When Love is Impure

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.  

                                          1 Corinthians 13:4-8

What happens when love is used to manipulate, to bruise, to abuse? That kind of love is not agape love, not Godly love. That kind of love seeks power and control; it seeks victory. That kind of love blasphemes the Holy One who is the center of all.

This week, as you assess your relationships, do a version of the Ignatian Examen. Think about your interactions with others and especially about your relationships with those you love.  Did you offer love? Did you seek to be "right?" Did you ask how your loved one was feeling or did you seek, instead, how to make your feelings known? Did you listen? Or did you demand to be heard? 

Bring yourself into the presence of God. Re-read the quote from 1st Corinthians above.  Sit with it. This passage contains all things necessary to evaluate our relationships. Finally, give thanks to the Holy One who loves us perfectly and who is neither self-seeking nor easily angered.  

People may forget the things you did with them and the gifts you bought for them, but they will never forget how  you made them feel. 

Trinity

This Sunday, the Church will observe Trinity Sunday.  Trinity Sunday always follows on the heels of the Feast of Pentecost – and every year, priests will jokingly say to one another, "I've got to find a deacon to preach ne this Sunday!"   Why is that? Why are priests so reluctant to preach on the doctrine of the Trinity? 

I believe that it's because the Trinity, as a concept, is impossible for most of us to get our heads around. One God in three persons? Huh? What does that mean?  Minds far greater than mine have tried to explain this mystery and failed miserably. Many have been accused of heresy. The Trinity seems simply inexplicable. 

The above quote from 2nd Corinthians gives us a formula to help us come to terms with this mystery. Grace and love and communion are all essential for the whole to be possible. Without grace, there can be no love. Without love, there can be no communion, Without communion there can be no grace. 

We are drawn into the power of God's grace, love, and compassion because its centrifugal force is irresistible. The centrifugal force that is God holds the world together: it holds the stars in the sky and the waters in their oceans, and our bones to our skin. We cannot parse it. We cannot explain it.

We must simply rest in the fact that it is -- and give thanks. 

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Creativity

There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan,

which you have made for the sport of it. Psalm 104:27

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think God is capricious.  But there is that Leviathan, which the Psalmist accuses God of “making for the sport of it.” Perhaps “the sport of it” might be better translated as “for its whimsy.”

So much of God’s creativity is whimsical.  Think of baby lemurs, milkweed pods, and the Northern Lights. Or perhaps peacocks, baby giggles, and rainbows. Or giraffes – what was God thinking when God created giraffes? The list goes on and on. Each are gifts from God for us to delight in. Not to dominate. Not to kill. Not to exploit. To delight in.

God takes delight in us when we enjoy those things God has created for the sport of it.

Enjoy. Enjoy them all. 

Truth and Lies

Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”  John 14: 18-19
 

 

               
 

That’s a promise.  I am grateful that God's promises to us are true. When God promises that he will never leave us or forsake us, when Jesus promises us that he will not leave us orphaned, we know those things to be true.  That’s the rock on which we stand.  We know we can rely on God’s Word.

God gave Moses the 9th Commandment (“Thou shall not be a false witness’) for our protection. God loves us that much! God knows the damage and pain that can result from a lie; what a single lie can do to our sense of safety and to our relationships. God wants to shield us from the pain of estrangement and disconnection. 

Our task as Christians is to understand not only the truth of God’s words to us, but also to understand how easily we can slip away from God when the truth is not in us. Truth telling is important. Trusting each other is important.  Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

We are called to be Truth-tellers.

Stoning and Scapegoating

Stephen said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But the people covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him;     

Acts 7: 56-58

Maxim Sheshukov MAXIM SHESHUKOV, The Martyrdom of St. Stephen the Archdeacon. Egg tempera on gessoed panel

The stoning of Deacon Stephen is one of the tragedies of he early church. He spoke truth – truth as he had seen and experienced it – and the people turned on him and stoned him. His own people!            

This lesson from Acts is important for us, because it speaks so directly to us. As a community of Christians, to whom have we closed our ears? Who have we stoned? Who do we exclude because of their politics or their race or their experiences?

Civility is breaking down in American culture: punch-fests on airplanes, pushing and shoving in departments stores, and gun violence because somebody looked at somebody the wrong way. Add to that the “You disagree with me so I’m going to take my toys and go home” mentality. All of this speaks to the dis-ease which is infecting American culture.

Look at the included art today: Stephen being stoned. Then look to the top left. That’s the hand of God. The hand of God reaching down and beckoning to us. Always there, ever-present. That is the hand we must extend to those we may have stoned, fought with, dismissed, or avoided.

Christ has no hands or feet on earth but ours.  

Sacramental Hospitality

Now on that same day, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  Luke 24:13-15

 

           "Emmaus"  Sr. Mary Stephens

We’ve read the “Footprints in the Sand” story and we’ve sung along to the song  "In the Garden” and we know “He walks with me and He talks with me,” but C’mon.          

There is a mysteriousness, an ephemeral impermanence to these encounters that can leave us feeling shaky – not quite sure of ourselves. And so we fall asleep with that nagging question, “Was that real, or did I just imagine it?”   

The disciples, still sad, glumly walking to Emmaus, were face to face with the Risen One, and didn’t recognize him.  And Jesus, it seems, was content to move on without ever revealing himself to them, until, the text tells us, “they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is nearly now over.’”

It was their hospitality, their urging, that drew the Risen One back into their midst and gave him opportunity to reveal himself. The question we must ask ourselves is whether there is enough room for him in our lives. Are we offering the Lord enough place in our hearts and lives that he will accept our invitation to come in? 

Faith and Doubt

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.  John 20: 30-31

         "On Faint and Doubt"              Nick Piiero

“So that you may come to believe…..” is one of the most hope-filled lines in all of scripture.

Most of us have questioned the reality of God, or whether the Resurrection really happened, or if being  part of a faith community is worth our time and energy. No doubt, some of us have tried to discover God while sitting on a mountaintop, or by walking a beach, or by sipping coffee on a Sunday morning while reading the New York Times.  Faith is a process, after all.

But grounded, mature faith takes community and relationships with others who are on the same well-worn path. Faith takes tending and digging and retelling the stories of Jesus’ life in order to make them our own.  Thomas would not have believed if his friends had not told him that Jesus was alive; nor will ours.

Who are we telling about Jesus? How are we supporting each other in community so that those who struggle may come to believe?

For that is Christ’s call to us.