Primary Colors

(This is the text for a talk I gave @ Jefferson United Methodist Church on February 24, 2013)

What are the primary colors?

When you think of red what comes to mind? Anger, embarrassment, sunburn, heat, that pill in the movie The Matrix that would turn the characters human again?

And what about yellow? Bananas, cowardice, canaries… Did you know Superman has his powers because he lives on earth and we have a yellow star as our sun?

Then comes blue. Think blue and you think of cold, depression, loyalty, singing the blues, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, the sky…..

As you can see, we’ve connected certain emotions, experiences and attitudes with the colors that are the basis for our sight. Yet, we can take these three colors and combine them in infinite ways, and come up with the splendid array of colors, tints and hues found in the world around us. In fact, if you know the technology behind color TV, they use that idea to create the pixels that make up the picture. Up until lately, red, blue, and green were used, but they’ve figured out how to add yellow to give a more realistic image.

Adding color seems to improve things. I mean, think about The Wizard of OZ. Color was used to help us make the leap from Kansas to a magical place over the rainbow.

This is what happens when these colors are mixed. In fact, the perfect combination of primary colored lights is white light, which contains the visible spectrum of light.

So, what are the primary colors of our beliefs? I put it to you that they are Faith, hope, and love. Each in and of itself stands boldly and releases power. But in combinations, they open up new areas of vision. Each contributes its own characteristics to create new ways to view life. And, as each is a shining beacon, if all are mixed, the result is the pure white light of our Savior. It should be noted that these three frequently appear together in the NT, not separately, but as interacting gifts of the Spirit. Let’s take a look at each of these separately.

First, what is faith? If we say we have faith, we usually mean we believe in something or trust someone. It is the identification of our source for belief and trust and involves a certain amount of expectation of things that could happen.       

Mark Twain said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”                                                                                                                                        "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."  This quote is from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The word faith comes from the Hebrew word for “firmness or stability”. It only occurs in the Old Testament twice, but that book contains more examples of faith than definitions or explanations of that doctrine. Seems the carrying out of faith was more important to those writers than trying to define it.

We see examples of our fathers stepping out in faith, taking risks, believing that God is Who He says He is, and will provide what is needed. Abraham, David, Joshua, Daniel, Ruth, Esther……. All took risks, all had great faith.

In his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning gives us these words of encouragement. “The ragamuffin (that’s all of us Christian believers) who sees his life as a voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness than the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all.” We are to step out, reach out, and live out of faith, in the sheer knowledge that God will be with us, will provide what we need, and will keep us in His care. Leaps of faith may seem huge, but with God by our side, our fears can be quelled, and our apprehensions altered.
In Paul writings we find new emphasis on the indispensability of faith. Only when man has faith is he in a right relationship with God, able to understand himself and act rightly. In Hebrews 11:1-3, Paul gives us these words:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. ³By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.^”

Faith is necessary to developing a true religious experience. In its Christian meaning, Faith is our initial awareness of God and also a continuing attitude of personal trust in God. It is trust in God’s decisive action through Christ for man’s redemption. Faith is trust in the person of Jesus, the truth of His teachings, and the redemptive work He accomplished on the cross.

For Jesus himself, faith was essentially trust in God. Jesus had to trust His Father enough to face the cross as the only way to save humankind.

"The faith of the Protestants, in general, embraces only those truths, as necessary to salvation, which are clearly revealed in the oracles of God. Whatever is plainly declared in the Old and New Testaments is the object of their faith. They believe neither more nor less than what is manifestly contained in, and provable by, the Holy Scriptures.... The written Word is the whole and sole rule of their faith, as well as practice. They believe whatsoever God has declared, and profess to do whatsoever He hath commanded. This is the proper faith of Protestants: by this they will abide, and no other." John Wesley

Our faith comes out of a desire to see what could be, and to trust the journey will be worth it. We prepare our hearts in faith. To quote the song, Walk On, by U2:

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen

Such is the basis for our faith.

Let us now turn to hope.

Let’s define Hope as the anticipation that something will happen, an anticipation which can drive us forward, and keep us wiling to keep on keeping on, to use an old expression.

New Testament hope has deep roots found in the Old Testament. . In the Old Testament, the word “hope” is used to translate a variety of Hebrew words, with diverse meanings as confidence, trust, and safety. And the Greek word used in the New Testament means “expectations and desire.” So, hope has been around for quite a while, and the meaning hasn’t changed all that much, even though the OT word is closer to faith, once again proving the relationship between faith and hope. Hope stands or falls upon the dependability of faith, If one has faith, hope follows directly, being the anticipation of the fulfillment of faith. Throughout the Bible, the thought of hope fuses together the reality of God as the source and goal of expectation and the totality of faith’s response: trust, eagerness, patient endurance, and joyful assurance.

So, in this time of Lent, let’s look at the hope spelled out in Christ’s life in His final act. Jesus took the cross out of obedience to His Father’s will, and possibly in hope that it would be enough in the eyes of the world to make it want to be reconciled with the Father. There is hope found on the cross, hope that comes from One who had enough care and compassion for us that we would suffer for us, so we wouldn’t have to face the consequences of our own actions. This sacrificial deed and then His resurrection becomes the basis for our hope that we all will share in the experience of dying to ourselves and being raised again as new creations. This hope plays itself out in our willingness to share in the lessening of ourselves for the benefit of making the knowing of God by others greater. In so doing, we become more like Christ in our Father’s eyes, and less like the world.

Hope, simply put, is the desire and expectation that the Messiah will come for us, coaxing from us not only loyalty to Him, but also a type of closeness not seen in other relationships that we will extend to our neighbors.

The power of hope is conveyed from God to people through the Holy Spirit, which dwells in their hearts. Paul wirtes in  Colossians 1:25-27, ²⁵ I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. ²⁷ To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is because Christ lives within us that we have hope in our lives. This hope is evident through an unshakable confidence, with steadfast endurance, with boldness, freedom, and with love.

What are the words to that old hymn?

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

In the 21^st chapter of the book of Revelation, we find these words: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." This is my favorite Scripture, because it gives me hope of the ultimate victory of which all us believers will be a part.

Which brings us to love. Love is one of those things that gets a lot of press. Everyone seems to talk about it, from song writers to poets, to journalists to authors of self-help books, because love sells. But sometimes we lose sight of what love starts out to be.

Love is the knowledge that something has happened, and continues to happen. It is the experience and the experiencing. It is a noun in that we can identify it, but it also a verb because it is something we are commanded to do. Love is the very nature of God, according to Scripture. It is defined only by listing its attributes, and lies at the heart of Christianity. Christianity is the only religion that presents God as love.

Please listen to these words: “7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” Those are from 1 John Chapter 4: 7-16. Did you notice a couple of times, the writer gave a simple definition of love. There in verse 8, then again in verse 16- “God is love.” All human love, whether Godward or humanward, has its source in God.

C. S. Lewis, puts it this way. “Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him.”

And Brennan Manning has this to say. “The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.”

Love is vitally related to faith. Faith must become evident in service to others or it is dead. We must love God, ourselves, our neighbors, and even our enemies, without hypocrisy and in deed and truth. Love is the bond uniting all Christian virtues. What separates the real from the fake? Love.

These three things, faith, hope and love, are the primary colors of Christianity. Each – faith, hope, love- are beacons from God to illuminate our paths and guide us. Individually they provide glimpses into a better relationship with God. Each, in and of itself, can sustain us in times of joy, and in times of trouble. But, it is in the combining of them that the true glory of God begins to burst forth.

To see what Paul has to say about this integration of faith, hope, and love. Let us read Hebrews 10:19-25 – “Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

You see, as with all primary colored lights, when all shine together equally they produce white light, and that pure white light is our life in Christ.

Last week, Pastor Quincy Wheeler said it best. “Jesus comes into a colorblind world to give us true knowledge of color.” May we keep our eyes open and receive the joyous gift of all the colors in God’s creation.