Sermon for July 27th

“Neither death, nor life can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Well, that sounds nice, but is it true? Could it really be true for you? It’s a bold statement from someone who doesn’t know you. Who doesn’t know the details of your life. It’s a great idea, but when push comes to shove, doesn’t God finally have to condemn someone to eternal damnation?

So then, what do you think is that last straw before God kicks you out of the kingdom? Is it suicide? Or abortion? Or rape? Or murder? Abuse, divorce, premarital sex? Or is it a little more subtle than all that, maybe just a lackadaisical attitude about going to church or a general boredom with religion. Everyone figures that there must be some wrong move when God just shuts the door for good. Maybe you just never knocked the right way.

Do you ever wonder if you are doing something wrong . . . maybe even right this very second? Or maybe you know that have done something wrong, horrible in the past? Maybe, despite your good behavior in public, you have a secret life that nobody else knows. Over the phone. Or on the internet. On business trips. Or maybe just in your own imagination. Maybe you are sure that you’ve separated yourself from God with your sins and you just haven’t figured out how to get back into his good graces yet.

I bet that even right now you, all of you, can think of lots of ways that you might not be cutting it in God’s eyes. And even if you are not self-aware enough to see your hidden faults, none us have a problem seeing the faults of those around us. In fact, if you can’t think of one of your faults, please raise your hand and someone here will surely help you out. Maybe you don’t think that you’ve gone past the point of no return with God, but you are afraid that you know someone who has.

I would like to introduce you this morning to a Christian Hip-Hop artist named Agape. Hip-Hop is a style of music somewhere between Rap and R&B. I met Agape in Minneapolis during a class and he gave me one of his CD’s for free. I believe that his words can help us all see this passage from Romans in a new light, the harsh light of reality, of real life. To really answer the question honestly, can anything separate you from God’s love?

I will read his words for you, so that you can understand them better. I also wrote a couple of stanzas on my own that I hope will be helpful as well. If you want to hear the whole song, or my verses in a hip-hop style, talk to me after the service. But for now, here’s your assignment. Answer this question for yourself: Is there something that can separate you from the love of Christ?

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Picture a queen with a style that would light up the room
Picture a scene where her smile was like a perfume
She had a dream as a child that was right in the womb
It didn’t seem that somehow it was happening soon
She wanted to be a ballerina dance on the moon
At fifteen all her ballerina plans are doomed
Her family serves low self-esteem for breakfast
She wears all her heart-felt dreams for a necklace
A pretty southern miss, why’d she cut her wrists
Her daddy wasn’t there so she commits a hug and kiss
She started clubbin with no rubbers had a couple kids
She used to drop it like its hot, she needed oven mitts
She discovered his lovin was on another tip
She felt unlovable, unworthy and unequipped
One trip to the altar, with the flock stopped and called her
The rock of Gibraltor--shocked them all a lot
Now she’s involved with the rock and they call him the solid rock
You can’t stop this, you can’t knock this,
all the walls in the world can’t block this.
Nothing can separate her from the L-O-V-E of the creator.
Not death, nor life, can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Newlyweds there is a joyful dream,
But hopes and plans are not all what they seem,
Years later they got a house, great jobs, no children
Tears, doctors, prayers have not fulfilled them.
Her life, a empty womb, a great mother around,
Kind empty words are the only sound,
Of her friends, tryin to support her, askin and pryin,
She tries to keep a smile but inside she is cryin,
How to keep on goin, when this dream won’t come,
God blesses some others while he won’t bless one,
They keep tryin , invetro fertilization,
Negative results, they keep on tryin to patient.
A mother and a father with no kids of their own,
In all other ways, God’s love to them is shown,
But not this one and this one always aches,
Every child’s smile you’d think their hearts would break,
One day, a decision, doctor’s trips are stoppin,
Still to God lots of prayers will keep on Knockin,
Someday I hope of them a family God will make,
But for now from God’s love they’ll never separate.
Not death, nor life, can separate us, from the love of Christ.

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Sirens blazin it’s time to go
Where’s the fire? Hey nobody knows.
Volunteers jumpin in their cars real fast,
Phone call brought em, too much time has past.
No fire this time, but abuse at home.
Volunteers search they hear an awful groan,
A kid, on the floor, not even cryin
It might be breathin, but it’s probably dyin.
In a town this small, it was too hard to confess,
So baby took the brunt of pain and lonliness,
What to do, take too long, for pastor to come here,
This kid needs to know God’s love is near.
Get some water, before this baby’s one last breath,
Did it know God’s love, that was anyone’s guess,
So a fireman spoke God’s promise, in that place
So that baby would always live within God’s grace.
Baptized in the name of Father, Son and Spirit,
Little one, almost gone, did he even hear it?
Evil and sin have made their one last stand,
Now, nothin can snatch that baby from God’s hands.
Not death, nor life, can separate us from the love of Christ.

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In this next story where we start,
here’s the sad chapter of these high school sweethearts
It was hard to be apart, he in his brigade,
had a couple more missions and he’d come home when he got paid.
Everyday, She would choke tears back,
she was so scared that he would die any day.
Anyway, she went up she got a call.
two-year-old baby there man she saw it all.
We regret to inform you that your husband is gone,
He served his country well and his legacy will live on.
She dropped the phone like the bombs that her husband was close to,
She tried to calm her baby like a mother’s supposed to,
All she wanted now was just one more kiss
She prayed to God that it wouldn’t have to end like this.
She heard twenty-one guns, watched them fold the flag
It wasn’t real, she hoped that he might come back,
They said your husband was a stallion of his battalion
His effort was valiant so they gave him a medallion
She didn’t want that, she wanted him back,
So with tears in her eyes and her daughter on her lap, she cried
Not death, nor life, can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Can you separate yourself from God? Well yes! In fact, you do it all the time, but nothing can separate you from God’s love. Jesus says, “I love you and I am determined to make you mine.” He just can’t help himself. He is here to give you everything he has, an entire heavenly kingdom, his body, his blood, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life. He can’t keep away from you because nothing will separate you from his love.

Can anything or anyone, separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? No, nothing. Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? No. Nothing. Nothing will separate you from the love of Jesus Christ. Will unwed pregnancy, infertility, alcoholism, drugs, anorexia, rape, abuse, abortion, war or death separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? No. Not even that. Nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus says, “I am in love with you and I died on the cross to show you how much. To show you how very far away from me you choose to separate yourself and how very close to you I am and will always be.” Amen.






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