"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009 | |||
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Hearts at Rest | |||
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As I stopped at a traffic light in Portland last week, I
found myself right next to what is becoming a more and more familiar
sight, someone holding a cardboard sign requesting assistance. At first I
was tempted to ignore the young woman, because I was out of my usual
offerings for such situations, coupons for fast food. Yet having just
come from a moving time of worship with fellow pastors, I couldn't just
ignore her. So I dug down in my pocket, rolled down the window and
reached out with a handful of change. I offer this story not because I'm
particularly proud of it, but because I think it reflects some of the
tensions in our text for this week. In I John 3:16-24, the apostle places his emphasis on love. Truth and love are the two great themes of this letter and over and over it stresses the need for Christians to hold onto the truth of Jesus Christ and to hold on to the love of Jesus Christ. In reality, the two are inseparable. Verse 17 is the sort of Scripture message that helped fueled my desire not to go by without giving the woman something. Yet I still feel conflicted about my "gift" of perhaps 80 or 90 cents, which I saw her carefully counting as I drove away. After all, I had a twenty dollar bill in my wallet. In my heart, I wonder if should not have given her more. That's why I'm grateful that, along with its strong call for visible and active expression of love, the text includes verse 20, "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is stronger than our hearts, and he knows everything." I could (and sometimes do) go on and on second-guessing myself and my motives no matter how good my actions might be. If I had given the girl $20, I might be wondering now if I had not heavily enabled some self-destructive behavior like drugs or alcohol. I cannot, simply through my own good works, set my heart at rest (as verse 19 suggests). It's only through the grace of Christ that I let go of my heart's self-condemnation and have any confidence in my relationship with God. That's why the constant conjunction of truth and love is so key to John and to our Christian lives. That's why we read in verse 23, "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." We can't have faith in the truth of Christ without expressing it in love, but our hearts cannot rest easy in our expressions of love without faith in the truth of Christ. It's amazing how well the message of Scripture fits and answers the tortured turnings of our psyches and does finally set our hearts at rest. | |||
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I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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