Worship

Love God Above All: What a Dangerous Love Affair!

Pastor JonAlden Pedersen

About five years ago, before I came to Seminary, ten months before I met my wife, while I was still very much focused on friends, fitness, and a little bit of Martin Luther College academia I got myself into a heap of trouble. You see every September 25th on the anniversary of my dad’s death I would go off to a quiet place like the Flandrau, or that Summit overlook on campus, or there’s even a couple of silos in New Ulm that I climbed up one year, and I would just be alone. I’d listen to the same music every year and every year I entertained the question: what would my life look like if he were still here? I would never tell anyone what I was doing and generally besides my very close family, no one would ask. It was my intention that last year of Pre-Sem school to do just that, go off to a quiet place and feel sorry for myself, but my friends that last year had come to know what that day meant to me, and they decided to commemorate that day that year with me by drinking. I had too much, I got into a heap of trouble with the administration and with others.. In the wake of that very dangerous and terrible mistake, as I was picking up the pieces of the mess I made, the thought came to me to stop playing victim. Stop feeling sorry for myself. To ask instead of what would my life look like if he were still here to instead ask what would my life look like if I were able to do what he was never able to do? To raise up his children in the way of the Lord that he always wanted to but was never able to, and to watch them grow into fellow citizens of heaven. 

This new thought, or question, or quest is what drove me to continue my training and education to be a pastor and it also was what led me to Kaitlyn ten short months later. Three adventurous and edifying years after that, coincidentally on the twentieth anniversary of my dad’s death, instead of drinking till I passed out or being in a quiet place alone I was waking up throughout the night helping my wife take care of my six day old son Oliver. Now I’m doing the same thing over again with my eleven/twelve day old son Isaiah. None of this would be possible without the love of God showing itself in the word of God for me specifically in the Psalms, and through God’s people, through you. We literally could do none of this without the love of God in each and every one of you for the ministry of Salem, as well as for myself and my family.

Now with a little more context and history about me, hear me when I tell you that I love my wife and I love my children. That’s why this text in Matthew is extremely challenging for me, as it must undoubtedly be for you as well. It’s a dangerous challenge to dive into the heart of family affairs just as it is a dangerous challenge to compare your love for your family with anything else, but that is exactly what Jesus is doing in our Gospel text today for his disciples and that is exactly what our theme is today in the say it out loud series, say it with me: “LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL” What a Dangerous Love Affair! It’s a dangerous love affair because our love for him must be unlike everything else we love. It’s a dangerous love affair because you will lose your life in order to gain the life you were always meant for, eternity with your Father in heaven.

Nobody knew the danger of loving God above all quite like the disciples. Our text in Matthew consists of the final instructions Jesus gives to the twelve disciples before he sent them out to Israel very early in their ministry. Their task was dangerous by design: take nothing with you not even a penny, heal the sick, raise the dead and drive out demons. Proclaim the imminent arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven! Imagine James and John walking down the mainstreet of the first town…. Hoping they don’t run into a demon! “Alright James…you got the first one, I’ll do the second!” Could you do it? I do not know friends whether you’ll ever be able to convince me you couldn’t. These men who Jesus sent to the lost sheep of Israel were not Levites, they were not learned in apologetics or dogmatics, they were not scholars, and it pleased the Lord that they weren’t! In the next chapter Jesus rejoices: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” It pleased the Lord to reveal himself not to the scholars and the learned who knew a lot about many things, but to children, who know little about many things, but know very much about love. They were the ones who were invited to participate in Jesus’ ministry.

Over the next two years, the disciples would discover that following Jesus was far more than a thrilling adventure or a noble cause—it was a dangerous love affair that would upend their lives and cost them everything. Part of what made their task so perilous was the very thing Jesus warned them about in Matthew 10:34 “Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” He was not promising the absence of conflict, quite the opposite. The message of the Messiah would slice through allegiances, both civil and religious, cut families to pieces as some would reject what Jesus was offering, and find purchase in the hearts of all mankind regarding their rebellion against the holy God.

Yes, the love affair with the author and designer of the universe is dangerous by design, but it is also masterfully designed. The disciples testify to this truth by their very lives. In our text by going and proclaiming with nothing, but beyond Matthew 10, after the resurrection and the Great Commission, we see a case study of what happens when one truly loves God above all. Since their love for him was unlike their love for anything or anyone else, including their own families and their very own lives, to suffer and die for him is considered the highest honor, and mysteriously enough even a privilege. A privilege because no matter how dark the death is, how twisted or brutal, the light overcomes even the depths of the grave, and they are all still alive today, as the empty tomb of Christ proves: they died for the King! They lost their lives. The result? They will live forever in the kingdom that they were proclaiming, suffering, and living for.  What a privilege to know forever that their death on earth was a direct result of their love for God, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever.”

Why love God above all? Because the King is mighty to save.  Because he gives you the keys to his kingdom. Yes he brings a sword to the world because the world has returned his love with murder, violence, greed. They have rejected his love and will continue to rebel until he gathers all his citizens at the culmination of the ages and we witness him deliver the final blow to all those who would know him yet reject him, who would be granted life into this eternal kingdom but instead hold onto their former, old, selfish lives. But not us, brothers and sisters, because to us this righteous judge is also compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving our wickedness and sin.

Finally, the brilliance of God’s masterfully designed relationship with each of us individually is that it also informs us how to love one another. I mentioned at the beginning that it is a dangerous challenge to dive into the heart of family affairs, but a text like Matthew offers an opportunity for each of us to examine what kind of love dwells within and among your family. What’s more important? Your love for your family, or your love for yourself, or your love for God? And if it is the last one, then how have you shown the love of God to your family in your daily choices? Are you selfish or selfless? God grants in the days ahead an increase in love and appreciation for families, may our hearts be filled with gratitude for the people God has given each of us, old or new, for the kingdom he has given us access to participate in an live for right now, but even more and ever increasing for himself, whom he has given to us freely. Thank you Jesus, Amen.