"Tale as Old as Time"

Just what is the “tale as old as time”? 

Tuesday was not a good day for me.  It was one of those cold, dreary May days in which nothing was going right; one of those days that persuades me “spring” and its promise of “new life” is a myth invented by those famous ‘old wives’.  So when Jill suggested a trip to the movies to see “Beauty and the Beast” I jumped at the chance. Buttered popcorn solves a lot of life’s little problems.

The movie tells a “tale as old as time”, as you know, and if you don’t then this is your “spoiler alert”.  The handsome prince becomes a hideous Beast because he fails to see the beauty inside a woman who comes for help at his castle door. He will remain forever the Beast unless someone loves him before the final petal of a magical rose falls.  The Beauty finally does express her love for the Beast, but not until after the final petal has fallen, and not until after the Beast has been killed in his defense of the beauty from her enemy.  Now, I have to tell you, I have seen this story in movie and theatre form, but I had forgotten that the Beast dies as the final rose petal falls. I thought, “Oh no, did they modernize the movie and let the Beast die?”  Silly me.  What kind of ending is that to a tale as old as time? The Beast, of course, rises in a swirl of sound and sight and the entire castle and environs are restored. Dark becomes light. Brokenness is healed. Death becomes life. Love wins.

So, what is the tale as old as time, I wondered. That animals and humans can love each other? While true on some level, I don’t think that is the point of this tale. That beauty is only skin deep? No, the prince and princess each gain a companion with a beautiful outward appearance.  That true love transforms people’s personalities? That might be closer to the meaning of the tale.

But I think the real tale as old as time is that when you love someone not for their appearance, and even when that love is not returned; when sacrificial love is offered, then death is defeated. What makes such a tale remain part of the campfire stories library for as long as time is not that “boy gets girl”, but that transforming love acts to save the object of one’s love expecting nothing in return. Such love happens because love is “other-centered”; such love is unselfish. Such love is what grace might look like if expressed in a tale as old as time.

It is this kind of love alone which allows the Lover to say to all who will listen, “Even though you die, you will live. Do you believe this?”

My Sermon for Donald Trump

There is an old story about a preacher who was told that a president was to be in his congregation on Sunday. I think the version I heard used President Andrew Jackson as the person, but regardless, the point of the story is this. One of the church leaders says to the preacher, “President Jackson is sitting in church today, Pastor. What are going to say?”  To which the preacher replied, “I am going to say, ‘Andrew Jackson is a sinner.’”  In the era of President Jackson it may have been possible to really preach that message, because it is unlikely too many people would ever find out about it. I mean, CNN was not around in 1829. But what about today, in the era of 24/7/365 news?

What if Donald Trump, in one of his campaign stops, dropped in on Hope Church in Sheboygan, WI one Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. this spring, what would I say? Well, of course, I would welcome him as our guest and offer him one of our gifts (a really nice travel mug), because, what else do you give a billionaire who may become president? What you offer Mr. Trump is what you offer everyone else who passes through your threshold. I would offer Mr. Trump the Peace of Christ. When we got to the time for confession of sins I would pull out my Andrew Jackson story, and then I would say, “Donald Trump is a sinner. Bill Te Winkle is a sinner. Each of you here is a sinner.” And as we moved to celebrate God’s love in offering us assurance of our pardon from our sins, I would say, “God forgives Donald, and Bill and each of you. Now, sin no more.”

And as we moved to the sermon, I would abandon my text and preach on Romans 3:21-24. (You should read it now). And here is the conclusion to my sermon for Donald Trump: “Mr. Trump, it doesn’t matter whether you say 2 Corinthians or 2^nd Corinthians. The church is snobbish when it makes a big deal about petty things like preferred pronunciations. I apologize for our brothers and sisters at Liberty University who laughed at you. But, I did hear you say that you don’t really need to pray for forgiveness. On this you are wrong. You do need to ask for forgiveness, just like everyone else. Your behavior, no matter how good it is, will not earn you salvation. It’s not like running for President, where you need to display qualifications for election. You are elected by God because, in spite of your sin, God wants you. When it comes to your relationship with God, I offer you John Calvin’s three-word sermon: ‘humility; humility; humility.’ Mr. Trump, God loves you just as you are, and so do I. The grace by which you are offered that love is not for sale. There is no deal you can make to acquire it. You cannot “earn” grace, no matter how good you are.  Will you receive God’s gift today?”

Remember, It's a Love Story

When your faith is most tested. When you wonder whether you have faith.

When you wonder if you really do love. God. Someone. Anyone.

When you wonder if you really are loved. By anyone. By someone. By God.

Remember that God’s story, which is your story too, is at its most basic level about love.

What kind of love story?  

A Love Like That

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe me.”

Look what happens

with a love like that.

It lights the whole sky.   Hafiz (Source: translated by Daniel Ladinsky; discovered at inward/outward.org)

Do you see the sunshine?

Did the sun ask if you wanted to be embraced by its rays; its warmth? 

That, my dear friends, is how God loves you. 

And how we are to love.