Love Poured Out
a sermon based on Romans 5:1-11
by Rev. Randy Quinn
In
the book Leadership and Self-Deception, there is a story a
man tells about his experiences with a law firm early in his career.
He had been given an assignment that he very carefully researched and
completed. With a great deal of pride in his work, he forwarded his
report to his boss who sent it to their client.
Shortly after it was sent,
however, his boss asked a rather innocuous question about his work and
they both realized he had made a significant mistake – one that would
cost their client, and probably their own company, hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
When his boss realized the
error, she immediately got on the phone and warned their client of the
mistake. The man was in the room at the time and expected the phone
call to end with a stern lecture and maybe even a request for his
resignation.
But in the phone call,
she took the blame. His boss apologized for her
mistake and promised to make it right as soon as she could. The man
telling the story said he knows that had it been him, he would have
tried to blame the person making the error. But she took the fall for
his mistake.
After that incident, he
said, he was willing to do anything for her. Her commitment to him
became the foundation of his trust and affection for her and their
company, although I suspect there are limits to what he would do for
her. I’m not sure he would literally die for her, for instance. His
devotion to his boss and to his company was not quite at that level –
nor would many of us expect it to be.
Paul, in our text for
today speaks about that kind of devotion and its limitations. He says
that we cannot imagine someone dying on behalf of someone else – though
he thinks it might be possible for some people in some circumstances
(Rom. 5:7). But it is not likely.
One of the places I turn
to in my own preparation for sermons is an Internet website called
DesperatePreacher.com. (I’m not always desperate when I go there, but
some people must be because several of my sermons have been published!)
A part of the website
includes an on-going discussion of the Lectionary texts for each week.
Pastors ruminate there. They/we ask questions there. We share our
knowledge and experiences with one another. But mostly we tell stories
there.
This week one pastor,
simply referred to as “Tammy in Texas,” told the story of her 15 year
old son. He made some rather poor choices last weekend, and she found
herself imposing a rather severe punishment on him.
Later that night, she
looked in on him and found him sleeping.
As she watched him
breathing softly, she realized the depth of her love for him, a love
that continued despite the poor choices he had made and transcended even
her punishment of him. He may not have felt her love the way she did,
but clearly she loved him no matter what he had done.
I suspect “Tammy in Texas”
might even consider dying for her son, not because he was perfect and
not because he deserved it but simply because she loves him. It’s the
kind of love most parents feel for their children.
That is what Paul
is saying about God’s love for us in this passage. Actually, he is
suggesting that God’s love for us is even greater than that of a
mother. As Isaiah reminds us, even if a mother could forget her
child, God will not forget us (Is. 49:15).
God’s love has no real
parallels in our human experience, though there are a few places where
there are some similarities.
Thomas
Carlyle, the 19th century author, had married his secretary,
whom he dearly loved, but he was thoughtless and absorbed in his own
interests and activities, often treating his wife as if she were still
his employee.
Stricken
with cancer, she had been confined to bed for a long time before she
died. After her funeral, Carlyle went back to his empty house. In his
grief, he wandered around aimlessly; engrossed in thinking about the
woman he had loved. After a while he went upstairs to her room and sat
down in the chair beside the bed on which she had been lying for months.
He realized with painful regret that he had not sat there very often
during her long illness.
While
there, he noticed her diary sitting next to the bed.
Now while
she was alive, he never would have read it, but since she was now gone
he felt free to pick it up and thumb through its pages. One entry
caught his eye: “Yesterday he spent an hour with me. And it was like
being in heaven. I love him so much.” He turned a few more pages and
read, “I listened all day to hear his steps in the hallway. And now
it’s late. I guess he won’t come to see me.”
Carlyle
read a few more entries and then threw the book on the floor and ran out
into the rain, running all the way back to the cemetery. He fell on his
wife’s grave in the mud, sobbing, “If only I had known. If only I had
known.”
Clearly his
wife would have done anything for him. Had it been his disease and not
hers, she would have prayed to trade places with him.
Her love
for him was very much like God’s love for us. While the sad truth is
that many of us are more like him in the way we express our love toward
God.
God loves
us, despite our inability or unwillingness to spend time with God. God
loves us, despite our sin. In fact, God loves us so much – what’s the
line I use most weeks after we confess our sins? – “while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
God’s love really is
beyond our comprehension. It is nothing like anything we have ever
experienced.
Nevertheless, it is real.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
