Infatuation or Love
Song of Songs 2:8-13; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke, Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church; Carmel, IN
September 1, 2024; Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Do you remember your first real crush? That first great longing, so intense you couldn’t stand being apart? Remember how you would do anything, travel anywhere, just to be together? “You want to have supper at that restaurant? Sure, let’s go. You want to watch that movie? Sure, let’s watch it. You want to go to that concert eight hours away? Our parents won’t mind. Sure, let’s go!” Time, money, distance meant nothing. You would do anything to please your beloved.
The ardent gazelle, peering through the window. “Arise my darling. Arise my beautiful one and come with me.”
But after a while, did the ardor cool? Was being apart less and less painful? Was pleasing your beloved less and less important? Did you realize what you were feeling wasn’t love but infatuation? Just infatuation?
How do we show our love for God? As Christians, we know our greatest joy is growing closer and closer to God. As Christians, our greatest joy is loving God more and more. But how do we do that? What does that look like?
The pharisees believed we love God by following tradition. “Following the old ways, the ways of ritual purity, is what matters. That’s true love. Show me someone following the purity laws of the elders, and I’ll show you someone who genuinely loves God.”
Jesus responds by saying, No. Jesus says, “You fundamentally misunderstand. Purity is a good thing, but what makes us impure is not what happens to us. It’s not something from outside making us impure. We don’t become impure by touching someone or eating something. Impurity doesn’t come from outside.”
Jesus says impurity comes from inside. Impurity comes from
what bubbles up out of our inner selves and makes us impure. Things like sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21b–22).
This is not an exhaustive list. Plenty of other things can lead to impurity. But there’s enough here to draw a conclusion. What do these all have in common? They all hurt someone. They all pull people down. When we do these things, they cause pain to others. That’s what makes us impure. Hurting others makes us impure.
Purity is good. And sometimes purity is a sign of love. But some purity is just infatuation. Are we in love with God, or is it just infatuation?
James picks up this same theme, making much the same point as Jesus. Some people are infatuated with God. They own lots of Bible. They quote lots of scripture. But owning Bibles and quoting scripture isn’t the same as honoring God. It’s certainly not the same as loving God. Owning a Bible and knowing our scripture is good thing, but it’s not the same as loving God.
Loving God, James says, loving God is about how we treat the powerless. It’s about staying away from those behaviors that hurt others. Let me say that again. Loving God is about how we treat the powerless. It’s about staying away from those behaviors that hurt other people.
Loving God is not about outward purity. Loving God is not about owning Bibles or quoting scripture. Loving God is not about wearing modest clothes or offering the best prayer at a family Thanksgiving. All those things are good, but they’re not loving God. At best, they’re just signs of infatuation.
Loving God is about caring for the powerless and lifting people up. Loving God is about caring for the powerless and lifting people up.
So where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? Do we love God? Do we love God with the fervor of a first crush? When we look at our behavior, when we look at how we’re living, do we see love? Are we caring for the powerless? Are we building people up? Or are we giving lip service? Are we mouthing platitudes and leaning towards those behaviors that hurt people and bring them down?
If you’re not satisfied with your relationship with God – if you’re more interested in being pure on the outside than on the inside, if lifting up the powerless doesn’t excite you, if it feels as if some of the ardor and passion has gone out of your relationship – don’t panic. We can turn back. We can go from infatuation back to love.
It’s simple, really. Spending more time with God. Worshipping, praying, Bible study, mission. Spend more time with God, practicing pure religion, and the ardor will return. I know. Believe me, I know.
Beloved, God loves us. God loves us with the passion of a lovesick teenager. The gazelle has come to our window and is gazing at us with intense desire. Will we stay safe in our room of ritual purity and empty platitudes, or will we arise and follow, caring for the powerless and lifting people up? Amen.
