A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on May 6, 2018.

Scripture reading (which you may wish to read prior):
John 15:9-17

Lets talk a bit about love today, shall we?

When the Beatles came out with their song “All you need is Love”
It was a huge hit. Don’t worry. I don’t plan to sing any of it today.

“All you need is Love” seemed to speak perfectly to the needs of the age: the 1960s.
Think: the peace sign, or flower power, man.

But the 1960s were such a fractious, turbulent time:
The Vietnam war, the civil rights movement for people of color
Mainly for Black Americans,
The rise of powerful voices for female equality
All of this sparking a lot of discord.

According to David Cunningham, a Professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan,
Reaction to the Beatles’ classic came in two forms:[i]
On the one hand:
an enthusiastic embrace of love as the solution to the worlds’ problems
Maybe a simplistic solution, but the solution nonetheless
Or, on the other hand, a critical rejection of love as some dreamy emotion
That distracts us as our problems get worse.

Love is all you need? Get real.

These two perspectives toward love
Have arguably marked most of our contemporary public squabbles ever since.
It is more than a little turbulent too, these days.
Some arguing “can’t we all just get along”
And others demanding a clear-eyed acknowledgement
And denunciation of the base motives and evil intent of others.

However, in spite of the prevalence of these two perspectives,
Neither one of them is very satisfying. Isn’t there something more?

And more than that: neither of those two ideas find much support in today’s Gospel text.

This reading from John is all about love,
God’s love, Jesus’ love, and abiding in love, whatever that word means.

Jesus certainly praises love:
It is a gift from God, an excellence of character, a way of life.
There is nothing here that says we should dismiss it
As something fanciful, or naïve, a flight of fancy.
Pie in the sky, by and by.

On the other hand, that word “love” is more than a little ambiguous.
That’s maybe a failure on my part.

Just this week, around our house,
We uttered these phrases:
Man, I just LOVE chocolate and caramel together.
Wow, I might have had my doubts, but Alex Gordon has restored my love
(I confess, I was the one who said that one)
Good night. I love you.
I love sleeping in on Saturday morning.

Just what do WE mean around here when we talk so much about love?

Well, use it a lot around here. Its in prayers and songs.
I use it all the time in my sermons, I know.
And I’m glad you’ve not gotten tired of it, yet
Or at least you love me enough to show me some forbearance.

Partly, the ambiguity is because there are a lot of different Greek words
That we translate as love.
Lots of different concepts behind the same English word.

There’s eros: which is love wrapped with desire
And there’s a similar biblical word to that we don’t often get to
But is fun to try out at trivia night: epithymia
Both of these words—eros and epithymia—mean our longing for something
And mainly a love for something that fulfills something we need, in us.
That’s what desire is, right?

And while many people have written about some of the dangers of eros
Particularly when we don’t have healthy outlets for it
When channeled well it forms a foundation for romantic love
Between people

This word also gets used quite a bit for inanimate objects
Things we enjoy, an awful lot.
Like that dove chocolate with caramel previously mentioned.

Then there’s philia, which many of you know from Philadelphia, right
The city of brotherly love.
This is the love of friends and colleagues and maybe family, too.
A love of comradeship, of peers
A give and a take relationship where you want to be affirmed
And you offer affirmation too.
This is a love which, when well expressed
Breaks down differences between people and
helps us respect and admire one another.
Keep this one in mind for later in the sermon.

There are a few others you might never have heard of: storge, for instance,
Which is maybe best described as “natural empathy” for someone related to you
Quite often this is the love parents have for their children.
Parents who are trying to do their best to provide and care for
And nurture healthy, happy, responsible kids. That’s storge.

Then there’s ludus, which was a playful love, most often affection between kids
Or between people when they’re adopting a playful tone with each other.
One source likens this to an extension of philia, brotherly love
When we sit around bantering and laughing with friends
Over cards or a meal or dancing. Ludus.

All of these are translated into English as Love.

And then there’s the word for love most often used in the Bible: agape
Selfless love. Love concerned for the other above oneself.
[Read more…]

A sermon preached at Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 26, 2018
at a meeting of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
Acts 8:26-40
and John 15:1-8

The Installation of Joe Morrow and Warren Lesane Jr. as Chair and Vice Chair of the PMA Board

We debated it some, as we were planning this service tonight
but as you can see
I brought my robe with me.

Jill Duffield, the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook
Wrote something interesting this week in the publication she oversees.

“The first time I put on a clerical robe,” she said,
         I felt as if I were wearing a costume”.

She described how her robe, a gift from the congregation she served as an intern
Left her, at first, feeling small beneath its billowing sleeves
Something like a child wearing her father’s suit jacket…

I was glad she wrote this. I feel the same, truth be told.
Most of the time I get to put this on,
Not just the fabric, but the responsibility, the awe often engulfs me.

Do you ever feel that way, as you seek to serve Jesus?

This feeling dissipated, for her, over time:
“never exactly feeling comfortable” she said
“but eventually feeling less foolish…”

I was trying to explain my robe to the TSA agent this week
The agent who pulled the garment bag aside,
for a security check at the airport.

“Yeah, it’s a robe. I’m a pastor. Goes to the floor. Wear it while preaching
think of a judge or a professor at graduation or something…”

He raised his eyebrow at me,
this guy who knows a thing or two because he’s seen a thing or two.

He looked it over. He looked me over.
Saw the stoles. I brought a red one and a white one.
(I tried to explain those, too)
He examined the iPad that I accidentally left in the bag:
that’s what set this whole joyful interaction into motion
and he let me through.

Jill’s piece in The Outlook included this advice:
“This is my hope for you:
that you will never get too comfortable in the robe or role of pastor,
but that, week by week, visit by visit,
service by service,
you will feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.”[i]

Not too comfortable…

Nothing gets you uncomfortable quite like trying to explain your work-wear
to a stranger, to “authority” in an airport security line.

Week by week, visit by visit, service by service,
 [May You] feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.

That’s wisdom not just for preachers. But for all of us.

It reminded me of my Easter Sunday sermon
On April Fool’s day, no less, where we reflected
on how the Apostle Paul once described the Resurrection Gospel
 “we preach Christ, and him crucified!”
as either complete foolishness, on the one hand
or a stumbling block, on the other, by those who heard it.

Fear not, Paul testified:
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength…[ii]

Thanks be to God for that.

Oh, the things I do that people find foolish.
Is that how it is with you? In your life.

Whether your day job is that you’re a pastor,
or you’re a member of this congregation, and serve Christ in your daily context
Or you work and serve the particular denomination through which
We seek to give voice to our humble part
the global expression of the body of Christ,
God’s hands and feet for this hungry and hurting world.

What is it you do that people find foolish, but is your effort to be a fool for Christ?

///
Being a fool is one thing.
No one wants to look a fool.
Sometimes that’s just how it turns out.

When I told people, six years ago now,
that I was volunteering to put my name in for nomination
to the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board
more than one person might have suggested I was a fool.

I just wanted to serve the church [Read more…]