Many years ago, four thousand runners answered the gun for the start of the Madrid Marathon in Spain ...Toward the end of the grueling race, two men, both aged thirty-six were far ahead of the pack. Near the finish line, one of them was suddenly taken with severe leg cramps, and was unable to continue on his own. Whereupon, the other leader stopped, picked up the stricken competitor and carried him across the finish line.
I said to Love
"Thy love is much too hard.
I cannot follow thee."
Love stretched forth mighty arms and said,
"Come child, I'll carry thee."
Today's Gospel Lesson contains a phrase we never should go beyond until we're sure we understand its implications. The phrase reads, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Lk. 10:27). Let's stop right here and just reflect on it. What are the implications of this commandment? How do we manifest our love for God?
We position ourselves in God's Presence and we give thanks that he is a Loving God. We give thanks that we have received the gift of life. We give thanks that we are moving toward the blessed state of fulfillment we need and want. But we can say "Thank You, Lord ... Thank You Lord," a thousand times and add "I love You, I love You, Lord" ten thousand times, and still not have understood the implications of the command to love the Lord, our God.
The command to love God cannot be understood as long as we make the mistake of regarding the command to "Love neighbor" as a separate command. Jesus has taken us beyond an understanding of love of God and neighbor in any chronological way. According to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable.
We cannot say we love God, in a Christian way, if at the same time we have something against our brother. We show the depth of our love for God in the depth of our love for neighbor. If our concern for our brothers and sisters is shallow, so too our love for God is shallow, and it matters not how often we withdraw to Church and offer words of praise and thanks and love to God.
Stop and think! Stop and reflect! Stop and search deep within our soul until we can see the full implications of what it means to love the Lord, our God.
Stop until your soul has grasped, as a matter of Christian Faith, that love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. Then God will know you love Him, even before you tell Him.
If we tell people we have faith, we can't expect them to believe us unless we demonstrate our faith through the kind of life we live. In this connection, it is interesting to note that the Greek word for "fellowship" is "generosity." To prove ourselves worthy of the Christian fellowship, we must be generous. We must be willing to give of ourselves to others.
A husband and wife, together with their young son, were invited to a neighbor’s wedding. For the little boy, it was the first opportunity to attend such an affair. As the family entered the Church, an usher extended his elbow and asked, “Are you on the bride’s side or the groom’s?” Before his parents could respond, the youngster exclaimed in a shocked tone, “Are they taking sides already?” Whose side are we on?
The Christian Gospel began with the life, death, and resurrection of one man nearly 2,000 years ago. Since that time, the Gospel message has been embraced by hundreds of millions of people. You and I are beneficiaries of the ripple effect of the Gospel.
Those of us over whom the waves of the grace of God have washed are responsible for sharing the Gospel and causing the ripple effect to continue. We don't have specific words to this effect in the Bible, but it appears that there was a ripple effect present in Jesus' own ministry. The disciple John seems to have had the closest relationship with Jesus. John's wave of influence spread to Peter and James (John's brother), as the three of them formed an inner circle within the twelve.
Next was the larger circle of twelve disciples who traveled and ministered with Jesus for three years. They then formed the core of the larger post-Resurrection group of 120 who gathered in Jerusalem to await the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-8, 15). As a result of the "pebble" Peter great sermon in Jerusalem at Pentecost, the waves of the Spirit washed over 3,000 souls, a number which shortly grew to 5,000 men (and undoubtedly many more women and children; Acts 2:41; 4:4).
There was one disciple, then three, then twelve, then 120, then 3,000, then more than 5,000 . . . and the rest, as they say, is His-story. Following Jesus' own instructions in Acts 1:8, the waves of the Gospel then left Jerusalem and washed over all Judea and Samaria, then Damascus and Antioch (modern Syria), Ethiopia in Africa, Galatia (Asia Minor), Macedonia (Greece), Rome (Italy), and from there possibly into Spain Europe; (Romans 15:24,28)-all at the hands of Apostle Paul.
"Yes," many Christians say, "I can well understand the impact of John, Peter, James, the twelve, and Paul. They were apostles! But my life will never set off those kinds of ripple effects." But what were these people before they were apostles? They were like you and me-commoners and simple.
They were people whose names would never have gained a footnote in history had they not responded to Christ's call. How would history be different if a common person named Andrew had not gone to find his brother, Simon (Peter), and said, "We have found the Messiah" (John 1:40-41)?
If another plain person named Philip had not sought out Nathanael and told him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (John 1:45)? If a fisherman named Peter had not responded to the request of a Gentile named Cornelius and gone to his house to share the Gospel (Acts 10:1-48)?
What if martyrs and Reformers like Polycarp, Ignatius, Hus, Savonarola, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer had recanted the faith in the face of the flames? What if Martin Luther hadn’t stood firm on his conviction that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ? Ultimately bringing revival to the Christian church.
You and I have salvation today because of ripple effects set in motion by the faithfulness of others. But what of those who have yet to hear the Gospel? Who will speak the words and do the works that will set in motion the events resulting in their salvation? By God's grace, and through our obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, you and I will set those ripples in motion.
I stand here before this morning, because some 200yrs. ago missionaries responded to God’s call and brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my little village on the coast of Africa. The question for every Christian is not whether our lives have a ripple effect on history-but what kind of effect we are having.
I challenge each of us to ask God for a year of powerful ripple effects for the Gospel. You may not see the shore on which the wave lands, but the shore where you stand at this moment is where the wave must begin. It begins right here with us.
You and I.
Love the LORD thy God. Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
July 11, 2004