Pastoral Message

A young pastor and his wife were sent to pastor a church that had passed its prime. With only elderly to support the church, their work often included repairing and maintaining, in addition to pastoring. A sudden rain and windstorm just before Christmas day, dropped wet plaster onto the altar leaving an unsightly hole. For a bid of $6.50, he purchased a 15 foot long gold and ivory laced tablecloth. It fit neatly right over the gaping hole just in time for Christmas eve services.

A woman waiting in the cold for the bus, stepped in that afternoon out of the cold to pray. She spied the cloth and touched it. She cried out to the pastor that this was her bridal tablecloth. Sure enough, there was her monogram.

When separated on her wedding night in Austria from her husband, when they opposed the Nazis, their goods had been shipped separately. She later heard he had died in a Nazi death camp.

Now this very same Christmas eve an old watchmaker came to service. He remarked on exiting that the cloth looked strangely familiar. They had only used it when the preacher came to dinner. The excited pastor rushed the watchmaker to find the lady there the day before. Love was restored after so many lonely Christmas days.

Love has an incredible way of solving so many problems at once. From a gaping hole in the church to mates separated for decades.

There is much talk about love today. The counter pop-generation of the 60's and 70's urged people to "make love not war". This was carried out most notably at Woodstock rock concert, where virtual orgies took place in the muddy and rainy farm fields. People "love" beautiful things: sunsets, art, sports, things, etc. People "love" their brothers and sisters; their families.

When Voice of Prophecy radio preacher HMS Richards Jr would end his program he would remark: "It is still true, God Loves You!" With such orgistic, selfish, abstract, given models of love, just what does it mean, "God Loves You!"?

With February 14's Valentine Day, I think I have an answer! Two institutions remain in the heart of faith unstained by the sin of this world. They are marriage and the Sabbath. They were both established before the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.

If one really wants to find a model for God's love in the church then read Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. . ." Nothing rends the soul's need for this love than the recent brutality of PLO versus Israel by spraying and lobbing hand grenades into a bridal feast last week.

God's love is not so complicated, so abstract; so theological, as to not be easily understood. 1 Timothy 4:1-8 describes in our times, deceitful spirits, doctrines of demons that will create a mindset that is anti-marriage and anti-healthful living. It is true that increasingly blended families and divorce will be virtually the order of our day.

There are at times a sense in this writer-pastor, that to speak of being married for 25+ years, is not politically correct to highlight. Yet I cannot keep silent when I realize that in the ideals of marriage are most clearly represented a model for God's Love. This is not to place those whose marriages have failed for whatever reason, in a second class. But no matter what happens in this world, I want you to expect this pastor to uphold the ideals of love. No wonder Paul states in Romans 3:3,4 "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every man be a liar. . ."

As soon as a world begins to "dumb-down" God to our non-normal ways, we create the very scenario being played throughout the world, man's love is growing cold.

What better way to revive the way of God's Love than in February during the dead of winter. And how sweet and simple it is! Romans 8:39 says nothing can separate us from the Love of God!

Pastor Steve Wall