Love abides and grows

Today I want to focus on the second lesson - the letter from John.  This weekend feels to me like love is in the air.  Sam and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and I talked briefly about love yesterday at the party.  It seems so appropriate this morning to talk about love because some form of that word appears 27 times in our second lesson this morning.  Twenty-seven times, I think maybe John is trying to tell us that love is important. 

There is a story told about John who spent most of his later life as an exile on Patmos Island.  It is said that John would be brought out to preach to the people and he would say, “God is love.”  Each time he said the same thing.  Someone asked when he was going to say something else, and he replied, “God is love.  When you learn this, then I will teach you something else.”  

In our second lesson, John begins, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.”  We often think of love as being a warm fuzzy kind of feeling toward other people, or an attraction to someone or something.  When Sam and I went to marriage encounter, we were taught that “love is a decision.”  It is a decision that needs to be made on a daily basis.  That funny little feeling that couples get that leads them toward marriage will not last a lifetime in the same way.  It is an attraction that can lead them toward love, but that love must mature and grow if it is to last a lifetime.   But in its early form, it is not the kind of love John is talking about here.  John uses the word, Agape, in both its verb and noun forms, throughout this reading.  

The Greeks have actually 6 words for love.  I’m only going to name 4.  There is Eros - the kind of love that is primarily sexual in nature.  It is the kind of love that keeps the species alive and can be the foundation for the bond of marriage. There is Phileo - a brotherly love or warm tender affection between people that draws them to be friends.  There is storge - the kind of love parents have for their children, it is the bond between family members.  

Then there is Agape -  Agape is defined as:   The unconditional love that sees beyond the outer surface and accepts the recipient for whom he/she is, regardless of their flaws, shortcomings or faults. It’s the type of love that everyone (should) strive to have for their fellow human beings. Although you may not like someone, you decide to love them just as a human being. This kind of love is all about sacrifice as well as giving and expecting nothing in return. The translation of the word agape is love in the verb – form: it is the love demonstrated by your behavior towards another person. It is a committed and chosen love.

Agape is the kind of love God has for us.  It is intentional.  It is God’s intention to treat us with love, even when we are not very lovable.  It is the glue that can hold a marriage together through rocky times.  It is the bond that can hold a family together when things go wrong. And it is the one thing that can hold a church together when people’s personalities rub each other the wrong way causing conflict.  Agape love is what we should be striving for as a congregation, because it is only through agape love that we will survive and grow strong.

Sam and I will be gone during this next week.  We are going on a “retreat” designed for retired clergy couples - yes, I know that I don’t always act retired.  We have been required to read a little book called “Strength for the Journey” in preparation for this retreat.  It is a little book that is designed to help us integrate all areas of life into a well-rounded balanced life.  It includes using prayer, ministry, study, movement and uses of technology and the arts to keep us centered in Christ.  Sometimes we think that going to church several times a month, and saying grace at the table before we eat and maybe a bedtime prayer is enough.  But God really wants more from us.  In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”  

I think one of the most important things is being able to hear God when he speaks to us.  It takes practice and awareness to hear God.  God will lead us, guide us, direct us, nudge us for all kinds of reasons; sometimes to help us and sometimes so that we might help others.  But we have to know what his voice in our life sounds like.  

Most of you have heard by now that I have been declared ‘cancer free’.  It was the quickest journey down cancer road that I can imagine. Two months, that’s all it was.  Now I have a medication that I am being required to take for 5 years - one pill a day.  Well, I’m going to credit God with the miracle.  The miracle is not that He took away the cancer.  He didn’t.  The miracle was in the timing.  My doctor told me he wanted me to get a mammogram.  I ignored him.  The Clear Lake Breast Center called to set up an appointment time and I said no because I just didn’t want to go through that.  About a month later they called again - and this time I said yes.  I’m sure I was nudged by the Holy Spirit.  To catch this thing at stage zero was the miracle.  The actual malignant portion was 4 mm at it’s greatest dimension. 

The surgeon and his team used their God-given talent to remove the cancer and start me on the journey to healing.  I believe that God has a purpose for each of us and he gives us our talent and our love to further his purpose on earth, whether it’s healing, or encouraging, or feeding or comforting, or teaching.  And I believe that each of us is called to grow in love, and the way we do that is by being in community.  I believe that we are called to minister to all people we meet in some way and it’s so much easier to do that when we work together.  

We only have a month left together, but God has something wonderful in the works for Grace church.  I know that you are going to be blessed by God’s plan for Grace.  You’ve hear a couple of times now about the ‘Blessing Box’ that has been proposed for Grace.  I hope that the vestry will follow through with this idea and you will all embrace the concept to make it a reality to help fight hunger in Alvin and especially in our neighborhood.  I didn’t realize until recently how large our low income community was.  The Blessing Box, especially on weekends and during the summer, may be the only source of food some children will have.  We initially stock the box and the idea is, take what you need and give what you can.  Working and praying together, Grace Church can become a beacon of hope here in Alvin.  

May God bless you and keep you, feed you and encourage you, and grow you into the church that He wants you to be.   Amen.

Peace be with you!

Listen to the sermon.

Every year, the same lesson is read for the Sunday after Easter. Last year, on the second Sunday in Easter, I preached on Thomas and the four things that he missed out on by not being there on that first Sunday when Jesus appeared to the disciples the upper room.  Those four things were affirmation, affirmation of the resurrection that Jesus was alive.  Second was the peace that Jesus offers.  Third was the sending out of the disciples; and the fourth was receiving the Holy Spirit.  This year, I want to focus on the peace that Jesus brings into our lives.

The gospel lesson says: “the disciples were locked away for fear of the Jews.”  And Jesus appears among them saying, “Peace be with you.”  I know that the disciples needed that message then, and I know that I need that message now.  I need the reality of His peace in my life right now.   And I know that I am not the only one.  

The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead, Dean of St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida, wrote a sermon focusing on “that day” -  “When it was evening on that day...  the first day of the week” - that day when everything changed.  That day may be a very different day for each of us.  It might be the day we graduated from college, or the day we married that special person, or that day when a loved one died.  It might be that day when you got that special job or opportunity, or that day when your child was born.  Or it might be that day when you were diagnosed with cancer - . . .   It was the day when everything changed...

That day was the day - when the risen Lord came into their lives offering peace; the peace that passes understanding; the peace that takes away fear and apprehension; the peace that allows you to go on.  For the disciples, this was the difference between hiding away in that upper room for fear of the Jews, and being able to go out and tell the story of the risen Lord with boldness.  It didn’t happen all at once - but over a period of 50 days, from the first day of the Resurrection until the day of Pentecost.  It was in living d growing into that peace and the power of the risen Lord that the disciples became bold witnesses to the gospel.  Now, how do we tie into that kind of power and peace?

Over the past 3 days, I have had to admit that I am very anxious - not about the cancer - I know that God will take care of it in his own way, very probably using those people who have offered up their lives to help others overcome disease and injury - the doctors and nurses, the medical personnel.  I’m not worried about the cancer.  What I find myself worried about are the procedures themselves.  To be honest, I don’t like pain or even the prospect of pain.  I don’t like to go to the dentist - although I have a great dentist - just the shot to deaden my mouth and the recovery from that, makes me wish I were somewhere else.  I suppose if the cancer was far enough along to cause me pain, I wouldn’t be so worried about the procedures.  

And God has been so very gracious - at every step of the way, but there you have it - I’m afraid.  I would beg your prayers - that our Lord Jesus sooth my anxious fears and give me the same confidence that he gave to the disciples in that upper room so many years ago.  I have been using my meditation techniques to help overcome my anxious mind and by tying into scripture such as - 

“I can do all things through God who strengthens me...”

“Lord, you do not give me anything that you and I together cannot handle...”

“Lord, give me your peace that passes understanding, and take away my anxious fears...”

You see, Satan tries to distract us from God’s love and goodness, by placing small doubts and fears in our minds.  It is in overcoming them with the promises of God that we are given the strength to move past them into the future that God has prepared for us.  It is when we are at our lowest point, that Jesus shows up - and everything changes.  “Peace be with you.  My peace I give to you.”  He soothed the anxious fears of the disciples that day in the upper room, and he can soothe our fears also.  

One of Fr. Fred’s heroes was Julian of Norwich, an anchorite who lived in the presence of God.  In one of her encounters with the risen Lord Jesus, he gave her this message: “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”  It is a message in which we understand that God created all things, and he holds them in the palm of his hand.  We belong to him and if we allow him to, he will take care of us.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite movies, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”  Dev Patel plays the part of Sonny Kapoor, the owner of the hotel.  His favorite saying is “Everything will be alright in the end.  If it is not alright, then it is not yet the end.” -  “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”

Our Lord Jesus comes to us at out lowest point, and tells us, “Peace be with you...  My own peace I leave with you.”  It is the peace that passes understanding, that takes away our fear.  It is when Jesus tells us, “Don’t worry.  I’ve got this!  I’ve got you!”   Amen.

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Hallelujah! Christ is alive!

(Shuffle papers on the lecture. Look around frantically.)  Well, where is it? I know I left it right here on the lecture – and now it’s gone. Sam, did you move it?  Gary?  Janice?  Did either of you take it with you? I know I left it right here, and it obviously isn’t here now.)  How many of you have every lost something, and you know exactly where you left it – or at least are pretty sure where you left it? But when you go back looking for it, it’s gone, just disappeared?   I think most of us have had that experience – and probably more than once in our lifetime.  It happened to me on Friday when we got in to start the noon service - We have a tendency to live pretty fast lives and especially when we are in a hurry we forget things or lay things down without thinking about it.   

Well, around 30 AD people didn’t live lives as fast as we do today. At least I hope they didn’t. They didn’t have phones ringing in their ears (literally). They didn’t have baseball and TV and movies and theater and Nascar all vying for their attention – taking them away from church and family on Easter morning. Oh, wait; they didn’t have Easter morning either, did they? 

I’m told that many years ago, there were missionaries on a remote island who were teaching a group of natives about Jesus.  These natives had never heard the gospel story.  They were filled with joy and hope as they learned about Jesus, what he did and said.  Then came Good Friday and the missionaries told them about the arrest, trial and death of Jesus.  Not knowing the rest of the story, they went away with     heavy hearts at the devastating loss of this Jesus whom they had learned to love.  Then on Sunday morning they returned to the missionaries under the shadow of death and were (as Paul Harvey would say) told the rest of the story - the resurrection.  Their joy at learning of the resurrection of Jesus was unbounded.  They leapt for joy and danced around singing and rejoicing.  I think we’ve lost that kind of response to the resurrection story.  Yes, we are happy about it, but in a reserved way.  “Oh yes, Jesus died for us, and he was resurrected and that means we will have eternal life.”  Where’s the “Hallelujah!  Christ is alive!”?  

That first Easter morning was the day after the Passover according to John.  Jesus had been buried in a hurry – but they knew he was dead and they knew he was buried and they knew exactly where he was buried – and they had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb.  So when Mary saw the stone rolled away, she was very confused.  She ran back to the disciples and told them that Jesus was gone.  Peter and John ran to the tomb.  John being younger reached the tomb first and looked in.  The scripture said that he believed – he believed that Jesus was gone. The scripture also says that they didn’t yet understand the scriptures.  Peter went inside to look around and John followed him in.  So being men, they simply decided there was nothing else they could do.  They may have believed that Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, but there was nothing more they could do.  So they let it go, and they went back home.  Not unusual for the disciples, they misinterpreted the meaning of the empty tomb. Since Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, they accepted that they would not see him again.  

Mary wasn’t quite in the same place emotionally as the men. This was something of a devastating loss for her. For many of us, it’s important to be able to go to the place where our loved one is buried. It allows us to feel close to that person – even when we know “they” aren’t there. Sitting by the graveside can become a place where we meet and speak with God about how much this person meant to us. It can be an acknowledgement that we’re going to miss them, that they were an important part of our life. Even though we know they are gone, it helps us to feel close.  

Mary had gone to weep, to mourn - to grieve in the only way she knew how - to be near Jesus even in death.  But now even that was denied her.  And she missed that opportunity to feel close – to grieve at the tomb where his body lay.  She stayed and not being able to accept that he was gone, she asked the gardener, “If you have carried him away, please tell me so that I may take him away.”  She wasn’t expecting to see Jesus – only his body, so when the person she thought was the gardener called her by name it surprised her, but she recognized the voice speaking her name.  

When we are terribly grieved; when we feel all alone; when we are lost and don’t know where to turn; it is then that the Lord speaks to us.  Through the pain and confusion, Jesus calls us by name.  And he says, “I am here.  I will sustain you.  Do not cling, but go and tell others that I live, that I will come to them also, in their hour of need.”  

The message we receive is that because Jesus has risen and has ascended to the Father, he has escaped the prison of this earthly life and is now available to anyone who need him.  There are stories of children who have never been to church, never heard the name of Jesus,` who in a time of great need meet and are sustained by Jesus.  When we feel the most lost, when we are the most hopeless, that is when Jesus comes to us, in our pain, and through our confusion.  He is there.  He is here!  He is risen.

You are called to continue the story – it is your turn to go out and to tell others that Jesus Christ has indeed risen from the dead.  Our presiding bishop, in his address from Jerusalem reminded us that “Because He lives, we can face tomorrow.”  I can face tomorrow!  You can face tomorrow!     Regardless of what tomorrow brings! 

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!