I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
As a church, the last couple of years have been difficult–even traumatic.
This hasn’t just been in the change of pastors. For Methodist churches, that’s a stressful event, but not an unusual one; there’s a new pastor in the pulpit far more frequently than there’s new carpet on the floor.
The big change has been in denominational alignment, in going through the process of discernment, followed by disaffiliation and finally joining a brand-new denomination, the Global Methodist Church.
In many ways, the change was minimal. There are some administrative differences, but forms of worship continue as before, the music is the same, and many of our neighboring Methodist churches are still in the same family we are. Theologically many would say that the Global Methodist Church is closer to the United Methodist Church we grew up in than the modern UMC is.
But for the change to be worthwhile, it has to be a change.
And one of the changes I hope we see is suggested in this passage.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Too many Christians today seem to believe that we have to make a choice between loving our neighbor and being faithful to scripture, or that an emphasis on holiness and righteousness is incompatible with being at peace with those around us.
Return to the first verse of the passage:
I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Peace comes through listening to what God has said.
As we shape what we will be as a church in this new chapter of our community life, let’s commit to being a church where love and faithfulness really do meet together. Never use faithfulness as an excuse to not love the people around us, but also never use love for people as an excuse to turn our back on faithfully following God and his commandments.
It is not only possible to be both loving and faithful, but it it is also impossible to separate one from the other.
In his poem, “A Prayer for Children,” Charles Wesley wrote these words about uniting the head and the heart in faith:
Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love, let all men see
In those whom up to thee we give,
Thine, wholly thine, to die and live.
May we, in our life together as a church, truly show both truth and love.