Love

I.

Oh sweet blessed gift

Filling me, spilling over
Like a waterfall.

II
Who are we to love?
Our neighbor, Jesus tells us, 
Even those we fear.

III.
Love brings down walls
And builds bridges between us,
Make us neighbors.

IV
All love involves risk.
Jesus knew that, on the cross,
Love poured out for all.

V
Oh sweet blessed Gift
Filling us, spilling over
Like a waterfall.

(Photo: Philadelphia Flower Show, March 2017)

Love

Who would have thought
That these two, with ideologies at the opposite end of the spectrum
Could be
Friends.
Philia.

Loving someone
Is difficult enough when it is someone one actually likes
And whose beliefs are similar to one's own.

But, to love those with whom we disagree or
Love those whose practices hurt those we truly love?
How is it possible?

How is it possible to love someone
Who wants to build walls instead of bridges?
How is it possible to love those whose hate
Is practiced through unspeakable violence?

Yet, there is Jesus
Telling us to love our neighbors as ourselves,
And calls upon us to love our enemies.
Easier said than done, Jesus.

But, maybe by loving our enemies
We see them as human, as children of God
And, maybe by loving our enemies
We can start a conversation
That opens the door
To better understanding.

Look to Jesus
Who risked it all
To love those who hated him.

X, Christ for us

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday

What words have I to say
When on this evening we remember
How you served us -
     washing our feet,
How you fed us,
     giving us bread and wine that meant something more?
And the only job you gave us was
To love. Love one another.

What words have I to say
When on this afternoon we remember
How you, the Christ
(with an "x" - a cross - even for your name),
Serve and feed us still on that wood.
And, what of your command to love?

My God, what have we done?

Today from the cross on which we put you
(hunger, war, hate, injustice, waste, greed)
I hear your cries directed at us,
"Why have you forsaken me?"

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Provoke

‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’, he also adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 

Hebrews 10: 16-18, 23-25

I love these passages. There is a lot of good stuff in these words! Here are a few things that I am thinking about:

•  "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Let's keep this simple: If God does that for us, why can't we do that for each other? I am reminded of Joan Baez's song, "God is God." I'm not God, you're not God - God is God. So why do we keep judging others as if we were God? Why should I remember the sins of others - and who am I to keep account of them?

• "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful." What do we hold fast to these days? There is always something new coming our way - and we let go of what is old and move on to the new. We have no rock, nothing to hold onto in this world. In addition to all that, our world, on some days looks quite grim. What kind of world will be left for our children and our children's children? But, God is the constant, God is our hope who we cling to. For me this is a good reminder that no matter how bleak things appear, that I can put my hope and trust in God. Where everything else in this world cannot be depended upon, God is the one in whom I can depend.

• "And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds...encouraging one another." When I was a child, my brothers and I would provoke each other incessantly. We weren't provoking one another to love! We were provoking each other to anger. Children do that kind of thing. You would think we would outgrow that.  But, now we are all only grown up children who allow the likes of Donald Trump and Glenn Beck to provoke us to be angry and fearful. Provoking with untruths. They are addressing our baser selves. It's not pretty. They provoke us in unhealthy ways, we provoke others - and the cycle continues. What if, what if we provoked others to love? Good deeds? What if we encouraged one another instead of hoping that the other fails?  How absolutely counter cultural this is!

On this holy Good Friday, may we remember, God, that in Jesus, you have forgiven our sins; that through Jesus, we can live in hope; and that with Jesus, we are called to provoke one another to love!

P.S. Here is Joan singing  "God is God." There are other versions on youtube. Check them all out to find your favorite version of this song!

Knowing

"....we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." Romans 5:3b-5

Knowing changes things.

Today I saw a theme running through the three lessons for this Sunday. They all have something to do with "knowing." The Israelites, stuck in the desert, complain to Moses constantly. They do not know what their future holds in store for them. Centuries later, we know the rest of the story.

The story of Jesus and the woman at the well shows how Jesus knows us. And how knowing us makes all the difference in the world.

Then there is this passage from Romans. It dawned on me that the ONLY reason Paul can say these words is because he knows how much God loves us. We can live through the suffering because we will never be separated from God's love. Paul knows the outcome. Suffering will not win over all. Love is the victor.

Today I watched "Paradise Road." It is the fact-based story of a group of women who were imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II on the island of Sumatra. The women suffered horrible atrocities. They witnessed cruelty and endured horrific things. It is a surprise, then, that they somehow were able to muster the will to sing....thanks to the persistence of two women, Margaret and Adrianne. Margaret transcribed well-known orchestral pieces such as Dvorak's "New World Symphony." Her friend, Adrienne conducted the "vocal orchestra" of women. They managed to live out the stages that Paul lists in Romans: through suffering, endurance, then character, then hope. It was an incredible moment when they sang their first "concert" in front of their captors, not knowing how they would be treated.

The second surprise, was the response given by one woman - a missionary named Margaret - to her friend Adrienne's questions, "You don't hate them, do you? Why not?" She replied, "I've tried, but I just can't bring myself to hate people. The worse they behave, the sorrier I feel for them." I think Margaret knew the big picture. She endured the suffering because she trusted in God's bountiful love. Because of this love, she could not hate.

Margaret is a lesson for us all in these days where it appears politically correct to hate those who are different from ourselves and it is okay to hate those whom we fear.

How would things be different for us today if we responded out of the knowledge of God's love for us? If we truly believed it, if we truly knew this, wouldn't we love our enemies as Jesus instructs us to do instead of fearing and hating them?

Knowing changes things.

[Note: The two women in the story - Margaret Drummond and Adrienne Pargiter) are based on real-life women, Margaret Dryburgh and Norah Chambers. Margaret transposed instrumental pieces for human voices and Norah conducted the women. Margaret even composed some original pieces, including "Captive's Hymn." The words are a powerful witness to her passion for peace and understanding. It can be heard in this youtube video clip.)

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