for us, each of us, specifically. That is why He has given us His Word. It's spiritual, personal and relational in an eternal context. Listen to these words from an old love ballad by Ira Gershwin and think of them spiritually. Be willing to leave the romantic sphere and enter freely into the spiritual from which we all come.

"It's very clear our love is here to stay
Not for a year, but ever and a day
The radio, and the telephone and the movies that we know
May just be passing fancies and in time they go.

But, oh, my dear our love is here to stay
Together we're going a long, long way
In time the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble
They're only made of clay, but our love is here to stay."

Now I know it's hard to break the connection between the sentimental context that produced the song and shift it into a spiritual concept but place any true love ballad in the context of Jesus and you will find the words transfer to the deepest love ever known, the love of Jesus for us. And what's more, His love will change the way we think about love. Let's take those three common loves that Greek words describe, stergei (family love), eros (physical and emotional pleasure) and philios (brotherly love).

First, family love. There is a natural bond established at birth between mother, father and child. For some it is the pinnacle of human attachment, something to die for. In the secular mindset parents have all kinds of ways of raising children. However, if parents have no training they will simply copy what their parents did but consciously and subconsciously. If parents tend to be abusive, dictatorial and controlling there is a good chance one or more of their children will do the same. Or they may react out of hostility and go overboard in the opposite direction and be passive, with no control and end up producing self-centered copies of themselves.

Second, physical and emotional pleasure. Here many lives start out 'on the rocks' due to being attracted to one another by physical appearance rather than trying to meet and spend time understanding what makes the other person tick. 'Skin deep' is not a sufficient principle upon which to build either a husband/wife relationship or raise children to face the world. Emotional similarity, common interests and financial security are just as deceptive because each of them can shift with the cultural winds of the moment.

Third, brotherly love. It's great to have a buddy, someone who is empathetic, sympathetic or just plain fun to be around. Friendships built on relational history, the 'good old days' and 'old school or neighborhood ties' can be cumbersome and really tested when the 'chips are down.' Financial, professional and ethnic issues can cause avoidance issues and lead to disillusionment and separation. There is a distinct limit to the depth needed when real issues arise. Brotherly love is close but it doesn't fill the ultimate need for relational fulfillment regardless of the depth it may seem to have.

What's more, sin, ego, self-centeredness and perceived needs dominate the first three. They are the rocky shoals upon which the winds will inevitably strand us. Agape love alone can remedy them and keep us afloat and directed. Agape love begins with forgiveness of sin, takes us through Jesus to the Father, gives us the eternal Holy Spirit to guide us and opens us to a whole new way of being in the His presence and living among others. The agape manual, God's Word, provides everything we need of this great transfer from self to Jesus.

God's love, agape love, does something the other three can't and that is provide love as God defines it. It is a spiritual love from the spiritual Creator out of which everything else comes. Agape love will cause a seismic shift in the way we think about those other three areas of our life which depend completely on the imperfect intentions of imperfect persons in an imperfect world. But inject agape love into each of them and they become redeemed from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness with the power to right them coming from His Holy Spirit.

Take stergei (family love) and eros (physical pleasure)for example. The Lord has a set of principles that will bring marriage alive and offer children stability as they grow in the company of believing parents (e.g., Matt.19:4-6, Eph.5:21-33, Eph.6:1-4). Both are fulfilled in agape love as opposed to a 'hit and miss' dependency on whatever works and feels good for the moment.

Agape love is not only a personal and family experience. It is the presence of God leading the way for the mind, the heart and the spirit in business, politics, and all social involvement. It is the relational quality of God that precedes us in every human interchange. Agape love is God loving others through us. Jesus' teachings do exactly that. They open our minds, hearts and spirits to experience God, then to obey what He says (John 14:23), which is how we love Him, serve Him and are humble before Him in the presence of others. Talk about a seismic shift, this is the spiritual earthquake in every heart, the tsunami that sweeps through the mind and the hurricane that motivates the spirit. It is no longer my will but the Father's will experienced by faith in Jesus and fueled by the Holy Spirit.

Agape love gets us to see the world in a wholly different way. So instead of dismissing this crossover from a love song to the love of God begin to think how you can apply that transfer with other songs, titles, poems, sayings, idioms and whatever other the object that stirs a spiritual parallel in your experience.

Think about movies and TV shows you've watched, visuals and maybe scenery that caught your attention. Be conscious of the themes in them and how they can parallel Bible stories and narratives.

This is how parallels become parables.

The light bulb comes on, the light of Christ enters, you have an insight, a testimony is born and you have a gem with which to be a witness. Jesus relays this experience when a man finds a treasure in a field and he sells everything he has to go and buy that field (Matt.13:44). For us the world is the field full of insights ready to be mined and shared, insights that parallel the Gospel of Jesus. Try it. You'll like it.