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Passion (The Gospel lesson for the Passion is found in the book of Matthew, Chapter 27.)
Pastor Stan Larson Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, Arkansas February 25, 2008
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If you heard the word “Passion” just out in normal conversation, what would you think they were talking about, a romance novel, a soap opera, some movie that had just come out? It’s not something we normally associate with the church, or associate, in a sense, even with God.
The interesting thing is that just a few years ago (as mentioned in the announcements), they made a movie called “The Passion of the Christ.” We have come to this Sunday and we talk about the passion of our Lord. We want to think of it in one sense, as suffering, as agony. But what I want is for us to think about it in the sense of actually being “passion”. Because at the heart of the lesson for today, at the heart of our relationship with God, is God’s passion for us. Now if you want to see passion, try to steal a child away from their parent. You will see fear and passion, because that parent loves that child and wants nothing to come between them and that child. We are God’s children. God will suffer nothing to come between God and us. It is God’s passion for us; God’s passion is so strong that God said, “They’re just not getting it. These are my children and they’re not listening; and so I will make a number of sacrifices.” He became a human being and not just automatically an adult; he became an infant, one who depended upon his earthly parents to take care of him, to change his diapers, to feed him, to help him be raised properly, to make a good home for him. God was willing to go through that for us. And then in this final week of Jesus’ life we see God’s love for us, to be willing to die for us, to go to the cross for us, to do all of these things for us because of His passion for us. As I said, if you want to see passion, try to take a child away from a parent. They will not allow it to happen. God will not allow us to get away from God’s care and concern.
The story is told of some parents who had a child, a daughter, and one of the things they started to do from the very beginning, as their child grew in years, was to go in at bedtime and talk with their daughter, and talk about the events that happened during the day. And early on the daughter was just very very chatty back and forth, “You know this is what happened you know, and I went to school and I saw this dog and I picked this plant and I scraped my knee and all those wonderful things a child does. And the parents just truly enjoyed it because they had this wonderful conversation with their daughter every night. And it didn’t matter which parent was in there with her, it worked the same for all of them. When it came to the teenage years, it was rather silent on one side. The parents still went in every night but there were a lot times when nothing was coming from the daughter’s side. But they said, “We love our daughter; this is what we have committed to doing. We are going to continue to do this for as long as it matters.” Their daughter graduated from high school, and went off to college. When she came home for her first visit, it got to be late at night; and the daughter said, “Well I’m going to bed.” The parents said good night, the daughter went to her room. The parents said, “Well, you know she’s been gone awhile; we don’t need to go in there. She’s an adult now.” Some minutes later, the daughter returned and said, “Aren’t you coming in?”
This is what God wants with us. God is that loving parent who is there wanting a loving relationship, and was so passionate about us that God was willing to become human, that God was willing to die for us. Sometimes that’s hard for us to realize, especially as Presbyterians where we are nicknamed “the frozen chosen.” It’s hard to imagine sometimes, passion within our worship, within our lives. We have to realize there is passion on the side of God. God is hoping to thaw us out and get our passion going to find out what it is that we are passionate about. Yes, God wants us to be passionate about our relationship with Him, but also in our work, in our ministry, and in going out in God’s name.
One of those wondrous things they tell you as a young person is if you can make your passion your job, you’re very blest. My father was one who had a passion, and still has a passion for ministry As my sister and brother and I say, “My Dad is as retired as he’s ever going to get.” We say that at every stage of life. He retired at 68 and then did 17 years of pulpit supply inter-ministry. When my mother became more ill, he stayed home. He is now in assisted living and he still preaches twice a month. He is pastoral advisor for a support group, and he still has a tremendous interest in the church and all things that are going on there; and he just can’t imagine why others don’t have that same kind of passion, because that’s been his life. That’s his passion. Basically it’s my passion as well.
But we have to find what it is that God would have us to do. What is our passion? God has put that in us to be passionate people, to say, “You are my children.” God says, “I am passionate about you, about what is going on your life; and I am so passionate that I will come to earth and be a human being so that we can talk together; and I will die for you so that you don’t have to go through all of those things and deal with all of those things that seem to divide us.” Luther, in his writings, talked about the “big three,” the things that divided us at that time, which was sin, death and the power of the devil. Those things are still out there but we have redefined sin. Did anyone see where the Catholic Church as redefined the seven deadly sins for today? But it’s still sin, sin still divides us from God at times where we miss the mark, where we go wrong and God keeps offering us forgiveness and a way back in. Jesus came to die for us and to defeat death so that death does not have to separate us from God. And in the process, Jesus defeated the power of the devil. The devil is still there, still tempting us, still fighting to keep us enslaved to other ideas. But God said, “This is what I need to do for you, because I love you, because I am passionate about you. And it is for us to allow God to thaw us out to let our passion show through in our worship, in our lives and in all that we do.
You know when you come up against a person who is passionate our hope is that they are passionate for things God wants, because we know people who are passionate in other ways. Now none of you have season tickets to the Razorback games, do you? You’re not passionate about that at all; nobody watched the game last night, wearing their red and cheering and all that. It was only basketball; it was not football. But I know people—my Dad grew up in Nebraska—and if you think the people here are rabid, you need to go to Nebraska and other places like that. There are people, who in their lifetimes have never missed a game. No matter where it was, whether it was Alaska, Japan or across the world, they were there. They’re passionate. We need to be the same in our relationship with God' and in sharing our faith and in doing the things God has for us.
We need to look this week at the passion that our God has for us; and to bring that passion alive in our lives and the things that we do. We worship and are loved by a passionate God who calls us to be passionate in our relationships and in our lives. Amen! It’s challenging sometimes to be passionate because we are not sure how people are going to receive us. It’s kind of like those parents—You know we’ve tried enough and we haven’t seen any thaw on the other side, especially when we’re raising children and eventually the thaw happens, eventually children begin to realize that their parents are not as dumb as they look, that they really do know some things, and the relationship comes around. You know, Kris and I are at that point; and we have to gather together to support one another and say, yes there is another side. You will come out the other side. We have to continue to reach out and to share and be passionate, and it will thaw eventually. And as pastors, we have to realize that it may not always thaw in this generation. But as we teach and preach with young people and others we know that God is working there in our hearts. God calls us together to gain strength from one another as we worship together, as we fellowship together, and as we affirm our faith together.
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