It’s all about love

Ezekiel 43:1-7a; John 14:15-21

On Friday evening, Mike and I went to supper with our friends at the Chinese Buffet in Inverness. Over refilled plates and good conversation and bad jokes, we enjoyed our time together. At the end of the meal, of course, we opened our fortune cookies. Most of them were pretty simple: mighty oaks grow out of tiny acorns. But mine was this: Cherish the love that surrounds you: it’s a testament to your heart’s capacity to remember. Well, I thought, there’s the opening to my sermon. So there you have it! It’s all about love!

Today’s Gospel reading should feel familiar. Jesus said: “My commandment is simple: love one another.” When we keep this commandment, we will know God’s presence is always with us. It’s a cycle: God loves us, we love others, and through loving others we love God. OR, God loves us, we love God, and through loving God, we show others how much God loves them and us.

But, over the centuries, people have added contingencies. Sure, we will love others, but just not those others, because they are icky. And then we go on to define why they are icky.

It can be simple things … their hair is too long or too short; their skin is too light or too dark; they say y’all instead of you all.

Or it can be complex things … they pray five times a day or not even once; they are pacifists or warmongers; they don’t earn enough to pay taxes, or they earn enough to avoid paying taxes. 

…It can be hard to love everyone, because it’s in our biology to be wary of those who are different. The built-in automatic fight or flight response is easily triggered when we are confronted by those who look, or sometimes think, differently than ourselves.

 When I moved to Chicago to attend seminary, all students were issued whistles along with our keys. We were warned about walking alone at night, and we were informed that the University of Chicago had its own police force and would respond much faster than any city police could. They knew to respond to the whistles.

With those thoughts in my mind, I walked to a nearby grocery store to pick up a few things. I noticed a group of young men in hoodies gathered on the corner where I planned to cross the street. Uncertain, I crossed in the middle of the block, so I could avoid them. I had no reason to be afraid of those young men, except they fit the profile I had been warned about. I used reason, choosing safety just in case, but clearly, my fight or flight response had been triggered as well. I feared those young men long before I could get to know them, and then come to love them.

… Last Friday was the feast day of St Julian of Norwich, a beloved mystic from the 1300s. She lived in turbulent times: the hundred-year-war between England and France was on-going; there were pandemic diseases like the black plague. The Church was all-powerful, and taught that if you died without confessing your sins, you were going to hell.

Julian was on her deathbed at age 30. The family had called in a priest to hear her confessions, and as she looked at the crucifix the priest held, she had what she called Shewings (in Middle English) or Showings. In 16 visions spaced over 2 days, she had conversations with Jesus, who taught her that God is love. Because God loves us, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

She survived her illness and wrote them down, the first writing by a woman in English, in a book called Revelations of Divine Love. She spent the rest of her life interpreting these shewings and counseling those who came to her. Julian became an anchorite, a person who lived in a small cell attached to a church building. For Julian, God was all about love.

…  The Ezekiel passage connected to today’s Gospel tells us that God lives among us. In this moment, the glory of God comes to fill the temple. God promises, “The soles of my feet are on this land and I will dwell with the people forever.” In John, Jesus promises that his spirit will be with us, as an advocate, a comforter, an encourager. So, the glory of God has left the building and walks among us, now known as God’s Holy Spirit.

God’s Holy Spirit, sent to us by Jesus, makes God visible, or at least sense-able, in our world. We can sense God’s presence in a hospital room, during baptism, at the table where we can taste Jesus’ body and blood, among a group of friends. And where God is present, so is love.

 In a few minutes, we will offer the opportunity for you all to come forward to receive a sign of Jesus’ love for us in the mark of oil on your forehead and the hands laid upon you. We offer this not with the expectation that you will be physically healed, though that would be wonderful if it happened, but as a reminder of the love that brings healing to all of us.

 … I wonder where you all find love. How do you give love? Are there some people you find hard to love? It can be hard to imagine that God loves everyone, but that’s how it has to be for God’s love to work. We respond by loving God as well as we can, and by loving each other, also as well as we can. And God loves us in our imperfect efforts. Amen