Sermon: Living a Three Dimensional Life; Part 2 Width

Last week, I began a three part sermon series on Living a Three-Dimensional Life. I described the dimensions as length, which is the relationship we have with ourselves; width, the relationship with have with our fellow human beings, which is our focus today; and finally height, our relationship with God. Last Sunday we began by talking about the living fully in the length dimension. I think this was a good starting point because we must first and foremost have a good relationship with ourselves and we must be confident in our strengths and weaknesses before we can venture out into the world. Now that we have covered the starting point we can move into the second dimension, width.

The width dimension is the relationship we have with other people. Unless we live in the woods or in Antarctica, we are going to run into and interact with other people. We are part of a planet full of people, at the time this sermon was written on Friday there were 6,529,721,270 people living on planet Earth and it is growing, that means more people are being born than are dying, in fact by this time next year the US Census predicts that Earth will top 6.6 billionBy 2050, the US Census predicts, that the world’s population will exceed 9 billion. . So, if you don’t have a good relationship with other people you’re going have some serious problems. Therefore, learning how to interact with each other, or people skills will be imperative to living a happy, abundant life, and that is how God wants us to live.

Have any of your ever heard of a movie called, Six Degrees of Separation? The basic premise in that movie is that every person on Earth is separated by no more that six other people. In other words, I know someone, that knows someone x5 that knows President Bush, or George Clooney, or Oprah Winfrey, or Osama Bin Laden. I don’t know if all that is true but I DO know that we are all connected somehow. I have found this to be very true, especially here a Rehobeth and Liberty. I told my mom the other day that I needed to get a white board and mark all the connections that people have in these two churches. I would probably dry up my magic marker. I told someone the other day not to say anything bad about anyone else because everyone around here knows everyone else and those phone lines will stay hot as the summer asphalt. But the connections are not just on a local scale. I bet if we sat down and thought about with between just the few of us in this room this morning we could name someone we knew in every state in the union. We have connections all over the country. But it doesn’t stop there. Think about your routine this morning. You slept on a pillow made in Indonesia or Taiwan, you turned on a faucet to wash your face that was made in Mexico, your turned your TV on that was made in Japan, your drank your coffee that was grown and picked by someone in Columbia or Madagascar, or you drank some tea that was grown in India, you put on some clothes made in China, and you drove your car here with parts from all over the place. My point is that however, much we may think or wish that we were isolated; we cannot help but to be connected to other people all over the world.

We are connected economically, as we have just seen and we are all connected politically, although most of us do not have much to say in that department, except on Election Day. We are connected in many ways but one way that we should all strive to connect with each other is the way that it seems few of us are connected and that is in love. Christ taught his disciples how to deal with situations, he taught them to interact in love and that is the key to living a fully in the width dimension.

Love is the most important emotion we have as humans. I have preached several sermons on the topic of love and I do so because I truly believe that love is the only thing that will solve the world’s problems. I am not going to speak politically because I don’t feel that it is appropriate to do so behind the pulpit but I do feel that love is the key that God gives humans in order to work out problems. I am not saying that love itself solves the problems, that is not by just simply by loving someone do we solve conflict, and that is not what Jesus taught, but love gives us the tools that we need in order to solve conflict.

Paul gives a description of solving problems with love or what he calls a “more excellent way”. Paul describes love as patient, kind, not boastful, arrogant, or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it rejoices in truth not in lies or deceit. This is the formula to solve the conflicts there are in the world as well as the conflicts we have in our own lives. Patience, kindness, humbleness, not to insist on our own way, gentleness, and honesty, these aspects of love are the keys to solving conflict. Many people want to preach that Jesus wanted us to roll over at the first sign of conflict but this is not what he was talking about when he said love your enemy. He meant to use these keys of love in your conflict management and if you do solutions will always come.

Last week we talked about balance and how God’s intention is for the world to live in balance. There is a lot on hate in the world right now. All we have to do is flip on the news to find that out. The antidote to hate is love. So as much hate there is in the world we must counter act that with love and do not return hate with hate. Gandhi said once that “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” we have to stop retaliating and start solving conflict with the keys of love. Love is the only thing that will save the world from annihilation. We should have love in everything we do. Paul said that even the most intelligent preacher or teacher, even the most brilliant scientist, or the most insightful politician is nothing absolutely nothing without love. Love is the thing that holds the world together and as we have heard in sermons past, God is love and so therefore God connects all human life that he created special.

God’s will is for all of humanity to work together as one. He created us all differently with different strengths and weaknesses, but when we join together and work together then our different strengths are united and there is nothing that cannot be done.

The width dimension is vital to our survival as humans and to our happiness as individuals and the key to living fully in the width dimension is living in love. There are a lot of people out there, streets and stores are getting more crowded and the heat makes everyone grumpy. However, we have to remember that we are the ambassadors of Christ and if anyone should live fully with the keys of love it is us and if we love everyone, even those who hate us, maybe someday a difference can be made.

Legend has it that a wealthy merchant traveling through the Mediterranean world looking Paul, encountered Timothy, who arranged a visit. Paul was, at the time, a prisoner in Rome. Stepping inside the cell, the merchant was surprised to find a rather old man, physically frail, but whose serenity and magnetism challenged the visitor. They talked for hours. Finally the merchant left with Paul’s blessing. Outside the prison, the concerned man inquired, "What is the secret of this man’s power? I have never seen anything like it before."
"Did you not guess?" replied Timothy. "Paul is in love."
The merchant looked bewildered. "In love?"
"Yes," the missionary answered, "Paul is in love with Jesus Christ the merchant looked even more bewildered. "Is that all?"
Smiling, Timothy replied, "Sir, that is everything."

It is everything and Christ is the source for the kind of love that can move mountains, the kind of love that can save marriages, the kind of love that can stop war, and the kind of love that is the salvation of humanity. We cannot love like Paul wants us to love without Christ, without Christ’s teachings and without Christ in our hearts. Jesus loved so much he gave freely of himself. He loved so much that he was beaten and humiliated, and crucified for us, all of us. He never was a pushover and he never was a wimp, but he used love as a weapon to conquer hate and conquer evil. We have to same opportunity every day to combat hatred with love and it is love that will be victorious. Living in love means to live fully in the width dimension, it is not easy, in fact it is harder than anything but the rewards far outweigh the sacrifice.