Movie Night

I am on vacation so I won't be posting a sermon this week.  Vacation is not only a break from the routine, it brings an opportunity to see things through the eyes of a bright three-and-a-half-year-old.  And that includes seeing movies I might not ordinarily see.
On this trip we watched *Frozen* with our grandson.  I’m sure he was more excited by the talking snowman Olaf and the wise reindeer Sven than he was by the plot twists and story of how life-changing “true love” doesn’t have to be romantic love—though the film has its share of that.
On that note, there was a curious song, sung by some winsome trolls, describing a major character as “a little bit of a fixer-upper.”  He was, it seems socially "impaired" and, though clean, sometimes smelled of reindeer.  In the end, the song proclaimed "everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper" and asserts "the only fixer-upper fixer/that can fix a fixer-upper is...love" [there's a surprise].
Over the years, Disney has often stumbled across some profound truth, one that is bigger than any story of princesses and evil-schemers.  It hasn't always been true, of course.  We can only imagine how many children refused to eat apples after that whole Snow White incident.  But the notion that love changes people may be a keeper.
As a Christian, I recognize it as a fundamental theme of the gospel.  Individuals trapped by self-destructive behavior, rooted in estrangement from God, an estrangement sometimes manifested in hatred of God are changed when they are loved by that very God they hated.  John makes the profound statement:  " We love because God first loved us." (I John 4:19)
Often translated, "we love God," the verb actually has no stated object.  So, many translations (including the ASV, NIV, and ESV) do render it as simply "we love."  Given John's devotional intensity,  the notion of God's love inspiring love for God is probably included but the statement certainly has other thought-provoking implications.
Could he be saying that God's love for us "fixes" our capacity to love others?
  At the risk of reading too much into John's statement, psychologists do know that children who feel unloved often find it difficult to love.  Now imagine knowing for sure that the Creator of the universe loves you.  More than that, the Most Holy loves you, even though you are a broken "fixer-upper."
By no means do I wish to suggest that only Christians--those aware of God's love manifested through Jesus Christ--know how to love.  But his words surely suggest that the Christian, being aware of that love manifested through Jesus Christ, has no excuse to be unloving.  Put more simply, when we Christians really understand what happened on the cross we can never justify failing to love God or another.
That's a tough statement to make because we do so often fail to love.  We do convince ourselves we are justified being angry at God or, if we're honest, even hating God when we face trial, tragedy, or loss.  We do convince ourselves that some individuals just don't deserve to be loved, as if we always deserve love.   Still, John's words seem to imply that love should be the natural response to the love of God.
Because this "natural response" is often so unnatural, we need to keep the cross in sight.  One result of the Reformation was a tendency among Protestants to regard the crucifix as an inappropriate Christian art form.  In some places they were even outlawed and considered as evidence of "heresy" (being a secret Roman Catholic).  While I understand that the empty cross, a symbol favored by Protestants, is meant to recall both the crucifixion and the resurrection, I believe the crucifix has some evocative value.
Several years ago, while on a vacation, our family toured one of the oldest churches west of the Mississippi.  It was a Roman Catholic church founded by French settlers in what would become Ste Genevieve, Missouri.  Just inside the doors there is a large crucifix; as our boys stood staring at the image of Jesus who was depicted with the crown of thorns, nails in feet and hands, and wound in his side, one of the boys remarked, "They are really mean to him, weren't they?"  That statue did more to convey the ugliness of Jesus' death than any words I might have used.
I'm not saying every Protestant church needs a crucifix, but I do think we must be sure we never forget what the cross means.  We must never forget it is true love's sacrifice.  We must never forget that God demonstrated his love for us when "while we were still, sinners Christ died for us."  When Christians fail to love we may be sure they have forgotten the cross.
In recent years several books have appeared that deal with the same phenomenon, the growing perception that Christians are hate-filled.  As evidence, our accusers point to groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church or to the some of the words of individuals like the late Jerry Falwell.  While Westboro has lost its fiery leader and Falwell eventually apologized for some of his most vicious remarks, the accusation against Christians in general and evangelicals in particular continue to be made.
That such accusations are often unfair can be demonstrated by a simple review of the facts regarding charitable giving by Christians and acts of compassion by the church throughout history.  But that is largely irrelevant because the books containing those reviews of the facts probably won't be read by the average person listening to the criticism.
In the centuries immediately following the death of the apostles, Christians were sometimes accused  by civil authorities as "haters of mankind."  The accusation was used to justify persecution.  In time, however, the average non-Christian stopped believing the propaganda.  Why?  The love demonstrated through the lives of the Christians.  Such love was demonstrated not only as Christians cared for their own but as they cared for others.  To mention a famous example:  While non-Christians usually fled plague infested cities, Christians remained behind caring for their sick and the abandoned sick who had been left behind when their relatives fled.  This prompted one historian to say these Christians "outlived" their critics.
The trolls were right.  Love can "fix" a "fixer-upper."  Love has done much to fix me, though I'd still qualify for fixer-upper status.  Chances are love has fixed you.  Chances are you know a "fixer-upper" who needs love.