As we transition out of the COVID-19 lock down we have been in for several months, and talk about how to open up our businesses, schools, and churches, we don’t want to return to where we were, we want to work to make things better. We have learned some valuable lessons these past 3 months and we need to apply these lessons to our future. So we are going to take the next few weeks and talk about some of these lessons and learn how they can help us renovate our mission, ministry, and life together.
One of the most important lessons we learned when everything started to shut down was to focus on what was important. When we lost sports, movies, and restaurants, we realized we still had our family and friends. When we lost jobs, income, and financial stability, we began to see that the church and community were still there and we mobilized to care for one another in need. We all went the extra mile to help those around us. When we lost a lot, we started to remember what was ultimately important and what needed to remain our first priority, our first love.
So the first step in our renovation of the church has to be to remember our priorities, or to remember our first love. This phrase comes from the book of Revelation and is found in one of the letters that God wrote to the churches. In each of the seven letters there is a commendation and a challenge, and the challenge to the church in Ephesus was to remember their first love.
You have forsaken your first love. Remember the heights from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelation 2:4-5a.
Remember the heights from which you have fallen. Remember your first love. These past few months we have remembered that our first love really is to care for family, friends, and those in our community. We have also been reminded that our first love needs to be for God who has always been with us. One of the messages we heard again and again these past few months was that no matter where we were, or what we were going through, God was with us to help us. And while we always knew the church was not the building, we have been living this reality by worshipping where we are, serving where we are, learning, praying, and loving God and one another where we are. We have endured patiently, and not grown weary, but grown in strength and love.
Earlier in God’s letter to the Ephesians, this was the commendation he gave them, I know your deeds and your hard work, and your perseverance. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. Revelation 2:2a, 3
Today I can stand here and say the same things about all of you. I know your deeds and your hard work. I know your perseverance and endurance. You have been faithful in giving. You have been faithful in working hard to reach out to one another and care for one another. You have shared your faith by inviting people to join us in worship, and you have been generous to the needs in our community. You have not kept the ministry of Faith Church going, you have kept it growing. Thank you. Thank you for being the church and never getting tired of growing in faith and love.
While it is a blessing to see the faithfulness of Faith Church, we can’t rest on that work, or return to where we were. We have to remember our first love and press on. We have to love God and love others because Jesus said that alone is our first love. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. While love for God must always be our priority, Jesus went on to say that our love for God has to be reflected in our love for others. Not just those we know and like, but everyone.
Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself. We simply cannot love God without loving others, and it was this love that God was asking the church in Ephesus to remember.
Because God said the church in Ephesus had been faithful to Christ, many scholars believe that the love God was calling them to remember and live out was the deep, abiding, and sacrificial love for others that we are called to when we follow Jesus. It is this love that we cannot forget and it is this love we need to embrace moving forward. This is the love that moves us to think about others before ourselves. It’s the love that puts the needs of others before our own, the comfort of others before our own, and the safety of others before our own. It’s a love that is willing to sacrifice what we might want so that we can welcome others into the family of God. It's a love that pushes us beyond what is comfortable just as it pushed Jesus to the cross.
It is this love for others that our world desperately needs right now. The images of racial division and divide we have seen these past few weeks have been troubling and at times terrifying. We know that racism still exists in our nation. We saw it when Ahmaud Arbery was shot while jogging, Breanna Taylor was killed in her home, and George Floyd died on the street. We have not only seen it in our nation but we heard it in video from the streets of State College.
In his own letter to the churches in PA, our Bishop, Jeremiah Park, said, Today we are confronted by two killers who steal breath. The corona virus shortens the breath of its victims. Racism chokes the breath, both figuratively and literally, out of its victims and suffocates righteousness from society. As we confront the evils of racism, we know that the answer is not more hatred, division, or violence, it is to love one another. While only the Holy Spirit can bring about the change of heart that is needed in our world today, sometimes that change can start when we are willing to take the time to love others and sometimes love starts by listening.
When it comes to talking about racism, I am not always going to get it right. I might say the wrong thing, or say something the wrong way, but I want to say something because I know silence is not the answer. I don’t know what it’s like to be afraid every time I see a police officer. I don’t know what it’s like to feel threatened by those who are supposed to help make me feel secure, but I can take the time to listen to those who do feel this way. This past week I listened to a black pastor share his experience of not only feeling threatened and afraid, but of hearing his neighbors tell him that they don’t like him or his children. I spent some time listening to his pain and anger because it was important for me to listen.
I am reminded that Jesus spent a lot of time listening to those who were often looked down on and oppressed. He not only took the time to listen to their experience but to ask them their story, and that act alone was an act of love. When no one else seemed to care, Jesus did and he took the time to listen. Are we willing to listen and invite people to share? Are we willing to allow ourselves to be uncomfortable as we try and put ourselves in someone else’s shoes?
In my own desire to understand, I thought back to a moment in college where I felt like an outsider. I went to a concert by the Black Orpheus Gospel Choir and when I walked into the room I quickly realized I was the only white person there. It was awkward and I felt uncomfortable, but unlike what many people of color experience in our communities today, everyone in that room worked hard to make me feel welcome. At the end of the event we all stood in a circle as the choir sang and a pastor prayed and I was right there - they made sure of it. As members of Christ’s body, the church, we have to work hard to make everyone feel welcomed. We have to work hard to make sure everyone is part of that circle and knows that they are loved.
Will our love for one another end the riots we have seen this week or the ongoing racial divide of our nation? No, but it can keep the divide from growing, and it can be the spark that doesn’t burn a community down but tries to build it up. Renovates it. When we remember our first love is for God, and that love for God means loving others, we will not find room in our heart for hate or anger, racism or violence. Loving God and others will move us to finding ways to welcome and serve others. Remembering our first love will help us do what the prophet Micah still calls us to do, act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
And for the times we have failed to do this, for the times we have turned a blind eye to justice, have forgotten mercy, and not loved others like we should have, and for the times we will fail in the future, can we humble ourselves and hear the invitation of God to repent and remember your first love. Repentance is not the condemnation of God but the invitation of God. It is an invitation to acknowledge our failures and then return to loving God and others one more time.
There is no renovation of the church, no moving to a better future, without remembering our first love. We will not experience a better faith, better church, better community, or better world without first loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then loving our neighbors. As we slowly return to in person worship, learning, fellowship, serving, and prayer, let us remember our first love and keep finding new ways to renovate our church, community, and world by loving God and loving others.
Next Steps
Renovate - Remember Your First Love
During the past 3 months, what events and activities that you love have you lost? What has emerged as a priority in your life? How can you make sure to remember that first love?
Read the Letter to the Church in Ephesus - Revelation 2:1-7
Read about the greatest commandment - Mark 12:28-31
What did Jesus say needs to be our first love?
Love for ________________ and Love for _____________.
How has your love for God grown during the past 3 months? How can you take those lessons and experiences and use them for future growth?
How have you been able to love others during the past 3 months? How can you build on that love and keep it going this week? This month?
As we look at the racial unrest in our nation, how can our first love (for God and others) help bring hope and healing?
What can you do to bring about that hope and healing?
Whose life story, which is different from yours, can you listen to this week? How can you be an agent of peace and reconciliation in our community?
As we return to in-person worship, what is one thing you can do next Sunday to show your love for God and others? (whether you worship with us online or in-person)
