A Broken Heart
hanging onto Jesus, The True Vine. We dug into how we abide with God talking about the nuance of that Greek word ‘mineo’ – abide, to remain, stay with me. If we abide in God, God abides in us. This scripture from John is the continuation of Jesus’ speech to his disciples at the last supper. If you were looking at a red-line Bible, you know the ones that put Jesus’ words in red, this would be Jesus all over the page. Jesus commanding us, his friends. Listen for God’s word, listen to God’s Word as he speaks to us.
John 15:9-17
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
What a packed week – May rushes in trying to squeeze every last thing into the year that might have been overlooked. We start with one of my favorite plays on words for those who love Star Wars– May the 4th be with you – to which most good Presbyterians reply – “And also with you.” The very next day, Cinco de Mayo – we show the world our love for tacos and margaritas. Then, the first Thursday of every May is traditionally declared the national day of prayer – peoples of the nation pray in their various traditions for the nation. And, since the school year is almost over – we must appreciate our teachers – so it is Teacher Appreciation Week. Nurse Appreciation Day in a pandemic year should also have been a week in my opinion and hmmm – we forgetting anything – Mother’s Day.
Why might you ask is the pastor putting every secular component into the sermon? That isn’t what we talk about inproclamation. But it is – God’s love fiercely, deeply and passionately reaches out in this kind of breadth and all-encompassing invitation. Too often we reduce the power of this word – love - to the English meaning forgetting that in Greek it took three words to distinguish – Eros or physical romantic love, Phileo or brotherly family love and agape love for and of God – unconditional.
How can we reduce this word to a maudlin meme, a side bar that our eyes almost slip over – God is love – yup, got it… In one form or another, the words of love appear in the Bible 740 times. Before we think this is all easy, we must understand what God is commanding – requiring of us as friends, those who know and have been entwined in, owned by and empowered to love.
Star Wars – cute little aliens that we like to be entertained by, but you don’t have to look far to see the mysterious force that is seeking to bind us all together. Read a little deeper and the force can easily show us God’s love – a mysterious all pervasive thing that can sneak in if we let it and do either wonderful things or warp the world by its absence. We have trouble accepting those of different colors, shapes, genders. God’s love calls us to a Star Wars version of love - encompass and befriend those who are different, those outside our understanding - who are alien to us almost seeming to sprout antenna or extra legs in their strangeness. We imagine loving that is beyond us, but we are called to love each other – even in the alien bar because they are bound to us by this mystery we call God – all loved. God’s heart breaks when all children are not loved.
Tacos and margaritas are how we celebrate Cinco de Mayo – this began in California and is a celebration of Mexican American culture – tied to a date of a Mexican victory over the French. We love the food but God beckons us to love beyond borders – the people, the children. God’s heart breaks when we turn even one away. God commands us to love one another – what does this love look like? Is this love dangerous? Are we willing to give our lives for this love? God’s heart breaks when we don’t, can’t or won’t love.
Thankfully many do get it – live into this love. Thursday was a day to focus on love, prayer, and thanks instead of the many things that divide us. Our national hate, divisiveness and bickering breaks God’s heart, so on this special day we focus on coming together. At a lunch in Dallas hosted by Thanksgiving Foundation and Faith Forward Dallas faith and community leaders from across the area – Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Sikh gathered in prayer giving our profound thanks for the love of first responders – those often overlooked people who live and dedicate themselves in love of others. Using all of their talents, God-given gifts and sooo much of their time in love for us.
The teachers, the nurses, the firefighters, the police, and all those who assist and work together when we are in crisis. Teaching, protecting, healing - they work to bring God’s love to the nation to all neighbors – caring for God’s children. Oh we sometimes get it wrong, really wrong but as a whole those we call first responders have a sense of care that calls them to use their lives to do this loving work of God.
This love – no matter what word we use is an action word – not some abstract thought – and God so wanted us to understand even when we broke God’s heart. Karoline Lewis on the Gospel of John says, “Love is not an abstract concept in this Gospel but is deeply grounded in God’s decision to dwell as Jesus in the world. The entirety of the Gospel has been not only Jesus revealing what God’s abundant love is but creating experiences to feel this abundant love.”
The. Entire. Gospel. To tell us, to show us – to make sure we feel the love. So that everyone could feel this amazing love. To command that we love. Because that love is where we abide – as Jesus’ friends, we take joy in serving and in loving. God’s joy is in us, making our joy complete. We dwell in Christ, in Christ’s love together. Lewis says that with this speech to the disciples, Jesus is setting a framework for who they can rely on in His absence.
We have the benefit of hindsight, we know that God is with us – that Jesus abides with us still, but what about those who don’t see God in their lives? What about those on the downside of each of our celebrations – the alien, the shut out, the victim, the lonely and lost? Who is relying on us? Are we carrying love – how? Not a Hallmark Card but love of actions, systems, support. Love even of enemies.
This can be a dangerous love – think of the term ‘momma bear’. On this day when we are called to remember moms and commanded to love, I think that we should picture the bear instead of the quaint flowers and gentle touch. Everyone deserves a momma bear’s love – fierce, vast, protection – someone who loves you no matter what - protects you shelters you, hears you, values you. This is the love we are commanded to by God – a love embodied in Christ, and now in us carrying the actions of justice that show God’s love to the world.
Many of us feel this love from our moms. For others, Mother’s Day is hard. It may remind us of someone who had this love for us but is gone or no longer loves, or of someone who should have, but did not love. Someone who desperately wished to share but was not blessed with children. Missing mothers or mothers who are too much in your face.
We can make a true muck out of this love thing. The pain of missing love is real. But look this day to honor those who have filled those empty spaces, those you could rely on if there was a space of emptiness. God calls us all to the voids, the dark places that need love the most – God calls us all not just women or birth mothers to the places of pain and takes joy with us when we fill them instead with love. When we imagine outside of the box relationships nurturing and caring in new ways not daring to limit God’s love – not by biology, by nation, by culture, by our pre-conceived notions of who and how we are to love. God’s answer is yes – that too. That is how you are to love one another. God’s broken heart opened wide to make a place for us to abide, gathering us in and binding us together in our brokenness.
God’s call to compassion and justice are throughout the bible – from the psalms to Jesus’ words to the founders of the new church of Christ and beyond. God was willing to open his heart – to have a piece walk in the world embodied in Christ and now abiding in us. We are loved that much, but we must share that cup. The red words– They are the Word of The Word – words for us, cleansing and love giving - Jesus’ heart on display, squeezed for us, broken for us, given to us – his friends. God’s love can’t be contained, knows no bounds. Share it with enemy and friend bringing justice to the world today. Love one another. The Word has called us to action. That action of love - today. Amen.
Comments