“Love Reaps the Good it Sows” Pastor Hines February 20, 2022

 

“Love Reaps the Good it Sows”

Pastor Hines

February 20, 2022

I was at church one afternoon in Baltimore. It was a very inclusive church attractive to persons of several cultures. We called the pastor “whispers” because during prayer time, he would whisper and ask everyone to stop talking, stop saying “amen,” stop even praising the Lord out Loud. He wanted quiet while he listened to the voice of God that he would share with us. Being there was a blessing. During the fellowship hour an African gentleman approached me and said something that touched me deeply. He prophesied to me. I Corinthians defines prophecy as words that the Holy Spirit gives us that build someone up, comfort someone, or encourage someone. He said, “Be careful, that you are not deceived.”

He could not have known, that indeed, I had taken Christians at their word without asking God to guide me around any landmines that relationships may have. It was a blessing to be reminded to be careful not to be deceived. It was encouraging to hear through this fellow Christian a word that applied directly to me. It edifies us when someone says something or does something that helps us remember that God cares when we have been hurt.

The world has changed in the last two years, hasn’t it? Many of us are overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty. Some of us like Daniel Smith are not afraid.  Daniel is one of the few living whose parents were slaves. He was a victim of racial prejudice. He worked in a voting rights office and the office was burned down by the KKK. One night his car was followed by a group of menacing men. They hit him and demanded that he stop the car. Instead he hit the gas pedal. “Weren’t you afraid?” The interviewer asked. Daniel Smith said he was not afraid. Smith went on to have a successful career in government and then served as head usher at the Washington National Cathedral, where he led presidents to prayer. 

The Holy Spirit helps us to share from one generation to the other enough faith that overcomes our fears. What a blessing! The world has changed and now more than ever, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God is more than willing and able to help us!

One of my most recent and urgent prayers has become, “Lord, deliver us from being ripped off and deceived by marketers and advertisers.” It is so clear that so many are not telling the truth about what they are doing and what they are selling. Our neighbors look like innocent angels and they turn out to be murderous, monsters, and maniacs. We are shocked by their deception. We are the richest country in the world and we are also the sickest. Every other television commercial wants to sell us some medication that is supposed to cure us while the small print tells us how it can kill or harm us. Pollution is so bad in New Orleans, there is a section called “cancer alley.” Cancer is very profitable. Fast food is pumped with addictive additives just like cigarettes have been before the dark deed was exposed. The chemicals hit the pleasure center of our brain and we go “crazy for cocoa puffs.” It’s called “junk food” for good reasons. We do not always know what food is fake food and what food is real food. God knows. We have got to trust God.

I am partnering with folks in reading a book called Make Us One – A 31- day Prayer Journey Toward Racial Healing. The introduction declares:

It is a sad truth that the church is still one of the most segregated spaces in society. That is because the enemy knows the power of oneness. It is his greatest tactic to keep the church divided. Why? Because it will be the most powerful witness when the multi-ethnic Church begins to operate as one Body, releasing righteousness and justice on the earth. This oneness with God and with one another screams to the world that we are all made in His image, and that knowing Jesus is the way to oneness with Him.

Jesus is the answer to all of our problems. We have got to trust God, to believe in Jesus and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to work holiness in our hearts and lives. Love reaps the good it sows.  God helps the good seeds we plant to grow strong and healthy.

We love when life is good and we want the good to last forever. Yet, it is certainly true that the good life on this earth is not guaranteed. Some of us have a very hard life. God’s design is for us to live until we die. None of us gets out of this life alive. But, death is not the end. We do not know what our life will be like after this life is over. We have hints from people who say they have seen the light, they have seen heaven, they have seen hell. We don’t know what to expect. We do know that a seed that goes into the ground looks nothing like the flower that grows with time.

As odd as it seems sometime, the resurrection is the foundation of our faith. In verse 36 of today’s text, Paul reminds us ”What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” The first step to new life is shedding our bodies. When Jesus died on the cross for you and for me, he left his body and commended his spirit to God. His body had to die before he was resurrected. Just like a seed has to be buried before it can grow into a flower, or plant or fruit or vegetable or whatever God has in mind, Jesus body died and was buried before it was resurrected. Of course, all bodies that die are not buried. But, clearly, all bodies that are resurrected must first die. "We are not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We are in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living." (Zinger)

God has power to make matter out of energy and humans from the dust of the ground; can’t God recreate the body, just like a seed is changed into a flower?  

When we think of dying and going to Heaven, we wonder if Heaven will be one long church service. That does not appeal to every Christian. Rather than imagine Heaven with angels sitting on clouds and choirs singing and harps playing, it may be helpful to imagine that Heaven is a place of restoration, renewal, blossoming, and becoming more like Jesus. John Eldridge author of Wild at Heart thinks of this life as living in a lobby waiting for our resurrection. The lobby may be different for each of us. Some wait in luxurious lobbies. Others wait in lobbies that are crack houses. Nevertheless, each lobby has two large doors. Those doors open up to a large banquet hall where a feast awaits us all.

As Max Lucado writes, the best is yet to come. That is how we can view this life regardless of how wonderful our life is or how terrible it may be at any given moment. The best is yet to come. We are not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We are in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.

It is good to sow seeds of love because love is what we will reap. Whether in this life or the next, we do not know what love will look like, we just know if we plant love, love will grow.

Winston Churchill was a believer in Heaven. When he arranged his funeral he included hymns to be sung in St. Paul's Cathedral and an impressive liturgy. When they said the benediction, he had arranged for a bugler high in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral on one side to play "Taps," the universal signal that the day is over. But when that was finished, there was a long pause and then a bugler on the other side played "Reveille," the signal of a new day beginning. It was Churchill's way of communicating that while we say "Good night" here, it's "Good morning" up there!

Whoever you are today and whatever life is like for you today, know that the best is yet to come. Amen.