January 30, 2022 ~ Fourth Sunday after Epiphany ~ Sermon & Zoom Worship Video Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/64BZinfLbZc6zaT8riyoHUbn99iisnasBZEOivP66-wEIDnYthgEgNeDiEkf20Mw.54wgWm01hBEkFQhB

                                                                               01/30/22—Highland—Meute

“Love Unleashed”

Jeremiah 1: 4-10; I Corinthians 13: 1-13; Luke 4: 21-30

Pearl: Love perseveres in truth-telling, in order to transform and to build community.

Function: To present love as a prophetic word, a dynamic truth which breaks up, clears out, in order to then build up and that Jesus Christ and his Way are that very truth.

Among all that Jesus was and that Jesus is, our Lord is a prophet. So, what is a prophet?

1. Prophets are not simply those who foretell future events. That seems to be what is most commonly thought of prophets.
   1. If those with the motivation of prophecy could predict the future they would be among the wealthiest people in the world.
      1. People would pay them to predict who would win today’s NFL division championships so they could place bets.
      1. You could pay them for guidance in the choice of mates.
      1. You could pay them to predict the best career choices.
   1. Actually, as a matter of fact, there are many, many people who have shingles hanging on their door touting the ability to predict the future and to guide you.
      1. They should be among the wealthiest people in the world for their unique giftedness. But they are not. Because they are not really able to predict the future.
      1. And then there is the celebrated prognosticator of Punxsutawney, PA—Punxsutawney Phil! This week he will make his yearly prediction on whether we will have an early spring. If he sees his shadow and returns to his hole, then it means six more weeks of winter. If he does not see his shadow, he has predicted an early spring.
2. Prophets, however, are not soothsayers who predict the future by magical, intuitive means. Prophets are speakers of truth.
   1. Human society, human civilization depends upon truth.
      1. Sadly today, truth seems to be unreliable. Many claim to be telling truth only to be found wanting.
      1. Many of the voices talking loudly today, are speaking lies as truth. It seems to be difficult to verify who is being truthful and who is lying.
   1. Has truth lost its veracity in our day? People languish for the truth.
3. But prophets speak truth.
   1. Jesus was a prophet in the fullest sense of the word. He spoke truth. He lived truth. He embodied truth.
   1. The effects of truth are spelled out in the call of Jeremiah to be a prophet of God.
      1. “I have put my words in your mouth…I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1: 9-10).
         1. The effects of truth are dynamic; they are transformative.
         1. Truth stirs things up. As described in Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet, truth plucks up, pulls down, destroys, overthrows, but then it builds and it plants.
         1. Truth transforms and brings to life.

Now, as you dwell in truth, you live in love. Love is the truth that is dynamic and transformative.

Since prophets are truth-tellers, many people can be prophetic!

1. Prophets of God are motivated by the Spirit of God. And the presence of God is the presence of love.
   1. God is defined as love (I John 4:16). So the presence of love is the presence of truth.
   1. When Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” God was present as love, as truth.
      1. Jesus announced that love was unleashed in the form of truth that transforms. He was that truth that transforms.
         1. As with Jeremiah sometimes the truth destroys and overthrows; sometimes it plucks up and pulls down. But truth eventually builds up and plants!
2. You cannot “spin” truth from lies. Truth is real and trustworthy. Truth that is founded in love is the truth that is real, that is trustworthy.
   1. A vital lesson for young people is the importance of their word. Keeping your word is proving yourself trustworthy to others. Being trustworthy is being loving.
      1. Prove yourself true and dependable and you will be happy and healthy.
      1. You will even be powerful!

Love is a truth which is dynamic and transformative.

When Jesus unleashed himself in his prophetic mission and ministry, love was unleashed in truths which stirred things up.

1. The love which stirs things up is the truth that transforms.
   1. The truth which stirs things up is not always easy to hear. It can be tough.
      1. It can be difficult to accept. It may call for change.
         1. But it leads to new life and health and maybe even salvation.
   1. This is what is behind our regular habits of confession. Painful truthfulness leads to transformation.
      1. As we admit our errors and our sins, we can move forward.
      1. In truth as we ask forgiveness and as we grant forgiveness, we more easily become who God can live in and live through.
2. The love which builds up and plants is the truth that is embodied in your living.
   1. It is living truthful and trustworthy in the little things which translates into big things!
   1. Supposedly Abraham Lincoln got the nickname “Honest Abe” for walking five miles to return six pennies worth of change to a woman he accidently overcharged as a store clerk in New Salem, Illinois in 1831. Caring so much about something so small easily translates into being trustworthy in the big things.
   1. President Lincoln agonized deeply about what was happening to our nation during the Civil War. By reading his profound prayers and reflections you feel the depth of his love, the very presence of truth which poured from his soul.

Love is truth: dynamic and transformative.

Our Lord Jesus was “love in the flesh” and he stirred things up so that there would be transformation.

1. The very day he read from Isaiah’s scroll and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” the crowd loved him.
   1. Then he talked about God’s radical love for everyone, including love for Israel’s enemies in Sidon and Syria and they turned on him within minutes driving him to a hill outside of town so they could throw him over a cliff.
      1. Truth plucks up and overthrows. It overthrows previous notions and prejudices.
2. Jesus pushed love so hard in his life and ministry that it got him killed on a cross like a criminal.
   1. Jesus’ truth and love was so difficult to understand that his own people rejected him and his Way.
3. But you cannot kill love. You cannot kill truth.
   1. Adapting what Shakespeare wrote in “The Merchant of Venice,” love and truth will out!

Love and truth will out, and unleashed, love and truth will build up and plant.