How to Change the World

Posted on 5/25/2014

Sermon for Easter 6A
Love is the Answer
Acts 17:22-31, John 14:15-21
Marie Alford-Harkey, M.Div.
May 25, 2014
Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT

It's such a common platitude, that it's even a song.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. All we need is love. What a load of sentimental nonsense! Right? 

What is love in the face of 273 Nigerian girls still kidnapped, far from their families, at the mercy of terrorists? What does love mean when 7 families in California are mourning the deaths of their loved ones?

What is love in the face of people dying in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Thailand, Somalia, Bahrain, Mali, and on the streets of Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and New York?

If all the world needed was love, there would be no need for Memorial Day, because there would be now wars, no veterans, and no one would die in combat, right?

The world needs more than love, doesn't it?

Surely that’s why Christianity is less and less popular these days, because saying that God is love and that love is the answer to the world’s problems is far too simplistic for our sophisticated 21^st century minds. No wonder young people are increasingly saying that they are “spiritual but not religious,” and leaving the church in droves.

But maybe it’s not that the world needs more than love. Perhaps, just maybe, our popular culture has given us a less-than-accurate definition of love.

Last week, we heard these lines from Song of Songs: “Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can the floods drown it. Love is strong as death.” A love that is strong as death is not one that can be represented by greeting cards or Precious Moments figurines or song lyrics, as catchy as they may be.

It is a powerful, transformative love.

The power of that love is so great that when Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” it is a statement of fact. It’s not an admonition for us to prove our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments. It is a testament to the power of what it means to love Jesus and to live in that love.

But what are Jesus’ commandments? He didn't come from a mountain with tablets, so how are we to know? 

When Jesus was asked what commandments were most important, he gave what is called the summary of the law. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And on the night that he washed the feet of his disciples, Jesus gave us a new commandment: that we are to love one another as Christ loved us. Our Episcopal catechism teaches us that these are the commandments of Christ.

So Jesus’ commandments all boil down to one thing.

Love.

Because actually, love IS powerful enough to transform ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.

But what I said in the beginning is also true.

The love that we see portrayed around us in greeting cards and Disney movies and romantic comedies is NOT what we need. We need a very different kind of love to engage in the work of transformation.

What does that kind of love look like?

We must begin by confronting the truth that transformative love is not easy. Our human relationships teach us that. Being a sibling, or a parent, or a grandparent, or an aunt, or an uncle, or a child, or a friend, or a spouse, or a partner, is a wonderful thing.

Relationships with other human beings are how we learn what love is all about. But no relationship is without its trials. Those who are closest to us have the greatest capacity to hurt us because our love makes us vulnerable.

We get angry, we hurt, and we are hurt by those who love us the most. If we want to stay in relationship, we have to confront the hurt and pain and anger and find a way through it. When those we love get sick, or die, we grieve and feel we will break into a million pieces.

Real love is difficult, and painful, and messy, and transformative and strong and beautiful. All at once. 

I’m seeing this play out in my relationship with my mother. It’s never been an easy one, at least not since I became a teenager. I was always pushing against her ideal of what a woman should be, and I wanted her to be the Mom that I thought I needed. For most of my adult life, I’ve been learning to love her exactly as she is, knowing that she’s doing the best job she can of loving me too.

Last year, my Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and, to paraphrase my friend Lew, “stuff got real.” I had to stop wishing for a Mom that totally “gets” me, that embraces me as a lesbian and a wanna-be priest (two things that are equally incomprehensible to my Mom) and love the Mom I have right this minute, because with every day that passes, I lose a little bit of her. 

Jesus also knows that love in human relationships is difficult. We can only imagine his sadness and grief as he prepares to leave these friends that he loves so much. We hear nothing about how he is preparing himself for this trial, but we do hear how he offers them hope and comfort. That hope and comfort extend to us as well.

Jesus assures us that he has not left us as orphans, but has given us an Advocate, a Counselor, the Spirit of Truth living in us. And Paul tells the Athenians God is not unknown, but rather near to each one of us.

When we believe that powerful transforming love dwells in us, we can learn to trust ourselves to act out of that love. And we must know that acting in love will make a difference.

It is all too easy to think that we do not know what to do in the face of the evils and problems of the world. It is all too easy to second guess ourselves, to assume that we do not have “right answers.” But, as  I read in an essay this week, “The problem is not that we have so little power. The problem is that we do not use the power that we have. Why do we not honor what we can do?”[i]

If we believe what we hear this morning, that the Spirit of Truth lives in us, that we live and move and have our being in God, that God is not far from each one of us, then how can we deny that we know how to act in love? We need not be paralyzed: we can choose to lead with love.

We may feel that our small efforts at acting in love are wasted. We are not Ghandi, or Mother Teresa, or Nelson Mandela, or whomever we may admire.

Our one gift of a coat to someone living outside, our one letter written to a congressperson, our moment of comforting a scared child, our kindness to someone who is usually shunned, those small things will not transform. Or will they?

Remember Jesus’ words?

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. 

Or how about…I was kidnapped and you didn’t forget me, I was sentenced to the electric chair and you were arrested in protest, I was abused by someone in power, and you didn’t let them get away with it, my son was killed by gunfire and you went to the capitol to advocate for stronger gun laws, I was mocked and you came and sat with me, I was grief-stricken and you hugged me… 

Stong, transformative love never gives up.

 Martin Luther King, Jr. said that the reason that Jesus tells us to love our enemies is because love has within it a redemptive power, that the redemptive power of love eventually transforms individuals. “Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”[ii]

We must continue acting courageously in love because the realm of God is not yet here. For example, it is tempting to think that we have realized MLK, Jr’s dream. We have an African American president. And yet, we also have Trayvon Martin, and Jordan Davis, and a Supreme Court that gutted Voting Rights Act, and upheld a ban on affirmative action.

We have far to go for people of color, for LGBTQ people, for people living in poverty, for people living with mental illness, for people living in prison.

And what those people need, what we need, what the world needs really is love.

Love is messy and difficult, and powerful and transformative, and because God who is love dwells in us, we are capable of engaging the power of love over and over again to transform ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world. Amen.