Un Embarras De Richesses

At church today, we had a visiting priest, because our priest is on vacation. He was not old - or so it seemed to me - but he was quite stiff and limited in his movements - I'm guessing arthritis - however, he gallantly did a splendid job with the liturgy. He gave a spirited sermon, choosing as his passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus says, "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

He made the distinction between liking and loving and that we have the power of the Spirit to aid us to do what we cannot do on our own. He said that the world needs what it has always needed - love, like in the song, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love." I can't really do his sermon justice, as I don't have it before me.

I know its not according to the rubrics in the prayer book, but at the end of the service, he proceeded to ask a young boy who was celebrating a birthday to give the dismissal. The boy loved it, and did a good job of it, and the congregation gave a spirited response.

Yesterday, I had read MadPriest's wonderful sermon in which he preaches from the same passage in John and says this:

Jesus came to earth to tell people one thing: “God loves you.”

That was the gospel of Jesus. It was the good news that he, himself, while he was with us, preached. Not the good news that later Christians would see in the Christ event, but the good news.

And this:

Look, I’ll be honest with you. There are some people in this church who I don’t “lurve.” In fact, some people annoy me a little bit at times. I am certain that some of you feel the same about me. That’s life. But, I’ll tell you something. If any of you are ever in trouble or sick or dying or feeling that your world is so awful that death would be a release, then I will take the loving option and I will be there beside you. It won’t be perfect - I’m only human - but it will be the best that I can do.

Then this afternoon I read Tobias Haller's sermon on the same passage, in which he channels the same Spirit as MadPriest, from a somewhat different viewpoint:

What is vital is that the Spirit of love — God’s Spirit — should be with us even when there is strong disagreement. And if we find we cannot truly love at all times — for we are imperfect creatures and those we love can be so unlovable sometimes, and surely we ourselves are not always sweetness and light! — if we cannot truly love at our best at all times then it is important that we at least act as if we loved at all times.

....

...The wonder is that if even a simulated love can become genuine, how much more can a real will to love, an enduring, patient love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things? This is the hard love, a love that weighs something, and it is often not easy to bear. But it is important, so vitally important that we bear it — that we bear with each other.

What riches! Three sermons in two days, and I will probably read more before next Sunday comes. I suppose that not everyone would agree that it is riches to have three sermons of a weekend. However, each, it its way, sheds light on Jesus' call to love both the lovable and the unlovable among us. The Gospel call to love one another has little to do with our "feelings" toward each other, for what Jesus calls us to do is the work of the Kingdom of God, whatever our "feelings". By the grace of God we do what we must do, and if it involves "acting as if", then so be it.

I think of the members of my congregation, whom God has called together to love one another, to bear each other's burdens. Sometimes the going is smooth; other times I'm rubbing against their rough edges, even as they rub against mine. We're a motley crew, but God has summoned us to be his people of love in this place and this time.

Alleluia! Thanks be to God.