January 14, 2018 – “Known. Loved. Every One.” from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on January 14, 2018.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
John 1:43-51
and Psalm 139:1-18

I think about this Psalm every single time I go to the airport
and have to go through the TSA security line.

You have searched me and known me.

Your luggage gets scanned
You empty your pockets into those buckets
And hope you get all the loose change
They ask you if you have any metal inside your body
Then whisk you through the machines.

If you’re lucky, you sometimes get a perfunctory pat down.

“I’ve searched you and have known you,
And you’re safe, good to go, have a happy flight.”

Gee, thanks, sir. Have a good day yourself
As I put back on my belt and my shoes
And try to make sure I have my wallet and my cell phone.

///
That encounter is sometimes an intimate one
Maybe overly intimate
Not the kind of intimacy we invite.

Its something we endure because we have to get somewhere
And we’ve given up a measure of our privacy for safety
Shoes off. 3 ounce bottles of shampoo only.
We’re going to run your C-Pap machine and your laptop separately.
All of that.

There are other moments we give up this privacy.
At the doctor, or the hospital
Though rightly they do what they can
to maintain the dignity of the encounter
as they do what is necessary for our health and safety.

There’s a massage, which can do wonders for an aching back
Or even a haircut has this sort of exposure to intimacy
Hands running through your locks as it is washed
revealing moles or freckles on your scalp usually unseen by the masses
As they run conditioner through your hair…

Those can be enjoyable.
I love having my hair washed.

And while I’ve spoken about it before at a Maundy Thursday service or two
The intimacy of Jesus’ act of washing the feet of his disciples
That last supper of his,
I personally love having someone pamper my hands or my feet
Even though looking that closely at your hands or your feet
Is also a quite personal thing.

At other times, this intimacy is taken from us, however,
In a way that shames and hurts and humiliates us. That’s just awful.
That’s never ok.

We can understand those times, such as in the news this week,
When there’s a controversy
About possible intimate pictures being used for political blackmail
The victim asks for privacy, to be left alone. We can understand it.

Being known in that way is hurtful, unwanted.

Or sometimes we see and know more of someone else
than we ourselves want. That violation sadly happens sometimes too.

///
This can get quite tricky, very quickly, I think.

We are often navigating between exposure and privacy
Modesty and freedom.

WE are private creatures, for the most part.
This varies among us, it is true,
And regularly varies with age and confidence and self-image.
But we all have a measure of being guarded, kept to ourselves.

But even for all of these exposures,
all of these encounters
every negotiation of privacy and self-respect and modesty
There’s a hope within us, that WE can be TRULY and AUTHENTICALLY known.

///
The essence of love for another
Is seeing them for what they are, what they really are
And asserting care and compassion and good for them.

That is what LOVE is: to SEE another truly and to care for them.

Love moves outward.
Its not possessive.
Its not consuming.
Its not selfish.

Love, as the Apostle Paul would famously say
Is patient, and kind, and not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It bears all things, Hopes all things, endures all things.

And insofar as we ALL want to be loved
We all want to be known, truly known
Seen as we are, and when seen,
Then assured that we are in fact loved and cared for.

///
So it is that this passage from the Psalms literally saved me, I think.
I remember being an awkward kid with a self-esteem problem
With my own gifts and talents, sure,
But one who struggled at times to fit in and to make my way in the world. [Read more…]